Sitting Bull leads Lakota into Canada after the Great Sioux War

Background. President Grant ordered all Sioux bands outside the Great Sioux Reservation to move onto the reservation, aware that not all would comply. As of February 1, 1876, the Interior Department certified as hostile those bands that continued to live off the reservation. Sitting Bull refused to surrender, and in May 1877 he led his band north to Wood Mountain in the North-West Territories, now Saskatchewan.

The Crossing. In May 1877, Sitting Bull led his band across the border into the North-West Territories, Canada, with Wood Mountain as the destination named in the sources. The name Wood Mountain derives from the Red River Métis words "montagne de bois," meaning mountain of wood, referring to the abundance of poplar trees in an otherwise barren region. The passages do not state a specific day for the crossing.

Military Context. Nelson A. Miles participated in the campaign that scoured the Northern Plains after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. This campaign forced most Lakota Sioux and their allies onto designated federal Indian reservations. While Miles was active in the region during 1876 and 1877, the provided passages do not explicitly detail his direct interaction with Sitting Bull's specific crossing to Wood Mountain.