Rapid City City Map Poster

About Rapid City

The public discovery of gold in 1874 by the Black Hills Expedition brought a mass influx of settlers into the Black Hills region of South Dakota. The United States Army established Fort Meade (later renamed Fort Abraham Lincoln) to protect new arrivals and survey for possible mining sites. In 1876, Colonel George A. Custer and his 7th Cavalry were stationed at Fort Meade during an extended campaign against Native American groups such as the Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arikara who resisted US expansion onto their lands; they had been promised that no white settlement would be permitted in this area under Article 2 of the Treaty with Red Cloud (1868). In June 1876 Custer's force was defeated at Battle Creek by members of three Lakota tribes: 1st "Oglala", 2nd "Sioux" or Brule ("Brulé"), 3rd "Miniconjou" ("Hunkpapa").