Black Hills
Ancient granite peaks hiding a fortune that will cost everything to claim.
The Black Hills are an outlying subrange of the greater Rocky Mountain system rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. Black Elk Peak, which rises to 7,242 feet (2,207 m), is the range's highest summit. The name of the range in Lakota is Pahá Sápa. It encompasses the Black Hills National Forest. It formed as a result of an upwarping of ancient rock, after which the removal of the higher portions of the mountain mass by stream erosion produced the present-day topography. The mountains are so called because of their dark appearance from a distance, as they are covered in evergreen trees.
Quick Facts
- Highest
- Black Elk Peak
- Listing
- Isolated summits of the United States
- Country
- United States
- Geology
- Shale
- sandstone
- limestone
- slate
- quartzite
- granite
- Age
- Precambrian
- Paleozoic
- Mesozoic
- Cenozoic
- Tertiary
- Orogeny
- Trans-Hudson and Laramide
- Length orientation
- northwest-southeast
Lore & Background
The Black Hills have been inhabited by numerous indigenous groups over the centuries. The Crow (Absaroka) and Kiowa were among the earliest recorded inhabitants, while the Ponca, Arikara, and Mandan were more associated with the Missouri River area. Those groups had largely left the area by around 1800 and returned only occasionally for trading or raids on other groups. The groups that initially supplanted them were primarily the Cheyenne and Arapaho, along with smaller numbers of Lakota Sioux.
By the early 19th century, however, the Lakota had become the dominant group, often allied with the Cheyenne and Arapaho rather than living as a minority among them. The Lakota call the Black Hills Pahá Sápa and consider the entire region to be sacred ground, referring to the hills as wamakaognaka e'cante, 'the heart of everything that is.' The Cheyenne, Arapaho, and other Native groups of the Northern Plains also recognize particular sites within the Black Hills as having sacred significance.
In 1868, the federal US government signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, establishing the Great Sioux Reservation west of the Missouri River, which included the Black Hills as part of the reservation; however, when American settlers discovered gold here as a result of George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills Expedition in 1874, a gold rush swept in miners. The US government conquered the Black Hills and forcibly relocated the Lakota, following the Great Sioux War of 1876, to five smaller reservations in western South Dakota, selling off 9 million acres (36,000 km2) of their former land.
Reader's Guide
The Black Hills serve as the geographical and thematic anchor for the entire narrative of Deadwood. They are the reason the town exists; without the gold discovered in these mountains, there would be no rush, no camp, and no struggle for power. In the story, the Hills represent the ultimate temptation. The beauty of the landscape is marred by the destruction wrought upon it and its indigenous people.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Black Hills a character in Deadwood?
No, the Black Hills are not a person but the mountainous region in South Dakota Territory where the gold rush occurred. They serve as the geographical setting that drives the plot rather than an individual with agency.
Did the Custer Expedition actually find gold in these hills?
Yes, historical records within the show confirm that George Armstrong Custer's 1874 survey confirmed the presence of gold there. This discovery triggered the rush that led to the founding and rapid growth of Deadwood itself.
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