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 Crystal Caverns 730 acres of land were put up for sale. Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns is a limestone cave complex nine miles south of Rapid City, South Dakota on the way to Mount Rushmore and by the Wind Cave National Park. For eight decades, the cave was open for the public to tour daily from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. The cave was discovered by the Duhamel family, Alex and Mamie and their sons, Bud and Pete, in 1929, at their property in Rockerville Gulch. The gulch is a red rock canyon east of Rockerville. They