Pre-Territorial History of Dakota Territory

This file was extracted from "The Province and the States", edited by Weston 
Arthur Goodspeed, LL. B., Editor-in-Chief, Vol. VI (1904), pages 189-221.

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Territory of Dakota 

Judge Bartlett Tripp, LL. D.
Hon. John Henry Worst, LL. D.
Associate Editors

CHAPTER I

Events Prior to Territorial Organization



	AT THE time the French possessions in America were ceded to the United 
States by Napoleon Bonaparte, all that part of the new acquisition that is now 
included in the two Dakotas was a trackless wilderness, inhabited only by wild 
beasts and tribes of savage Indians. A few hardy adventurers, such as Le Sueur, 
Trudeau and Loisell, had penetrated the wilds, in their traffic with the 
natives, and in some instances had attempted settlements; but these instances 
were extremly rare and the settlements thus founded were generally soon 
abandoned.

	This was the condition of the great Northwest - marked upon the maps of 
that day as "unexplored" - when, May 14, 1804, Captains Lewis and Clark, with 
forty-three men, started from St. Louis, in a bateau, or keel boat, and two 
pirogues, to explore the "New Purchase." According to the journal kept by these 
explorers, which furnishes the first authentic account of the Northwest, they 
arrived at the mouth of the Yankton or James river on the 28th of August.  Here 
they were hailed by three Indians upon the hank, one of whom swam to the boats 
with the information that a large body of Sioux were encamped a few miles away.  
The next morning Sergeant Pryor, with M. Durion to act as interpreter, and 
another man, accompanied two of these Indians to the encampment, to arrange a 
council with chiefs, while the third remained with the boats, which kept on up 
the river. Sergeant Pryor and his companions were hospitably received by the 
Indians, many of whom had never before seen a white man. A delegation of young 
braves met them a little way from the camp, and offered to carry them upon 
buffalo robes to the wig-warn of the chief.  Declining this doubtful honor, the 
white men were conducted into the encampment with all the ceremony of which the 
escort was capable, presented to the chief, and as a special mark of respect 
were treated to a feast of fat dog.  Perhaps fear, as much as courtesy, impelled 
them to partake of this outlandish dish, though Sergeant Pryor afterward said 
the meat was rather palatable.  With the naivete of children the Indians 
inspected the visitors, manifested curiosity at the strange articles of wearing 
apparel, etc., though all seemed eager to minister to their wants. The 
proposition to hold a council met with favor, and, on the morning of the 29th, 
the whole band, led by the chiefs gaily bedecked with feathers and resplendent 
with paint, set forth to meet the representation of the Great Father.

	As this strange procession neared the Missouri, a column of smoke could be 
seen ascending. After the departure of Sergeant Pryor those in the boats 
proceeded slowly, keeping a lookout for a suitable place to hold a council.  Not 
far from the Calumet Bluffs they came to a little plain, where they landed, and 
Captain Clark ordered the grass upon a neighboring hill top fired, that the 
smoke might serve as a beacon to guide Sergeant Pryor and the Indians.

	Here, upon this little plain, under a majestic oak tree, with the stars 
and stripes floating from a staff near by, was held, August 30, 1804, the first 
council between the natives and the power which had but recently acquired 
sovereignty over the territory. Each chief was presented with a flag, a medal 
bearing the likeness of the president, a string of wampum, an artillery coat and 
a cocked hat with a red feather.  Each member of the band was presented with 
something.  Some were given medals, some articles of clothing, other tobacco, 
but none was slighted, and all seemed to be satisfied.  Pipes were smoked and 
speeches made, though the speakers were sometimes interrupted by the Indian 
musicians, who, in their enthusiasm, knew not when to keep still.

	Proceeding on up the river the expedition, on the first of September, came 
to Bon Hqmme, or Good Man Island, where they halted long enough to examine an 
old fortification, which had been built by some ancient, warlike people. This 
strange and interesting relic lies on the south side of the Missouri river, 
nearly opposite the foot of Bon Homme Island. The walls of earth, at the time 
Lewis and Clark visited the place, had been there so long that elm and 
cottonwood trees three feet in diameter had grown upon them, while the oldest 
Indian traditions knew nothing of the builders.

	On up the Missouri, holding councils with the Indians, and explaining to 
them the change in proprietorship, went this little band, until, October 28th, 
they reached the old Mandan villages, a short distance above the present 
crossing of the Northern Pacific railroad, where they decided to go into winter 
quarters. One hundred and sixty-seven days had elapsed since their leaving St. 
Louis, and in that time they had navigated their little fleet over sixteen 
hundred miles. Today the same distance can be covered in less than forty-eight 
hours, in parlor cars, heated and propelled by steam, and lighted by 
electricity.

	From the adjacent forests they obtained the necessary timber for the 
erection of log cabins and a stockade, and on the twentieth of November, Fort 
Mandan, the first structure ever erected by United States authority, within- the 
present boundaries of Dakota, was ready for occupancy, though it was Christmas 
before everything was complete. During the winter they held councils and made 
treaties with the Mandans, Arickarees, and other tribes in the vicinity, and 
though they sometimes had trouble in making the Indians understand the change in 
ownership, they never lost the good will of the natives. With the expedition was 
a blacksmith, who set up a forge, and through the long winter months made many 
trinkets and implements that were exchanged with the Indians for corn. This 
traffic, and the game supplied by the hunting parties sent out from the fort, 
kept them in food until about the middle of March, 1805, when.they began making 
preparations for continuing their journey. One of the pirogues had been so badly 
damaged near Calumet Bluffs that it had been abandoned.  The bateau was too 
unwieldy for the rapid current of the upper Missouri, and was to be sent back to 
St. Louis. The first necessity, therefor, was the construction of some new 
boats. Trees were selected, usually cottonwood, and six canoes made ready by the 
first of April. To these, with two pirogues, they must trust themselves for the 
remaining thousand miles to the head waters of the Missouri.

	The crying need of the expedition was a guide and interpreter. So far, M. 
Durion had discharged these duties quite satisfactorily. But now a strange 
region of which he knew but little was before them; a region peopled with tribes 
whose dialect he might not be able to understand.  All winter Lewis and Clark 
had kept a lookout for some one to succeed him.  A few white traders, employes 
of the Hudson's Bay Company, had visited the Mandan villages during the winter, 
but none of them had ever been beyond the mountains.  Diligent inquiry among the 
Indians failed to discover but one person who knew anything at all of the 
country to which they were bound.  This was an Indian woman named Sacajaweah, or 
the Bird-woman.  Sacajaweah belonged to the tribe of Snake Indians, but had been 
captured by the Mandans in her youth and sold to a Frenchman named Chabonean, 
who afterward married her.  As a last resort Lewis and Clark engaged this woman 
and her husband to go with them, and on April 7, 1805, the expedition bade good 
bye to Fort Mandan, where they had spent a little more than five months.

	Of the forty-five men, who had left St. Louis the year before, two had 
been lost, but the addition of the Bird-woman and her husband to the party 
brought it up to the original number. Of these thirty-one men and the woman 
embarked in the canoes and pirogues and headed up stream, while thirteen men 
took the bateau and returned to St. Louis.  On the 26th Lewis and Clark reached 
the mouth of the Yellowstone river, nearly nineteen hundred miles from St. 
Louis, and almost a year from the time of starting. A few days later they 
crossed the present boundary line of Dakota a short distance above where Fort 
Buford now stands, on their way to the Pacific.

	The publication of the report of this expedition, the following year, was 
the means, however, of attracting attention to the possibilities of the great 
Northwest, and during the next decade several private expeditions visited the 
regions explored by Lewis and Clark, and some of these touched Dakota.  In 1808 
the Missouri Fur Company was founded, under the leadership of a Spaniard named 
Manuel Lisa, and two years later this company established the first permanent 
trading posts on the Missouri river.

	John Jacob Astor was granted a charter in 1809, under the name of the 
American Fur Company, and his agents were soon scattered over the Northwest, 
seeking out and occupying the most desirable locations.  As a result of this 
activity the American Fur Company acquired almost a complete monopoly of the fur 
trade, which it maintained until the organization of the Rocky Mountain Fur 
Company in 1826.  For a time, after the advent of this new competitor, the Astor 
Company lost ground, but it redoubled its energies, introduced improved methods, 
and by 1832 was again master of the situation. While this rivalry was going on, 
Pierre Chouteau, an attache of the American Fur Company, built and occupied old 
Fort Pierre, opposite the present city of Pierre. This was in 1829, though a 
trading post had been established upon the same site, by Joseph La Frambois, 
twelve years before.  Fort Pierre was afterward relinquished to the United 
States troops, the government paying the fur company for its improvements. The 
American Company, about the same time, also built forts, and established trading 
posts at the mouth of the Yellowstone river, and at the confluence of the two 
forks of the Cheyenne, about twenty-five miles from the base of the Black Hills.

	To Pierre Chouteau is due the credit of being the first man to 
successfully navigate a steamboat upon Dakota waters. In the spring of 1831 he 
ascended the Missouri with the "Yellowstone," a light draft steamer, reaching 
Fort Pierre on the 18th of June. The following year two boats, the "Yellowstone" 
and the "Antelope," went up as far as old Fort Union, with supplies for the 
trading posts along the river.  It is quite probable that this introduction of 
steamboats by the American Fur Company assisted very materially in restoring its 
power as the leading factor in the fur trade of the Northwest. Although the 
Indians regarded these strange craft as "Taku Wakan" (that which is 
supernatural,) they could not fail to admire the prowess of the men who rashly 
took passage upon the "medicine canoe."

	George Catlin, the artist, was a passenger upon the "Yellowstone," and 
thus describes the effect upon the natives, who hitherto had seen nothing in the 
way of watercraft more pretentious than the bark canoe of the Indian, or the 
bateau of the trader.

	"These poor and ignorant people for the distance of two thousand miles had 
never seen or heard of a steamboat, and in some places they seemed at a loss to 
know what to do, or how to act; they could not, as the Dutch did at Newburgh, on 
the Hudson river, take it to be a "floating saw mill," and they had no name for 
it - so it was, like everything else (with them) which is mysterious and 
unaccountable, called medicine (mystery). We had on board one twelve pound 
cannon and three or four eight pound swivels, which we were taking up to arm the 
Fur Company's fort at the mouth of the Yellowstone, and at the approach to every 
village they were all discharged several times in rapid succession, which threw 
the inhabitants into utter confusion and amazement-some of them laid their faces 
to the ground, and cried to the Great Spirit-some shot their horses and dogs, 
and sacrificed them to the Great Spirit, whom they conceived was offended - some 
deserted their villages and ran to the tops of the bluffs some miles distant; 
and others, in some places, as the boat landed in front of their villages, came 
with great caution, and peeped over the bank of the river to see the fate of 
their chiefs whose duty it was (from the nature of their office) to approach us, 
whether friends or foes, and to go on board.  Sometimes, in this plight, they 
were instantly thrown neck and heels over each other's heads and shoulders-men, 
women and children, and dogs-sage, sachem, old and young-all in a mass, at the 
frightful discharge of the steam from the escape pipe, which the captain of the 
boat let loose upon them for his own fun and amusement.

	"There were many curious conjectures amongst their wise men, with regard 
to the nature and powers of the steamboat.  Amongst the Mandans, some called it 
the 'big thunder canoe,' for when in distance below the village, they saw the 
lightning flash from its sides, and heard the thunder come from it; others 
called it the 'big medicine canoe with eyes'; it was medicine (mystery) because 
they could not understand it; and it must have eyes, for, said they, it sees its 
own way, and takes the deep water in the middle of the channel."

	What wonder that a trading company that could evolve such a wonderful 
thing as the "medicine canoe," should command the respect and awe of these 
untutored children of the forest, and in the end receive the lion's share of 
their trade?

	Among these early traders was Gen. William Ashley. April 11, 1822, he was 
granted a license by John C. Calhoun, the then secretary of war, "to carry on 
trade with the Indians of the upper Missouri."  Really, General Ashley was 
representing a company afterward known as the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, but at 
that time it was the policy of the government to issue licenses to individuals 
only, though such licenses were frequently used for corporate benefit.

	General Ashley at once entered the field, with a large stock of goods and 
a number of agents, and began the work of establishing trading posts. All went 
well until the 30th of May, 1823, when, as he was descending the river with 
several boats loaded with furs, etc., he was stopped by the Arickarees, or Rees, 
with a request to trade. The Rees were different from most of the other tribes 
of the Northwest. While others depended entirely upon the product of the hunt 
for their subsistence, the Rees had, to a certain extent, become tillers of the 
soil, their principal crops being corn and tobacco.  For this reason they had 
been nicknamed "Corn Planters," and were generally looked upon as being the most 
peaceful of all the tribes along the Missouri. Being desirous of securing a 
number of horses for an expedition to the Yellow-stone country, General Ashley 
listened to the request of the Ree chiefs, and landed at their villages, four or 
five miles above the mouth of the Moreau, or Owl river, on the west bank of the 
Missouri. The chiefs appeared to be very friendly. They were profuse in their 
expressions of regret over differences in the past, (caused by the killing of 
the son of one of the chiefs by some white men,) and promised friendship for the 
future.  Presents were given the chiefs, and forty or fifty horses bought the 
first day of their negotiations. In Ashley's party there were ninety men. The 
horses were left on shore, in charge of forty of these men, while the other 
fifty were to spend the night on the boats. About three o'clock in the morning, 
on the first of June, one of the men on shore was killed by the Indians, and the 
alarm soon spread to the boats. Those on board were immediately placed under 
arms, and remained ready till daylight, expecting every moment to be attacked. 
At sunrise the Indians opened fire, and for fifteen or twenty minutes kept up a 
constant fusillade, meanwhile yelling like fiends.  Several of those in charge 
of the horses were killed or wounded by the first volley. The survivors managed 
to reach the boats, which were east. loose, and drifted down stream, soon 
getting beyond the range of the guns. Of the ninety men in General Ashley's 
party, twelve were killed, and eleven were wounded. Although the fire was 
returned from the boats, and it is certain several Indians were killed, the 
exact loss could not be ascertained.

	This attack was so wholly unexpected, that from General Ashley's being a 
new competitor in a field where the rivalry was already intense, it was thought 
the Rees had been incited to the act by some of the rival fur companies.  This 
belief was strengthened by the fact that about the same time, two men named 
Jones and Immel, of the Missouri Fur Company, with forty men, were attacked by a 
party of Blackfeet, farther up the river. Jones and Immel and five of the men 
were killed, and about fifteen thousand dollars worth of goods was carried away 
by the Indians. In both these cases the Indians were well supplied with London 
fusees, which, it was believed, were furnished them by the agents of Hudson's 
Bay Company.

	General Ashley promptly reported this affair to the military authorities, 
and Gen. Henry Leavenworth was sent with a detachment of troops from Fort 
Atkinson - now Council Bluffs - to punish the Indians. General Leavenworth lost 
no time in getting to the scene of action.  But in that day, without any means 
of transportation other than the canoe or bateau, his progress was necessarily 
slow, so that it was August before he reached the Ree villages.  In addition to 
the two hundred regular troops brought from Fort Atkinson, General Leavenworth 
had been reinforced by a number of Ashley's men under Major Henry, and a 
considerable body of friendly Sioux.  As this force was approaching the Ree 
villages, on the 9th of August, a large body of warriors came out to offer 
resistance. The Sioux allies at once opened the engagement, and a sharp skirmish 
occurred in which the Sioux were driven back. They were quickly reenforced by 
the regulars and Ashley's men, and the Rees slowly retired to their 
fortifications. The fighting continued in a desultory way until nightfall, 
without either side gaining a decisive victory. Late in the evening the boats 
arrived, bringing up the artillery. General Leavenworth ordered Lieutenant 
Morris to take a six pound cannon and a five and a half inch brass howitzer, and 
occupy a hill about a hundred yards north of the upper village, from which he 
was to attack the lower town.  Captain Riley with a body of riflemen, and 
Lieutenant Bradley with a company of regulars, were to support Lieutenant 
Morris, and at the same time Sergeant Perkins, with another six pounder, was to 
open fire upon the upper village, from a different position.  Sunrise, on the 
morning of the 10th found the troops thus arranged, and soon after the attack 
began all along the line.

	The first shot from the cannon killed Grey Eyes, the chief who had caused 
all the trouble; the second swept away the medicine flag that floated over the 
chief's lodge, and was supposed to exert some miraculous power for the 
preservation of those who fought under it. Disconcerted by the fall of their 
leader, and the loss of their invincible ensign, the Indians were on the verge 
of a panic. But the chiefs rallied them and they fought doggedly on until the 
middle of the afternoon. During this time, while the Rees were engaged, the 
Sioux took advantage of the situation to carry off the corn belonging to the 
villagers, after which they deserted in a body, leaving the whites to take care 
of themselves. About three o'clock the Sioux were seen holding a parley with 
some of the Rees on a distant hilltop, and soon afterward the Rees sued for 
peace. A council which lasted two days was held. At its conclusion an agreement 
by which Little Soldier, who was now the head chief, undertook to return General 
Ashley's stolen goods or render an equivalent, and to offer no further 
resistance to the establishment of trading posts in the Ree county was reached.  
General Leavenworth reported to the war department that while the treaty was 
being negotiated, the representatives of the Missouri Fur Company offered every 
possible opposition to an amicable adjustment. They wanted a war of 
extermination.

	After the treaty had been concluded some of Ashley's men grumbled because, 
according to their view, full restitution of the stolen goods was not made. 
Little Soldier was sent for and informed that he had not kept his promises, and 
that unless he made good the loss immediately, another attack would be made upon 
the village. He offered a few more buffalo robes-all he could get together-
asserted his friendship for the white men, and piteously begged permission to 
withdraw his family from the village before the attack was begun.  General 
Leavenworth allayed his fears by telling him that the white men were satisfied, 
and that the villages should not be disturbed. Little Soldier then gave the 
general a pipe of peace, and received a flag, as tokens that the war was ended.

	But Little Soldier was not satisfied. Although he had, with true Indian 
stoicism, concealed his feelings through the sessions of the two days council, 
he was none the less chagrined and humiliated over his defeat. Then his word had 
been doubted, and he decided not to remain in the vicinity of those who had 
questioned his integrity. During the night of August the 12th the entire Ree 
tribe, except the mother of Grey Eyes, an old infirm woman, who would impede 
their flight, abandoned the villages. Lieutenants Bradley and Morris were placed 
in possession of the towns to protect them, and a Frenchman named Charlounau was 
dispatched in pursuit of the fugitives.  With him he carried the peace-pipe 
presented by the chief to General Leavenworth, and a duplicate of the chief's 
flag, as emblems that the general's "heart was not bad." He also bore an earnest 
entreaty to return to the villages, and a warning from General Leavenworth that 
their homes would be burned by bad white men or bad Indians if left unprotected. 
After waiting until the 14th, and hearing nothing from the Rees, General 
Leavenworth placed the mother of Grey Eyes in one of the most commodious lodges, 
left her a supply of provisions, and set out on his return to Fort Atkinson.  
Scarcely had the last of the boats disappeared around the bend when a huge 
volume of smoke from the site of the ill-fated villages told that the general's 
warning had not been an idle one. It has always been believed that the villages 
were fired by two men, McDonald, a partner, and Gordon, a clerk, of the Missouri 
Fur Company.

	This was the first serious disagreement with the Indians in the territory 
now included in the States of North and South Dakota.  In the engagement at the 
Ree villages the whites had none killed and but two wounded.  Lieutenants 
Bradley and Morris, when they entered the towns, on the morning after the 
Indians decamped, counted thirty-one fresh graves, but, as the Indians 
frequently bury two or three in one grave, the loss was no doubt much greater 
than the number of graves would indicate.

	In the spring of 1832 Captain Bonneville, a United States army officer, 
without a leave of absence, and, with a hundred and ten men, started across the 
divide to the valley of the Columbia. An observation taken at Laramie' s Fork on 
the 26th of May, showed them to be in one hundred and two degrees 57 minutes 
west longitude. Two days later they came to the Black Hills. The journal of the 
expedition, afterwards edited by Washington Irving, gives the first description 
of the Hills to be published.

	While the struggle for supremacy was going on among the different fur 
companies along the Missouri, similar scenes were being enacted in the valley of 
the Red river. As early as 1802 Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk, had 
his attention called to the advantages of this valley as a field for 
colonization. Lord Selkirk memorialized the British home office on the subject, 
but Lord Pelliam, the home secretary, declined to act upon the memorial.  In 
indirect ways he encouraged Selkirk's scheme, but that part of the Red river 
valley most desired by Selkirk, was included in the grant made to Hudson's Bay 
Company by Charles II in 1670.

	In 1803 Lord Selkirk received a grant to a tract of land on Prince 
Edward's (then St. John's) island, and in the summer of that year sent eight 
hundred emigrants to his new possessions. The Earl himself came over afterward, 
made a tour through Canada to the Northwest and returned more thoroughly 
convinced than ever that a colony might be located somewhere in Manitoba. But 
the charter of Hudson's Bay Company stood in the way as it was then thought.  In 
1810, this title became a subject of dispute, the stock of the company declined 
in value to almost nothing, and Lord Selkirk saw the means of carrying out the 
plans that lie had so long cherished.  Quietly he bought enough stock to give 
him a controlling interest in the company, and in May, 1811, he applied to the 
directorate for a tract of forty-five million acres in the Red river valley in 
what is now Manitoba, Minnesota and Dakota. Of course, holding the large 
interest he did, entitled his request to consideration.  He received the grant 
asked for, and immediately set about carrying out his idea of colonization. The 
territory included in the Seikirk grant had for years been occupied by the 
Northwest Fur Company, whose trade had never been molested, and whose right to 
occupy the region had never been questioned. When the news reached the trading 
posts of this company, preparations were made to resist the ingress of any 
colonists Lord Selkirk might send to the country.  The first company came in the 
autumn of 1811, under the command of Capt. Miles McDonell, with instructions to 
found a settlement somewhere in the new grant.  Near Winnepeg, in Manitoba, they 
met with a party of French and Indians, who were in the employ of the Northwest 
Company. Each party charged the other with poaching, or trespassing, and 
insisted upon immediate evacuation of the premises.  Finally the French lost 
their teniper, a shot was fired, and a combat which ended in the utter rout of 
the Selkirk forces was precipitated.  McDonell then retreated up the Red river 
to the forty-ninth parallel, where, finding a location to his liking, he halted 
and founded a settlement.  A fort which he named Fort Deer was built about three 
hundred yards from where the Pembina court-house now stands.

	For some time the outlook for this little band of pioneers was not 
encouraging. On the north were the French and Indians of the Northwest Company, 
only awaiting some pretext to drive them from the country. On the south were the 
Sioux and Chippewas battling with each other, while all around them were the 
Kree Indians that might at any moment become hostile. But Scotch determination 
and English tenacity triumphed and with varying fortunes the little colony lived 
on, in spite of discouraging circumstances. It was not the purpose of these 
colonists to enter into competition with the trappers and traders of the 
Northwest Company, but to devote their attention to agriculture. Each colonist 
was to receive a hundred acres of land, and Lord Selkirk hoped to build up a 
permanent settlement in his new possessions. The Northwest Company saw, in the 
introduction of civilization, the destruction of the fur trade, and litigation 
was commenced to test the validity of Lord Selkirk's title.  The contest thus 
begun lasted for ten years before Selkirk was fully sustained. Relations between 
the adherents of these opposing elements naturally grew more and more 
unfriendly, and little eruptions of ill feeling were frequent. Duncan Cameron 
and Alexander McDonald were authorized by the Northwest Company to devise means 
to get rid of the colony at Pembina. Cameron, being a Schotchman, went among the 
Selkirkers, as they were called, and tried to sow the seeds of distrust.  He 
partially succeeded, drawing some of the Scotchmen at Pembina over to the 
Northwest Company

	On January 8, 1814, Captain MeDonell issued a proclamation claiming the 
soil as the property of Lord Selkirk, and forbidding the removal of provisions 
out of the territory. The Northwest Company regarded this as equivalent to a 
declaration of war, and the situation was further aggravated when McDonell sent 
a "sheriff" to carry out the purport of the proclamation. This "sheriff" was 
armed with a warrant, and took with him a posse and a small cannon to enforce 
obedience.  Finding the fort of the Northwest Company poorly garrisoned, this 
troop broke in and carried away a large quantity of provisions, under pretext 
that they were about to be removed from the country.

	Cameron and McDonald next tried to hire some Indians, with a few gaudy 
presents, to burn the Selkirk fort at Pembina and massacre the inhabitants.  
Failing in this George Campbell, a former Selkirker, who had been persuaded by 
Cameron to desert, was sent to read an order to surrender.  No attention was 
paid to this order, and a sort of armed neutrality existed until June 22, when 
the arrival of one hundred more settlers at Pembina caused the Northwest Company 
to retire temporarily from the field.

	During the winter of 1814-15 the Pembina colony underwent severe 
hardships.  The winter was unusually rough, food was scarce and their enemies 
began again to harass them.  Exasperated by the conduct of the Northwest 
Company, Captain McDonell, in the spring of 1815, gave them six months to quit 
the country.  On the 10th of June a lot of half-breeds connected with the 
Northwest Company, concealed themselves near the fort, fired upon the occupants 
and killed four of the settlers. They then made a rush and succeeded in 
capturing MeDonell's cannon. Without adequate means of defense, with provisions 
scarce, and with hostile enemies all about, McDonell surrendered to the 
Northwest agent, and the settlers were escorted by friendly Chippewas in canoes 
to the other Selkirk fort near Winnepeg. Fort Pembina was burned by the 
Northwest forces, as soon as it was abandoned by the Selkirkers, and they were 
congratulating themselves upon getting rid of their enemies, when Lord Selkirk 
himself appeared upon the scene. Under the leadership of Colin Robertson, an old 
and trusted agent of Hudson's Bay Company, the settlers were conducted back to 
Pembina, the fort was rebuilt, and for the remainder of the season they were not 
molested.

	Lord Selkirk asked the government to give his colony military protection, 
but his request was refused. About that time some of the Canadian soldiers that 
had been engaged in the War of 1812 with the United States, were being 
disbanded. Selkirk, at his own expense, hired and equipped a hundred and twenty 
of these disbanded troops, and sent them to Pembina. The arrival of these troops 
not only encouraged the settlers, but placed Colin Robertson, who was still in 
charge of the colony, in a position where he could assume the aggressive. Early 
in 1816 he arrested Duncan Cameron and sent him to the headquarters of Hudson's 
Bay Company to be taken to London for trial. On June 18, a party of sixty, under 
the command of Cuthbert Grant and Thomas McKay, was sent by the Northwest 
Company from Fort Wui Appele to the Red river country. The Pembina colony was 
warned of the approach of this company, and Gov. Robert Semple, of Hudson's Bay 
Company, who was then at Pembina, went out with twenty-eight men to meet them, 
and learn their intentions. A man by the name of Boucher, a drunken, insolent 
fellow, was put forward as spokesman by the Northwest party. In the parley that 
ensued Governor Semple, who was not an adept in the art of finesse, lost his 
temper and was immediately shot down by Boucher. Of the twenty-eight that went 
out twenty-one were killed, and the next day the colony again surrendered to the 
Northwest Company's agents, and again they were sent down the river.

	Lord Selkirk went to Fort William, arrested the leaders of the Northwest 
Company and sent them to the attorney general of Canada for trial. The arrest of 
these leaders put a stop to hostilities, and the colonists again returned to 
Pembina, where Lord Selkirk spent the summer of 1817 and directed the affairs of 
the colony in person. On July 18, 1817, he made a treaty with the Krees and 
Chippewas for a tract of land on both sides of Red river, from four to twelve 
miles wide and extending as far south as Grand Forks.

	During the next five years the life of the Pembina colony was not 
particularly eventful.  Save for the fact that the crops of 1818 were destroyed 
by grasshoppers, the colony was fairly prosperous.  The loss of the crops that 
year necessitated a trip to Prairie du Chien the following winter to procure 
wheat for seed and bread. Three bateaux, with six men each, went up the Red 
river to Big Stone lake, where they made a portage of one and a half miles to 
the headwaters of the Minnesota river, and then down to Prairie du Chien.  
Returning by the same route the bateaux, each containing two hundred bushels of 
wheat, were taken across the portage on rollers.  The expenses of this 
expedition, amounting to more than five thousand dollars, were borne by Lord 
Selkirk.

	In 1823 the United States government sent an expedition to the Red river 
valley, to learn the character of the country along the as yet unsurveyed 
northern boundary.  Maj. Stephen H. Long of the United States topographical 
engineers was in charge of this expedition, which reached Pembina on the 5th of 
August, established a camp there which was named Camp Monroe, and remained in 
the vicinity for several days taking observations. Through the medium of Major 
Long's expedition Lord Selkirk learned that his fort was outside the British 
boundary, and he removed his settlement north of the forty-ninth parallel where 
he had a right. The colony was not entirely abandoned, however, some of the 
settlers remaining behind to become American citizens, and in 1870, when the 
United States went to rebuild Fort Pembina, a few descendants of the Selkirk 
colonists were still found there.

	Major Long reported that, when he was at Pembina in 1823, he met there an 
old Frenchman who claimed to have lived there since the winter of 1780-81. As 
there is no good reason to doubt this story, it is fair to say the first white 
man settled in Dakota in the year 1780.

	Dakota has been successively a part of six different states, or 
territories. In 1804 it was made a part of the District of Louisiana; afterward 
called the Territory of Louisiana.  By the act of June 4, 1812, all the 
territory included in both North and South Dakota was made a part of the 
Territory of Missouri.  By the act of June 28, 1834, all that portion of the 
Northwest Territory remaining unorganized was attached to the Territory of 
Michigan. Two years later - April 20, 1836 - the region was attached to 
Wisconsin Territory. On June 12, 1838, Dakota became a part of Iowa Territory, 
and remained so until 1849, when that part east of the Missouri was attached to 
Minnesota Territory, and that portion west of the river became later a part of 
Nebraska Territory. In 1851 the legislature of Minnesota divided the eastern 
portion into nine counties, one of which was called Dakota county. It extended 
from St. Paul to Yankton, and constituted the sixth council district.

	In 1832, General Scott held one of the most important treaties with the 
Indians that was ever held northwest of the Mississippi. Five years later a 
treaty was made with the Sioux; they ceded to the United States certain lands 
along the Mississippi river. Although neither of these treaties directly 
affected Dakota, they attracted attention to the Northwest, turned emigration in 
this direction, and paved the way for the treaty of 1851. July 23, of that year, 
at Traverse de Sioux, on the southwest shore of Big Stone Lake, was held that 
memorable treaty, by which the government acquired possession of the first foot 
of land in Dakota, to which the Indians relinquished their title. This treaty 
was with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux. By its provisions all that 
part of Dakota lying between the Minnesota state line and the Big Sioux river 
except a reservation along the shores of Big Stone lake, was ceded to the United 
States.  August 5, another treaty was made at Mendota, Minn., with the 
Medewakanton and Wapekuta bands. By it they ceded to the government their 
interests in the same tract, and the land was opened to settlement.  Five years 
elapsed, however, before any settlement in Dakota was actually undertaken. When 
the Territory of Nebraska was organized, in 1854, there was not a white settler 
on the Dakota side of the Missouri river.

	September 17, 1851, at Fort Laramie, the Gros Ventres, Mandans and 
Arickarees were given as a reservation all the land on the south and west of the 
Missouri, between the Yellowstone and Heart rivers, and the Assiniboines, all 
between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, north of the latter.  By far the 
greater part of this reservation lies in what is now Montana.

	In 1855 the Sioux came to the conclusion that the government was not 
properly living up to the terms of the treaty of 1837, and showed indications of 
becoming troublesome.  Gen. William S. Harney, with the First cavalry, and a 
detachment of infantry was sent from the Platte to protect the trading posts, 
and to awe the Indians into submission.  General Harney's life had been mainly 
spent upon the frontier.  He had taken part in the Florida war where he had 
acquired a reputation as an Indian fighter, that is well summed up in the 
laconic remark of the chief "Billy Bowlegs,"-"If Harney catch Bill, Bill hang; 
if Bill catch Harney, Harney hang."  With General Harney were Nathaniel Lyon, 
afterward killed at the battle of Wilson's Creek at the beginning of the Civil 
war; Captain Gardner, who rose to the rank of general in the Confederate army, 
and Capt. J. B. S. Todd who was seven years later the first congressional 
delegate from the Territory of Dakota. On the 3rd of September, this expedition 
came up with a large war party of Brule Sioux, at Little Blue Water, and an 
engagement ensued in which the Indians lost eighty-six killed, several wounded 
and quite a number taken prisoners. General Harney passed the winter at Fort 
Pierre, and during the winter learned that the principal reason for the 
disaffection of the Indians, lay in the fact that there were too many chiefs. 
One set of chiefs would be recognized by the traders, another by the government 
agents, and still a different set by other Indian tribes.

	From the 1st to the 5th of March, 1856, General Harney held councils, at 
Fort Pierre, with all the bands of Indians in that part of Dakota, except Big 
Head's band of Yanktonies, and the Ogallalas.  (It was reported by General 
Harney that the latter were kept out through the influence of their agent, 
Thomas S. Twiss.)  In these councils General Harney insisted upon each band 
selecting one or more chiefs that must be recognized by all as the only 
authorized head of the tribe.  To assist these chiefs in maintaining order in 
the tribe, General Harney organized and equipped a number of young braves as 
policemen, or soldiers, for each chief. These police soon made restitution for 
goods that had been stolen, and surrendered the depredators to the authorities.

	Soon after these treaties had been arranged at Fort Pierre, old Fort 
Lookout was occupied by government troops, and General Harney made his 
headquarters there until the spring of 1857, when he selected the site and began 
Fort Randall, where two companies of soldiers were landed by steamboat. The same 
season Captain Sully, at the head of two companies, marched across the plains 
from Fort Abercrombie, on the Red river, to relieve part of the command at Fort 
Pierre, where he remained until the following year, when he recrossed the 
country to Fort Ridgely. Lyon remained in command at Fort Lookout until 1858, 
when both forts, Lookout and Pierre, were abandoned, and the troops withdrawn 
from Dakota except a few companies stationed at Fort Randall.

	Almost simultaneously with the entrance of General Harney into Dakota, at 
the head of his military forces, the government sent another expedition to the 
Black Hills, under the command of Lieut., afterward Maj. Gen., G. K. Warren.  
Lieutenant Warren was on General Harney's staff, with the topographical 
engineers. The object of this expedition was scientific exploration and research 
in the Black Hills and Bad Lands, and incidentally to mark out the best routes 
for military roads, and the best locations for military posts.

	The expedition was largely tentative in its nature, but it opened the way 
for a more pretentious one two years later, under command of the same officer. 
The year 1855 drew to a close without a single permanent settlement in Dakota. A 
few adventurers had built cabins, here and there, in anticipation of the 
consummation of treaties, but the soil was yet unbroken by the hand of civilized 
agriculture. But the day was now near at hand when all this was to be changed.

	Sometime in the summer of 1856 a company was organized at Dubuque, Ia., 
called the Western Town Company, having for its objects the location of town 
sites, in which speculation just then was rife. Those most active in the affairs 
of the company were: Dr. G.M. Staples, Mayor Hetherington, Dennis Mahoney, 
Austin Adams, G. P. Waldron and William Tripp.  In October the company engaged 
Ezra Miller, of Sioux City; Ia., to locate a town site in Dakota, the objective 
point being the falls of the river, called by the Indians "Te-han-kas-an-da-ta," 
or "Thick-wooded," but better known to white men as the "Big Sioux." Mr. Miller 
associated with him another Sioux City man, named D. M. Mills, and early in 
November the two set out on horseback to carry out the company's orders.  For 
several days they followed along the east side of the Big Sioux, keeping as 
close  to the river as the surface of the country would permit, until just at 
the close of a dismal November day, in a drizzling rain they came within hearing 
of the falls.  Spurring up their tired steeds they rode down Prospect Hill, and 
came to the river opposite the little island at the head of the falls.  Before 
they could dismount several Indians suddenly appeared from the neighboring 
timber, and taking hold of their bridles turned the horses around and pointed up 
the hill in the direction from which they had come.  No indignities were 
offered, no hostile demonstrations made; neither party could understand the 
language of the other, but the meaning of the action and the gesture could not 
be mistaken.  Miller and Mills retraced their steps twelve miles, to the mouth 
of Split Rock river, where they passed a sleepless night, in the fear that they 
had been pursued. The truth of this account has been brought into question by 
Dana R. Bailey, in a history of Minnehaha county, Dak., published in 1899.  Mr. 
Bailey says:

	"Right here the writer will take the liberty to contradict the fiction 
which has been frequently published, that the party upon approaching the falls 
were intercepted by a band of Indians, and although neither party was conversant 
with the language of the other, the travelers could not misunderstand the 
meaning of the Indian who, taking the travelers' horses by the bridle and 
turning them about, silently pointed in the direction from which they had come, 
and that the party immediately hastened back to Sioux City. ... the writer 
asserts that nothing of the kind took place. The fact is the party had a 
surveyor with them, and in the name of the Western Town company took undisturbed 
possession of three hundred and twenty acres of land, and D. M. Mills one 
hundred and sixty acres."

	All the other accounts agree that a second attempt was made six weeks 
later, when Mills returned at the head of another party, located a town site, as 
suggested by Mr. Bailey, built a log cabin ten by twelve feet, and returned to 
Sioux City for the winter.

	During the winter of 18567 another company, known as the Dakota Land 
Company, was chartered by the legislature of Minnesota. The objects of this 
company, as provided in its charter, were to locate town sites in the proposed 
new Territory of Dakota.  Foremost among the incorporators were W. H. Bobles, 
Maj. F. J. DeWitt, J. R. Brown, S. A. Medary, N. R. Brown, Samuel F. Brown, A. 
G. Fuller and James W. Lynd.  Leaving St. Paul in May, 1857, the representatives 
of this company reached the valley of the Big Sioux, and began operations by 
laying out the town of Medary, in what is now Brookings county.  Farther down 
the river they located the town site of Flandreau, named in honor of Judge 
Flandrau, of St. Paul, the town of Medary being named for the then governor of 
Minnesota.

	About the same time that the agents of the Dakota Land Company were 
leaving St. Paul, Jesse T. Jarrett, John McClellan, and two other men, named 
Oleson and Farwell, were sent out from Sioux City, by the Western Town Company, 
to hold and improve the town site selected by Mills and his party the winter 
before. It seems the promoters of the Dakota Land Company had heard of the 
advantages of the falls of the Sioux, for its representatives, after locating 
Flandreau, continued on down to the falls, only to find that the Western Town 
Company had forestalled their intentions by preempting the most available site.  
Determined not to be entirely defeated, they went a little below the falls and 
took up three hundred and twenty acres in the name of the Dakota Land Company, 
and named the place Sioux Falls City.  Here they left two men, James Fiske and 
James McBride, to hold their claim, and proceeded on to the mouth of Split Rock 
river, where they took up six hundred and forty acres for a town to be called 
Eminiza, built a cabin on the site, and returned to St. Paul.

	Meanwhile Fiske and McBride had put up a cabin on the site of Sioux Falls 
City, and by the middle of July were as comfortably fixed as circumstances would 
allow. The combined population of the two "cities" at Sioux Falls now numbered 
five persons: Oleson, Farwell and McClellan of the Western Town Company, and 
Fiske and McBride of the Dakota Land Company.  Although these men represented 
rival interests, there was perfect amity between them, so that when in the 
latter part of July a large body of Sioux appeared upon the scene, they made 
common cause in getting their personal effects into a canoe, at the foot of the 
falls, and starting for Sioux City. Thus the town sites of both companies were 
temporarily abandoned.

	On August 27, 1857, the Indian scare being over, a party of nine men in 
the employ of the Western Town Company arrived upon the scene, and recommenced 
the work of building up a town. These nine men were Jesse T. Jarrett, J. L. 
Phillips, W. W. Brookings, L. B. Atwood, A. L. Kilgore, Smith Kinsey, John 
McClellan, and two men named Callahan and Godfrey. At Rock river D. M. Mills 
joined the party. With them they brought one team of horses, and several ox 
teams, bearing the machinery for a saw mill, implements, and a stock of 
provisions. Each member of the party selected a claim on the 28th, and they set 
to work building a mill, house and store, and getting in a supply of hay for the 
winter.

	Later Jarrett, Atwood, Godfrey and Mills went back to Sioux City for 
another supply of provisions. In about ten days Jarrett, who was the company's 
agent, returned accompanied by Doctor Staples, the founder, and one of the 
directors of the company. It seems that some complaint had been made to the 
company regarding Jarrett's management, and Doctor Staples had been sent out to 
investigate. He was also given authority to make such changes as, in his 
judgment, the welfare of the company demanded. The result was Jarrett was 
superseded by W. W. Brookings, and everything went well until the early part of 
October. All the oxen, except one yoke, had been sent back to Sioux City. Late 
in the afternoon of October 10th, about a dozen Indians, mounted on ponies, came 
tearing over the bluffs, yelling like madmen, and before the startled settlers 
could recover their senses, had surrounded the remaining yoke of oxen and driven 
them away.  Four of the men followed the Indians, in the hope of recovering the 
cattle, but without avail.

	The change in leaders, from Jarrett to Brookings, had brought Charles 
McConnell, R. B. McKinley, S.D. and E. M. Brookings to the Western Town 
Company's settlement, though D. M. Mills, Jarrett, Callahan and Godfrey had left 
the falls. About the middle of October, a party consisting of James L. Fiske, 
James McBride, William Little, James McCall, James Allen, C. Merrill and J. W. 
Evans, was added to the population. These seven men had been sent out by the 
Dakota Land Company to make another effort to improve the site located the 
summer before.

	Altogether the population numbered seventeen people who spent the winter 
of 1857-58 at the falls. Three dwelling houses, a store and a saw mill had been 
erected by the Western Town Company before cold weather set in, and the early 
part of the winter was spent in getting a supply of logs to the mill.

	Meantime the legislature of Minnesota had established the county of Big 
Sioux, including the present county of Minnehaha and some of the adjacent 
counties, and in December, 1857, the governor of Minnesota appointed James 
Allen, register of deeds; James Evans, sheriff; James L. Fiske, probate judge; 
W. W. Brookings, district attorney; j. L. Phillips, justice of the peace; 
William Little, James McBride, and A. L. Kilgore, commissioners.

	Thus, as the year 1857 drew to a close, the first authorized government 
ever known to Dakota was given to Big Sioux county, though at that time the 
Territory was part of Minnesota. If these officers ever qualified, or acted 
under their appointment, no record of the fact has been preserved.

	A. S. H. White, an attache of the Indian bureau, was sent to visit the 
Yankton Indians, in the spring of 1857, for the purpose of persuading them to 
send a delegation of their head men to Washington to arrange a treaty ceding 
their lands to the government. Mr. White failed in his mission, but a few months 
later Captain Todd, of Fort Randall, was requested by the interior department to 
make another trial.  Securing the services of Charles F. Picotte, as 
interpreter, Captain Todd held a council with the Yankton chiefs, and through 
the persuasive powers of Mr. Picotte, who was a man of great influence with the 
Indians, succeeded. Early in the winter of 1857 Captain Todd started for 
Washington with the Yankton chiefs, taking Mr. Picotte along. When it became 
noised about that a treaty was about to be negotiated for lands in the Yankton 
or James river valley, the old town site fever broke out again.

	On the first day of February, i858, W. W. Brookings and Smith Kinsey 
started from Sioux Falls, to secure, for the Western Town Company, a site, where 
the city of Yankton was afterward built. For several days the weather had been 
rainy, and when they reached Split Rock river, twelve miles from the falls they 
were compelled to swim their horses to effect a crossing.

	That night they reached Rock river, fifty miles from Sioux Falls, but 
found that stream so high that to cross it was out of the question. There was 
nothing left for them to do but to return to Sioux Falls, and wait for more 
favorable weather. That night they encamped on the bank of Rock river, and 
during the night a terrible "blizzard" set in, so that they were obliged to face 
a fierce, cold wind on their return journey. This wind often became so blinding 
that it was impossible to face it on horse back. At such times they would 
dismount and run beside their horses to keep from freezing. It was after dark 
when they reached the Split Rock river only to find the ford frozen over, but 
the ice was not strong enough to bear the weight of a horse. As they were 
anxious to reach the falls that night they resolved to break a passage. In doing 
so Mr. Brookings fell into the water, getting thoroughly drenched. With the 
mercury any where from twenty-five to thirty degrees below zero, his feelings 
can probably be better imagined than described. Twelve miles from the nearest 
shelter, in the midst of a Dakota "blizzard" and wet to the skin besides, is 
certainly not an enviable position. With death by freezing staring him in the 
face, Mr. Brookings accepted the only alternative, and ran the twelve miles to 
Sioux Falls, where he arrived with both feet frightfully frozen, and almost 
completely exhausted. Mortification attacked the frozen feet and it was deemed 
necessary, in order to save his life, that both should be amputated.  Several 
days journey from a physician with the implements of civilized surgery, and 
immediate action being necessary, Doctor Phillips with an ordinary butcher 
knife, well sharpened, and a small tenon saw, performed the operation. And 
there, upon his pile of buffalo robes, in a cabin with no floor but mother 
earth, Mr. Brookings not only lived, but regained his health, and became an 
active and influential participant in the early affairs of Dakota.

	Although Messrs. Brookings and Kinsey failed to locate the Yankton town 
site, others had been more fortunate. Frost, Todd & Co., operating under a 
government license, established trading posts at several points along the 
Missouri river.  In 1857 a trading house was built and a ferry established by 
agents of this firm, very near the site of Yankton, if not upon it. There seems 
to be some difference of opinion as to just when the first house was built in 
Yankton, and by whom it was erected. Maj. Joseph R. Nanson[sic], in his 
"Reminiscences of Yankton's Early Days," published in the "South Dakotan", says 
that one Ben Stafford of Sioux City first called attention to the natural 
advantages of the location, after a trip to the upper Missouri in the fall of 
1857. In support of this theory Major Hanson related the experience of C. J. 
Holman who was one of the party to build the first cabin on the site of Yankton.  
According to Mr. Holman's story a company was organized at Sioux City and 
Sergeants Bluff, Ia., to locate the site as described by Stafford. In this 
company were: W. P. Holman, Judge Campbell, Billy Roberts, a Mr. Lamb, (referred 
to in a familiar way as the "old man" Lamb,) and one or two others.

	In March, 1858, this company sent out a party, consisting of C. J. Holman, 
W. P. Holman, Ben Stafford, Gilbert Bowe, Harry Narveas, Steve Saunders and two 
others, to take up, improve and hold the site. This party had been in Yankton 
about three weeks when George D. Fiske and Samuel Mortimer, representing Frost, 
Todd & Co., arrived upon the ground and camped alongside the Holman party. A 
week later two men named Sabey Strahm and Johnson Burnett were added to their 
numbers, and work was begun on a cabin, when a body of Indians suddenly appeared 
and drove them across the river to Nebraska.  Here they built a cabin and waited 
for news of the conclusion of the treaty, that was now expected any time. While 
waiting, they cut a number of logs prepared for cabins, and placed them in a 
position to be floated over to the Dakota side, the moment they heard of the 
treaty. Word came in May that the treaty had been consummated, the logs were 
floated over from Nebraska, and by working all night the foundations of twelve 
cabins were laid. Next day the whole force went to work upon the first cabin, 
and by night it was almost completed.  Just then Chief Dog's Claw, with about 
seventy-five of his warriors, came along and pitched all the loose building 
material into the river.  The treaty for which they had been waiting was not yet 
ratified, and no one knew it better than the Indians. Fortunately for the white 
men, they had left their guns on the Nebraska side of the river. This fact, 
coupled with the coolness of a man named Bunsell, who had joined the party a few 
days before, averted serious trouble. The Indians would not attack unarmed men, 
and Bunsell claimed to be acting under a government license. He showed no 
papers, because he had none, but his apparent earnestness impressed the Indians 
and the next day the chiefs and head men joined the whites in a feast, and the 
cabin was finished without further molestation.

	Major Hanson further says that the first logs prepared by the agents of 
Frost, Todd & Co. for their building were confiscated by the Holman party for 
firewood. In October, 1858, a party of Indians, returning from a hunt, set fire 
to the Holman cabin and it was totally destroyed. It was never rebuilt.  It was 
asserted by Mr. Holman that the Indians were acting under the influence of 
Frost, Todd & Co.'s agents who at that time were George D. Fiske, Frank Chapel 
and J. T. Presho.

	Another author says the first house in Yankton was built in 1858 by W. P. 
Lyman, George D. Fiske and others, for a trading post, under a license of D. M. 
Frost & Co. of St. Louis. Whichever of these accounts may be correct, it is 
certain that the settlement of Yankton began that season.

	The year. 1858 was pregnant with events for Southeastern Dakota. April 19, 
a treaty by which a large tract of land, in the valley of the James, Big Sioux, 
and Missouri rivers, was ceded to the government, was concluded with the Yankton 
chiefs, who had gone to Washington with Captain Todd. The boundaries of this 
cession were as follows: Beginning at the confluence of the Big Sioux and 
Missouri rivers, thence up the Big Sioux to its junction with Lake Kampeska; 
along the northeastern shores of said lake to the most northern point of the 
same, thence in a direct line to the mouth of Snake river (this line is 
represented by the fourth standard parallel) ; up the Snake river to the head 
waters; from there in a direct line to the headwaters of East Medicine Knoll 
creek; down the creek to its confluence with the Missouri, and down the Missouri 
to the place of beginning. All included within these boundary lines, except a 
reservation of four hundred thousand acres, was by this treaty opened to 
settlement.  All the islands in the Missouri river were also opened.

	The reservation began at the mouth of Chouteau creek, and extended up the 
Missouri for thirty miles, the river forming the southwestern boundary; from the 
same point to the headwaters of Chouteau creek, which formed the eastern. 
boundary.  The northern and western boundaries were established by survey, so 
the entire reservation would contain the stipulated four hundred thousand acres.

	All spring and summer parties of immigrants kept coming in, Sioux Falls 
and Yankton being the centers of settlement. In May, Minnesota was admitted into 
the Union. Through the influence of the Dakota Land Company, the boundary line 
between Minnesota and Dakota was fixed, as it is at present, leaving all west of 
it unorganized. Thus disconnected from all forms of civilized government, the 
problem of how to secure the benefits of a regularly constituted government 
confronted those early settlers of Dakota. As conditions existed each one was a 
law unto himself.  So far all had worked, if not in perfect harmony, at least 
without friction, but with new settlers constantly coming in the time must soon 
come when some must be clothed with authority to preserve order. They fully 
understood that their only source of relief lay in congressional action, as 
congress only had the power to organize a new territory.  But this would require 
time, and it was therefore important that the matter should be brought before 
congress at the earliest possible moment, and in the most forcible way.

	Another reason for organization presented itself. As the number of white 
settlers increased the Indians looked sullenly on with constantly increasing 
discontent.  They had not yet been placed in possession of the reservation set 
apart for them by the treaty, yet they saw the white men coming in and taking 
possession of their hunting grounds.  In June, 1858, their dissatisfaction 
culminated in a raid on all the settlements in the Big Sioux valley, above Sioux 
Falls, that had been established by the Dakota Land Company the year before. All 
the buildings at Medary were burned, the settlers there fleeing to Sioux Falls 
for protection.  Soon after this the settlement at Sioux Falls City received 
word from the Indians that the valley must be immediately vacated. At this time 
there were thirty-five able bodied men at the falls. A consultation was held in 
which it was unanimously agreed to stand by their homes. The Dakota Land 
Company, in the beginning of Sioux Falls City, had the foresight to provide for 
just such an emergency. A story and a half stone house had been built as a place 
of refuge in case of attack; around this house a bulwark of sod had been thrown 
up, inside of which was a spring of pure water.  An old circular saw, suspended 
in the fort served the purposes of an alarm bell, some one pounding upon it with 
a hammer, in case of a threatened attack.  For several days following the 
burning of Medary, the entire population kept within hearing of this alarm, the 
men taking turns at standing guard, day and night, to prevent surprises. The 
scare was soon over, the Indians quieted down, though several of the settlers 
left Sioux Falls for more congenial localities.

	The incident presented an additional evidence of the necessity for some 
sort of government. They must organize for protection. If the managers of the 
Dakota Land Company had been instrumental in having Dakota cut off from 
Minnesota, they were now equally energetic in their efforts to secure a 
territorial organization. Fully cognizant of the power of the press, they 
determined to encourage some one to start a newspaper. A press, of the old Smith 
pattern, was sent out from St. Paul during the summer of 1858, and a small stone 
house was built, as a donation to the man who would undertake to start a paper. 
In September, S. J. Albright, formerly editor and publisher of the St. Paul 
"Free Press", brought out the initial number of the Dakota "Democrat".

	Foreign news items were frequently a month old before they found their way 
into the columns of the "Democrat"; advertising was scarce because of the 
absence of business and professional men, as well as population; the 
subscription list rendered meager returns, and even the job department was not a 
very great source of revenue.

	Under all these adversities the paper was finally forced to suspend. But 
while it was in existence it was an earnest advocate' of early territorial 
organization, unceasing in its calls upon the general government for prompt 
action in this direction, and in favor of a local self constituted government 
until congress should offer relief by erecting a territory of Dakota.

	It was finally decided to organize a government among themselves, elect a 
legislature to pass such laws as circumstances required, memorialize congress 
for a territorial organization, and, above all, elect a delegate to congress to 
urge the necessity for immediate action  Although this idea was first discussed 
by a very few of the leading spirits, it was not intended that these few should 
usurp the authority to establish this self constituted government, or to control 
the affairs of this embryonic state. A mass convention at which it was decided 
to elect members of the legislature by popular vote was called, and October 4, 
was fixed upon as the day for the election. One among the earliest pieces of 
printing from the "Democrat" office was the following:


				ELECTION NOTICE.

	"At a mass convention of the people of Dakota Territory, held in the town 
of Sioux Falls, in the county of Big Sioux, on Saturday, September 18, 1858, all 
portions of the Territory being represented, it was resolved and ordered that an 
election should he held for members to compose a Territorial Legislature.

	"In pursuance of said resolution, notice is hereby given that on Monday, 
the Fourth day of October, Next, at the House of                    In the town 
of               In the county of	               an election will be held for          
Members of the Council and               of the House of Representatives for 
said Legislature.

	"The polls will be opened at 9 o'clock in the morning, and close at 4 
o'clock in the afternoon of said day.

	"Dated at           this 20th day of September, A. D. 1858.

			"(Dakota Democrat Print, Sioux Falls City.)"

	Copies of this notice were scattered all over the Territory After a lapse 
of almost half a century, an account of how this election was held presents some 
really amusing features, though at the time every thing was regarded in all 
seriousness. The whole number of voters in the Territory at that time did not 
exceed fifty. On the morning of October 4, they divided themselves into parties 
of three or four, elected each other judges and clerks of election, and then 
each party, with a team and wagon, started off in whatever direction best 
pleased them; but all going in different ways. Every few miles they would stop 
to rest.  An election precinct would be established, and an election held.

	At each of these "precincts" not only would each member of the party cast 
his vote, but also the votes of as many of his uncles, cousins, and other 
relatives, as he could think of, until the total vote ran up into the hundreds, 
all properly tallied and certified to.

	Shortly after the election the legislature met and organized by electing 
Henry Masters president of the council, and S. J. Albright speaker of the house. 
The session was short and at the close, Mr. Masters was elected governor.

	Henry Masters was a native of Maine, but at the time of the first 
settlement of Sioux Falls, was living in Brooklyn, N. Y. He first came alone to 
Dakota, and liking the surroundings at Sioux Falls, sent for his wife and three 
children, who were with him at the time of his death.  Mr. Masters preached the 
first sermon ever delivered at Sioux Falls, and doubtless the first in the 
Territory of Dakota. It was in support of the doctrines taught by Swedenborg.

	A member of this legislature said, several years afterward:

	"There has never been a regular legislature in Dakota in which dignity, 
decorum and good order were better observed than in this squatter legislature, 
and it would be well for other legislatures to take pattern thereby."

	A few needful bills or resolutions essential to the local welfare were 
introduced, duly considered and passed, or rejected, as the judgment of the 
members dictated. Strong resolutions and memorials to congress, praying for the 
early organization of a territory, were adopted, and A. G. Fuller was elected to 
represent the Territory in Washington. Mr. Fuller repaired to Washington upon 
the assembling of congress, but failed to secure admission as a delegate owing 
to the influence of Frost, Todd & Co., who were opposed to the immediate 
organization of a territory. They were interested in the site of Yankton, which 
as yet had a very small population. Under their trading post license, they were 
entitled to locate a square mile of land around their post to cover their 
improvements. This would include a large part of the Yankton town site, which 
they hoped to make the capital of the new Territory. But should immediate 
organization be effected, and the location of the capital be left to a popular 
vote, the more thickly populated settlements would in all probability award the 
prize to Sioux Falls.

	Another agency which prevented Mr. Fuller from obtaining a hearing was 
evident. Already the influences which culminated three years later in the great 
Civil war, were at work. The feeling engendered by the Kansas-Nebraska struggle 
had not died out, the politicians of North and South alike were engaged in 
digging the "bloody chasm," and congress was averse to the organization of any 
more territory under the then existing circumstances. Mr. Fuller succeeded in 
having a post office established at Sioux Falls, and James Allen was appointed 
the first postmaster.

	In July, 1859, the Yankton Indians began to vacate the lands ceded to the 
government by the treaty of the preceding April, and to go to the reservation 
set apart for them, near Fort Randall. As the Indians retired white men came in, 
so that it may be said this date marks the beginning of permanent settlement in 
the valleys of the James and Missouri rivers, with Yankton as a center.  In the 
fall of this year Major Gregory removed the Ponca Indians to their reservation, 
on the Dakota side of the Running Water. About the time he had completed this 
work, a little band of pioneers, struck by the beauty of the location, settled 
on Bon Homme island, in the Missouri river, about ten miles above Yankton.

	The little settlement of Pembina, in the extreme northeastern part of the 
Territory, was also receiving accessions, and the necessity for a territorial 
organization became more and more apparent.

	According to an article published in the Elk Point "Courier", a few years 
ago, the year 1859 was ushered in with a wedding, the first in Dakota. The 
contracting parties were a Frenchman named John Cloud and a Crow squaw.  The 
ceremony was performed on New Year's day, by John H. Charles, justice of the 
peace.  No one ever contended that this marriage was a legal one. Dakota, at 
that time was not an organized territory, and Charles was a justice at Woodbury, 
Ia.  Outside of that locality he had no authority to exercise the prerogatives 
of his official position. But the groom wanted a civilized wedding, and as this 
was the best to be obtained, he accepted it and went away happy.

	During the spring of this year, the first white families came to Dakota. 
They settled in what are now the counties of Clay and Union, between the Big 
Sioux and Vermillion rivers, and in the vicinity of Yankton. James M. Allen, in 
a letter to his father, about the time Medary was burned, makes mention of a 
Mrs. Goodwin, who, with her husband, had come to Sioux Falls City a little while 
before.  He also speaks of her as the only woman in the settlement and she was 
probably the only woman in the Territory at that time.

	Two hotels were opened during the season, the first at Vermillion by 
George Brown, and the second at Yankton, soon after, by H. C. Ash and his wife.  
Ash's hotel was a log structure, standing upon the site afterward occupied by 
the Merchant's hotel. Toward the latter part of the summer James McHenry opened 
a general store at Vermillion. Toward autumn the question of territorial 
organization again began to occupy the minds of the people. The squatter 
government of Sioux Falls, this year decided to fill all the offices of a 
territorial government, by a popular election. A convention was called at Sioux 
Falls to nominate candidates, but the attendance was limited. Henry Masters was 
nominated for governor, but his death occurring a few days later, from a stroke 
of apoplexy, the name of S. J. Albright was placed on the ticket to fill the 
vacancy. The exact date of this convention is a matter of doubt; but it was 
probably in the latter part of August, or very early in September, as the death 
of Governor Masters occurred on the 5th of September. Alpheus G. Fuller was 
nominated for delegate to congress, but declined on account of his private 
business, and the nomination went to Jefferson P. Kidder. Again the Dakota 
"Democrat" was called into requisition to apprise the people of the approaching 
election. In an old copy, issued in August of that year, is the following:

			"ELECTION NOTICE.

	"Notice is hereby given, that on Monday, the 12th day of September, 1859, 
at the several election precincts in the county of Big Sioux, an election will 
he held for the following named officers, to-wit:

	"A Governor, a Secretary of the Territory, a Delegate to Congress, four 
members of the Territorial House of Representatives, two members of the 
Territorial Council, a Judge of Probate, a District Attorney, three County 
Commissioners, a Sheriff, a Register of Deeds, a County Treasurer, a Coroner, 
two Justices of the Peace, two County Assessors, and two Constables.

	"Election to be held in the 1st Precinct at the Dakota House; 2nd Precinct 
at the house of Henry Masters; 3rd Precinct at the house of Charles Philbrick.

				"J. M. ALLEN,
				"Clerk Board Co. Commissioners.

	"Dated this 6th day of August, A. D. 1859."

	The settlers of Yankton and vicinity, nominated Capt. J. B. S. Todd for 
governor. The fight was not along the lines of political parties, on general 
issues, but a rivalry between Yankton and Sioux Falls.  Captain Todd received 
his support from Fort Randall, and those points in the Missouri valley, that 
favored Yankton for the capital.  Sioux Falls, and the settlements along the Big 
Sioux river, supported Albright, who was in favor of Sioux Falls City. As these 
forces were nearly equal, the settlement of Pembina, which had no candidate of 
its own, held the balance of power. Norman W. Kittson, a leader there, was a 
personal friend, and became an ardent supporter of Mr. Albright, who was 
elected, his election carrying the capital to Sioux Falls City.

	Mr. Albright mentions the settlers at Sioux Falls City, at this time, as 
being Alpheus G. Fuller, J. P. Kidder, S. J. Albright, James M. Allen, J. E. 
Gay, Byron M. Smith, F. J. DeWitt, W. W. Brookings, Dr. J. L. Phillips, Mrs. 
Masters, and her three children, C. S. White, wife and child;_____ Greenleaf and 
wife; Baron F. Freidenrich, and his son; J. B. Amidon, wife and two 
grandchildren; I. S. Stewart, Joseph Scales, Charles Philbrick, James M. Evans, 
A. L. Kilgore, L. B. Atwood and James McCall.

	The second session of the squatter legislature met on the 2nd of November, 
but for lack of a quorum was not able to transact any business until the 7th.  
No capitol building had been provided, so the senate, or council, met at the 
residence of W. W. Brookings, while the house found quarters in the office of 
the "Democrat". The members of this legislature were as follows:

	Council: J. B. Amidon and W. W. Brookings, representing Rock and Midway 
counties; L. B. Atwood and James McCall, from Big Sioux and Pipestone counties, 
and Joseph Scales, and J. B. Greenway, from the district composed of Yankton and 
Vermillion counties.

	In the house Midway and Pipestone counties were represented by J. W. 
Evans, C. Cooper, J. E. Peters and William Stevens; Big Sioux county by John 
Rouse, George Freidenreich, S. J. Albright and R. M. Johnson; Rock and 
Vermillion, by Albert Kilgore, Amos Shaw and William Little; Yankton county not 
represented.

	It is quite likely that none of these legislators was a resident of either 
Yankton or Vermillion counties. A casual review of the names of those 
constituting the council shows that five of the six members are included in the 
list of Sioux Falls settlers, given by Mr. Albright, though mentioned as 
representing other counties or districts.

	When the legislature convened, "House Bill No. 1 to enact certain laws for 
the government of Dakota," was already prepared. The basis of this bill was the 
Minnesota code, amended to suit the conditions then existing in Dakota. W. W. 
Brookings was elected president of the council, and S. J Albright was again 
elected speaker of the house. Early in the session they passed a resolution 
making the Dakota "Democrat" the "official organ of both branches" of the 
legislature. House bill No.5 "providing for the death or resignation of the 
governor" passed the house November 14, and two days later passed the council. 
Upon the death of Governor Masters the office became vacant.  S. J. Albright's 
name was placed on the ticket while he was in St. Paul. When he returned home, 
he expressed his disapproval of the action of the committee, preferring to be a 
member of the house, and its speaker, as he had been the year before. Only a few 
days elapsed between the death of Governor Masters and the election on September 
12. It was impossible to notify all parts of the Territory of Mr. Albright's 
views on the subject. He was elected by the popular vote on the 12th of 
September, but was given a seat in the house, leaving the office of governor 
vacant by resignation. Hence originated house bill No. 5 which conferred the 
office upon the president of the council.

	The legislature continued in session until November 18, when it adjourned 
sine die, and with its adjournment ended the last legislative session of the 
squatter government of Dakota.

	Notwithstanding Captain Todd had been a candidate for governor, and had 
received the support of many Yankton people, there was an element there that 
looked upon the squatter government as irregular.  November 8, 1859, a public 
meeting was held in Yankton to give voice to the sentiments entertained by this 
class. D. T. Bramble was chosen chairman, and Moses K. Armstrong, secretary. 
Among other proceedings, they adopted a resolution declaring that, "We do not 
approve of any election that has been held, nor will we participate in any that 
may be held in any portion of this territory for the purpose of electing a 
delegate to Congress, but we trust in the wisdom and justice of Congress to 
provide us with a legal form of government at an early day."

	Copies of this resolution were sent to all the settlements in Southeastern 
Dakota.  In November 9, the day following the meeting at Yankton, a similar mass 
convention was held at Vermillion, J. A. Denton acting as chairman and James 
McHenry as secretary. At this meeting the Yankton resolution was adopted; other 
settlements soon joined in the movement, and the real effective work of securing 
a territorial organization was begun. Whatever may have been the difference of 
opinion as to methods, all were a unit with regard to the object to be gained. 
At all the meetings memorials asking congress to establish a territorial 
government for Dakota were adopted.  Strong resolutions of the same tenor were 
passed by the legislature, as well as memorials to ratify the laws passed and to 
recognize Judge Kidder as a delegate. As soon as congress convened Judge Kidder 
went to Washington, armed with copies of all these resolutions and memorials, to 
which he was prepared to add his personal efforts to secure territorial 
recognition.  He also carried a certificate of election as delegate, dated 
December 1, 1859, setting forth that he had been "duly elected." This 
certificate was signed by W. W. Brookings, Governor, ex-officio.

	Jefferson P. Kidder was a native of Vermont, being horn at Braintree, in 
that State, in 1816.  He was educated in the Orange County Grammar School, the 
Norwich Military Academy, in which he was afterward a tutor, and received the 
degree of Master of Arts from the University of Vermont in 1848. He then entered 
the law office of L. B. Peck, of Montpelier, and studied law. He was a member of 
the Vermont constitutional convention in 1843; was state's attorney from 1842 to 
1849; member of the state senate 1847-8; lieutenant governor of Vermont, 1854; 
removed to St. Paul in 1857. When elected provisional delegate from Dakota, in 
1859, he was not a citizen of the proposed Territory, though he afterward became 
closely identified with Dakota affairs. In 1865 he was appointed an associate 
justice of the supreme court of Dakota Territory; reappointed in 1869 and again 
in 1873; was elected delegate to the Forty-fourth congress in 1874, and to the 
Forty-fifth in 1876. In 1879 he was again appointed associate justice of the 
Dakota supreme court, and held the office until his death October 2, 1883.

	No better man than Judge Kidder could have been found then to present the 
claims of Dakota to congress.  His large personal acquaintance, his high 
standing in the legal profession and his thorough familiarity with political 
methods, enabled him to obtain a hearing where other men would have failed. To 
the memorials and resolutions of the people of Dakota, he added a personal 
brief, couched in courteous but forcible language, showing why Dakota should be 
recognized as a territory, and he be given admission as a delegate. He was 
accorded an honorary seat in the house, and on April 12, 1860, his certificate 
of election, brief, etc., were all filed with the committee on elections, to 
whom the whole matter was referred. The official record of this case may be 
found in document No.73, volume VI, miscellaneous, 1st session of the 36th 
congress.

	Few events of importance occurred during the year 1860, the people 
anxiously awaiting the action of congress. Immigrants continued to come in, 
though not in large numbers. Those already on the ground proceeded with 
permanent improvements, confident that the time could not long be delayed when a 
territory must be established. Log churches were erected at Yankton and 
Vermillion during the spring, and three preachers, the Reverends Hoyt, Ingham 
and Martin, were on hand to minister to the spiritual wants of the settlers.

	Mr. Martin, a Presbyterian preacher from Dakota City, Neb., preached the 
first sermon, in January of this year, that was ever heard in Yankton. The 
meeting was held' in a building that had been put up by D. T. Bramble for a 
store room. Major Hanson, in his Reminiscences, says a whisky barrel served as a 
pulpit, and that the text was from Proverbs, thirteenth chapter and eleventh 
verse. The same authority says the opening sentence of Father Martin's prayer, 
on that occasion, was:

	"O Lord, may the people of this town not become puffed up with importance 
because of their greatness, and become proud and haughty, but accept this great 
trust as coming from the hand of a kind and generous Father, to be used by them 
in the upbuilding of education and religion to Thy great glory."

	During the summer Van Meter's ferry was opened, and Compton & Deuel, as 
proprietors of the new sawmill, announced that they were ready for business. A 
post office was established at Yankton, and D. T. Bramble was appointed the 
first postmaster. To accommodate this office the United States mail service was 
extended from Sioux City, Ia., sixty miles, the mail being brought to Yankton 
once a week. The first frame house in Yankton was built this year by D. T. 
Bramble.

	On December 27, a mass convention was held in Yankton, to again 
memorialize congress for a territorial government.  Petitions were prepared and 
put into circulation for signatures, after which the meeting adjourned to the 
15th of January, 1861.  At this adjourned meeting it was found the memorial and 
petition had been signed by five hundred and seventy-eight citizens.  No time 
was lost in forwarding this petition to Washington, and the people of Dakota 
soon had the pleasure of hearing that congress had passed an act in conformity 
to their desires.

	In January, George D. Fiske, one of the agents of Frost, Todd & Co., was 
caught in a blizzard and frozen to death.  His grave was the first in the 
settlement of Yankton.