Empire: World History

Podbit · Empire: World History

373. The Dark Truth About Mount Rushmore

Explore episode Jul 1, 2026
History
The Fort Laramie Treaty and How Gold Destroyed It

373. The Dark Truth About Mount Rushmore · Jul 1, 2026 History

The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty gave the Lakota virtually all of western South Dakota including the Black Hills, with strict protections against outside entry. Just six years later, Custer's expedition discovered traces of gold, triggering a gold rush that created today's Black Hills towns — and made the treaty worthless. The US government's response: move onto reservations by 1876 or be 'hunted down.'

4m 53s

Where this was said

The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty and the Coming of Gold

At 9:37 · chapter starts 9:13

Anita contextualises the treaty within the broader post-Civil War westward push: a newly healing nation running into 'genuinely humiliating military resistance' from the Lakota. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty gave the Lakota the Great Sioux Reservation encompassing almost all of western South Dakota, and President Grant initially did a 'commendable job' of enforcing it. But in 1874 came the expedition that would change everything: George Armstrong Custer led his flamboyant 7th Cavalry — band playing their Irish drinking-song theme tune — through the hills on a pretext of finding a military fort. The real motivation, Davis makes clear, was gold: the US was deep in the depression following the 1873 panic, and Custer knew that finding gold would make his star rise. On French Creek at what is now Custer, South Dakota, they found traces. A messenger was sent galloping to Fort Laramie, and the news went out to the world.

History
1868 Fort Laramie Treaty

373. The Dark Truth About Mount Rushmore · Jul 1, 2026

The 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie gave the Lakota a large reservation encompassing almost all of western South Dakota, including the Black Hills, with provisions barring outsiders from entering without consent.

9:37 – 10:20

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