The Newton–Jenney Party of 1875, led by Henry Newton and Walter P. Jenney, and escorted by a military detachment led by Lieutenant Colonel Richard I. Dodge, and known also as the Jenney-Newton Party, was a scientific expedition sponsored by the

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on Mar ...

to map the Black Hills of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

. The Newton-Jenney expedition was established in response to the Black Hills Gold Rush, which had been escalated the previous year by General George Armstrong Custer's expedition into the Black Hills. The Newton–Jenney Party included many figures who would gain notoriety in the 19th century, including

Calamity Jane Martha Jane Canary (May 1, 1856 – August 1, 1903), better known as Calamity Jane, was an American American frontier, frontierswoman, Exhibition shooting, sharpshooter, sex worker, and storyteller. In addition to many exploits, she was known f ...

, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, and California Joe Milner. The expedition confirmed Custer's claims of gold and prompted an increase of miners in the Black Hills region, which in turn antagonized events leading to the

Great Sioux War of 1876-77 The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations that occurred in 1876 and 1877 in an alliance of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne against the United States. The cause of the war was the ...

References

Black Hills Pre-statehood history of South Dakota 1875 in the United States North American expeditions 1875 in Dakota Territory {{US-hist-stub