Official park policy advises visitors to Bear Butte to respect worshipers and to leave religious offerings undisturbed.

In 1857, a council of many Indian nations gathered at Bear Butte to discuss the growing presence of white settlers in the Black Hills.

Violating a treaty of 1868, George Armstrong Custer led an expedition to the Black Hills region in 1874, and according to custom he camped near Bear Butte.

Custer verified the rumors of gold in the Black Hills, and Bear Butte then served as an easily identifiable landmark for the rush of invading prospectors and settlers into the region.

Ultimately the government reneged on its treaty obligations regarding the Black Hills and instead embarked on a program to confine all northern Plains tribes to reservations.

Ezra Bovee homesteaded on the southern slopes of the mountain, and by the time of World War II, he and his family were the legal owners of the site.

In the spring of 1945, the Northern Cheyenne received permission from Bovee to hold a ceremony at Bear Butte to pray for the end of World War II.

A bust and plaque in front of the education center at Bear Butte State Park honor Fools Crow's efforts.

The case, Fools Crow v. Gullett, related to the introduction in 1982 of limits on when and for how long Lakota and Cheyenne religious ceremonies could take place on the Bluff.