Professor Jeffery Ostler and his take on Lakota struggle to regain some of the Black Hills

Runs Like Cougar
  The struggle and debate as to whether the Black hills in South Dakota belong to the Lakota tribe has been an old question as Indians and non-Indians debated the importance and these lands being sacred ground.  Those who say the Black hills became more spiritual in modern times long ignored the importance native Americans had with this area regardless of which tribe had power in the area. Author Jeffrey Ostler wrote a book looking at the complexities of the modern importance of the Black Hills and how the struggle for this area developed. The Lakota were a tribe that was self-sufficient until a deliberate plan to destroy the buffalo a d food base was encouraged in order to get to the valuable minerals in the area that this tribe controlled. This book covers everything to open warfare and eventual treaties and displacement to the cultural and legal battles of this area. Professor Jeffery Olster examines the tie period of Lakota prominence from 1770 to 1870's and examines the pressure the tribe put on the US government trying to expand into their sovereign lands and their success at thwarting the American Westward expansion was amazing.

 Olster notes the many chiefs who are not as famous as Crazy Horse and sitting Bull because they didn't advocate open warfare but just as important played an important diplomatic role trying their best to get the best deals and annuities for the Lakota people. These dignitaries included spotted tail, Standing Elk,Standing Bear, Little Wound and Young Man With Horse To Fear and all these Native leaders knew they were in a tough precarious position trying to keep peace between the tribes and among the white settlers and pioneers. The once powerful position Lakota had in dealing wth the federal government was shrinking s their food source was killed off and put more pressure and a dependence on the great father for survival.  Ostler goes through the twentieth century and the eventual supreme Court ruling that the Black Hills was taken illegally and awarded the Sioux compensation which the tribe rejected still in hopes of setting a sovereign nation. This historian factually recounts the early exploration and how the American federal government was eager to search these areas and to see what of value could be extracted upon it prior to the eve of the civil war. No book about the Lakota would be complete without a recap of the battle of Little Bighorn which Professor Ostler writes a chapter on no doubt recollecting years of lectures of his classes on the most infamous battle and war with Native on this continent and has been the countless images of movies and imagery of America's expansion through the decades of film and TV.