Which region of North America was contested during the Plains Wars?

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Plains Wars View of the army camp at Hidden Wood Creek during Lieut. Col. George Armstrong Custer's Black Hills expedition, 1874; photograph by W.H. Illingworth.

The Plains Wars were a series of conflicts fought over control of the Great Plains, a vast region of North America situated between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.1

This contested territory encompassed all or parts of several present-day U.S. states, including Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming. The conflicts arose as the United States government and white pioneers sought to expand westward, encroaching upon the sovereign lands and traditional hunting grounds of various Native American peoples.213