History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 16

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

from the old name to Riggs Institute in honor of S. R. Riggs, one of the famous pioneer missionaries among the Sioux Indians. In March, 1900, Charles F. Pierce, who had for thirteen years been stationed among the Santee Indians in Nebraska and the Oneida Indians in Wisconsin, succeeded Mr. Davis as superin- tendent of the institute. His large experience in Indian school work admirably qualified Mr. Pierce for his duties. He promptly mastered the situation as Mr. Davis had done and soon the institute was the most successful of its kind in the United States. The corps of instructors and employes was selected under his supervision and recommendation and was extremely efficient. By the sum- mer of 1903 the attendance numbered 380, ranging in ages from six to twenty years.

At this time the whole United States was divided among large reservation schools such as Carlisle, Riggs, Genoa, and others, each being allotted certain reservations or localities from which to gather its pupils. It was required that pupils must have been in attendance at some of the reservation graded schools before being permitted to enter these more advanced institutions. Riggs Insti- tute was allowed to gather its pupils from the reservations of Wisconsin, Min- nesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, and on its rolls in 1903 were found Oneidas from Wisconsin, Chippewas from Minnesota, Sioux from the Dakotas and Win- nebagoes from Nebraska. The pupils were enrolled for a period of not less than three years, during which time they remained in school. They were clothed, fed, educated and cared for at Government expense, Congress annually making an appropriation of $167 per capita to meet this expense. They were likewise transported to and from their reservation homes free of charge by the Govern- ment. By 1900 this school and others like it had become largely filled by mixed- bloods or so-called "white Indians" to the exclusion in many cases of the full- blood Indian. In 1903 the Government issued an order shutting out the "white Indians," and thereafter only pupils of more pronounced Indian blood were received. In the summer of 1903 there were at Riggs Institute about 35 per cent three-quarter-bloods, 34 per cent half-bloods and 13 per cent quarter-bloods or less. Previous to about 1898 it was a difficult matter to induce the adult full- blood Indian to accept the advantages of an education, but after that time, owing to the rapid settlement of the reservations by whites and because the Indians and whites were living near neighbors in many cases, the full-blood Indians began to realize that the white men through their education had much the advantage in the business world. This caused the full-blood Indians to com- mence sending their children to the schools.

The curriculum of the Riggs Institute about 1900 embraced both literary and industrial studies and followed an elaborate program sent out from Washington by Miss Estelle Reel, the general superintendent of Indian schools. The aim of the course of study was to give the Indian child a practical knowledge of the English language, and to equip him with the facilities to become a self support- ing citizen as speedily as possible. The literary work covered about the same ground as the eight grades of the public schools. Miss Louise Cavalier, prin- cipal teacher, under whose direction were six additional instructors, all of whom had been specially selected for this particular work, dispensed all of the instruc- tion at the institute. Vocal and instrumental music was taught; connected with the school was a concert band of thirty-six pieces and an orchestra under the

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INDIAN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL, PIERRE

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

leadership of Fred E. Smith, who for several years was solo cornetist in the famous Carlisle College band. For the purpose of teaching industrial work the school was divided into two sections; one for the literary department and the other for industrial training. All pupils were required to devote at least half of their time to industrial or domestic training. As the institute was known as a boarding school, all domestic work was carried on by the girls. This department was under the supervision of. Mrs. Roma F. Ewbank, chief matron. Girls were taught how to cook, wash, iron, cut and make their own clothes and do all kinds of house work. In consequence the girls were well dressed, ladylike and neat in appearance and their quarters were scrupulously clean and neat. Connected with the institute was a well equipped hospital under the management of a trained nurse. The general health was excellent owing largely to the care exercised in selecting the pupils, all of whom were required to pass a physical examination before being received. In the hospital the girls were taught how to care for the sick, administer simple remedies, to act in emergencies and were given other instruction necessary for their duties. The industrial training for the boys con- sisted in farming, which included gardening, and the care of stock, carpentering, tailoring, harness making and engineering. R. A. Voy had charge of the agricul- tural department where boys of all ages were given systematic training in scien- tific agriculture. The farm consisted of 480 acres of excellent soil. In 1902 the institute produced 2,100 bushels of potatoes ; 400 bushels of beets ; 400 bushels of onions ; 500 bushels of turnips; 60 bushels of carrots and 6,000 heads of cab- bage. On the farm was kept a herd of full-blood short-horns, and ten head of horses were there for daily use.

The object of all of this instruction was to prepare the Indian to be thrown upon his own resources so that the annuities in the end could be stopped. As many of the students possessed allotments of fine agricultural land, this branch of instruction was of the utmost importance. The elementary principles of scien- tific agriculture were taught in class rooms, among the subjects considered being germination of seeds in different soils; selection of seed; testing the vitality of seeds in boxes and jars ; management of model gardens ; transplantation of plants ; selection of soils ; rotation of crops ; fertilization, and many others-all planned to fit the student for the practical management of his own farm. In the carpenter shop the boys were taught the use of hammer, saw, square, compass and other tools necessary for the construction of buildings, etc. Painting, calsomining and whitewashing were also taught. This department was under the direction of O. B. Olson. A well equipped harness and shoe-shop also was conducted by J. T. Ed- worthy. Other pupils were taught to make and repair harness and shoes. Dur- ing the summer of 1903 over twenty sets of harness which had been made wholly by the pupils were on exhibition at the institute. The tailor shop was managed by Joseph James, a young man of Indian blood and a graduate of Haskell Institute. Here the boys' uniforms, school suits and underclothing were made. The engi- neering department was managed by E. D. Selby. Here the Indian youth learned about power, heating, lighting, sewerage and pure water. Five large boilers fur- nished the steam with which the classes were instructed. On the bank of the Big Sioux River a half mile distant was the pumping plant with a capacity of 15,000 gallons per hour. The older students were permitted to operate the engine, dynamo, etc. The plan of the organization and management was of the semi-

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

military style, everything moving with the precision of a machine. At this time W. A. Harris was chief clerk of the institute. A complete record was kept of every transaction. The weekly issue of subsistence at this time was about as follows : 2,400 pounds of flour, 2,200 pounds of beef, 300 pounds of dried fruit, 300 pounds of sugar, 36 pounds of coffee, 12 pounds of tea, 150 pounds of beans, 50 pounds of rice, 50 pounds of lard, 150 pounds of bacon, 100 pounds of salt, 6 pounds of pepper, 35 bushels of potatoes, 5 bushels of onions, 5 bushels of tur- nips, and 170 gallons of milk. A stated allowance of clothing was given to each student. Each boy was allowed one uniform, one school suit, one work suit, an extra pair of pants, three pairs of overalls, four pairs of shoes, five shirts, together with underclothes, socks, hats, caps, etc., per year. Each girl was allowed five dresses, six suits of underwear, five skirts, six pairs of hose, four pairs of shoes, one pair of rubber, one coat or cloak and other smaller articles.

Few whites realized at this time how far and well the Indian had advanced in school-book education. At the Pine Ridge Agency in 1903 were thirty-three Indian schools with an aggregate attendance of 1,180. There was a reservation boarding school, at which 230 pupils were in attendance. There were thirty-two district schoolhouses, each under the control of a man and his wife. The Holy Rosary Mission of the Catholics had a school which was attended by 180 pupils. It was largely through the work of the church missions that the Indians were induced to take up generally the task of securing an education. At this time Bishop Stariha of the Catholic church claimed 7,000 Catholic adherents among the Sioux.

The Government fund for the support of sectarian Indian schools for 1905 was given to Holy Rosary School with 200 pupils at Pine Ridge Agency ; Immacu- late Conception School with sixty-five pupils at Crow Creek; St. Francis School with 250 pupils at Rosebud. The fund thus distributed amounted to $108 for each pupil and came from the appropriation of the Government for the industrial schools of the Sioux and other tribes.

"Boarding schools conducted on the basis on which the Government conducts those established for the benefit of the Indians, are an anomaly in our American scheme of popular instruction. They furnish gratuitously not only tuition, but food, clothing and permanent shelter during the whole period of a pupil's attend- ance. In plain English they are simply educational almshouses with the unfortu- nate feature, from the point of view of our ostensible purpose to cultivate a spirit of independence in the Indians, that the charitable phase is obtrusively pushed forward as an attraction instead of wearing the stamp which makes the almshouse wholly repugnant to Caucasian sentiment. This tends steadily to foster in the Indian an ignoble willingness to accept unearned privileges ; nay more, from learn- ing to accept them he presently comes by a perfectly natural evolutionary process to demand them as rights and to heap demand upon demand. The result is that in certain parts of the West the only conception his white neighbors entertain of an Indian is that of a beggar as aggressive as he is shameless. For the contin- uance of over twenty-five non-reservation schools there is no longer any excuse. We spend on these now nearly two million dollars a year, which is taken bodily out of the United States treasury. The same spent for the same number of years on expanding and strengthening the Indians' home schools would have accom- plished a hundred fold more good, unaccompanied by any of the harmful effects

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

upon the character of the race. The non-reservation schools ought to be dropped off one by one, or two by two, so as to produce the least practicable disturbance of condition, but the beginning of this gradual dissolution ought to be no longer deferred."-Francis E. Leupp, commissioner of Indian affairs, December, 1907.

He suggested two methods of abolishing the character of these schools as exclusively Indian. (1) Open them to the youth of all races as training schools for some branch of Government service; (2) give or sell the schools to the states or counties where they stand. It was shown that the average cost to the Govern- ment of a pupil in the non-reservation boarding schools was $250 per annum and to pupils in the day schools from thirty-six to sixty-seven dollars, depending on the enrollment in a single school. The following Indian schools were in operation at that date in South Dakota :

Schools

Number of Employes

Capacity

Enrollment

Average Attendance

Pierre

180

158

148

Flandreau

375

421

392

Chamberlain

200

247

215

Rapid City

250

272

247

Totals

I55

1,005

1,098

1,002

In April, 1909, Congress enacted that over one million dollars should be dis- tributed among the Indian schools in South Dakota as follows: Cheyenne River schools $4,153, Crow Creek $21,620, Lower Brule $49,615, Pine Ridge $5,597, Rosebud $255,625, Sisseton $204,133, Yankton $588,866.

THE BURIED PLATE FOUND Contributed by Doane Robinson

On Sunday afternoon, February 16, 1913, a party of school children were playing upon a bare shale hill within the village of Fort Pierre. Harriet Foster, a miss of thirteen, observed a piece of metal obtruding from the earth, and, placing her toe under a corner of it, lifted it out of its resting place. Observing printed characters upon it, one called the attention of George O'Reilly, a fifteen year old companion, to it, and he picked it up and endeavored to decipher the inscription, but being unable to translate it, took it to his father. Thus, after 170 years, was recovered a memorial to one of the most interesting and significant facts in the history of the West ; the claiming of the region for France and definitely determin- ing the point where the Verendrys reached the Missouri upon their return from the west. Where they were between the time when they left the Mandans, on July 23rd, and their return to the Missouri on March 19, is a subject of much inter- esting speculation. They were themselves of the opinion that they had reached the Rocky Mountains, and the French writers have uniformly taken that view. The weight of opinion among modern writers, however, is that they reached the Bighorns and were there turned back. The report does not make it appear pos- sible that they could have gone even so far as the Bighorns.

To arrive at a reasonable conclusion as to the distance traveled, one must con- sider their speed upon known routes. They would probably make their maximum speed when traveling known routes to attain definite ends. They left Fort La Vol. II8

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

Reine, fresh and enthusiastic, to go over a known route, a distance of less than two hundred miles, to the Mandans, and traveled at about the rate of nine miles per day. They were forty-six days upon the return from Fort Pierre to the Man- dans, a distance by the convolutions of the river of 320 miles, or seven miles per day. From the Mandans to Fort La Reine, in company with a party of Indians, they were thirty-eight days, or about five miles per day. It seems not improbable, therefore, than in an unknown country, with no definite object in view, and subject to the whims of the tribes they visited, they traveled not more than five or six miles a day, and that it is scarcely possible that they made more than seven miles. They traveled twenty days southwesterly from the mouth of Heart River, near Washburn, N. D., which probably brought them to about the big bend in the Little Missouri River. Here they stayed for a month and then moved on in a more southerly direction, meeting and visiting with various bands of Indians, which it is not possible to identify, though there is ground for the belief that the tribe of the Beautiful Men were the Crows, as that people especially prided themselves upon their pulchritude, and that the Norse Indians were the Cheyennes. Presently they came to the Indians of the Beautiful River. Perhaps this statement affords a bench mark from which we can reckon. The Sioux, from time immemorial, called the Cheyenne River of South Dakota and its north branch, Wakpa Waste- that is, Beautiful River. The French gave to its north branch the name it still bears-Belle Fourche-undoubtedly simply adopting the Sioux name. It is not a violent assumption to suggest that the Sioux may in turn have adopted the name given the stream by their predecessors, and that Verendrye's Belle Riviere was, in fact, our Cheyenne, or the north branch, the Belle Fourche.

Not far from the Beautiful River, they came upon the Bow Indians, who were leading to war all the neighboring bands against a people whom Verendrye calls the Snake Indians. Historians have assumed that these people were, of course, the Shoshones, but the character assigned to them does not at all comport with the known characteristics of the Shoshones. The description, however, exactly applies to what we know of the Kiowas, who at that period infested the Black Hills. In this connection it should be noted that all of the western Indians meta- phorically designated their enemies as "snakes." It will be recalled that the word "Sioux," itself, is derived from the Algonquin word for "snake," applied to the Dakotas because they were enemies. Therefore, it may be and even appears probable, in the light of all the circumstances, that Verendrye's Snakes were the Kiowas of the Black Hills. The Frenchmen determined to accompany the valiant Bow upon this military enterprise. With the mountains in plain sight, they set- tled the families of the warriors in a camp, and very slowly and cautiously indeed did they approach the enemy. Twelve days did they proceed before they reached him, only to turn in terror to flee back to the camp of their families, which they "reached upon the second day of their retreat." They could travel when they put their minds upon it. They reached the noncombatant camp on February 9th and remained there five days, while a severe blizzard raged, burying the earth in two feet of snow. On February 14th they set out in company with all the Bow Indians, compelled to live off the country as they traveled in a south- easterly direction. Such a band could not, under the conditions, have moved more than five or six miles daily. On March Ist they appear to have stopped ten days while awaiting the return of their men sent off to visit Little Cherry. On the

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Obverse -- In the 26th year of the Reign of Louis XV for the King to the Most Illustrious Sir Lord Marquis de Beauharnais, 1743. Pierre Gaulthier la Verendrye deposited.

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Reverse-Deposited by le Chevalier de Lar. Witnesses le Louis la Lou- dette, A Miatte. On the 30th day of March, 1743

PLATES FOUND NEAR FORT PIERRE IN 1913

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

15th they joined Little Cherry two days from the Missouri, evidently remain- ing in the winter camp two days, and finally, on March 19th, reaching the Missouri at the mouth of Bad River, the present site of Fort Pierre, S. D.

The best evidence of where the Verendryes were when at their extreme western point, is determined by the distance it is probable they might have traveled from the date when they started east on February 14th and the time they reached the Missouri on the 19th of March. The extreme total is thirty-four days, less twelve days in which they probably did not travel, or twenty-two days actually upon the road, and at six miles per day they could have come 132 miles from the non- combatant camp.

In view of these considerations, I am led to suggest the probability of the following conclusions : The Bows, the Belle River Indians and the Little Cherries were the allied Arickaras and Pawnees. Historically, the Arickaras are known to have resided in the vicinity of Fort Pierre at that time. The Bows, a people who built forts and planted grain, were manifestly of the same family. The "People of the Serpent" were the Kiowas, hereditary enemies of the Arickaras and Pawnees, then living in the Black Hills. That the noncombatant camp was upon some of the lower waters of some of the streams that debouche from the Black Hills and enter the south branch of the Cheyenne from the west. That the mountains reached and described by the Verendryes were the Black Hills, and that they were not at any time west of the Dakotas. That manifestly the return party could not have traveled a greater distance than from the Black Hills and the Missouri in the time assigned.

That the only argument in opposition to these conclusions is the general state- ment of Verendrye that the general course pursued outward was to the south- west. He states that their course was not direct, that sometimes it was nearly south, and in the wanderings from day to day it would have been a very easy matter for them to lose the course. Certainly it cannot be conceived that in com- pany with a very large number of women and children upon the return trip they traveled faster than the average for other known routes. The only portion of the trip in doubt is the distance between the noncombatant camp and the mountains, but this thy covered in two days, which would show it to be no great distance.

CHAPTER IV

STATEHOOD, GOVERNORS' MESSAGES, ETC.

Among the urgent reasons why South Dakota wanted statehood were (I) the bad government under the carpetbag executives of the territorial period. No doubt the complaints of the citizens were just when they declared that the terri- tory had been miserably ruled by crafty politicians who usually had no interest in its welfare and who occupied their positions solely for the money that could be made therefrom. (2) The finances of the territory were in bad condition and getting worse. The laws under which the territorial government was con- ducted were so slack, vague and inefficient that corrupt practitioners found official positions an easy medium through which to fleece the departments and line their own pockets. (3) Because the territory was too large, sparsely settled and lacking in community interests to be well managed by one administration. (4) Admission meant increased population, greater prosperity, increased rev- enue, better laws, wiser administrations and purer government. It was believed that statehood would add at least 25 per cent to the value of all property, besides bringing in a large amount of outside capital. At the date of statehood (1889) Dakota Territory had twelve public institutions as follows: Two penitentiaries, two insane hospitals, two universities, two normal schools, one agricultural col- lege, one school of mines, one school for deaf mutes and one reform school. Of these nine were located in what is now South Dakota and three in North Dakota. In dividing the territory these institutions and other important matters had to be taken into consideration. South Dakota with nine state instittuions, was required to pay North Dakota with only three state institutions, a considerable sum of money for this advantage. When it became clear that Dakota Territory would be divided and that two states would be formed therefrom, the portion which expected to become South Dakota assumed the following debt of the old Dakota Territory :

South Dakota assumed :

Insane Hospital bonds, Yankton $210,000.00

Deaf Mute School bonds, Sioux Falls 51,000.00

State University bonds, Vermillion 75,000.00

Penitentiary bonds, Sioux Falls 94,300.00

Agricultural College bonds, Brookings 97,500.00

Normal School bonds, Madison 49,400.00

School of Mines bonds, Rapid City

33,000.00

Reform School bonds, Plankinton 30,000.00

Normal School bonds, Spearfish 25,000.00

Soldiers' Home bonds, Hot Springs 45,000.00

North Dakota assumed :

Insane Hospital bonds, Jamestown 266,000.00

North Dakota University bonds, Grand Forks 96,700.00

Penitentiary bonds, Bismarck 93,600.00

Refunding the Capitol Building warrants 83,507.46

116

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SOUTH DAKOTA: ITS HISTORY AND ITS PEOPLE

In February, 1889, a telegram received in this state that the lower house of Congress had receded from every contested proposition and that admission was sure, was welcomed with celebrations and hosannahs generally. The bill as passed provided for the resubmission of the Sioux Falls constitution, for a separate submission of the prohibition clause, and required that the voters should pass on the changes of boundary between the two Dakotas, should settle the name of the state, and at the same election, should choose all necessary state officers. When this should have been accomplished and the fact had been certi- fied by the proper officers, it was provided by the bill that the President could then issue his proclamation admitting South Dakota to the Union. This federal law was signed February 22, 1889. It admitted South Dakota as a state. The election occurred in October, 1889. The proclamation of the President was issued November 2, 1889. Thus all necessary steps for the legal admission of the new state were taken.

At the election in 1889 Pierre was chosen by a large majority to be the tem- porary capital after a campaign of great energy. The people of that city in anticipation of the result had begun a frame capitol building, but it was not ready for the first Legislature which assembled about the middle of October. Accordingly the Senate met in the old schoolhouse which for a long time had been used as the Grand Army Hall and later became Riverview Hotel. The House convened in the Hughes County court room. At the Wells House in East Pierre, were the governor and state officers. When this old building was finally torn down the material was used in the construction of the Catholic Academy on the hill. By January, 1890, when the first Legislature reassembled after the October adjournment, the Locke Hotel was ready for their reception. Likewise the frame capitol building was ready for the assembly and the state officers. Hon. S. E. Young, who had served as speaker of the House in October, con- tinued to occupy that position at the January session. Later on he became superintendent of the State School at Plankinton.

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History of Dakota Territory, volume III, Part 16

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