![]() A large section of the country that had been given to the Sioux was annexed to the United States. ![]() More than just economically, the Black Hills Gold Rush changed the makeup of the United States of America. How the Black Hills Gold Rush Changed American History All told, over 10 percent of the gold mined in the next 125 years was found in the initial Deadwood bonanza. ![]() The easily found gold is something known as “placer gold.” This had eroded for larger, harder deposits.Īll of the land was quickly claimed, but thousands more settled the region hoping to find their fortune in gold nonetheless. When the prospectors first arrived on the scene, gold was being scooped out by the spadeful with virtually no effort at all. This is the area of Deadwood and Whitewood Creeks. It was in the Northern Black Hills that paydirt was finally struck. Gold flakes were found along the way, but nothing that seemed to justify the expedition. The South Dakota towns of Hill City, Sheridan, and Pactola were founded by this detachment. Small amounts were found, but the troop kept scouting, looking for larger deposits. They were investigating claims of gold in the region which, again, was in violation of the treaty. The first significant arrivals to the region were a force of 1,000 men led by George Armstrong Custer. To make matters worse, this wasn’t just any land to the Sioux - the Black Hills were considered sacred. ![]() It was in 1876 that prospectors began to flood the region in violation of the treaty with the Sioux. In 1874, a deposit was found near present-day Custer, South Dakota. The problem, for American prospectors, is that none of the land in the Black Hills was federal land - it belonged to the Sioux. This allows Americans to mine for minerals anywhere on federal land. There is another point of law that is relevant to the Black Hills Gold Rush: The General Mining Act of 1872. ![]()
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