This commission, led by George Manypenny, arrived with a document prepared in advance — a text that had been drafted before the commission left Washington, embodying the terms the government had already decided to impose.

The Sioux were asked to sign.

The Fort Laramie Treaty required three-fourths of adult male Sioux to approve any cession.

The Manypenny Commission did not attempt to obtain that approval.

It presented the document to chiefs and their leading men — not to the general Sioux population.

It obtained signatures from approximately ten percent of the adult male Sioux population.