History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 26

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

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Article VII. On account of their valuable services and liberality to the Yanktons, there shall be granted in fee to Charles F. Picotte and Zephyr Rencoutre, each, one section of 640 acres of land, and to Paul Dorain one half a section, and to the half breed Yankton wife of Charles Renlo and her two sisters, the wives of Eli Bedard and Augustus Travers, and to Louis Le Count, each, one half a section. The said grants shall be selected in said ceded territory, and shall not be within said reservation, nor shall they interfere in any way with the improvements of such persons as are on the lands ceded above by authority of law, and all other persons (other than Indians of mixed blood), who are now residing within said ceded country by authority of law, shall have the privilege of entering 160 acres thereof, to include each of their residences and improvements, at the rate of $1.25 per acre.

Article VIII. The said Yankton Indians shall be secured in the free and uninterrupted use of the Red Pipestone Quarry, or so much thereof as they have been accustomed to fre- quent and use for the purpose of procuring stone for pipes; and the United States hereby stipulate and agree to cause to be surveyed and marked, so much thereof as shall be con- sidered necessary and proper for that purpose, and retain the same and keep it open and free to the Indians to visit and procure stone for pipes so long as they shall desire.

Article IX. The United States shall have the right to establish and maintain such mili- tary posts, roads and Indian agencies as may be deemed necessary within the tract of country herein reserved for the use of the Yanktons. But no greater quantity of land or timber shall be used for such purposes than shall be actually requisite; and if in the establishment or maintenance of such posts, roads and agencies, the property of the Yanktons shall be taken in. injured or destroyed, just and adequate compensation shall be made therefor by the United States.

Article X. No white person unless in the employment of the United States, or duly licensed to trade with the Yanktons, or members of the families of such persons, shall be permitted to reside or make any settlement on any part of the tract herein reserved for said Indians, nor shall said Indians alienate or in any manner dispose of any portion thereof. except to the United States; whenever the Secretary of the Interior shall direct, said tract shall be surveyed and divided as he shall think proper among said Indians, so as to give to each head of a family or single person, a separate firm with such rights of possession or transfer to any other member of the tribe or of descent to their heirs and representatives, as he may deem just.

Article XI. The Yanktons acknowledge their dependence upon the Government of the United States, and do hereby pledge and bind themselves to preserve friendly relations with the citizens thereof, and to commit no injuries or depredations on their persons or property, nor on those of any other tribe or nation of Indians; and in case of any such injuries or depredations by said Indians ( Yanktons), full compensation shall as far as pos- sible be made thereof out of their tribal annuities, the amount in all cases to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior. They further pledge themselves not to engage in hostili- ties with any other tribe or nation, unless in self defense, but to submit, through their agent. all matters of dispute and difficulty between themselves and other Indians for the decision of the President of the United States, and to acquiesce in and abide thereby. They also agree to deliver to the proper officer of the United States all offenders against the treaties. laws or regulations of the United States, and to assist in discovering, pursuing and captur- ing, all such offenders as may be within the limits of their reservation, whenever required to do so by such officer.

Article XII. To aid in preventing the evils of intemperance, it is hereby stipulated that if any of the Yanktons shall drink, or procure for others, intoxicating liquors, their propor- tion of the tribal annuities shall be withheld from them for at least one year, and for a violation of any of the stipulations of this agreement on the part of the Yanktons, they shall be liable to have their annuities withheld, in whole or in part, and for such length of time as the President of the United States shall direct.

Article XIII. No part of the annuities of the Yanktons shall be taken to pay any of the ckebts, claims or demands against them, except such existing claims and demands as have

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been herein provided for, and such as may arise under this agreement, or under the trade or intercourse laws of the United States.

Article XIV. The said Yanktons do hereby fully acquit and release the United States from all demands against them on the part of said tribe, or any individual thereof, except the before mentioned right of the Yanktons to receive an annuity under said Treaty of Laramie, and except also, such as are herein stipulated and provided for.

Article XV. For the especial benefit of the Yanktons, parties to this agreement, the United States agrees to appoint an agent for them who shall reside on their said reserva- tion, and shall have set apart for his sole use and occupation, at such point as the Secretary' of the Interior may direct, 100 acres of land.

Article XVI. All the expenses of the making of this agreement, and of surveying the said Yankton Reservation, and of surveying and marking the said Pipestone Quarry, shall be paid by the United States.

Article XVII. This instrument shall take effect and be obligatory on the contracting parties whenever ratified by the Senate and the President of the United States.

In testimony whereof the said Charles E. Mix. Commissioner, as aforesaid, and the undersigned Chiefs, Delegates and Representatives of the said Tribe of Yankton Indians, have hereunto set their hands and seals at the place and on the day first above written.

CHARLES E. MIX,

Commissioner for the United States.

Pa-la-ne-a-pa-pe-The Man That Was Struck By The Ree.

M'a-to-sa-be-che-a-The Smutty Bear.

Eta-Ke-Cha-Charles F. Picotte.

Ta-ton-ka-weti-co-The Crazy Bull. Pse-cha-wa-ke-a-The Iron Horn.

Nom-be-kah-pah-One That Knocks Down Two.

Ta-ton-ka-ma-ne-The Fast Bull.

A-ha-ka-ma-ne-The Walking Elk.

A-ha-ka-na-che-The Standing Elk.

A-ha-ka-ho-che-cha-The Elk With The Bad Voice.

Cha-ton-wo-ka-pa-The Grabbing Hawk.

E-ha-we-cha-sha-The Owl Man.

Pla-son-wa-kau-na-The White Medicine Cow That Stands.

Ma-ga-scha-che-ka-The Little White Sioux.

Oke-che-la-wash-ta-The Pretty Boy.

(The last three names signed by their duly authorized agent and representative, Charles F. Picotte, they being thereby . duly authorized and empowered by said Tribe of Indians.)

This treaty was ratified by the Senate in February, 1859. and became the law of the land. And while this general fact became well known in the new West, few of the people understood the provisions of the agreement, but believed the ratification was conclusive as opening the ceded portion to settlement, and a num- ber of new settlers came into the territory early in that year and squatted here and there near the timber tracts and began putting up their log structures. Major Redfield, the new agent of the Yanktons, was given as authority that the treaty was in effect and the country open to settlement. On the other hand the clause in the treaty giving the Indians one year in which to remove to their reservation was interpreted by them as continuing their control of the land for one year after the ratification, and led the Indians to oppose very earnestly the incoming and settlement of the whites. A great deal of ill feeling was engendered early in the year 1859 between the Indians and the new comers, and in some instances the red men took the liberty of demolishing the improvements of the whites, threat- ening them with more serious injury if they did not cease their trespass ; and but for Picotte's friendly offices they might have resorted to forcible means to get rid of those whom they regarded as unlawfully intruding upon their domain. It would seem from this clause in the treaty that the intention was to give the Indians ample time to collect their effects and remove to their new home, but that they were no longer to exercise any authority to restrain the settlement or prevent the improvement of the country. Fortunately no scalps were taken and as the Indians practically withdrew in July when their first agent came to them and brought the first installment of their annuities, the one year claim ceased to be a bone of contention, and although hundreds of the Indians returned to their fa- vorite camps on the James and Vermillion rivers, and remained during the suc-

Top row, left to right: Medicine Cow, Charles Picotte, Louis Dewitt. Lower row: Strike-the-Ree, Zephier Rencontre, The Pretty Boy.

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ceeding fall and winter fishing and trapping, there was no further interference with the new settlers.

YANKTON INDIANS REMOVE

The lower valley of the James River and the country intervening between the valley and the proposed Town of Yankton extending also some distance up the Smutty Bear bottom, was occupied during the late spring and early summer of 1859 by about two thousand Yankton Indians including women and children, and a small number of pale faces.

The Indians had come in from Big Sioux Point, from the Vermillion and James river valleys, and from a number of smaller camps extending all the way from the Big Sioux to Chotean Creek. They numbered about two thousand two hundred men, women, children and papooses. The grand encampment at Yank- ton extended along the base of the highlands west and north of town to about where the Rhine crosses Capital Street, thence down that stream some distance and then to the Missouri, and thence up the bank of the Missouri to the base of the hill which is crowned by the Ohlman residence, forming an irregular circle of tepees from three to four miles in circumference.

About six hundred Indian lodges were within this semi-circle. Peace brooded over all, and preparations indicated that an important event in the career of these people was rather anxiously expected. The time was approaching when the In- dians were to surrender their dominion and remove to their new homes on the reservation, and although lacking the cultivation and arts of civilization, there is little doubt that many of them were oppressed by a feeling of sadness similar to that which would render joyless the spirits of civilized people, if called upon to surrender a magnificent home in which their ancestors and themselves had been born and reared, and accept in its stead a paltry tenement, illy equipped and fur- nished, compared with the one surrendered. The unquestioned liberty to roam and hunt over the plains and through the valleys was to be theirs no longer. They were to be banished from the streams and forests to which they had become attached through lifelong association. And they must, too, have felt that they were making this sacrifice not of their own untrammeled will, but at the demand of a force they were powerless to resist, and that force they must have recognized as the white people. Considered from the savage point of view, can it be thought strange or remarkable that the Indians have not been able to regard the friendly professions of the pale faces as sincere?

In July following, the good steamboat Carrier reached the port of Yankton having aboard Maj. A. H. Redfield, the first United States agent of the Yankton Indians. The boat was heavily laden with food supplies, certain bales of gaudy calico, great piles of blankets, and also a member of plows, wagons, mowers, rakes, and a saw mill and grist mill combined, with boiler and engine, all to start the Indians off in good form in their farm work and housekeeping at their new homes. A party of Sioux City people, inchiding a few ladies, were passengers on the Carrier going up as far as Fort Randall on a pleasure trip. The agent was furthermore burdened with a large sum of money-many thousands of dollars in gold and silver coin, which he was to pay over to the Indians at their new reser- vation as the first installment under the treaty.

At that time and for many years before and afterward, the main channel of the river ran quite close to the Dakota shore, and boats could effect a landing at any point as far west as McIntyre's Hill, now Ohlman's. The Carrier tied up near the trading post at the foot of Walnut Street.

A few days before the arrival of the boat the bands of Indians under Chief Smutty Bear located on the bottom lands a few miles above, began to entertain suspicions as to the coming of the boat, at least they professed to have grave mis- givings. These bands had been in an unpleasant humor ever since the treaty was made, claiming that they were not present at the time it was signed, and severely

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criticized some of the treaty stipulations. There probably was a little sharp prac- tice on the part of some of the braves by which they had secured some valuable perquisites : but the assent of these recalcitrants to the treaty had been freely given and Chief I-ta-ke-cha (C. F. Picotte ) had been given full authority to sign their names to it. The dissatisfied braves claimed that Strike-the-Ree and Picotte were on too friendly terms with the whites to have proper regard for the inter- ests of the Indians, and Smutty Bear sent a very curt message to "Old Strike" requesting him to forthwith move up to that village to receive his annui- ties, as he ( Smutty ) was now head chief of the Yanktons and intended to exer- cise the prerogatives belonging to that exalted station. Old Strike received the message very quietly and without any outward manifestation of ill humor, and returned answer to Smutty Bear that he, Strike, was the grand Sachem of the Yankton tribe ; so recognized by the "Great Father" at Washington, and that if Smutty Bear and his followers desired any of the "loaves and fishes" from the boat they must repair without delay to the Yankton camp. This message the upper chief answered by summoning his braves and their families to forthwith proceed to the Yankton camp where the question of superiority would be set- tled, peaceably if it could be done with honor, forcibly if necessary. Accord- ingly they marched down with their tepees, dressed and painted for peace but ready for war. They threw their tents around the camp of Old Strike in the forni of a crescent opening to the river. Stutsman, Presho and Chapel, white men in charge of the trading post, observing the unusual proceedings and antici- pating a conflict, withdrew to the protection of the trading post, barricaded the door, and watched the movements of the contending forces from a cabin window. After considerable ceremony a council was held at which Smutty Bear aired his grievances concerning the treaty, though it was plainly manifest that his com- plaint was intended as an excuse for his refractory conduct, rather than to urge any real objection to the treaty. To this Strike-the-Ree made reply explaining away all of the former speaker's objections and complaints and good humoredly reprimanding him for assuming to be head chief. The council ended in a good old-fashioned Indian dog feast, typifying brotherly affection. Red Pipestone pipes were puffed, two oxen were slaughtered, cooked and devoured. The three pale faces then ventured forth from the cabin. Medicine Cow was made officer of the day. The Jim River bands came up without protest, so that when the steamboat with their agent Major Redfield was moored at the landing there were not less than two thousand bucks, squaws, little Indians and papooses, waiting on the bank of the river to give him a cordial greeting. Provisions and trinkets of various kind were distributed among the Yanktons by the wise agent who was anxious to make the first impression as favorable as possible, and the Indians were then notified that their goods and money would be turned over to them at the agency sixty-five miles by land. farther up the river. It was evident that the Indians had expected a much larger portion of this distribution would be made here at Yankton, and they would then be privileged to take their time about reach- ing their new home ; but the agent was firm in his purpose, and insisted that they must remove at once to their reservation where he would make his arrangements and have the goods properly distributed.

Just before the Indians struck their camp preparatory to leaving for their reservation, a band of thirty-six painted warriors rode about the grand circle of tepees, vigorously whooping and brandishing their knotted riding whips, prob- ably conveying the order to all that the hour of departure had come. A number of aged squaws went up the hill to the vicinity of Dr. Joel A. Potter's residence. where two celebrated braves had been laid away on scaffolds in the Indian fash- ion of disposing of their dead, where they indulged in some peculiar ceremonies of a mournful description and then buried the remains in the earth.

The boat departed near nightfall the same day and the Indians immediately folded their tepees and loaded their travois and without further ceremony many of them were on the march for Greenwood while yet the smoke from the Carrier's

COLONEL ENOS STUTSMAN

CAPTAIN NELSON MINER

DOWNER F BRAMBLE

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tall chimneys was visible in the gold of a Dakota July sunset. The many wind- ings of the river and the delays incident to snags and sandbars made the distance covered by the boat about twice that which the Indians traversed, so that the latter were enabled to reach the agency and the point of disembarkation just about the hour the boat landed. No improvements had been made for the work of the agency, and the goods were temporarily stored under canvas. The agent had with him a force of overseers and mechanics, including William Bordino and T. A. McLeese. The work of putting up temporary structures was quickly completed and the Yankton Indians began their new life which was to be governed by their treaty obligations.

What followed is eloquently told in the subsequent career of these Indians. who from ignorance, idleness and barbarism, have steadily advanced in the scale of civilization until today those who are living and many of the descendants of that old stock are among the well-to-do farmers of Charles Mix County, attend- ants upon churches, patrons of schools, and upright industrious citizens of the United States. They have dissolved their tribal organization, own their own homes and farms, dress in the garb and live after the fashion of civilized people. Their numbers have decreased slightly-from 2,200 at that time, they now num- ber 1,800. There is a greater proportion of the present generation mixed bloods. and the time may not be far distant when their descendants will become undis- tinguishably absorbed in the flesh and blood of the Anglo-Saxon.

Their reservation has practically disappeared, and is now covered by fruitful farms and occupied largely with the homes of Yankton Indians.

CHAPTER XVI FIRST WHITE SETTLEMENTS ON THE MISSOURI SLOPE IN DAKOTA

(Concluded)

TIIE UPPER MISSOURI LAND COMPANY TOWNSITES-A NATION WIDE PERIOD OF REAL ESTATE SPECULATION-PRAIRIE FIRE CAUSES FIRST DEATH -- CHALK ROCK USED FOR PLASTERING-MOSES K. ARMSTRONG, A NEW ARRIVAL-INDIANS IN THEIR

DOMESTIC RELATIONS-INFLUENCE OF

THE WHITE INTER- MARRIAGE CUSTOM- ARMSTRONG AND THOMPSON IN PRAIRIE FIRE-POPU-

LATION OF YANKTON VALLEY AND JAMES RIVER-JOIIN STANAGE

AND FAMILY PIONEER FARMERS OF JAMES RIVER-HENRY CLAY ASH THE FIRST HOTEL KEEPER-GEORGE D. FISKE, FIRST BLIZZARD VICTIM-ELK POINT AND EARLY PIONEERS-THE CANADIAN FRENCH COLONY-ON THE WEST- ERN BORDER-SETTLERS OPPOSITE FORT RANDALL-BIJOU AND BIJOU IIILLS- THE PEASE AND HAMILTON SETTLEMENTS-LAKE ANDES, WEST OF THE MIS- SOURI-FORT RANDALL AND THIE PONCA RESERVATION- MIXVILLE, TIIE SETTLE- MENT AND ITS PIONEERS-TODD COUNTY ; PARTIALLY ABSORBED BY NEBRASKA.

The "Upper Missouri Land Company" met at Yankton soon after the Indians withdrew, in July, 1859, and dissolved. The townsite was then surveyed into lots by John P. Culver. of Sioux City, under the direction of Enos Stutsman, who was the secretary of the "Yankton Land and Town Company," a new organization partially formed at that time, and fully organized the following spring, by the election of J. B. S. Todd, president ; Patrick Robb, of Sioux City, trustee ; John P. Allison, also of Sioux City, treasurer ; and Enos Stutsman, secretary.

Up to about this date, however, 1859, the name "Yankton" had not been adopted. Steamboatmen and the traders and Government agents all spoke of it as the "Camp of Old Strike" in the Yankton Valley. The name Yankton was given to it by the town company above organized, and Mr. Holman claims that his party had previously bestowed upon it the same title.

In the absence of any government surveys of the newly ceded lands in the Yankton Valley, the beneficiaries of the grants under the treaty were not able to make their selections with accuracy as to boundaries; nevertheless the selections at this point were made and proved to be not very far out of the way when the lines were afterwards legally established.

The platted tract of the town included about three-fourths of a section, bounded east by Douglas Avenue, west by the east line of Presho and Stutsman's claims, south by the river and north by a line running very near the south line of the present college grounds. A large portion of this tract was to be located with Sioux half-breed scrip, which at that time and for some years after was used by land speculators to secure choice pieces of the public domain in this and ad- joining counties. There was a business or financial reason for the apparent haste shown by the townsite owners in getting their property in condition to place it upon the market.

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STRIKES-THE-REE. AT NINETY TWO YEARS OF AGE

Chief of the Yankton Sioux tribe

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

There had been since 1855 all through the western country a so-called "boom" in town lots and lands. For several years there had been a great stream of immi- gration pouring out from the east into Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota and lowa, and the speculative fever in western lands and townsites had spread throughout the entire nation. Real estate values were as high in a great many instances in the new West as they were a quarter of a century later and thousands of fortunes were won and lost by speculation in real estate during the years following 1854-55 until near the breaking out of the Civil war. Sioux City was a hotbed of this speculation and lots in that metropolis sold at very high figures. A dozen towns at least were laid out on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River and along its banks, between Sioux City and the mouth of the Niobrara River. land on that side having been in market, and town lots were sold at fabulous prices. Elegant and costly lithographed maps of these towns accompanied with a glowing descrip- tion of their commercial advantages, which were usually exhibited by a fleet of steamboats moored at the levee taking in and discharging cargoes, were freely dis- tributed through the central and eastern states; and townsite agents sokl their elaborately engraved certificates of stock about as rapidly as the printing presses could furnish them. This booming state of affairs could not have been unknown to the leaders in the pioneer movements at Yankton, and it may have been a desire to get their property into market while the boom raged, that urged expedi- tion in the preliminary work of building a metropolis at Yankton. But their haste availed little-in fact nothing at Yankton was realized from that period when values were so inflated. "Hard times" were already pressing sorely upon many in- dustries ; railway building received a decided check, and the "wild cat" banks with which the country was overstocked went down by hundreds, their currency ren- dered worse than worthless, entailing suffering and ruin upon thousands.

EARLY CLERGYMEN AND OTHERS

Rev. Melancthon Hoyt, an Episcopal missionary clergyman of Sioux City. and Rev. S. W. Ingham, a Methodist divine, who resided at Vermillion, but had an itinerary throughout the settlements, were among the clerical visitors of that day, holding services as best they could. The Rev. Chas. D. Martin, of Dakota City, Nebraska, preached the first sermon in Yankton County in February, 1859, but it is not known that he ever repeated his visit. William Houston, who was called the "Old Yank," sermonized occasionally on the uncertainty of life in a land of "Indians and vipers." And William Marslin, "the old Jew" who dropped in and dropped out in the most unexpected manner, discoursed on one occasion to a full gathering of the settlement on the sin of eating pork, which all the set- tlers indulged in when they could get it. . Marslin was an American who had embraced the Jewish faith. He was intensely religious and had credit among the settlers of knowing the Bible more thoroughly than the average of the clergy. He with his entire family resided on a farm near St. John, Nebraska.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 26

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198