The U.S. Government Offered The Sioux More Than $1 Billion For The Black Hills – They Refused To Take The Money

The ration rider has been described, consistently, as a “sell or starve” provision.

The Supreme Court would later call it exactly that.

The other development of 1876 was the battle at the Little Bighorn, in which Custer and a substantial portion of the Seventh Cavalry were killed by Lakota and Cheyenne warriors.

The battle transformed the political situation entirely.

The government, which had already been moving toward acquiring the Black Hills, now had a military defeat to avenge and a political mandate to break Sioux power permanently.

A new commission was sent to Sioux country in the fall of 1876.