Why the Sioux Refused $1.3 Billion.

Why the Sioux Refused $1.3 Billion.

With all the poverty and issues in much of the Native American reservations of today, It may seem like a good idea to receive a large amount of money.

To understand exactly why the Sioux (Lakota) tribes refused to receive the funds from the United States government we have to travel back in time and learn what exactly that money means to the Lakota People.

Lets find out more about Why the Sioux Refused $1.3 Billion.

The Black Hills

The Sioux tribes often call this place “he sapa” which means the heart of everything that is. This place has powerful spiritual significance to the Sioux Lakota tribes of North America, this spiritual importance to the Sioux Lakota tribes of these hills is said to be equal to that of the Vatican.

The black hills is a holy place for the Sioux Lakota people, and many of the ceremonies of the people come from this place. The black hills are highly revered for the spiritual and historical values as to how the Sioux Lakota people came to be.

The Lakota Sioux settled in the area in the mid 1700s after being pushed out of the area of Wisconsin and Minnesota by settlers and Iroquois tribes.

The resilient tribe quickly adapted to the new plains-life, with the buffalo at the center of their culture.

The Gold Rush

In the 1800s when tribes of the Black Hills started coming into contact with the early European prospectors, It became know that the black hills had a large surplus of gold and other minerals, this became known as the gold rush. People came from all over to try to get gold and become rich overnight.

When they first arrived many of the new prospectors were killed because the tribes at the time did not want anyone to take their sacred place.

As a result, the Treaty of Fort Laramie was formed in 1851.

The Treaty of Fort Laramie

On September 17, 1851, The Fort Laramie Treaty was signed between some United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, Assiniboine, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Tribes.

This treaty was formed to establish land rights and maintain peace between traveling prospectors and the tribes. Out of this treaty, the formation of reservations began, where pieces of land were distributed to several of the tribes.

 The treaty was between 9 more or less independent parties. The treaty agreement set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes as among themselves.  At the time The United States acknowledged that all the land covered by the treaty was Indian territory and said that they did not claim any part of it.

 The tribes at the time guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail. The treaty also things like roads and forts to be built in the Indian territories and in return the United States promised money annually in for 50 years. The amount that was supposed to be given was 50,000 each year.

The treaty was just about broken right after it was signed when the Lakota and Cheyenne decided to attack the Crow.

To make matter’s worse The United States failed to prevent the massive surge of settlers coming into the area. Because of the gold rush many people came.

The U.S. government did not enforce the treaty to keep out the emigrants.

Although the government agreed to pay the tribe 50,000 each year for 50 years and did recognize land rights of the Sioux and their right to self-governance within those lands. The United States later violated the treaty a year later on May 24, 1852, and then decreased the payment of $50,000 for 50 years to only 10 years. Meaning they would only receive 20 % of the originally agreed-upon payment.

After many skirmishes between the settlers and tribes at the time, the United States Government created something called the Manypenny Agreement.

The Manypenny Agreement.

On February 28, 1877, the Manypenny Agreement was an act the was passed by the United States Congress. This act officially removed the ownership of the sacred Black Hills from the Lakota Sioux tribe.

The United States ended up taking control of 900,000 acres of land of the Black Hills area.

Since then the 9 Sioux tribes have been locked in a land dispute when the government broke the treaty of Fort Laramie and illegally took the scared land away from the tribe.

This occurred just 1 year after the defeat of Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Greasy Grass, in which our ancestors were defending their land and their way of life.

The Ruling Of The Supreme Court

In 1980, The Supreme Court ruled that the United States had seized the Black Hills illegally from the Sioux Lakota tribes. It had declared that the United States owed the Sioux over $105 million and the largest claim
ever awarded through the courts to a Native American tribe.

In a unanimous decision, On July 9, 1980, the Sioux tribal council refused to accept the 106 million dollar award. The tribal council said that “the Supreme Court decision should be vacated on the grounds that the Tribe was not represented in those proceedings.”

The tribes say the payment is invalid because the land was never for sale and accepting the funds would be like selling the black hills.

They also did not want the money, the wanted the land. The sacred land that so many of their spiritual beliefs have come from. To get the money was to give her their ancestral right to the ownership of the black hills.

A man named Arthur Lazarus Jr (a Washington lawyer) who represented the tribes for more than four decades, notably secured a $106 million award for the Sioux Nation.

Later Arthur Lazarus had won his legal team ten million dollars. That was taken from the 103 million dollars awarded to the Sioux tribes in 1980. So in a sense, the Black Hills have already been sold. The Sioux tribes hired Lazarus to get them money, not land, and he did just that.

The trust’s value of this award continues to grow well beyond $1 billion, but the Sioux Lakota tribes have never collected.

The Indian Claims Commission which established in 1946, only deals with money and not land, the government’s sneaky way to keep tribes from getting their land back, and be rewarded only a tiny amount of its actual value, and by taking that money, tribes lost all future claim to the Black Hills.

Term Oil After The Ruling

Due to much loss of culture in the tribes of this area, there were actually some people of the tribe that did want to receive the money, unfortunately not knowing the spiritual importance of the land.

At one point 5,000 of the people signed a petition stating that they want to receive the money. Going against the spiritual beliefs of the elder’s but this was denied.

With the poverty, unemployment, and various other essential things needed it would seem like a “great” idea to accept the funds but according to some tribal leaders is that the money would be gone within 2 weeks due to the shear large number of tribal members.

Then their hereditary rights would be lost to the land. Things like golf courses, casinos, hotels, and many other things would be home to the black hills. Any spiritual connection to the land would be lost if the destruction of the Black Hills came to pass.

That is Why the Sioux Refused $1.3 Billion. Today the number has risen to 1.5 billion.

Have We Left Anything Out? Lets Us Know In The Comments Below.