Iron Nation

By the 1850s, however, tensions between Native Americans and the increasingly-present pioneers were growing, and conflicts began to break out. Iron Nation was one of the signers of the September 17, 1851, Treaty of Fort Laramie, along with people from Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other tribes. This allowed settlers to pass through tribal territory for an annuity. When exactly Iron Nation became chief is unknown, but it is believed to be by 1860.^[3]

Iron Nation also signed the October 14, 1865, Fort Sully Treaty with other Lakota chiefs, which established the Lower Brule Indian Reservation. A state historic marker near the Lower Brule Agency reads:

On October 14, 1865, at Fort Sully (5 miles E of Pierre) the Lower Brule Band by Iron Nation, White Buffalo Cow, Little Pheasant and 12 others, signed a treaty. It differed from the others signed there in that it set up a reservation 20 miles long and 10 back from the river between White River and Fort Lookout. The 1,800 Lower Brules were to get $6,000 a year and families who went to farming were to get $25.00 bonus. In 1866, they planted some acreage and to their great surprise got 2,000 bushels of grain.^[4]

Three years later, he signed the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie,^[5] which eliminated U.S. forts along the Bozeman Trail in Montana and established the Great Sioux Reservation, permanently locating the Lower Brule tribe along the Missouri River in modern-day south-central South Dakota. Iron Nation ultimately hoped this would allow his tribe to avoid involvement in the Sioux Wars, and he settled into a homestead on the reservation.^[3]

Chief Iron Nation also signed the Black Hills agreement in September 1876. U.S. government agents went to the various Indian agencies to obtain signatures signing away Lakota rights to the Black Hills, which the Lakota consider sacred. The Black Hills had been guaranteed to the Lakota by the 1868 treaty signed at Fort Laramie, but this was before gold was found, which resulted in the Black Hills Gold Rush.

In 1882, the tribe was approached by the Teller Commission, who intended to buy the reservation and move the Lower Brule onto a shared reservation with the Upper Brule band at Rosebud Indian Reservation. Iron Nation and other chiefs resisted their efforts, and they were ultimately successful at retaining their own land. Seven years later, in 1889, Iron Nation signed one last treaty, which divided the Great Sioux Reservation among the Sioux, creating the much-smaller Lower Brule Indian Reservation.^[3]