In 1874, Custer was tasked with leading an expedition into the Black Hills, a region sacred to the Lakota and legally protected by the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. Ostensibly a reconnaissance mission, Custer’s announcement that his party had discovered gold in the hills triggered a massive, uncontrollable stampede of prospectors. This breach of faith by the U.S. government made conflict with the Lakota inevitable, as the government prioritized the economic potential of the land over its treaty obligations to Indigenous nations.