<P> The consequent military expedition to remove the Sioux from the Black Hills included an attack on a major encampment of several bands on the Little Bighorn River . Led by General Custer, the attack ended in his defeat; it was an overwhelming victory of chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse over the 7th Cavalry Regiment, a conflict often called Custer's Last Stand . US forces were vastly outnumbered . </P> <P> In 1876 the U.S. Congress decided to open up the Black Hills to development and break up the Great Sioux Reservation . In 1877, it passed an act to make 7.7 million acres (31,000 km) of the Black Hills available for sale to homesteaders and private interests . In 1889 Congress divided the remaining area of Great Sioux Reservation into five separate reservations, defining the boundaries of each in its Act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888 . Pine Ridge was established at that time . </P> <P> The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Cankpe Opi Wakpala). On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's (Big Foot) band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward to Wounded Knee Creek where they made camp . The rest of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James Forsyth, surrounded the encampment, supported by four Hotchkiss guns . </P> <P> On the morning of December 29, 1890, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota . One version of events claims that during the process, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, saying he had paid a lot for it . A scuffle over Black Coyote's rifle escalated and a shot was fired, which resulted in the 7th Cavalry opening firing indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their fellow troopers . Those few Lakota warriors who still had weapons began shooting back at the troopers, who quickly suppressed the Lakota fire . The surviving Lakota fled, but U.S. cavalrymen pursued and killed many who were unarmed . </P>

Life on the pine ridge native american reservation