12 ChaPter^1
assigned reservation. After that, General Philip Sheridan put it bluntly: “the
only good Indians I ever saw were dead.”Gold and Death in the Black Hills
Custer’s work was not done, however. The Fort Laramie Treaty had also given
the Sioux, or Lakota, title to the Black Hills of South Dakota, a place where
gold had been found. Whites often talked of the “civilizing mission” or
“Manifest Destiny” when they discussed Indians–trying to claim they would
bring Christianity and “civilization” and make life better for the Native
Americans. In reality, it was wealth that was motivating them to move west-
ward. White miners used new technologies to discover silver and gold in
huge volume. They then killed off immense numbers of buffalo–which was
a way of also exterminating Indians since they relied on those animals for
food, clothing, and so many other needs. And ranchers and farmers fenced in
the range–to prevent Indians from hunting and farming throughout the vast
area. At the same time, Whites brought railroads, telegraphs, and machine
guns and cannons [and smallpox and measles] to the West, increasing their
power and ability to control and destroy Indian people. By the early 1870s,FIGuRE 1-2 General George Custer