Knowra Black Hills Black Hills The Black Hills are an isolated mountain range in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, known for granite peaks, forests, mineral deposits, and deep sacred significance to Indigenous peoples.
Lakota people : A Native American people whose traditional homelands include the northern Great Plains and Black Hills. The Black Hills, known to the Lakota as Pahá Sápa, hold profound spiritual and cultural significance.
Harney Peak : A granite summit in the Black Hills, now officially named Black Elk Peak. Its high, exposed summit is a defining feature of the range.
Black Hills uplift : A geological uplift that raised the Black Hills into an elliptical dome during the Laramide orogeny. It produced the range’s central highlands and concentric rings of surrounding rock.
Black Hills Expedition : A U.S. military expedition led by George Armstrong Custer into the Black Hills in 1874. The expedition publicized reports of gold and accelerated pressure to open the Hills to settlers.
Black Hills National Forest : A national forest covering much of the Black Hills in South Dakota and Wyoming. It manages timber, recreation, wildlife habitat, and other public-land uses across the range.
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 : An agreement between the United States and the Lakota that established the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills. It guaranteed Lakota ownership of the Hills, which the United States later seized.
Black Elk Peak : The highest point in South Dakota, rising to 7,242 feet in the Black Hills. This is the summit’s current official name; Harney Peak is its former name.
Laramide orogeny : A mountain-building episode that uplifted parts of western North America during the Late Cretaceous and early Cenozoic. The Black Hills uplift was one expression of this broader tectonic event.
George Armstrong Custer : A U.S. Army officer who led the 1874 expedition that explored the Black Hills. His expedition helped trigger the gold rush and the breach of treaty protections.
Black Hills mining : The extraction of gold, uranium, and other minerals from deposits in and around the Black Hills. Mining has shaped local economies and recurring disputes over land and water.
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