Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)

An 1868 agreement between the United States and the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, and other Indigenous peoples. It established the Great Sioux Reservation and protected hunting rights while requiring the United States to abandon forts along the Bozeman Trail.

Great Sioux Reservation: A vast reservation established for the Sioux under the 1868 treaty, including the Black Hills. The treaty set aside this territory as the central homeland promised to the Sioux.
Bozeman Trail: A route through Indigenous hunting grounds in present-day Wyoming and Montana used by settlers traveling to Montana’s gold fields. The treaty required the United States to abandon its forts along this contested route.
Red Cloud: An Oglala Lakota leader who opposed U.S. expansion along the Bozeman Trail and signed the 1868 treaty. His leadership during the war named for him strengthened the Lakota position in negotiations.
Treaty rights: Rights and obligations established by agreements between Indigenous nations and governments. The treaty’s guarantees remain central to disputes over land, sovereignty, and federal duties.
Black Hills: A mountain region in present-day South Dakota sacred to the Lakota and included within the treaty reservation. The treaty protected the Black Hills from non-Indigenous settlement, a promise later violated.
Red Cloud's War: A conflict from 1866 to 1868 in which Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho forces resisted U.S. expansion along the Bozeman Trail. Indigenous military resistance helped compel the United States to negotiate the treaty’s fort closures.
Makamute: An Oglala Lakota leader, also known as Man Afraid of His Horses, who signed the 1868 treaty. He was among the Lakota leaders who entered the agreement with the United States.
Indigenous sovereignty in the United States: The inherent authority of Indigenous nations to govern themselves and their territories. The treaty recognized political relations between nations, while later federal actions constrained that authority.
Black Hills land claim: A legal dispute over the United States’ 1877 seizure of the Black Hills from the Lakota. The seizure repudiated treaty protections and led to a landmark 1980 Supreme Court ruling.
Fort Laramie: A U.S. Army post in present-day Wyoming that served as a site for treaty negotiations with Indigenous nations. The agreement was negotiated and signed at this fort.

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