On This Day: In 1875 in a secret meeting in the White House, President Grant decided to wage war on the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne people in and around the Black Hills. They agreed that the Army should stop evicting trespassers from the reservation, thus opening the way for the Black Hills Gold Rush. In addition, they discussed initiating military action against the non-treaty bands of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne who had refused to come to the Indian agencies for council. Indian Inspector Erwin C. Watkins supported this option. “The true policy in my judgement,” he wrote, “is to send troops against them in the winter, the sooner the better, and whip them into subjection.” On February 8, 1876, General Sheridan telegraphed Generals Crook and Terry, ordering them to commence their winter campaigns against the “hostiles.” The Great Sioux War of 1876–77 had begun.
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