We claim as far as the Black Hills at the Head of the Cheyenne River. There are wagon tracks all around on each side of the River. The road has been made by fighting and we want to be pI would like to have my friends here to sign the treaty. I will sign, and if there is anything wrong afterwards I will watch the commissioners, and they will be the first ones that I will whip. ‒AMERICAN HORSE, FORT LARAMIE, MAY 25, 1868

I see that the whites blame the Indians, but it was you that acted wrong in the beginning. I never went to your country and did wrong. This is our land, and yet you blame us for fighting for it. ‒ONE HORN, FORT LARAMIE, MAY 28, 1868

The whites have been cutting up our country with roads, building forts at various places, and they have frequently put our people in prison for little or no cause ... Some of them are good, but a very many of them are bad. They treat us very badly, and frequently have our people been shot ... We have been cruelly treated and treacherously deceived. ‒BLACK MOON, POWDER AND YELLOWSTONE RIVERS, JUNE 19, 1868

You talk of peace; if we make peace, you will not hold it ... Now there are many things that have happened that is not our fault. We are blamed for many things. ‒MAN THAT GOES IN THE MIDDLE, FORT RICE, JULY 2, 1868

Article One includes very detrimental language to the sovereignty of the Oceti Sakowin Confederacy as high crimes and misdemeanors were no longer shared jurisdictions between the Confederacy and the United States ... both sides were to be judged by the polity of the United States. ‒PATRICK LEBEAU, CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX TRIBE, 2019

Even in some of the most blatant crimes the 1st Article in the 1868 Treaty, known as the “bad men” clause, failed to provide justice for the Lakota. ‒DUSTIN TWISS, OGLALA SIOUX TRIBE, 2019

Article 1. BAD MEN

Bad men of either nation who commit wrongs against persons or property of the other nation shall be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and injured persons shall be reimbursed for losses, except for US citizens who are violating the treaty.

ARTICLE 1. From this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace, and they now pledge their honor to maintain it. If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also re-imburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

If bad men among the Indians shall commit a wrong or depredation upon the person or property of any one, white, black, or Indians, subject to the authority of the United States, and at peace therewith, the Indians herein named solemnly agree that they will, upon proof made to their agent and notice by him, deliver up the wrong-doer to the United States, to be tried and punished according to its laws; and in case they wilfully refuse so to do, the person injured shall be re-imbursed for his loss from the annuities or other moneys due or to become due to them under this or other treaties made with the United States. And the President, on advising with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, shall prescribe such rules and regulations for ascertaining damages under the provisions of this article as in his judgment may be proper. But no one sustaining loss while violating the provisions of this treaty or the laws of the United States shall be re-imbursed therefor.