In the 1870s the earth called him to the Black Hills of Dakota. A reconnaissance expedition under Colonel George Custer had discovered gold in the Black Hills; this set off a rush to the region, which provoked resistance by the Sioux, who considered the Black Hills sacred, and who had been promised the region as part of the settlement William Sherman encouraged by threatening the utter destruction of the Sioux nation. Custer led a contingent against an Indian army headed by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull; at the Little Bighorn in June 1876, Custer met an annihilating defeat.
