AUG 15: ‘Starve or Sell’

On Aug. 15, 1876, Congress passes a “starve or sell” act, also known as the Sioux Bill of 1876, pressuring the Sioux to give up the Black Hills. It was part of The Indian Appropriations Act of 1876 and was officially titled “An Act to Provide for the Sale of Certain Lands in the Territory of Dakota.” It was passed less than two months after the Battle of Little Bighorn. It provided that no further appropriations would be made for subsistence of the Sioux nation unless they gave up the Black Hills, where gold was discovered by an expedition led by the late George Custer in 1874.

An illustration accompanying Henry Newton’s report on the 1875 geological exploration of Dakota’s Black Hills. (Credit: Library of Congress)

The presence of valuable mineral resources was confirmed the following year by the Newton-Jenney party of 1875, led by Henry Newton and Walter Proctor Jenney, and escorted by a military detachment led by Lt. Col. Richard I. Dodge. The “scientific expedition” was sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey to map the Black Hills.

By August 1875, there were an estimated 1,500 miners in the Black Hills.

On Sept. 20, 1875, the Black Hills Commission, led by U.S. Senator William Allison, Republican of Iowa, opened session at the Red Cloud Agency in Nebraska. The council was attended by thousands of Lakotas, Yanktons, Santees, Cheyennes and Arapahos. After a week of deliberations, the commission proposed to buy the Black Hills for $6 million or purchase the mining rights for $400,000 annually. Both offers were rejected.

Following Custer’s defeat at Little Bighorn on June 25-26, 1876, a thirst for revenge swept over Washington, D.C. On August 15, Congress passed the Sioux Bill of 1876, requiring the Lakotas to give up all claims to the Black Hills.