In 1874, General George A. Custer led an Army exploration into the area and discovered gold. Custer amplified the discovery, saying the hills were filled with gold "from the grass roots down." This kicked off a gold rush into the hills. Soon, thousands of miners had illegally entered Indian land. The Indian's came to call Custer's path into the area "Thieves Road."
Two Sioux Indian chiefs, Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, protested to Washington. President Grant sent a commission"to treat with the Sioux Indians for the relinquishment of the Black Hills."
At this time, the Sioux nation was divided between those living at least part of the year on reservations and accepting U.S. government rations—"agency Indians"—and those Sioux who still lived free, completely off the reservation. The two great chiefs among the non-agency Sioux were Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. Sitting Bull agreed to meet in council with the Washington commissioners; Crazy Horse refused, sending instead a representative, Little Big Man.
The commission first met with the Sioux on September 20, 1875. Twenty thousand Indians had gathered at the meeting place, Sioux and many of their Arapaho and Cheyenne allies. As the meeting was seemingly about to begin, a band of warriors came galloping over the crest. Then another. Then another. This show of resolve unnerved the commissioners, who had abandoned hope of acquiring the Black Hills outright, but instead tried to negotiate for mineral rights.
The Indians wouldn't hear of it. They wanted white people completely out of the Black Hills; they wanted the U.S. government to honor its treaty.
The government was implacable. More than just the wealth of the Black Hills was at stake. The Sioux insistence on freedom, perceived as impudence by the Indian Bureau, threatened the whole reservation system, which was still in its fragile early years. On December 3, 1875, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs insisted that all Sioux people report to their agency by January 31 for a head count—a demand ironically similar to the Roman demand that all Israelites return to the town of their birth. But this was roadless South Dakota in the dead of winter, not the mild Mediterranean. To travel at this time would have meant the death of many Sioux children and elders. In fact, blizzards and severe cold made it impossible for several of the government couriers to notify many Sioux by the time of the deadline.
On February 7, 1876, the War Department authorized General Sheridan to move into Indian lands and round up the "hostile Sioux." The first attack happened on March 17—sooner than the Sioux were expecting. A surprise. Hostilities escalated, culminating in the Battle of Little Big Horn on June 17— also known as Custer's Last Stand. This was the largest defeat ever of a U.S. force by Native Americans.
