Great Sioux Reservation

The treaty also provided rights to roam and hunt in contiguous areas of North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and northeast Colorado.

The Sioux nation successfully sued the United States for these encroachments, but the tribes have refused monetary compensation for illegally taken reservation lands.

The United States used the Missouri River to form the eastern boundary of the Reservation, but some of the land within this area had already assigned to other tribes, such as the Ponca.

In addition to the reservation dedicated to the Lakota, the treaty gave the Sioux the right to hunt and travel in "unceded" territory in much of Wyoming and in the Sandhills and Panhandle of modern Nebraska.

Because each band had its own territory, the United States established several agencies through the Bureau of Indian Affairs to regulate the Lakota in this vast area.

By the Dawes Allotment Act, the federal government intended to break up the communal tribal lands in Indian Territory and other reservations and allocate portions to individual households to encourage subsistence farming on the European-American model.

Congress allocated 160-acre (65 ha) parcels to heads of families, and declared any remaining land to be "surplus" and available for sale to non-natives.

The allotment of individual parcels and other measures reduced the total land in Indian ownership, while the government tried to force the people to convert to the lifestyles of subsistence farmers and craftsmen.

Huge dust clouds reached as far as eastern cities; much of the fertile topsoil was lost, and many farmers abandoned their land.

Although the range was declared surplus to USAF needs in the 1960s, it was transferred to the National Park Service rather than returned to the tribe's communal ownership.

The Oglala Lakota are persisting in their demand to have the land returned to their nation; the account with their settlement compensation is earning interest.