In 1888 Congress passed the Sioux Bill, but with a significant caveat: the government would have to obtain the consent of three-quarters of the Sioux, as required in previous treaties to the cession of roughly half their remaining lands. The government had failed to do so in the past, and it failed again in 1888 when Richard Henry Pratt headed a commission to gain a cession. In 1889 Harrison sent out a commission headed by Gen. George Crook to try once more.
