Freshwater minnow / FRI 5-4-18 / One signatory to Treaty of Laramie / Subversive use of computers to promote political agenda / Contemporary of Hosea

Constructor: Michael Hawkins

Relative difficulty: Easy (4:41)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: Treaty of Fort Laramie (9D: One signatory to the Treaty of Fort Laramie)—

The  Treaty of Fort Laramie (also called the Sioux Treaty of 1868^[b]) was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851.

The treaty was divided into 17 articles. It established the Great Sioux Reservationincluding ownership of the Black Hills, and set aside additional lands as "unceded Indian territory" in areas of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska, and possibly Montana.^[c]. It established that the US Government would hold authority to punish both white settlers who committed crimes against the tribes, and also tribe members who committed crimes, and who were to be delivered to the government. It stipulated that the government would abandon forts along the Bozeman Trail, and included a number of provisions designed to encourage a transition to farming, and move the tribes "closer to the white man's way of life." The treaty protected specified rights of third parties not partaking in the negotiations, and effectively ended Red Cloud's War.

It was negotiated by members of the government appointed Indian Peace Commission, and signed between April and November 1868 at and near Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, with the final signatories being Red Cloud himself and others who accompanied him. Animosities over the agreement arose quickly, with neither side fully honoring the terms. Open war again broke out in 1876, and the US Government unilaterally annexed native land protected under the treaty in 1877.

The treaty formed the basis of the 1980 Supreme Court case, United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, in which the court rules that tribal lands covered under the treaty had been taken illegally by the US Government, and the tribe was owed compensation plus interest. As of 2018 this amounted to more than $1 billion. The Sioux have refused the payment, demanding instead the return of their land. (wikipedia)

Whoa, this must have been very, very easy because it is early and I can barely keep my eyes focused and still I obliterated this puzzle. Faster than my Wednesday time. I had one slight advantage: being a medievalist (originally, anyway...) I knew what TROYES was because I Chrétien de TROYES is one of the foundational writers of Arthurian romance (12c.), a writer I first read as a freshman in college, so even though the 1420 English/French treaty meant nothing to me, I was able to infer TROYES with just a few letters (22D: French city where an English/French treaty was signed in 1420). I imagine that was one of the more obscure answers for solvers today. I also imagine that it didn't matter much, because the crosses are highly gettable and the rest of the grid largely cake. I found this puzzle really entertaining. There's a bit of a weak patch over there in the east (with ATTLEE going thru REDFIN (?) and SET FEE and those going through CDT...), but as weak patches go, I'll take it. I was already all in by the time I even hit that area, anyway. I was in from the start, with that lovely stack of Acrosses in the NW. And then I was *really* in with the clue on KRYPTON, which stumped me until it didn't (4D: DC area?). Comics! Speaking of, here are the cookies I brought in for my students yesterday (the last day of classes).


Loved "MONEY TALKS!" and "LET'S DO THIS!" I know what one-stop shopping is, but I don't think of a ONE-STOP SHOP as a place. I'm clearly wrong about this—I just never hear it in my neck of the woods. "We need to go to the ONE-STOP SHOP!" Errrr...? I actually got every letter of that answer from crosses (not because of difficulty, just ... 'cause that's how it happened), and I honestly thought it was a verb phrase. Something you do when you're in a hurry? Anyway, it's a fine answer, as is CARAMEL CORN. The only snags I had today were YENTA for YENTE (49D: Gossipmonger), DOOM for LOOM (63A: Portend) and XYLUM for XYLEM (25A: Plant tissue). I think I mixed ASYLUM with XANTHAN GUM, and thus XYLUM was born. That vowel issue actually cost me a few seconds, as I couldn't remember if the Chiefs were in the AFC East or AFC WEST (honestly, in non-solving mode, the answer is obvious, but sometimes when you're solving you become very uncertain about Everything You "Know") (11D: The K.C. Chiefs are in it). I laughed out loud at IMHO (57A: Texting preamble) because of all the "controversy" online about the meaning of that "H"...


Chew on that nonsense.

Anyway, Hurray for the high word-count themeless, nature's perfect puzzle type!

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

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