During the summer of 1874, General George Armstrong Custer led the first official government expedition to the Black Hills, which the Sioux Indians claimed as their territory. Although the United States Government officially sent this expedition of more than 1,000 men to scout for a new fort location, the presence of engineers, geologists, and miners indicated that recording the topography, geography, and location of gold deposits were other important goals.
The expedition's discovery of gold had wide reaching effects on the area and its future. Miners rushed to the Black Hills, ultimately helping to open northeast Wyoming Territory to settlement. The encroachment of settlers on Native American territory broke the terms of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The Sioux turned to war to defend their lands and, in June 1876, they defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana. However, they surrendered to General Terry by October of that same year. In 1877, the United States officially confiscated the Black Hills lands from the Sioux, an action of which the legality is still being disputed in the courts.
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