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Primary sourceDocument1 November 1877

Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1877

Secretary of the Interior · 1 November 1877

An annual U.S. government report describing the 1876-77 Sioux war and noting that bands under Sitting Bull fled to British territory.

This official U.S. government report records Sitting Bull leading bands of Lakota into British territory after the Sioux war.

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About this source

What it is

This is the annual report of the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, submitted to the government in November 1877. It summarises federal Indian policy for the year, including the aftermath of the Sioux war.

The surviving text is held on Wikisource.

Why it matters

The report describes how, after fighting with the U.S. Army, important bands under the leadership of Sitting Bull sought refuge across the border in British territory (Canada). It also records the forced removal of the Oglala and Brulé Sioux from their agencies.

This is an official government account, written from the point of view of the people running U.S. Indian policy, not from the Lakota side.

Look closer

  • Who wrote this report, and for whom was it written?
  • How does the language used (

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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