Have we not the same right as the White Man ?" The forfeiture of the Black Hills and unwise reduction of rations kept alive the Indian discontent.

When, in 1889, Congress passed a law dividing the Sioux reservation into many smaller ones so as to isolate the different tribes of the Dakota nation a treaty was offered them.
This provided payment for the ponies captured or destroyed in the war of 1876 and certain other concessions, in return for which the Indians were to cede about half their land, or eleven million acres, which was to be opened up for settlement.
The treaty was submitted to the Indians for a vote.

They came in from the woods and the plains to vote on it, and it was carried by a very narrow majority, many of the Indians insisting that they had been coerced by their necessities into casting favorable ballots.
Congress delayed and postponed the fulfillment of the promised conditions, and the Indian unrest increased as the months went by.

Even after the land had been taken over and settled up, Congress did not pass the appropriation that was necessary before the Indians could get their money.
Sitting Bull was appealed to for aid, and once more began employing his powerful gift of oratory in the interest of armed resistance against the white man.
Just at this time a legend whose origin was beyond all power to fathom became current among the red men of the north.
From one tribe to another spread the tidings that a Messiah was to come back to earth to use his miraculous power in the interest of the Indian.

The whites were to be driven from the land of the red man.