What was the purpose of the Treaty of Fort Laramie?
1 Answer
Gold had been discovered in the Black Hills, the holy land of the Indians and the government modified its former treaty to make available.
Explanation:
When Sioux treaty lands were overrun with goldseekers, the U.S. simply sought to change rather than honor the 1851 treaty. Tensions along the Bozeman Trail continued to grow. Then, in June of 1866, the U.S. held a meeting at Fort Laramie with various Lakota bands.
The government promised many gifts and benefits to the Sioux and glossed over the object of the government’s interest—to negotiate a new treaty which would close off the Powder River area and the Bozeman Trail to the Indians in order to insure continued gold supplies and emigration into Montana. In the middle of the treaty talks, a military man informed some of the Indian negotiators he had orders to build forts along the Bozeman Trail to protect settlers moving into Montana.
The Sioux were outraged, as it was in direct violation of the 1851 Treaty and had not been mentioned in the council meetings. Thus the treaty talks ended abruptly. Red Cloud delivered a speech about white betrayal and treachery and led the Sioux delegation north vowing to fight all who invaded their territory as set down in the 1851 Treaty.
The troubles in 1866–1868 in the Powder River region, often called “Red Cloud’s War,” resulted in a clear victory for the Lakota. The Lakota had denied the Bozeman Trail to virtually all immigrant travel. Army supply trains had to fight their way through, and soldiers were bottled up in their forts. The Indians had little need to negotiate a treaty and so ignored all government overtures to do so.
Finally in 1868 the soldiers abandoned their forts along the Bozeman Trail as a way to restart treaty negotiations. By this time the U.S. government was set on confining the Sioux to proscribed territory but first it needed a treaty.
source:http://www.ndstudies.org/resources/IndianStudies/standingrock/1868treaty.html
