The promised tools and training for farming arrived intermittently if at all.

The promised annuity goods — the payments the United States had committed to provide in exchange for the territory ceded under the treaty — were often inadequate or late.

In this situation, the options available to the reservation residents were limited.

They could attempt to subsist on whatever could be obtained from the agency, supplemented by small-scale hunting of what game remained near the reservation.

They could leave the reservation and attempt to hunt on the remaining buffalo ranges, which meant being classified as “off-reservation” and targeted by the army.