The Great Sioux War of 1876–77 begins…

The Great Sioux War of 1876–77 begins on February 8, when Major General Philip Sheridan, commander of the Division of the Missouri, telegraphs Brigadier Generals George Crook, commander of the Department of the Platte, and Alfred Terry, commander of the Dakota Territory, ordering them to commence their winter campaigns against the "hostiles".

The non-treaty bands of Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, who had refused to come to the Indian agencies for council, have refused the offer of twenty-five thousand dollars from the United States to relocate from the Black Hills region to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma).

Sheridan and Crook had been called to Washington, D.C. in early November 1875 to meet with President Grant and several members of his cabinet to discuss the Black Hills issue.

They had agreed that the Army should stop evicting trespassers from the reservation, thus opening the way for the Black Hills Gold Rush.

The government had instructed Indian agents in the region to notify the various non-treaty bands to return to the reservation by January 31, 1876, or face potential military action.

The United States agent at Standing Rock Agency expresses concern that this is insufficient time for the Lakota to respond, as deep winter restricts travel.

His request to extend the deadline is denied.

Lakota leaders in the council lodges of the non-treaty bands meanwhile seriously discuss the notification for return.

Short Bull, a member of the Soreback Band of the Oglala, later recalls that many of the bands had gathered on the Tongue River.

"About one hundred men went out from the agency to coax the hostiles to come in under pretense that the trouble about the Black Hills was to be settled," he said.

"...All the hostiles agreed that since it was late [in the season] and they had to shoot for tipis [i.e., hunt buffalo] they would come in to the agency the following spring." (Grant Short Bull Interview, July 13, 1930, in Eleanor H. Hinman (ed.) "Oglala Sources on the Life of Crazy Horse", Nebraska History v. 57 no. 1 (Spring 1976) p. 34.

As the deadline of January 31 passes, the new Commissioner of Indian Affairs, John Q. Smith, writes that "without the receipt of any news of Sitting Bull's submission, I see no reason why, in the discretion of the Hon. the Secretary of War, military operations against him should not commence at once."

His superior, Secretary of the Interior Zachariah Chandler, agrees, adding that "the said Indians are hereby turned over to the War Department for such action on the part of the Army as you may deem proper under the circumstances."