President Ulysses S. Grant

Congress Seizes Black Hills With Only 10% Sioux Consent, Violating Fort Laramie Treaty Requirement for 75% Approval

| Importance: 10/10

Congress passes the Act of February 28, 1877, implementing an “agreement” signed by only 10 percent of adult male Sioux—far below the three-fourths (75%) threshold explicitly required by the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty for any cession of reservation lands. The Act strips over 7 million …

U.S. Congress Sioux Nation Lakota people President Ulysses S. Grant treaty-violations indigenous-genocide land-theft institutional-corruption congressional-capture
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Custer's Black Hills Expedition Violates Fort Laramie Treaty, Discovering Gold and Triggering Rush to Sioux Sacred Lands

| Importance: 9/10

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads a 1,000-man military expedition into the Black Hills of South Dakota in direct violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which guaranteed the Sioux Nation “absolute and undisturbed use and occupancy” of all land west of the Missouri River …

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer U.S. Army Sioux Nation Horatio Ross (prospector) President Ulysses S. Grant treaty-violations indigenous-genocide military-expansion gold-rush sacred-sites +1 more
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Black Friday - Gould and Fisk Gold Corner Attempt Triggers Financial Panic

| Importance: 9/10

On September 24, 1869—Black Friday—Jay Gould and James Fisk’s conspiracy to corner the gold market collapsed when the U.S. Treasury released $4 million in gold reserves, crashing the price from $163.50 to $133 per $100 in gold specie and triggering a financial panic that ruined hundreds of …

Jay Gould James Fisk President Ulysses S. Grant Abel Corbin U.S. Treasury financial-manipulation market-manipulation political-corruption gilded-age systematic-corruption
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