Jerauld County before 1650-1866
by Tom Shonley
© April, 1981
The Early History
The area we now call Jerauld County was claimed by France in the middle of the seventeenth century, and it was about this time that present records suggest that the first white traders visited this area.
In June of the year 1658, two Frenchmen, Pierre Esprit Radisson and his brother-in-law, Medard Chouart Groseilliers, who had been exploring west from Montreal for several years, decided to explore farther into the continent than any white man before them.
They left Three Rivers in Canada, facing the unknown in search of wealth, adventure and renown, risking death at the hands of hostile tribes in an attempt to find rich fur trading areas since the area of eastern Canada already was stripped of fur bearing animals. In the spring of 1659, they passed over what is now Wisconsin and crossed the mighty Mississippi river. (1)
Temporarily they lived with the natives on the shores of Mille Lacs Lake in what is now Minnesota. Two men came there from a strange land. These men said they were Nadoneceronan (Sioux). After a few days, eight more men of this same nation came to visit there.
Radisson and his group accompanied the Nadoneceronon to the "Nation of the Beef." As they entered the plains, they discovered a strange animal unknown in Europe or any area that they had traveled. From the animal's hair color he called it a "Buff." He learned from the natives that it was a ferocious animal that one must be careful of for every year it killed some Nadoneceronons. He wrote in his journal that the animal lived for the most part on the prairie and looked like an ox, only larger than any he had seen. He continued describing in detail the animal whose name has been corrupted to Buffalo. When they arrived at the Nation of the Beef they discovered tent homes covered with skins. In this land there were no trees so the fires had to be made from grass. They bunted the buffalo in the ravines and lived upon them.
"They sow corn but their harvest is small, as the ears are short and the cold hinders its growth, even though the soil id good," Radisson wrote.
Without trees there was little protection on the prairie and plains in the winter, so after the corn was harvested, they took it and all of the beaver they could carry on their backs and returned to the wooded country for the winter. As for the beaver, Radisson says, "there are none so good in the whole world."(2)
Some historians disagree on whether Radisson's journal proves exactly where in the Midwest he was; however, when we consider Radisson was a nearly illiterate Frenchman who wrote this part of his journal in seventeenth century English, we can understand how difficult it might be to accurately translate it.
It is not very important whether or not Radisson traded at this very spot, as he has described an area that looked like most of eastern South Dakota did at that time. This journey of the Radisson group was definitely the beginning of commerce in this area and continued in much the same manner for about one hundred years.
After these early events, the next major contact between the Sioux and the whites occurred just after the middle of the eighteenth century during the French and Indian Wars. As a result of these Indian Wars, a treaty was made in 1763 ceding all the remaining French lands in what is now Canada to the English. Faced with the possibility of losing the present United States mid west area to the English, the French entered into agreement with their ally, Spain to immediately give complete control of the area to Spain.
The English knew full well that the small garrison at Ft. Genevieve could not possibly police very much of the newly acquired territory, and proceeded to use this territory as if it were a legal claim of England. The English proceeded to license the traders of French descent who had been trading in the area, as well as large corporations such as the Hudson Bay Company.
Not only did the treaties change European claims to this area, it also had the end result of a change in native American occupancy and ownership claims. The Chippewa living closer to the English trading stations in Canada, received the large inrush of guns and powder slightly before the Sioux and they were successful in using this advantage to drive the Sioux onto the prairies and plains of present day South Dakota.(3) This in turn forced the Crow Nation further to the west, and the eventual ousting of any other nations of Native Americans that may have had claims to the present Jerauld County area.
As the English pushed the fur trade with ever-increasing vigor from the outposts on the Red River, the western Sioux or Teton had acquired horses from the nations west of the Missouri. This new method of hunting adapted by the Teton diminished fur bearing animals in this area with increasing rapidity. The growing scarcity of buffalo and beaver in the area which is now east central South Dakota encouraged the Teton to move across the Missouri and hunt on the other side.(4a)
In an effort to maintain ownership and claim to the area east of the Missouri, the Teton made an arrangement with Yankton, a related Sioux tribe who had been driven from the present state of Iowa by the Ioway and the Fox tribes, to occupy this area and to protect it from invasion by other Indian Nations. The Teton as part of the agreement gave the Yankton one thousand horses to use in protecting this area.(5) This was probably the first introduction of horses to the Yankton tribe, who occupied this area from an indefinite year in the late seventeen hundreds to the peace treaty of 1858.
The Spanish, in an attempt to gain some trade on the upper Missouri, were exploring farther up the river each year. In the year 1790, a Frenchman named Jacques De Eglise under Spanish license from St. Louis became the first man from that direction to reach this general area. He wintered with the Cheyenne, who were living on what is now called the Cheyenne River, and explored some of the country.(6) Whether or not he visited in the present Jerauld County area can only be a matter of conjecture.
As a result of his report on his return, the Spanish organized a company for the discovery of nations on the upper Missouri. A trader named Trudeau led these expeditions to the upper Missouri. The Spanish traders then carried on trade with many of the tribes, but the Sioux Nations remained loyal to England.(7)
Some understanding of why the Sioux preferred to trade with the English rather than the French traders under Spanish license is learned from a report by Trudeau to Carondelet (a Spanish government official) at St. Louis in the year 1795. Trudeau says, "The Sioux care only for English guns as some of the French ones burst in their hands while shooting and bad powder is often sent them, which is of the greatest consequence during the hunt."(8)
Trudeau, who had built a trading post called the Pawnee House at a location across the Missouri River from where Fort Randall was later built, stated in one of his reports that the northern part of the Missouri (which is the area of South Dakota that is sometimes said to be east of the Missouri) is inhabited by the great Sioux Nation who hunt beaver and every spring they obtain great quantities from there for which they trade on the St. Peters river. (9)
The war of the American Revolution was not of much significance to the Dakota are except that in the treaty with England in the year 1783, it was stated that the division of the possessions of these powers should be a line drawn at the extremity of the Lake Of The Woods running due west until it meets with the Mississippi. By following this line one does not reach the Mississippi, and by this error it is seen that England chose to take possession of all lands west of the Mississippi river. (10)
All attempts by the Spanish government to make fur trading profitable had failed, and according to a treaty of San Ildefonson in October of 1800, the area of the United States now called the Midwest again became the property of France. (11)
Again by the year 1803 the politics of foreign nations affected the destiny of the present Jerauld county area. Not only was the northwest border mentioned above indefinite and English trade encroachment was becoming a problem of United States national concern, the Mississippi River was being shared jointly buy the United States and Spain, who at that time was a weak power. As it was vital to use the river for export of western United States produce, the assuming of power over the area by France, a stronger power, put the use of the Mississippi River by the United States in some jeopardy. After a period of negotiations, this area, which had been a part of Spanish Louisiana, became the property of the United States in the "Louisiana Purchase" of April 30, 1803.
Traders such as Loisel, Lisa, Choteau, Valle and others who had been trading from St. Louis continued to do so under United States license; however, the English traders' refusal to give up the fur trade of the eastern Missouri basin led to one of the direct causes of the War of 1812. After the United States victory the English were forced to with draw.(12)
After this war, their lack of iron goods and other trade items encouraged the Sioux nations to begin trading with United States licensed traders. As a direct result of the trade with the Sioux, the first trade treaty affecting this particular area was made on June 22, 1825, at Fort Lookout which was located on the west side of the Missouri River, approximately across from the present south Buffalo county line.
The Chief of the Yankton tribe who signed the above treaty was Mawtosabeka, the well known Smutty Bear. Ten others also signed, as well as chiefs from the Teton tribes who had moved across to the west side of the river.(13)
The first licenses issued at Ft. Lookout in 1825, were issued to Clark as consignor, and licensees Joseph Archmbeau and Columbia Fur Company with Teton, Lamont, and P&W Prescott. The last license was issued to this post in the year 1840, as furs were getting so scarce by then that most posts were being discontinued.
Another fur trading post for commerce with the Sioux that is worth of mention was in what is now section five of Union Township of Brule County. It is not listed on the license records but probably served as an outpost for one that was.(14)
The vast area that had brought fortunes to the business interests of the east was dormant, and speculators were making arrangements to bring white settlers into the area after riding it of Indians. The policy of displacing the American Natives was nothing new, as it had begun with the colonizing of the Atlantic Coast.
The first phase in the removal of the Sioux from this area took place after an energetic French geographer, Joseph Nicolas Nicollet immigrated to America and conducted map making and agricultural research studies of various Indian lands. On April 17, 1838, the United States government authorized Nicollet to lead an expedition of topographical engineers to continue the exploration of the upper Mississippi region, with John C. Freemont of later Civil War renown as his assistant.
As they mapped the Coteau des Prairies and the Coteau du Missouri (which describes the higher ground on the east side or, as a map maker may say, the northern side of the Missouri River), Nicollet said that the French names were suggested by the appearance of the Coteau as seen from the Minnesota and the James Rivers, "looming as if it were a distant shore."
Nicollet's map, published in 1843, does not show much detail of the present Jerauld County area, as only a few places are named, such as Chanka W, or the Flintstone River now known as Firesteel Creek, Sandy Hill Creek now known as Sand Creek, Crow Creek which still bears that name, and Coteau du Missouri now known as the Wessington Hills.
Freemont may not have been with Nicollet when he mapped the present Jerauld County area, as Freemont had named many lakes in western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota after officials in Washington D.C., although no names in the area are of this type.
Nicollet's writings were in the French language, and many of his works were not completely translated until recently. The notes on eastern South Dakota have not been prepared for publication, but perhaps when they are, we may learn more of his travels in our area.(15)
Another phase in the process of removal of the Sioux from the area took place by the year 1856, when commercial interests in the east were successful in their lobbying to get appropriations for the exploration and agricultural evaluation of the Nebraska and Minnesota territory. The exploration was to determine whether the area was suitable for settlement and development by whites, and also to devise a plan for the protection of the settlers against the Indians if they should be hostile. For this latter reason the project was placed in the Department of the Army.
For these purposes Lt. Governor Kimball Warren, an able map maker of that time was assigned to the exploration task. His travels took him through what is now Wyoming, Montana, and the state of South Dakota.
Late in the month of October, 1856, Warren's expedition left Ft. Pierre,. exploring a route east of the Missouri. In a route to Sioux City, Warren followed a course on the north side of the Missouri until he reached a point near the mouth of Crow Creek. Appreciating the value of water for his livestock, he followed the course of Crow Creek until he had traveled about ninety-six and one quarter miles from Ft. Pierre, where he made an over night camp and a crossing on a November 2, 1856,. This crossing is probably in Section 28 of Crow Township.
After going six more miles, they reached a high ridge with a few lakes at the top. This is possibly in section 33 of Anina Township. Descending the hill, they traveled six and one half miles to Chanka W. or what we now call Firesteel Creek. This was likely just west of present Lake Willmarth or just east of the west line of township meridian sixty-four. The Warren party proceeded along this stream for eleven miles, crossing at that point and camped, being one hundred nineteen and one-half miles from Ft. Pierre. They found good water and grass at this campsite, but as in the other campsites east of the Missouri, they found no wood.
Warren proceeded along Firesteel Creek for nineteen and three-quarters miles and camped, which was yet five miles from the James River. They then were on burnt prairie, which continued the rest of their journey.
One of the last phases in the removal of the Yankton Sioux from our area and placing them on a reservation occurred as William Nobles, a retired U.S. Army colonel, who realized the economic advantage of being first to develop the potential of a new area, spent five years in lobbying Congress for the appropriations to build government wagon roads, to aid the emigrant in crossing the country to homestead the new lands after the Indians had been driven off or had given up these lands by treaty.
As a result of these efforts, Congress appropriated funds for several roads, including fifty thousand dollars to be issued in the building of a road called "Fort Ridgley and South Pass Wagon Road", which was to start at St. Paul and run by way of the most practical route to the south pass of the Rockies. Ultimately historians nicknamed this road the "Nobles Trail."
Nobles and his associates lost no time in incorporating the Dakota Land Company with William Nobles as the head of the company. They proceeded to obtain special privileges from the Minnesota legislature (as this was Minnesota territory at that time).
Among some of these privileges were the exclusive ferry rights across the Sioux, the James and the Missouri Rivers at three times the prevailing rate on the Minnesota River.
Wealth and fame were the expectations of the Dakota Land Company but lady luck refused to smile on them, as the program was put in the hanks of the Department of the Interior headed by a Southerner named Jacob Thompson, whose chief objective in office seemed to be the encouragement of every national item that benefited the southern states, while corrupting and blocking every proposed improvement in any of the northern states. Already it seemed legislators and politicians were taking sides for the Civil War which followed.
In spite of the fact that funds were withheld from the project for petty reasons, Nobles assembled the road building equipment and men from his own funds, most of which were never reimbursed to him. The road building crew consisted of seventy-five men, most of whom received thirty dollars a month, enough oxen to pull the supply wagons, and a few saddle horses.
While the road building crew was near lake Chetek a man who was out scouting returned at a "fierce gallop" reporting about one hundred fifty Indians were rapidly approaching. Nobles immediately formed the wagons into a circle, placing the oxen at the center and prepared for the approach. Nobles and a few men rode out to meet the approaching Indians and averted a battle, but they had council which lasted for a few days.
Smutty Bear, the Chief of the Yankton, led the council for the Indians; however, the statement that best reflects the Yankton's' objection to building a road through the present area of Jerauld County, was made by one called Sitting Brow: "White man, we were born under the same heaven, and framed by the same hand, but you were born far away. And even here upon this same pipe stone, when the Isanti sold our country - they sold the pipe stone and that which was not theirs. It belongs to us. It belongs to our nation;. You are making a road through our country and driving away our main dependence, the buffalo; you assure us for a certainty that our great father will pay us for this. Then how much will be pay us? It is no cheap th9ng you do. We must be paid."
They again camped on the James River and noted that It had fallen twenty-three inches since they had been there before.
Nobles' party spent a week at the James camp collecting material to make a stone mat crossing, and they tapered the banks on both sides of the river. This crossing is located near the south end of section 25 108-61.
In order to convince the government, and other investors of the importance of the area, Nobles' Itinerary reports: "Steamboats can approach the banks at any place." While this perhaps was no lie, the river has always, never been navigable.
The basic hope of the Minnesota promoters was that this survey would result in the location of a rail line from St. Paul to California, and that St. Paul would become the outfitting capitol of the west.
Unfortunately for the completion of the project, Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson seemed to have an obsession to destroy the project, as he not only used rejection of bills as being too high in price to stall the project, but he hired special agents, Kinsing Prichette for the Minnesota area. Return correspondence by him to Washington D.C. suggests a conspiracy with the Indians to hinder the project. Through scheming, Jacob Thompson was able to suspend all further work on the road indefinitely.
If this project had been completed as planned, it would have put Jerauld County on a main cross country rail line. Needless to say, if it had come true this would be a different place today. Attain we see the destiny of the Jerauld County area affected by national politics, and the documents displaying the gleaming hopes of the promoters are now sleeping in the National Archives.(17)
While the Nobles Trail proposal was failing, the economic hopes of the Yankton tribe to continue in the fur trade also were lost. The only fur trading company left in business was Todd-Frost and Company. No furs meant no meat, and the Yankton tribe, who like the other tribes, gave up their old way of life by helping to kill off their life-supporting animals in exchange for guns and whiskey from the whites found themselves bankrupt of resources and food. They discovered that they had very little choice but to accept the Reservation plan and cede all the territory in present South Dakota between the Sioux and the Missouri River/s. This agreement was a treaty signed on the 19th of April, 1858. (18)
Congress did not get around to ratifying the treaty until in the spring of 1859. As soon as possible thereafter, Indian Agency officials employing the needed diplomacy, succeeded in convincing Chief Smutty Bear to lead the Yankton tribe to the reservation set aside for them on July 10, 1859.
The moving to the reservation by the Yankton tribe marked an end to ownership of the present Jerauld County area by native American peoples. This area past its status as Minnesota Territory when Minnesota became a state on May 11, 1858. It became a legal territory again as part of Dakota Territory, in 1861.
Dakota Territory was advocated by the Dakota Land Company, which was formed by William Nobles and his associates. Another movement in the interests of a new territory was being conducted in behalf of the Missouri Valley area by Captain J. B. S. Todd and B. Frost, partners as Todd-Frost and Company, doing business in the Indian trade. The legislation was supported in Congress by Senator Henry Rice of Minnesota. Known as the "The Organic Act", it passed through Congress and was signed into law by President Buchanan on March 2, 1861.
Captain Todd, being an acquaintance of Senator Rice, was successful in getting a provision written into the bill to allow the appointee for Territorial Governor to select the location of the capitol. This played right into the hands of Todd, as the promoters of the Missouri Valley were Republicans, and the election of 1860 was won by Abraham Lincoln, who took the oath of office on March 4, 1861.
Todd, being a cousin of Mrs. Lincoln, found little difficulty in getting the Capitol located at Yankton.(19)
It often has been said: "To the victor belongs the spoils," and Mr. Lincoln seems to have subscribed very will to that philosophy, appointing his home town family doctor as governor of Dakota Territory, and filling other offices in the Territory with his political patronage.
This political action removed many career Indian agents, who had worked for years with the Indians of Minnesota. Through experience they had developed a working relationship in which the Whites and Indians had maintained a peaceful co-existence.
In the month following the creation of Dakota Territory, the Civil War broke out, creating a preoccupation in Congress which resulted in decreased and frequently delayed Indian office appropriations. The office of Indian Affairs appeared to be understaffed and, because of the hew appointments, were unequal to the task of efficient administration of Reservation policy.(20)
Delayed appropriations resulting in late disbursements of annuity goods and bungling by newly appointed local officials, aggravated by cheating of Indians by scoundrel whites, led to the Minnesota uprising in August of 1862. A militia was organized, and the rebellion was put to an end in a short time. Promoters and land grabbers won another victory, as by the next spring, Congress enacted legislation resulting in the Winnebago and the Sioux forfeiting all of their lands in what is now western Minnesota. The provision stated that "as the Indians were rebellious and dangerous, they are to be located on a tract of unoccupied land outside the limits of any State."(21)
Traveling from St. Paul in search of suitable lands in Dakota Territory for a reservation for the Winnebago and the Sioux, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, Clark W. Thompson, passed through the present Jerauld County area.(22) Camping at the Big Spring and following the Nobles Trail, he proceeded on west until he reached the Missouri River. There he decided the reservation should be located at the mouth of Soldier Creek. Upon his recommendation it was declared a reservation, and named Crow Creek Reservation for a large creek in the area. A fprt was built in the area to protect some of the government supplies. It was named Fr. Thompson in honor of Clark W. Thompson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. A military force consisting of about eighty men and named "Camp Crow Creek" was stationed on the reservation to carry out federal regulations.
By early summer 1863, according to the act of Congress, 1,487 Santee Sioux and very little of their possessions were carried by boat down the Mississippi to St. Louis and back up the Missouri to the Ft. Thompson site. The Winnebagos being considered peaceful were allowed to move themselves overland by the old Nobles Trail to the new reservation. These Winnebagos passed the present Jerauld County area sometime in the summer of 1863.
These Indians were moved without provisions from the fertile lands of Minnesota to the lands of the Missouri, which could not possibly provide food for them because of its naturally dry environment.
The drought of that year was so extensive that the supplies that were to be brought up the river to them could not be delivered, as the river had fallen too low for navigation. The only alternative was to bring the supplies overland from Mankato, Minnesota. Being unable to hire private teamsters to deliver the goods because of the fear of attack by hostile Indians, the Sixth Minnesota Volunteers group was forced to make the journey across the country with one hundred thirty wagons being pulled by six oxen each. This unit camped at the big springs and Lt. S. H. King praised the quality of the water of the big spring tin his journal. They arrived at Ft. Thompson on November tenth.(23)
Not all Indians consented to go to a reservation, as there were both renegade groups and those from reservations out bunting, some with, and some without permission.
One such group of renegade Indians who had committed several acts of depredation in the territory, attacked the stagecoach while it made its routine stop at the mouth of Choteau Creek, killing Sgt. Eugene Trask of the fourteenth Iowa, who was in route to Fr. Randall.
On the following day, September 4, 1863, Captain William Tripp of Company A Dakota Militia organized a patrol to capture the renegades. Tripp followed the trail of lost articles and mail to the north branch of the Firesteel Creek where they found Sgt. Trask's cap. They followed the trail to Sand Creek, and across to Turtle Creek, but later returned to Yankton without finding the Indians.(24)
It would only be a guess to determine
whether the above incident and the one below which was received from an old
soldier and later written by A. B. Smart, an early resident of Jerauld County
are related. It seems possible that they are:
During the Indian depredations of the
sixties, quite a band of Indians were out on a raid. Uncle Sam sent out
three Companies of Cavalry after them, from Yankton. The Indians made for
the hills, as their best protection in the middle of the unsettled
country. The soldiers followed them and one day they surprised the Indians
camped around the springs in Bateman gulch just south of where the court house
now stands (circa 1900). The soldiers attacked them at once. But
after a few volleys, the Indians scattered and fled in all directions, leaving
their camp and everything, but what they could carry in their hands. When
the soldiers counted up they found they had killed over thirty of them.(25)
The old Military Records Division has failed to verify the account by Rev. A. B. Smart. However, many of these small battles may not have been reported.
The resistance to settlement by whites in Dakota Territory by the Indians was considered over after the military campaigns of 1863 and 1864. Plans were made for more wagon roads to bring settlers and to provide a road from Minnesota to the gold fields of Montana. As a step in the completion of these objectives, W. W. Brookings was appointed to be superintendent of the construction of a wagon road from Minnesota to the mouth of the Big Cheyenne River and out to Montana.
Bookings made a survey trip through the proposed area to determine the exact route for the proposed road. He recommended that it begin on the Minnesota line at the 44th parallel, which also was the proposed route of the Transit Railroad line which promoters hoped would soon be built. He pointed out in recommending this route to the Interior Department that it was the approximate route taken by William Nobles in 1857 and used twice since by Clark W. Thompson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, for whom the fort at the Crow Creek Reservation was named. In concluding his report, he stated that it is a route well supplied with water and wood, and from information received of friendly Indians and mountain trappers in the territory, he was convinced that it was the only practical route through that district of the country.
It was presumed by the Interior Department that the road would run in a straight line from the 44th parallel at the Minnesota line to the mouth of the Big Cheyenne. Brookings, realizing this was not practical, began the road south of the Big Cheyenne on the north side of the Missouri, building the road along the river to Ft. Thompson, then east to Wessington Springs, proceeding across the James and then to the Minnesota line. In support of his decision to alter the course of the road, he pointed out that in a line east of the Big Cheyenne the country is usually lacking of water, and the distance between the Missouri and the James would be about one hundred miles which would be an impossible instance for livestock to travel without water. He also pointed out that along the route he had selected, there were never any more than twenty miles between water supplies, and in most cases less than ten.
Brookings' work report stated that much grading was done on the hill at Wessington Springs, and the rocks were removed. When the work was done, the grade was considered light with easy ascent and descent.
It is highly probable that the route taken by the W. W. Brookings expedition from the base of the hill at Wessington Springs over the coteau was at a different location than the one taken by the Wm. Nobles expedition of 1857. The field notes of Engineer Sam Medary of the Nobles expedition are not the same degree as the survey field notes of George W. Propper, the Engineer of the Brookings expedition. By using the field notes of George W. Propper, the Engineer of Brookings expedition. By using the field notes of George W. Propper, it would be most impractical to ascend the hill and proceed on west starting at the station recorded by the Nobles expedition.
Brookings describes the area in his work
Journal:
There is much very good
soil around these bluffs, plenty of wood and water...From Wessington Springs to
Prickly Pear Creek is 16 miles, 76 chains and 60 links...Prickly Pear to Sulphur
Springs 5 miles, 09 chains, 82 links...Stone removed from road route and
corduroy bridge built here 250 feet long, and covered with earth and gravel...Sulphur
Springs to Elm Creek is 7 miles, 56 chains, and 27 links...
I have marked the road over the very best route, and the mode of
marking was to plant every half mile, where the surface of the country was not
such as to hide the monument, a stake four feet long, flattened on two sides
near the top, and the letters M. W. R. cut in with a marking iron, then build a
monument of earth or stone around it.
An incident which occurred when the men were returning to Minnesota from work on the western end of the road gave rise to a nickname for the project. As the party was approaching the Vermillion River from the west, a herd of buffalo was sighted. The crew decided to have some fresh meat for supper and upon approaching the herd proceeded to demonstrate their buffalo boy (or is it cowboy) ability at circling the herd.
At least one of the men became unglued from his horse, and the horse soon was mixed within the herd of buffalo. All efforts to separate the horse from the buffalo failed, and the horse was declared lost. As a consequence, the road was then referred to as "The Buffalo Trail."
Bibliography on early history of
present Jerauld County.
1. Clarence A. Vandiver,
The Fur Trade and Early Western Exploration, Arthur Clark & Company,
Cleveland, 1929 pages 47-49
2. Robert F. Derr, South Dakota Historical Collections, Volume One
P. 165-178
3. Vandiver, Op. Cit.
4. Doane Robinson, South Dakota Historical Collections, Vol. Two P.
63
5. South Dakota Historical Collections, Vol. Two P. 24
6. Abraham Nasitir, Before Lewis & Clark, St Louis Historical
Society, St. Louis, Missouri, 1952 Vol. 1, P.407
7. Ibid: P. 358
8. Ibid: P. 82
9. Ibid: P. 345-359
10. Ibig: P. 269
11. Ibid: 345-359
12. Ibid: Vol. 2, P. 669
13. Ibid: Vol. 2, P. 668
14. The Wi Iyohi Bulletin of the South Dakota Historical Society Vol. 21,
May 1, 1967 Number Two.
15. Raymond J. De Mallie, Jr., Joseph N. Nicollet's Account of the Sioux and
Assiniboin in 1839, South Dakota History Quarterly Fall 1975 Vol. 5,
No. 4, P. 343-359
16. Writings on the Warren Expedition is condensed from Appendix, E. Geological
notes on Nebraska, by Gr. F. V. Hayden, March 15, 1857 microfilm copy at
General Services Adm. National Archives, Washington D. C. 20408
17. Writing on Ft. Ridgley and South Pass Wagon Road condensed from Roll
No. 9, record group No. 77, roads 364 General Services Adm. National
Archives, Washington D>C. 20408
18. Robert F. Kerr, Robinson's History of South Dakota, Educator Supply
Company, Mitchell, S. D. 1907, P. 36
19. Doane Robinson, S. D. Historical Collections Vol. 1, P. 235-257
20. Edmund J. Danziger Jr., The Indian Office During the Civil War, Impotence
in Indian Affairs, South Dakota History Quarterly Winter 1974, Vol. 5,
Number 1
21. Ibid:
22. Writing on the Minn. Big Cheyenne Highway condensed from Roll 11 No FM 95
record Group 48 General Services Administration, National Archives, Washington
D>C. 20408
23. S. D. Historical Collections Vol. 27, P. 375
24. Leonard D. Jennewein, Dakota Panorama, Midwest Beach, Sioux Falls, S.D.
1961. {/ 304
25/ A. B. Smart, Outlines of Pioneer History, Tamblyn Printing Wessington
Springs 1970, Page 5
26. Roll 11 No. FM 95 record group 48, National Archives (see No. 22)