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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [First P [86], (1) Lines: 0 ——— 8.82pt ——— Normal PgEnds: [86], (1) 8. THE FAILURE OF PEACE IN CANADA, 1878--1881 Northern Lakota groups encroached on the lands of other aboriginal groups— Gros Ventres, Assiniboines, and Crows—as they moved northwest toward the Forty-ninth Parallel in the decade before the Great Sioux War. Their position as invaders, interlopers, and, after 1876, refugees was made even more precarious by the failure of the buffalo herds on the Northern Plains. To gain access to the hunt, the Lakotas had little choice but to seek peace with their neighbors on both sides of the border. The Lakotas were successful in gaining peace with Native peoples living mainly in Canada before 1879 but not with those living in the United States. The food crisis,beginning in the autumn of 1879,forced Lakota hunters back into the United States,where they came into increasing conflict with“American”Indians and with“Canadian”Indians who were also forced south to hunt. Scholars have intimated that it was the Canadian government’s refusal to provide food aid that was the main factor forcing the Lakotas out of both Canada and the borderlands .1 But, in the end, it was really opposition from other aboriginal peoples. The arrival of the Lakotas on the Canadian side of the boundary heightened the potential for conflict between them and the resident Native peoples. However , very little violence occurred before the food crisis in the autumn of 1879, much to the credit of the diplomatic efforts of Lakota leaders. Following their arrival in Canada, Lakota leaders like Sitting Bull met the leaders of Blackfoot, Cree, and other groups that spent most, but not all, of their time on Canadian territory. It is exceptionally difficult to document these meetings specifically. Officers of the North-West Mounted Police (nwmp) or the U.S. Army often reported rumors of meetings and usually did not provide an exact chronology. Moreover, since none of these writers attended any meetings, they could say nothing of what was discussed. Interviews given by participants to white academics years 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 [87], (2) Lines: 19 to 25 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [87], (2) later provide a little information on the topics discussed, but such accounts are invariably undated. As a result it is difficult to link the various nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts or to know for certain if two accounts that seem to refer to a single meeting actually do. In addition, because Sitting Bull was, for Americans, the most famous Sioux leader of the era, white commentators wrote more about his movements than about those of any other leader. The activities of other important leaders remain obscure. Any reconstruction of Sioux diplomacy must remain tentative at best. The purpose of peace negotiations was to gain access to land and—more important—the buffalo hunt. Once in the Cypress Hills/Wood Mountain area in the spring of 1877, Sitting Bull quickly approached an Assiniboine camp. An Assiniboine living in the Hunkpapa camp, a man who had been captured as a child in 1857,eased Sitting Bull’s introduction. Sitting Bull had adopted this man as a brother some time before 1870 and had named him Jumping Bull, after his father. Jumping Bull claimed that his relatives, including a cousin named Big Darkness, lived in the Assiniboine camp that the Hunkpapas encountered in Canada. Taking advantage of these kin ties, Jumping Bull introduced Sitting Bull to his relatives, and “all went smoothly.” To cement the new relationship the Lakota leader gave the Assiniboines many horses.2 The noted Blackfoot leader Crowfoot led his people on a hunt nearly to the Cypress Hills in the spring of 1877. Learning of Crowfoot’s whereabouts, Sitting Bull sent him tobacco, but Crowfoot refused to smoke it until he knew more of Sitting Bull’s intentions. That summer Sitting Bull and a peace mission approached Crowfoot’s camp, located in the Sand Hills, north of the Cypress Hills. High Eagle,a relative of Crowfoot...

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