FORT LARAMIE – 150 years ago, Native American tribes from across the region came together at Fort Laramie to sign the 1868 treaty, in hopes it would bring peace to the region for the settlers and the Plains Indians.
The document, which came to be known 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, included the Back Hills of South Dakota as exclusive use as part of the Great Sioux Reservation and recognizing the sovereignty of the Lakota Nation ending the conflict with Red Cloud. It also established rules and regulations that were supposed to govern treatment of and interactions with the indigenous peoples across the country.
On Saturday, these same tribes gathered at the spot their ancestors did to express their anger at the treatment of the nations of the people of the plains, to search for answers to their fight for what was once theirs and the government deeded to them, only to let it be taken away.
Speakers from each of the Nations spoke to all the peoples, including 300 braves who rode their ponies to the ceremony to show their unity as a people.
Harold Frazer, from the Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux, rode with the 300 to the Fort Laramie site and spoke to the people: “Before the treaty we had (natural) law and when the treaties came, we started living under man made law. These laws are no good for our people. I carry this staff to remind me that I am a warrior for our people. What is disappointing, is to come all this way by horseback not to see President Trump or Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke here.”
