Fort Reno Skirmish
| Big Horn Expedition | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Great Sioux War of 1876 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
|
Cheyenne Oglala Lakota Sioux |
 United States
|
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Old Bear He Dog |
George R. Crook Joseph J. Reynolds |
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| Strength | |||||||
| ~250 | 883 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 4–6 killed, including women and children 1–3 wounded |
4 killed 8 wounded 67 injured |
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The Big Horn Expedition, or Bighorn Expedition, was a military operation of the United States Army against the Sioux, and Cheyenne Indians in Wyoming Territory and Montana Territory. Although soldiers destroyed one Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux village, the expedition solidified Lakota Sioux and northern Cheyenne resistance against the United States attempt to force them to sell the Black Hills and live on a reservation, beginning the Great Sioux War of 1876.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) granted the Lakota Sioux and their northern Cheyenne allies a reservation, including the Black Hills, in Dakota Territory and a large area of "unceded territory" in what became Montana and Wyoming. Both areas were for the exclusive use of the Indians, and whites except for government officials, were forbidden to trespass. In August, 1874, soldiers of the Black Hills Expedition under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer confirmed the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. This caused the United States to attempt to buy the Hills from the Sioux. The U.S. ordered all bands of Lakota and Cheyenne to come to the Indian agencies on the reservation by January 31, 1876 to negotiate the sale. Some of the bands did not comply and when the deadline of January 31 passed, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith, wrote that "without the receipt of any news of Sitting Bull's submission, I see no reason why...military operations against him should not commence at once." On February 8, 1876, General Phillip Sheridan telegraphed Generals George R. Crook and Alfred H. Terry, ordering them to undertake winter campaigns against the "hostiles".
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