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The Removal of the Poncas adjusted, there was no apparent reason why these Indian farmers should not make rapid advance along the "white man's road."

No apparent reason. But events of far-reaching importance had meanwhile been transpiring in the great Sioux Country north of them,—events of such importance that a tribe so insignificant as the Ponca, had it only known, might well have trembled for its future at the hands of a Government whose avowed policy was to bestow its favors on the powerful and hostile Indians in the interest of peace.

Away to the Northwest stretched the great Sioux reservation, from the Missouri River on the east to the western line of Dakota. The territory embraced was as large as the State of New York, and fifty thousand Sioux drew rations from the various Government agencies upon it. The appropriations for these Indians were about two million dollars annually,—an amount ridiculously in excess of treaty stipulations, but no more than sufficient to prevent serious hostilities. In the extreme western part of this great reservation lay the Black Hills, with their millions of treasure still uncovered. Explorations made in the early seventies disclosed the presence of gold; in 1874 a military expedition was sent into the Hills to explore the country, and in the following year a commission endeavored to obtain from the Indians a cession of that portion of their country—but the attempt ended in failure. 151