Little Crows War

• 1. In 1851 the Dakota Sioux moved to a reservation - 24 million acres of land in return for $1.4 million and $80000 a year
• 2. However the Sioux owed $200000 to traders and so the governemt would not give them any money until they paid it back
• 3. Therefore, they had no money for food and supplies - the reservation was not big enough to produce enough food so they left the reservation to hunt - they were not meant to do this
• 4. therefore the reservation agent refused them any supplies as punishment - so conditions got worse
• 5. the local traders and agents cheated the Sioux and charged very high prices - therefore, they got into more debt
• 6. therefore they were made to sign away half of their reservation to the US - this meant that it was even harder to grow food - therefore in 1862 they were starving and having to eat grass
• 7. in 1862 the US army was fighting the Civil war - therefore, Little Crow decided it was time to take back what they felt was theirs - they took food and burnt down agency buildings and attacked settlers and forts - around 600 killed
• 8. therefore, the US soldiers were sent to capture them - 400 were put on trial and executed without any evidence of guilt
• 9. the rest of the tribe were moved to a much smaller reservation in very dry lands - therefore many of them starved to death in the first winter
• US won