Black Hills

The Black Hills region is a forested, isolated mountain range in the Dakota Territory. It is so-called because of its dark appearance from afar due to its massive forest coverage. During Custer's Black Hills Expedition in July of 1874, gold was discovered in the area. Upon reports from the newspapers, miners from all across the country began to travel to the area. Though the Treaty of Fort Laramie assigned this area to the Lakota Indians, many illegal settlements and mining camps sprung up around the area. The gold rush of the Black Hills in now in its early stages, and everything that happens in the area is well outside the purview of the U.S. government.