I was told that I must farm, and I went to work and farmed with sticks, etc. I have farmed as you told me and will do what you desire. You tell me to pick out a place for a reservation. I am going to look out for a place as we pass down the river and will show it to you. ‒BIG EAGLE, STEAMER AGNES, JULY 6, 1868

Article III ... aludes to the division of land into individual farming plots. Life for our Oceti Sakowin ancestors changed with this Article. What our relationship with the land is today is dramatically different than the relationship our ancestors experienced. We’ve grown up knowing only the divisions and boundaries this 1868 Treaty Article initiated.‒MABEL PICOTTE, YANKTON SIOUX TRIBE, 2019

I assisted my father in a few legal battles involving the illegal taking of his 160 acres of farm lands that was allotted to him in 1919 when he was a child (very typical in that era). I saw firsthand the residue from the 1868 Ft. Laramie treaty, both pros and cons that are still imbedded into our dual judicial systems that govern us as Lakota people. ‒ALFREDA BEARTRACK ALGEO, LOWER BRULE SIOUX TRIBE, 2019

My great great grandfather He Haka Pa / Elk Head was a signer of the treaty and keeper of the White Buffalo Calf Pipe bundle. He was the first to settle in Green Grass, South Dakota and to be given 160 acres. What was interesting was I heard that the formation of the 160 plot was shaped like a Chanunpa. ‒JIM YELLOWHAWK, CHEYENNE RIVER SIOUX TRIBE, 2019

Mitakuye, Mitakuye omakiyaye / Mitakuye, omakiyaye / Mila hanska wowapi wakan makuwe, otegikelo.

My relatives, they help me / The Long Knives have given me a paper that is sacred, it is hard. ‒SISSY GOODHOUSE, STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE, 2019

Article 3. FARM LAND

The reservation should include one hundred and sixty acres of tillable land for every Oceti Sakowin citizen. If there is not enough land, then additional farm land is to be added to the reservation.

ARTICLE 3. If it should appear from actual survey or other satisfactory examination of said tract of land that it contains less than one hundred and sixty acres of tillable land for each person who, at the time, may be authorized to reside on it under the provisions of this treaty, and a very considerable number of such persons shall be disposed to commence cultivating the soil as farmers, the United States agrees to set apart, for the use of said Indians, as herein provided, such additional quantity of arable land, adjoining to said reservation, or as near to the same as it can be obtained, as may be required to provide the necessary amount.