NARRATOR: The grasslands of the Dakota Territory. It was here, in June 1876, that the people of a Lakota Sioux village sat in a circle and watched as their chief performed a sacred ceremony known as the Sun Dance. During the ceremony, the chief claimed to have had a vision. The Lakota would succeed in battle against US troops, a prophecy that would be fulfilled just a few days later, near what whites called the Little Bighorn River.

The Lakota chief who had this vision was called Tatanka Iyotake. Raised in what is now North and South Dakota, he was a member of the Hunkpapa band of the Lakota, part of the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation. At 14 years old, after proving his courage in a fight against Crow Indians, his father gave him the name Sitting Bull.

By the 1860s, the Lakota had grown concerned about the encroachment on their land by white settlers and soldiers. A key worry was the sacred Black Hills. Sacred because it was from these hills that the Lakota believe they had emerged into this world, and where they hunted for food.

Tensions quickly began to mount, and violence broke out. In an attempt to end the fighting, US Army leaders and several Indian chiefs agreed to the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868. It promised to end hostilities on both sides and gave the Lakotas the right to keep the Black Hills.

"From this day forward," the treaty stated, "all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease."

But soon after the signing of the treaty, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, bringing streams of white miners and settlers onto Lakota land. War returned. To help defend their land, Sitting Bull invited warriors from neighboring nations of Cheyenne and Arapaho to join the Lakotas.

"My brothers," Sitting Bull said, "shall we submit or shall we say to them, 'first kill me before you take possession of my land?'" It was at this time that Sitting Bull performed the Sun Dance ritual and had the vision of victory over the soldiers.

On June 25, 1876, almost 300 US soldiers, led by General George Custer, launched an ill-planned attack on the large Lakota camp near the Little Bighorn River. Though victorious at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Lakotas had not won the conflict. The US government ultimately forced them to surrender the Black Hills and move on to reservations.

Today, Lakotas continue to fight for the return of the Black Hills. Though struggling with poverty, they have refused millions of dollars from the US government as compensation for the hills.

- To take that money and say we will bless the stealing of our land will be to accept spiritual poverty.

NARRATOR: Like Sitting Bull, the Lakotas won't give up on the return of their sacred land.