The Council Tree

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In September 1875 a lone cottonwood provided a landmark where the Allison Commission met with thousands of Lakota Sioux in a futile effort to buy the Black Hills. Based on the recollections of elderly Lakotas, Captain Christopher Robinson Chapter, D.A.R., of Crawford, marked what was believed to be the historic tree in May 1932. The cottonwood, sometimes called "the treaty tree," died in the 1970s. It stood a few hundred feet south of this marker, looking toward Crow Butte.