Sitting Bull Hills for gold and to determine a suitable location for a military fort in the Hills. Custer's announcement of gold in the Black Hills triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush. Tensions increased between the Lakota and whites seeking to move into the Black Hills. Although Sitting Bull did not attack Custer's expedition in 1874, the US government was increasingly pressured by citizens to open the Black Hills to mining and settlement. Failing in an attempt to negotiate a purchase or lease of the Hills, the government in Washington had to find a way around the promise to protect the Sioux
Sitting Bull Canada, he may have visited Walsh for a final time and left a ceremonial headdress as a memento. Hunger and desperation eventually forced Sitting Bull, and 186 of his family and followers, to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Sitting Bull had his young son Crow Foot surrender his Winchester lever-action carbine to Major David H. Brotherton, commanding officer of Fort Buford, Sitting Bull said to Major David H. Brotherton, "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle." To the Oglala Lakotas, Dakotas and