15. The last year of President Grant's administration was noted for the WAR WITH THE SIOUX. These fierce savages had, in 1867, made a treaty with the United States, agreeing to relinquish all of the territory south of the Niobrara, west of the one hundred and fourth meridian, and north of the forty-sixth parallel. By this treaty the Sioux were confined to a large reservation in southwestern Dakota, and upon this they agreed to retire by the first of January, 1876. But many of the tribes continued to roam at large through Wyoming and Montana, burning houses, stealing horses, and murdering whoever opposed them. [Illustration: Custer's Last Fight.] 16. The Government now undertook to drive the Sioux upon their reservation. A large force of regulars, under Generals Terry and Crook, was sent into the mountainous country of the Upper Yellowstone, and the savages, to the number of several thousand, were crowded back against the Big Horn Mountains and River. Generals Custer and Reno, who were sent forward with the Seventh Cavalry to discover the whereabouts of the Indians, found them on the left bank of the Little Horn. [Sidenote: =Custer's Defeat on the Little Horn.=] 17. On the 25th of June, General Custer, without waiting for reinforcements, charged headlong with his division into the Indian town, and was immediately surrounded. The struggle equaled in desperation and disaster any other Indian battle ever fought in America. _General Custer and every man of his command fell in the fight._ The whole loss of the Seventh Cavalry was two hundred and sixty-one killed, and fifty-two wounded. General Reno held his position, on the bluffs of the Little Horn, until General Gibbon arrived with reinforcements and saved the remnant from destruction. 18. Other divisions of the army were soon hurried forward, and during the summer and autumn the Indians were beaten in several engagements. On the 24th of November, the Sioux were decisively defeated by Colonel McKenzie at a pass in the Big Horn Mountains. On the 5th of January, the savages were again overtaken and routed by the forces of Colonel Miles. The remaining bands, under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, being able to offer no further serious resistance, escaped across the border into Canada. 19. In August, 1876, Colorado took her place as the thirty-eighth State of the Union. The population of the "Centennial State" numbered forty-five thousand.