Thieves' Road: The Black Hills Betrayal and Custer's Path to Little Bighorn

by Terry Mort

In the summer of 1874, Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer led an expedition of some 1000 troops and more than one hundred wagons into the Black Hills of South Dakota. This fascinating work of narrative history tells the little-known story of this exploratory mission and reveals how it set the stage for the climactic Battle of the Little Bighorn two years later.
What is the significance of this obscure foray into the Black Hills? The short answer, as the author explains, is that Custer found gold. This discovery in the context of the worst economic depression the country had yet experienced spurred a gold rush that brought hordes of white prospectors to the Sioux's sacred grounds. The result was the trampling of an 1868 treaty that had granted the Black Hills to the Sioux and their inevitable retaliation against the white invasion.
The author brings the era of the Grant administration to life, with its "peace policy" of settling the Indians on reservations, corrupt federal Indian Bureau, Gilded Age excesses, the building of the western railroads, the white settlements that followed the tracks, the Crash of 1873, mining ventures, and the clash of white and Indian cultures with diametrically opposed values.
The discovery of gold in the Black Hills was the beginning of the end of Sioux territorial independence. By the end of the book it is clear why the Sioux leader Fast Bear called the trail cut by Custer to the Black Hills "thieves' road."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Native American, War, Native Americans

336 pages, Hardcover

First published February 10, 2015

Reviews

[Eric Ruark · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are fascinated by the Custer legend... if you have a collection of books about Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, et al... If you are a fan of the Gilded Age... You HAVE to add this book to your collection. I have never read a book that so clearly draws a picture of the men, the time period, the attitudes of both the white men and the Native Americans as Thieves' Road.

This book is about the domino effect of the events that let up to Custer's last stand. It clearly defines the problems such as the national debt incurred by the Civil War, the government's need for gold, the politics, the misplaced philanthropy and the rampant corruption of the government that sent Custer into the Sioux territory on three different occasions: the Northern Pacific Railroad survey in 1873, the Black Hills reconnaissance in force in 1874 and finally to the banks of the Little Big Horn in 1876. Terry Mort's vivid descriptions of the personalities, the places, the politics and the corruption brings to life a clash of diametrically opposed cultures with totally different values.

For students of Native American history, there is an excellent chapter, The Adversaries, in which author Terry Mort details the belief system of the Sioux and explains why the eastern philanthropic philosophy was doomed to failure.

The story has the "inevitability of a tragedy" with more than enough cruelty on both sides to go around. When it was over, Custer and 262 of his men were dead and the Lakota way of life was dying. It was a tragedy played out on a grand scale over decades of time with a cast of some of the most flamboyant characters ever to play across the stage of history. This is a GREAT read.

Reviewed by Eric Ruark, author of MURDER BEYOND THE MILKY WAY

[Brad Butturff · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife and I retired and moved to the Black Hills in November of 2015. We have always been interested in the history of the 'Old West' and particularly the events around the 1876 Black Hills gold rush. I've done quite a bit of reading and research on this often violent era and really do have to recommend Terry Mort's book 'Thieves' Road: The Black Hills Betrayal and Custer's Path to Little Bighorn'.

Mort approaches the subject with a relatively even handed perspective; he doesn't tell a story of good versus bad, more of a tale of every participant being culpable in these events. Though the Lakota would come out the clear losers in all of this Mort also points out that the Lakota themselves had taken the Black Hills by force from the Kiowa. He also shows a clear picture of economic and political events that made the United State's conquest of the Black Hills literally inevitable. Yes, Mort shows how greed and avarice drove people but not without significant events, such as the 'Crash of '73' driving them along.

I did like Mort's writing style and general perspective on this series of events. There are really no villains in his book. Even George Armstrong Custer gets a fair appraisal in the book. This is just a very good examination of the events leading to the gold rush. I really do have to recommend the book to anyone wanting to understand the events leading to the 1876 gold rush.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terry Mort puts forth a great book telling of a truly painful and shameful period of America's westward expansion. In doing so, he brings to surface attitudes and economic factors, both occurring in the US as well as in Europe, which helped set the stage. He shows how personal, as well as collective decisions as a nation, were based on greed, intolerance and outright lies to the indigenous peoples who "were in the way" and that nothing was going to stop our nation's progressive march across the continent. While the deck was ultimately stacked against them, the Sioux were not entirely blameless, although their culture and belief system really left them no alternatives in the choices they made. The Sioux well understood the practice of ownership by conquest, and practiced that art as well as anyone. I really don't know how it could have ended any other way. While the time frames and names of the players might have changed; in the end, the so-called needs of the people (greed); as well as desires and proclamations of the political leadership in the name of progress (greed); the end result would have been the same.

There are many lessons to be learned from US history that help to define us. Lessons in humanity, how to be good stewardship of the earth, and wastefulness of war. We haven't learned yet; I doubt that we will any time soon.

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of the expedition into the Black Hills in 1874. At the time the area belonged to the Sioux Indians as a result of the Treaty of 1868 which ended the Red Cloud War. The expedition was ostensibly to look for a place to build a fort to help stop Indian depredations against white settlements and the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The author does much more than describe the exploration of the Black Hills. He puts the attempt to take the area from the Sioux into the context of events in the world as well as the United States. The movement to build trans-continental railroads, the Panic of 1873, and the rumors of gold in the area are all woven into the story. The author also does a god job of describing Indian culture and the conflict with the white culture. The book also draws parallels to what happened to Custer two years later at Little Bighorn.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so much more than a story about Custer or the Indian Wars. It explained how the Civil War affected the nation's later development, how Gilded Age investors maneuvered a cash hungry government into helping them build the transcontinental railroad, and how that created scores of tiny towns along railroad tracks across the West. This book ties up many loose threads for those of us who want the rest of the story.

[Don Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and engaging. Full of historical information.

[Chuck Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise narrative of Custer's Black Hills expedition....

I recently took a family vacation to the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. Found this book on Amazon and was quite pleased with it. Presents a concise, focused history of why the U.S. sought to explore the Black Hills, the challenges facing the expedition, the Lakota Sioux's own claims and beliefs regarding the Hills, and the subsequent results of what occurred in the region after Custer's expedition. Well researched account.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, America was in an economic recession as was the rest of the world. Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer was sent in 1874 was sent into the Black Hills for the stated purpose of selecting sites for forts to protect travels transecting Sioux territory but also to evaluate mineral resources in the region. Thieves' Road explores the political and economic forces driving the expedition that would ultimately lead to the deaths of over 250 men of the 7th Cavalry in 1876 as Custer chased glory. This is a good read of the exploitation of Native Americans by the US.

[Pbwritr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book sets the stage for Custer's Last Stand, which takes place 18 months after the book ends. So many competing entities and philosophies existed in the 1870s. The author peels away the onion with respect to all parties, and no group is innocent, though some certainly were more deceived than others. A forthright look at settling the Dakota Territory, the Sioux, the Army, Easterners, frontier settlers, the railroads, Congress, the U.S. budget, the worldwide depression, financiers, and more.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a lot about G.A. Custer, but this book with its focus on the Black Hills Expedition gives a different insight into the boy general. He seems as impetuous as two years later when his ego gets the Seventh Cavalry wiped out.

[David B.Hulsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Culture struggles

Great historical perspectives of culture clashes and evolutions. Technological ( railroads, banking, arms vs free roaming, take by force what you want) forces pushing old cultures into smaller confines.
A good read.

[Sandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting account of the time before the Black Hills Expedition and the eventual path to the a little Big Horn good book