April 28 to November 6, 2018 tribes from across the region gathered to commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the signing of the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The treaty’s negotiation and signing by tribes of the Northern Great Plains took nearly seven months to complete.

The event began by greeting the day at sunrise with prayer, drums and song. Later there was a sharing of native history from the time before trappers, traders, and forts. Also native perspectives on the treaties were explained as a counterpoint to the standard history.

Visitors had a chance to walk in the recreation of encampment made by the tribes and see how they lived so many years ago.

The 1868 a conference was held at Fort Laramie, in present day Wyoming, which resulted in a treaty with the Sioux . This treaty was to bring peace between the whites and the Sioux who agreed to settle within the Black Hills reservation in the Dakota Territory.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie (also called the Sioux Treaty of 1868) brought together many neighboring tribes the were involved in the conflict as well, including the  Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation. This meeting was a second attempt at peace following the failure of the first first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851.

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