From buffalo to beeves: Cattle and the political economy of the Oglala Lakota, 1750--1920

An exceptional dichotomy emerged within Oglala Lakota society between 1851 and 1868. During this liminal early reservation period, as buffalo numbers dwindled and tribal mobility diminished, the Oglala Lakota developed a dynamic economic strategy founded on the creation of a tribal cattle herd. They based their decision upon intimate environmental knowledge, a clear understanding of the emerging regional cattle industry initiated by white entrepreneurs, and their unfamiliarity concerning agricultural pursuits exhorted by the American federal government. Cattle formed not only the foundation of the Oglala's reservation economy; they provided an opportunity to maintain familiar cultural practices within the milieu of the nomadic equestrian society.; Obstacles such as an unyielding demand by the federal government to implement a farming economy, extensive competition from white ranchers, limited access to regional or local markets, excessive institutional control by Indian agents, and tribal factionalism failed to prevent the tribe from pressing on toward its goal. Following the Dawes Act of 1887, and the subsequent Sioux Bill of 1889 tribal leaders on Pine Ridge Reservation struggled to thwart allotment. Ultimately unsuccessful, these leaders next strove to prevent leasing of tribal lands to off-reservation cattle operations. Unfortunately, during WWI the tribe sold most of its herd for the war effort at the strong recommendation of the federal government and its agents. With few cattle remaining on Pine Ridge leasing moved apace through the machinations of the off-reservation cattle interests eager to utilize tribal lands. By 1920 conditions of economic impotence and poverty arose. This pernicious situation remains relatively unchanged today.; Uniquely, this study fuses Lakota oral history and extensive archival research within an ethnohistorical framework. Other topics addressed include aspects of Oglala spatial relationships to boundaries, loci of power, and whites both on and off the reservation. Moreover, Oglala connections to both regional and national economic developments are examined in order to provide a richer historical context. My work fills a tremendous void within Lakota historiography and asks scholars to reexamine nascent reservation periods within larger historical contexts as well as misconceptions concerning Native Americans' "resignation" to reservation life.