History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 14

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

the larger the farms the fewer the owners and residents. They declared that the matter was being pushed by the land-grabbing bureau and that there was no general demand for such a law; but the truth was there were thousands of acres west of the Missouri River that could not be profitably irrigated and were season after season only fit for the ranges and would be suitable for nothing else for many years or until whittled down by density of population.

In 1903 Congressman Burke introduced in the House a bill providing for the opening to settlement of 600,000 acres on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. This bill was duly considered, but failed to become a law. In January, 1904, the same bill with some changes was reintroduced. The price per acre was fixed at $2.50, although Indian Commissioner Jones asked that the price be placed at $5 per acre. He finally receded from his position when it became clear that $5 per acre was too much for the land. The South Dakota members of Congress in 1903 had made a strenuous fight to secure the passage of this opening bill but had failed. In that bill was a provision appropriating $25,000 for the Rapid City School of Mines. Perhaps this and similar amendments were the load- stones which dragged the bill of 1903 to its death. The bill of 1904 eliminated all such riders, fixed the price at $2.50 per acre, but was vigorously opposed by several of the House members. Kittredge in the Senate supported the bill. The entire delegation of South Dakota in Congress fought all in their power for its passage. The most of the land lay in Gregory County. However, President Roosevelt opposed one feature of the bill. He declared his belief that most of the land there was worth more than $2.50 per acre. In the end the price was fixed at $4 per acre. The House had fixed the price first at $2.50 and then at $3 per acre, but the Senate raised it to $4, passed the bill in that form and it was promptly signed by the President. During this controversy a commission was appointed by the President to go over the land proposed to be opened and estimate its value. To this proposition Congressman Burke assented. The result was the conclusion to raise the price to $4. There were to be 2,500 claims of 160 acres each, or a total of 400,000 acres, opened to the whites.

It was at this time that Congressman Burke secured the assistance of Presi- dent Roosevelt and Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock to postpone leasing the Indian lands in the two Dakotas for a short time in order to circumvent a scheme of rich real estate dealers to secure the land and cheat small ranchmen out of their possessions. This scheme was thoroughly discussed in Congress, and the act of Congressman Burke was applauded by the people of this state.

During the winter of 1903-04 the settlers in the northern part of South Dakota likewise demanded a similar opening of portions of the Cheyenne Reser- vation. In that reservation were many thousand acres of good land which were lying idle and should be populated with prosperous agriculturalists, it was declared. They demanded that allotments should be made to the Indians and that from time to time tracts of the surplus should be opened to settlement.

The passage of the bill opening the lands in Gregory County was not secured without opposition. From that section of the reservation came all sorts of objec- tions, suggestions and plans, but in the end all were finally reconciled to the measure. It was provided that sections 16 and 36 throughout the entire tract - should go to the schools of South Dakota. At first it was proposed that the state, like an individual, should pay the Indians for this land, but this contention

SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

was finally dropped. In due time the registration of prospective settlers com- menced at Bonesteel, Fairfax, Yankton, Chamberlain, and perhaps other points. In all there were filed 106,326 claims. This meant that over one hundred thou- sand people who filed claims would be disappointed, but it was realized by the inhabitants of the state and made the most of by the newspapers and orators that the opening would bring here many thousands of men who desired homes and that outside of the Rosebud Reservation were hundreds of thousands of acres well fitted for agricultural purposes which could be bought at much less than $4 per acre. This fact was called to the attention of the public and no doubt contributed in a large measure to the large number of filings made on the Rosebud Reservation. Those who filed no doubt thought that in case they should fail to secure one of the Rosebud homesteads, they could readily secure tracts equally as good elsewhere in Western South Dakota.

The total filings at Bonesteel were 35,064; Fairfax, 8,690; Yankton, 57,434; Chamberlain, 6,136. The center of interest during the registration for homesteads in the Rosebud opening was at Bonesteel. The officials of the town, in order to secure money to cover necessary expenses during the emergencies, were too free in granting licenses for all sorts of games. The result was that the town became filled with crooks, bums, law breakers and scalawags of every description. all of whom apparently united to make as much money as they could out of everyone who came there to register. Soon stealings and hold-ups were numerous and all gambling games ran without hindrance. Finally the disorder and riot became so threatening that the officials were compelled to interfere to prevent the town from being practically captured by the law breakers. The law-abiding citizens united, went to the hardware stores, took possession of all arms and promptly arrested forty-five crooks of all sorts and placed them in a bull-pen, which was guarded by 100 armed citizens; but as this did not seem to check the lawless proceedings they began the systematic work of hunting out the rascals in all parts of the town, scattering them from their haunts like rabbits from the sagebrush. Finally the law breakers were driven to one end of the town where they halted and threatened to shoot any citizen who should approach them. To circumvent any hostile act of this sort, the armed citizens promptly covered them with rifles, whereupon the law breakers drew back and lowered their weapons. They were informed by Mayor Berg that they must at once leave the town and the officials enforced this command by driving them a mile from the corporate limits. At this time forty-five of the worst ones were still under guard in the bull-pen. Upon reaching the distance of a mile the crooks suddenly began to break in all directions and rush back to the town, firing as they ran, but immedi- ately the battle commenced. A volley was poured into their ranks by the police and eight or ten of the crooks were wounded and in the return fire four of the police were seriously shot. This fire checked the stampede and compelled the lawbreakers to stop and obey the commands of the legally constituted authorities. However, as they seemed to be unable to leave, all were arrested, driven back to the town and placed under guard in the new bull-pen.' This act of the authori- ties greatly incensed the gamblers who claimed they had paid comparatively large sums for immunity to run their gambling establishments as they pleased. However, their protests were not heeded, and the authorities from this time for- ward enforced law and order as well as could be expected under the riotous proceedings. This was called the "Battle of Bonesteel." One gambler was killed Vol. III-7

SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

and two others were dangerously wounded. The authorities have ever since been blamed in a large degree for the criminal and unfortunate proceedings. In their zeal to secure large license fees, they gave the gambling fraternity, as it was asserted, and no doubt true, almost unlimited authority to carry on their practices. In August Governor Herreid went to Bonesteel to learn of the actual conditions there and ascertain if troops were needed to control the unlawful element. He told the authorities that he was unwilling to order the troops there to aid the city in granting illegal licenses to secure revenue to pay the expenses of the registration office. He was informed that the services of the troops were not needed and that the law-abiding citizens could and would control the unlaw- ful element and maintain order. He was told by many that at the outset the police and town authorities were to some extent in league with the gamblers, and that as the crowd continued to gather the law breakers took control of the establishments and endeavored to run the city in the interests of crime and out- rage. It was further stated that when the proceedings of the gamblers and thieves became too menacing, the city authorities revolted, though they did not revoke the licenses for which they had collected goodly sums of money.

It was provided that the registration in Rosebud could not be affected through the use of the mail or through an agent except in the case of qualified soldiers or sailors. Each person could register but once and was required to give his true name. The registration at Chamberlain was moderate compared with that at Bonesteel and Yankton. At the latter city enough special officers were put on to keep the crowd in order and facilitate the registration. The crowds at Yank- ton broke all previous records. Hundreds slept in line at the land office, day and night, for a considerable time, to be in readiness to make their filings. On one day in July nearly seven thousand were thus registered. It was estimated that more than one thousand people were in line one morning at one time, having slept there all night. At 4 o'clock in the morning the lines were joined by 1,000 more until they extended one block and a half from one office and nearly as far on Capital Street at another office. A carload of ready eatables came from Sioux City and was sold to the men waiting in line. The rush in the city and especially on the trains was something that had never been witnessed before in this state. It was noted that many of the applicants were clerks from scores of eastern cities. Many who came out did so merely to take a chance at the game of drawing, and in case they should win they were ready to sell out for the best price they could secure. It is a fact that not over half of those who succeeded in drawing homesteads, embraced the opportunity of completing their purchases. After they had won and had learned the nature of their claims, they sold out for the best price they could secure and either entered other tracts or returned East whence they came. Many did not go to their claims at all, but sold out upon general representations. These lands were called the "Surrendered Tracts." They were again turned over to home seekers in October, on which occasion there was another rush to secure them. It must be admitted that much of the land thus surrendered was secured by speculators who had no intention whatever of becoming settlers, but who made the effort simply to make money later out of the sale of the tracts in case they won.

It was developed at a later date that much of the lawlessness at Bonesteel was due to the rivalry between ambitious and unscrupulous town-site companies

SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

whose interests conflicted. Geo. W. McLean, special alloting agent, investigated the conflicting rumors and interests from the Town-site of Oacoma, over which so much strife was engendered during the opening of the Big Sioux Reservation. He likewise investigated similar contests at the opening of the Rosebud Reser- vation. In regard to the Oacoma contest he decided after thorough investigation that the two Indians, Iron Nation and Useful Heart, who had claimed the land there, had no legal rights thereto and this finding was reported to the Cham- berlain Land Office, whereupon the registrar there threw out the claims of the Indians and received and accepted the filings of white settlers who showed legal and valid claims to the land. It was shown that certain unscrupulous white men had used the names of the Indians as a cloak to cover up their own fraudulent intentions and actions.

The State of South Dakota through its authorities was given the lead in selecting lands for school purposes. The school authorities of the state were empowered to fix the town sites. In selecting land they were accused of taking more than they were allowed by law. This protest came from the Indians, who declared that the school authorities had chosen 6,660 acres more than the two sections in each township aggregated, but it was later shown that this selection was permissible owing to the fact that many of the school sections had been squatted upon by the Indians. Thus the state was permitted to indemnify itself for those losses by choosing other tracts, which came to be called "indemnity lands." To prevent confusion the state was given the first right to select its indemnity lands before the tract was thrown open to settlement, but they were forbidden to select more than two sections in any one township.

The commissioner of the general land office at Washington expressed the . opinion that the population of the state would be increased by 100,000 as the result of opening the Rosebud Reservation. He based this view upon two points : (1) It would bring in many new families who were lucky enough to draw quar- ter sections; (2) the many thousands of others who came out to register and who would thus see the state at its best-crop time-would buy homes and become permanent residents.

The 640-acre Homestead Bill became a law, and by December, 1904, nearly all of the best tracts to the westward had been filed on. Already the Government and the state were figuring how to dispose of the interior tracts to the best advantage. By increasing the size of the homestead to 640 acres, more would be sold, it was figured, and thus a larger area would be placed under taxation and more general farmers would be brought to the state. This was the logic of the situation. This law was called the Gamble-Martin Bill. These men argued in Congress that, owing to the wild and trying conditions west of the Missouri River on the old Sioux Reservation, settlers would not buy the land and live on it unless extra inducements were offered. On the other hand it was declared that the object of the measure was to enable the cattle-men to have cowboys take up the land and afterwards deed it to them to be converted into ranges. It was noted that up to January 1, 1905, the big Sioux Reservation had been open to the settlers for fifteen years and that out of 8,550,000 acres thereof, only I,342,420 acres had been filed on and only 687,700 acres had been proved up. The facts then were that the conditions of settlement were too severe for the homesteaders and therefore it was manifest that extra inducements must be

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held out or the tract would remain uninhabited indefinitely. The big cattle kings were mostly aliens. All this discussion or controversy showed the importance of irrigation and forestry west of the Missouri River, both of which propositions received fresh stimulus and propulsion at this time.

Homestead rights went to any man of age or married, to single women of age, to deserted wife or to widow, providing none of them owned 160 acres in any state or territory. The entrance fee was $4, paid in person. The claimant was required to live five years on the land, or after fourteen months of actual resi- dence, with certain improvements, could perfect title by paying from sixty cents to one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Great improvement in the land and homestead laws was made in 1904. The great object of the citizens was to secure more settlers, as the inhabitants as a whole favored far more liberal laws for homesteaders. Thus in 1904 they supported the 640-acre homestead proposal, because it was believed that the offer of so large a tract would induce many settlers to come who otherwise would not.

"There is in progress an agitation of a proposition to open to general settle- ment the several Indian reservations of South Dakota. There are 20,000 Indians in the state and all but about three thousand of them are located upon the four immense reservations of Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Lower Brule and Cheyenne. The Rosebud Reservation alone, containing over three millions acres, would give to each Indian a quarter section of land-men, women and children-and it has been demonstrated that those Indians who take land in severalty and occupy it make the most rapid progress towards civilized self support. Vast tracts of unused land afford only a roaming ground for their occupants, keeping alive the nomadic instinct and interfering with the development of the home sentiment that constitutes the first and most important step in the domestication of the red man. The land occupied and not utilized by the Indians would become productive under the ownership of the white homesteader and would create those neces- sities with which the Indians had to be supplied while they are attaining a con- dition of self maintenance. The arguments are all in favor of the disintegration of the reservations and the division of the land among red and white occupants. South Dakota should insist upon farm settlement of its entire area."-Sioux Falls Press, October, 1904. "The white people need the lands and the Indians are making no good use of them and would be infinitely better off without them. The Cheyenne River Reservation, especially, is ripe for opening, and the Indians residing thereon are in good shape to take lands in severalty and assume the ways and adopt the pursuits of civilization."-(Same.)

The Treaty of Laramie in 1868 specifically defined the boundaries of the Big Sioux Reservation. That treaty specified that the reservation could not be opened to white settlement unless three-fourths of the adult male Indians should sign an agreement to that effect. In 1875, when the invasion of the Hills for gold was imminent, a commission was appointed by the Government to negotiate with the Indians for the right to mine gold in the Black Hills. This was believed to be a wise step in view of the fact that white men in any event would invade the Hills, thereby causing conflicts with the Indians. The commission assembled all of the Teton tribes at Red Cloud Agency on September 20, 1875. Sen. W. B. Allison, of Iowa, was chairman of the commission. He asked the Indians if they were willing to give to the white people the right to mine gold and other precious

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metals in the Black Hills for a fair and just consideration as long as such minerals could be found. He stated that if they were willing the United States would pledge that when the gold should be exhausted the Hills would be surrendered absolutely to the Indians to do with as they pleased. Strong opposing influences were present at this conference. Regardless of the fact that the Government was willing to be more than fair in its offers, great opposition was encountered to any compromise or deal whereby the whites could secure a footing in the Hills. For twenty days the commission talked, argued and presented its proposition, but the Indians, through their agents and interpreters, hedged and stubbornly refused to come to an agreement. The result was that this commission absolutely failed to secure what was wanted by the Government. No doubt its failure was mainly due to the fact that the commission did not understand Indian nature and that the opposition was too influential, determined and strong.

In 1876 the Government, seeing that the Hills would be invaded by large numbers of white men and knowing that such a result would be succeeded by bloody encounters with the Indians, made another effort to come to terms with the natives. Newton Edmunds and Bishop Whipple were actively concerned in the new movement. They resorted to different tactics. In order to evade the alleged friends of the Indians who would strenuously oppose any deal whatever, the new commissioners instead of calling the Indians together in conference went among them quietly and secured the signatures of many of the chiefs and leading men to an agreement to relinquish the Black Hills absolutely to the whites. They succeeded in securing many of the leading men, if not three-fourths of them, and on the strength of their report the Hills were declared open by the Government. At once serious opposition to the alleged cession`and to the inva- sion of the Hills was offered by the Indians and their representatives; but the settlement and invasion, based on the signed agreement, went on just the same with the result that the Hills were soon peopled with the whites. From that time forward the Indians, as a whole, declared that they never had consented to sur- render the Hills nor had agreed as a body that the whites should have the right to mine minerals in that region. They further insisted that not only were they misled as to the intentions of the Government by the commission of 1876, but that the tribe as a whole had never consented to the cession of the Hills to the whites for any period. They denied the cession even though they were willing to permit the whites to carry on mining operations there. The bill of 1875 pro- vided that such an agreement should be signed by three-fourths of the adult male Indians. This gave the tribes a precedent for their proceedings of 1876. The Indians accordingly insisted that before the Hills could be ceded or even leased it would be necessary for the Government to secure the signatures of three- fourths of the adult males.

This was the statement of the Indians concerning the Black Hills cession of 1876, during the controversy which again arose over the problem in 1904. At the latter date the Indians insisted upon being paid for what they claimed they had been cheated out of in the Black Hills. The Government, however, refused to entertain any proposition of a re-transfer of the Black Hills to the Indians. The fact was that the Treaty of 1876 was valid in every particular, and was an absolute necessity to prevent a general war at the time with all the Indians of the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana. While it is true that nearly all of the

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leading chiefs and medicine men signed the agreement, it was not done in open council nor were the terms known generally by the Indians. In July, 1904, a convention of the leading Sioux Indians were called at Cherry Creek to consider the matter. They were asked to review and discuss the old Treaty of 1876 by which the Hills were claimed to have been ceded to the whites. The object of this conference, it was openly stated, was to demand the return of the Black Hills to the Indians or adequate pay therefor or war. The inference, if not the intent, was that war would follow a refusal to reopen the question and pay the Indians for the Hills. There were present between five thousand and six thou-

sand Indians. All Sioux agencies and tribes were represented. It was shown the whites that in order to secure this result the Sioux nation had formed com- plete organizations at every agency of the reservation. There were six inde- pendent though closely united organizations, each having a president, secretary and a body of trained soldiers. Regular meetings had been held for some time and funds were collected to purchase food and pay expenses. He Dog, one of the leaders at the Pine Ridge Reservation, announced to the open conference that his society had over three hundred and fifty soldiers who had collected over one thousand dollars in cash to meet general expenses. He insisted that the Indians should stick together and insist that the Government should right the wrong that had been done the nation in 1876. Big Mane, a prominent Sioux orator of the Lower Brule Reservation, likewise demanded that the Government should right the wrong that had been done the tribe, and insisted that all should stand together and under the United States flag fight for their rights, if necessary.

Owing to the extreme cold during the winter of 1904-05, many of the win- ners of claims on the Rosebud Reservation during the drawing of the previous summer abandoned their property, an act which caused the forfeiture of their rights. February was the last month for them to file and as the weather was still intensely cold many were forced to forfeit their claims. Hundreds arrived by every train, but were unable to carry out the legal requirements to protect their rights. The most of them had not even had shacks built.

In the spring of 1905 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Henry J. King and Mrs. Eliza Reynolds, homestead claimants, for a tract of land adjoining Chamberlain on the northern side, a part of which the newly projected railway line to the Black Hills would cross in its approach to the Missouri River. Since 1885 this land had been subject to contest between the homestead and townsite claimants. Already the homesteaders had been awarded a judgment in the United States Court of Appeals. The land at this time was very valuable.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 14

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1146