What started as a gentle flow soon turned into a river of Euro-American emigrants traveling through Lakota lands to Oregon and California country. The great northern plains of South Dakota were the traditional homeland of the Oglala Lakota people. In the mid 1800’s, thousands of settlers traveled west on the California, Mormon, and Oregon trails. Prospecting for gold in the Black Hills led to a flood of encroachment and settlement of traditional Lakota homeland. Oglala Lakota tribal elders tell of their traditional nomadic lifestyle and social structure, how that was challenged and influenced by American westward migration, and how their people and beliefs endure.
