USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 20
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Like the apostles of old, he went without money, without weapon or guard. He took with him only his divine mission to teach and to preach. With the cross and the sacrament he heralded the gospel to the remotest bands. The hostile and the friendly received him alike. He preached to them, taught and baptized them. He learned their dialects, probed their secrets and touched the mainsprings of their affections. When in sorrow, he comforted them : when in distress, he was their advisor and guide: when wrong, or when wronged, he was their faithful, honest ally and friend. Notwithstanding his affection-
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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
ate relations with them, in estimating the influence of Father DeSmet on the Indian char- acter, it may be questioned whether the per- manent effect was commensurate with his in- dustry and labor. Father DeSmet met the savages as savages and adjusted himself to their savage state, baptized and received them into his church and pressed on with his evangel to new fields. Much of the good seed sown by him seemed to have been sown to the waste, but little character-changing and character-building being the result of his mission. * * * Though many years have passed since Father DeSmet's ministry came to an end among them, many of the older Indians and earlier white settlers of the Dakota's remember him and speak of him with affection."
It was scarcely to be expected that deep and lasting impressions on character could be made
upon the population of so wild a field by the ef- forts of one man. It was Father DeSmet's pur- pose to blaze the way, hoping that his church would establish permanent missions in his wake, but the authorities, apparently imbued with less of enthusiasm than the devoted missionary, did not awaken to the importance of the work as early as he hoped. His name will forever stand among the first of those who made great sacrifice of comfort, for love of the heathen. There are still many devout Christians in Dakota whose pride it is that they received baptism from his hands.
Father DeSmet was a native of Belgium, where he was born in the year 1800. He im- migrated to America in 1821 and thereafter de- voted his life to the cause of Christianity, and particularly to the evangelization of the western Indians.
CHAPTER XX
TREATY OF TRAVERSE DE SIOUX.
Until 1851 the title to the soil of every por- tion of South Dakota was still vested in the several tribes of Sioux Indians and consequently all of the traders occupying it were either here by sufferance of the Indians or else were tres- passers pure and simple. On July 23, 1851, however, Luke Lea, commissioner of Indian af- fairs, and Alexander Ramsey, then governor of Minnesota territory, at Traverse de Sioux, now St. Peter, Minnesota, entered into a treaty with the Sissetons and Wahpetons, by which the Indian title to a portion of the lands now em- braced within South Dakota was relinquished to the United States and such portion at once be- came open to white settlement.
The description of the western line of the cession in which we are interested begins at a point on the Sioux Wood river at the northern boundary of the state, "thence south along the western bank of said Sioux Wood river to Lake Traverse ; thence along the western shore of said Lake Traverse to the southern extremity thereof ; thence in a direct line to the junction of Lake Kampeska with the Tchankasandata, or Sioux river ; thence along the western bank of said river to the point of its intersection with the northern line of the state of Iowa, including all the islands in said river and lakes."
The foregoing treaty then relinquished and opened to white settlement a portion of Roberts, Grant, Hamlin, Brookings, Moody and Minne- haha counties and all of Deuel county. The con- sideration for this cession was the sum of
$1,665,000. Of this sum, $275,000 was to be paid at once, and an additional $30,000 was to be expended, under the direction of the President, for the erection of mills, blacksmith shops, open- ing farms, and fencing and breaking land for the Indians and all of the balance, being $1,360,000, was to be held in trust for the benefit of the Indians at five per cent. interest, for the period of fifty years, the interest to be applied annually for the benefit of the Indians as follows: For general agricultural improvement and civiliza- tion, $12,000 ; for educational purposes, $6,000; for goods and provisions, $10,000; for money annuity, $40,000. The provisions of this treaty were carried out by the government with indif- ferent good faith, after its final ratification and proclamation, in February, 1853, until the great massacre in 1862. On February 16, 1863, following the outbreak, the public mind being inflamed against the Indians by the horrible out- rages committed by them, congress passed the following act: "That all treaties heretofore made and entered into by the Sisseton, Wahpe- ton. Medawakonton and Wahpakoota bands of Sioux Indians, or any of them, with the United States are hereby declared to be abrogated and annulled, so far as said treaties or any of them purport to impose any future obligation on the United States, and all lands and all rights of oc- cupancy within the state of Minnesota, and all annuities and all claims heretofore accorded to said Indians, or any of them, to be forfeited to the United States."
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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
From that period the government has refused to recognize any of the obligations imposed by the treaty of Traverse de Sioux, and in so doing has unquestionably done a great injustice to the Sissetons and Wahpetons, who are in great part citizens of South Dakota. The fact is that these Indians, as bands, did not engage in the massacre, but on the contrary, as bands, did exert themselves at great hazard and sacrifice to pro- tect the white prisoners and oppose the hostiles, and that the fact that the captives were rescued alive was in great measure, if not wholly, due to the exertions of the Sissetons and Wahpetons. The action of the government in abrogating its treaty obligations was therefore a grave injustice to a brave and friendly people.
At this time, 1903, the Sissetons and Wahpe- tons are suing the government for the trust fund
and interest due them. The principal sum fell due, by the expiration of the fifty years of the trust, on February 16th last and a more just claim against the federal government was never prosecuted. This is not the place to enter into a more extended discussion of the merits of the matter, but no fair-minded person can examine the facts in the case, learn the low price at which the Indians originally sold their lands, of their conduct in the dark days of the massacre and in the prolonged Indian wars following it, during which almost every able-bodied Sisseton, without pay, entered the service of the government, to apprehend their own people, without arriving at the conclusion that they are fully and justly entitled to every cent of the original purchase price according to the terms of the treaty of 1851.
CHAPTER XXI
THE GOVERNMENT BUYS FORT PIERRE.
In the spring of 1855 the government decided tipon the military occupation of the Sioux coun- try. This determination was based upon the frequent descents of hostile Sioux upon Cali- fornia immigrants, but chiefly by the advance- ment of settlement as far west as Sioux City on the Missouri, and it was decided that a military post and depot on the Missouri, in the Sioux country, would have the double effect of pro- tecting the immigrants on the western trails and at the same time the frontier settlements. From the first the war department seems to have had Fort Pierre in mind as the natural point for the military settlement. Early that spring Gen. W. S. Harney was sent from Fort Leavenworth to the Platte with a force of two thousand men to chastise the Sioux for depredations upon im- migrant trains and he spent the summer in pro- tecting the Platte trail. In the meantime nego- tiations for the purchase of Fort Pierre were carried on by Quartermaster General Jesup, rep- resenting the war department, and General Charles Gratiot, representing Pierre Chouteau & Company, by which the sale of the fort was effected for the sum of forty-five thousand dollars. It was a good trade for the Chouteaus, but a dcar one for the government. The post was built twenty-three years before. The fur trade of the vicinity had constantly diminished until little or any was left and consequently the post had been permitted to fall into disrepair and from all evidences it was in a tumble-down con- dition in 1855. Major Wilson says the property
.
at that time would have been dear at forty-five hundred dollars. The department refused to ratify the purchase price, but took possession of the property and caused a survey to be made by a military board consisting of Majors Howe, Cady and Wessells, Surgeon Madison and Cap- tains Van Vliet and Turnley, who after a minute inspection reported that it would require the sum of twenty-two thousand twenty-two dollars to place it in repair, which sum they recom- mended should be deducted from the purchase price of the fort. Maj. Charles E. Galpin, who was at Fort Pierre, watching proceedings in the interest of P. Chouteau & Company, protested against this report most vigorously, arguing that the government did not mean to purchase a new fort and that three thousand dollars would defray the entire expense of placing the post in the state of repair contemplated by the contract, and agreed that the latter sum be deducted. No agreement was reached by the board and Galpin, and the entire matter was referred back to the principals for adjustment. After some months of dickering the government finally settled with Pierre Chouteau & Company by the payment, on February 8, 1856, of the sum of thirty-six thousand five hundred dollars, having deducted eight thousand five hundred dollars for necessary repairs to bring the property up to the condition contemplated by the contract of purchase and sale.
During the period occupied by the dispute over the condition and repairs of the fort, active
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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
preparations for its occupancy were being made by the department. Four companies of infantry from Carlisle and two companies from Fort Riley were ordered to proceed up the river to Fort Pierre and place the post in readiness for the arrival of General Harney with his forces from the Platte, in the autumn. The Second Infantry, from Fort Leavenworth, started on the steamboat "Australia." but that sank in nine feet
ort on the vessels during the long voyage and there was great distress and many deaths. Maj. H. W. Wessells was first in command. General Harney, having defeated the Sioux in the memorable battle at Ash Hollow, brought his forces across the country from the upper Platte, by way of the Upper White river and the Chey- enne and arrived at Fort Pierre on October 19, 1855. When Harney discovered the state of
PLAN OF OLD FORT PIERRE, 1855
11 & 12
10
9
18 Feet
15
Quarters
18 ft
12:10
Kitchens
10 ft
Quarters
18 feet
8
Houve
19 foot
25 feet
Store Nouse
18 ft
Quarters
73
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18 Ft
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18 feet
One Khalf Story Rooms Quarters
175 ft
18ft
House
S
91% feet
Store.
18 ft
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215斤
House
Maga-
zine
18 ft
3
6
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122 fest
Old Fort Pierre
118 feet
20 feet
Shed
22
100 feet
Shed
Scale of 48 ft to the inch, the' not with great accuracy.
5
20
10ft
19 feet
20ft
2
3
19 ft
Shops
Shops
Stables
B
18 feet
Block
Front Pickets
10 ft
10ft
House
23
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of water and the public stores were lost, though the troops and baggage were saved. The govern- ment then purchased two side-wheel steamboats for the expedition, the "William Baird" and the "Greycloud." In addition, all of the available craft at St. Louis was chartered, but the river was so low and navigation so difficult that they did not reach Fort Pierre until at dates ranging from July 7th to August 19th. Cholera broke
affairs at Pierre he was furious and delivered himself with characteristic vigor and when Harney became vigorous, subordinates usually took to cover. After he had calmed himself sufficiently he committed his views to writing : "In conclusion, it is unfortunate that the steam- ers purchased to transport the troops here were entirely too large for the purpose ; it is unfortu- nate that my orders were disobeyed in that pur-
North Pickets
18
Store House
21
80 feet
Shed
Quarter's
25 feet
17
Root
18 ft
BLOCK
16
14
38 feet
10 Ft
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59 feet
38 feet
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Coal House
7
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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
chase ; it is unfortunate that the troops did not arrive in this country earlier ; it is unfortunate that they were stopped here; and most unfortu- nate of all was the absence of a commander of experience, energy and industry." However, the best must be made of a bad situation and Harney, with great energy, set about the task. He had had a military reservation surveyed by Lieut. G. K. Warren, topographical engineer. This reservation lay along the river from Chantier to
of Chantier creek. Major Cady was sent ten miles up the west bank with four companies of the Sixth Regiment, where he established a winter cantonment, which he called Camp Bacon. Major Howe was sent down to the present site of Fort Randall with fifty men, where he passed the winter at a cantonment named Camp Canfield, and one company camped on Farm island. The total force was eight hundred and sixty-seven men. The motive for scattering them about was
ISLAN
R.80 WA
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HARNEY&TROOPS
OLD FORT PIERRE
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VICINITY
SKETCHED BY CHAS, E. DE LAND 1902
LESNAKE BUTTE
R. 29 E
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(485.7)
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LOWER
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OLD FT GEORGE
LOWER BRULE INDIAN RESERVATION
Antelope creeks and was twenty-two and a half miles long by twelve and a half wide and con- tained one hundred and seventy-five thousand acres. The fort would not begin to accommodate the force and accordingly four companies of the Second Regiment, under Major Wessells, were sent to establish themselves for the winter on the east side of the river at the lower end of Peoria bottom. Two other companies of the Second and two troops of dragoons were encamped at the upper end of Peoria bottom opposite the mouth
to secure a sufficient supply of forage and pastur- age and fuel.
Fort Pierre was now the furthest advanced of any that had been thrown into the Indian country. It was, by water, one thousand five hundred and twenty-five miles from St. Louis. It was three hundred twenty-five miles from Fort Laramie and three hundred fifty miles from Fort Ridgely; the nearest postoffice was at Sargeant's Bluffs, Iowa, three hundred twenty- five miles distant. The following were the
T.6 N.
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HARHEYS THOMAS (1856)
PEORIA
I53
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
officers and troops comprising this garrison. It will be observed that many men prominent in the rebellion of a few years later were here:
COMMANDING.
Brevet General William S. Harney, colonel Sec- ond Dragoons.
STAFF.
Brevet Major O. F. Winship, assistant adjutant general.
Captain Alfred Pleasanton, Second Dragoons, as- sistant adjutant general.
Captain Stewart VanVliet, assistant quartermas- ter.
Captain P. T. Turnley, assistant quartermaster, Fort Pierre.
Captain M. D. L. Simpson, subsistence depart- ment.
Lieutenant Colonel Timothy P. Andrews, pay de- partment.
Major Benjamin F. Harney, surgeon.
Captain David L. Magruder, assistant surgeon.
First Lieutenant George T. Balch, ordnance corps.
Second Lieutenant G. K. Warren, topographical engineer.
Second Lieutenant Marshall T. Polk, Second In- fantry, aide de camp.
Second Lieutenant E. McK. Hudson, Fourth Ar- tillery, aide de camp.
SECOND DRAGOONS.
Lieutenant-colonel, Philip St. Geo. Cooke. Major, M. S. Howe.
Adjutant, Thomas Wright.
Company D .- Captain, Lawrence P. Graham; first lieutenant, Samuel H. Starr; second lieutenant, John Pegram.
Company E .- First lieutenant, William D. Smith; second lieutenant, Henry B. Livingstone; brevet lieutenant, James Wheeler, Jr.
Company H .- Captain, Alfred Pleasanton; first lieutenant, John Buford (R. Q. M.); brevet second lieutenant, John B. Villipique.
Company K .- First lieutenant, William Steele: first lieutenant, Beverly N. Robertson; brevet second lieutenant, Thomas Hight.
SECOND INFANTRY.
Colonel, Francis Lee. Lieutenant-colonel, John J. Abercrombie.
Major, Hannibal Day.
Major, William R. Montgomery. Adjutant, Nathaniel H. McDean.
Regimental Quartermaster, George H. Paige. 11
Company A .- Captain C. S. Lovell; first lieuten- ant, Caleb Smith; second lieutenant, John O. Long.
Company B .- Captain, Nathaniel Lyon; first lieutenant, James Curtis.
Company C .- Captain, Nelson H. Davis; first lieu- tenant, Thomas Wright; second lieutenant, Marshall T. Polk (A. D. C.).
Company D .- Captain, William M. Gardner; first lieutenant, H. M. McLean (regimental adjutant) ; second lieutenant, John D. O'Connell.
Company G .- Captain, Henry W. Wessels; first lieutenant, George H. Paige (R. Q. M.); second lieu- tenant, Alfred E. Latimer.
Company I .- Captain, Delozier Davison; first lieutenant, Thomas W. Sweeney; second lieutenant, Henry A. Sargeant.
SIXTH INFANTRY.
Major, Albemarle Cady.
Company A .- Captain, John B. S. Todd; second lieutenant, Silas P. Higgins.
Company E .- Captain, Samuel Woods; first lieu- tenant, Darius D. Clark; second lieutenant, James A. Smith.
Company H .- Captain, Thomas Hendrickson; second lieutenant, Charles G. Sawtelle.
Company K .- Captain, Richard B. Garnett; sec- ond lieutenant, R. E. Patterson.
Company C .- Second lieutenant, John McCleary.
TENTH INFANTRY.
Company E .- Captain, Henry Heth; first lieu- tenant, Nathan A. M. Dudley.
FOURTH ARTILLERY.
Light Battery G .- Captain, Albin P. Howe; first lieutenant, Richard C. Drum; first lieutenant, Edward McK. Hudson; second lieutenant, John Mendenhall.
With the troops once disposed for the winter, General Harney took up the task of selecting the point for the permanent post to be erected. His first impression was that it should be on the west side of the Sioux and he established a camp there, a short distance below where the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway bridge, entering Sioux City from South Dakota, now crosses the Sioux. The site of old Fort Lookout was also in his mind, but finally he picked upon the Fort Randall site and built the permanent post there.
The selection of the site of Fort Randall was approved by the war department in a letter ad- dressed to General Harney by Adjutant General S. Cooper, on June 20, 1856, and the fort was named by General Harney, who in a letter to the
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HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
adjutant general dated June 30th, written from the camp on the Sioux river, says: "If the secre- tary should accord with me in the position I have selected, I desire to suggest the name of Fort Randall as its designation-it being a token of respect to the memory of a deceased officer of our army-the highly esteemed Colonel Daniel Randall, late deputy paymaster general."
While the site for the permanent fort was under consideration, and during the time of its
GEN. W. S. HARNEY. 1856.
construction, the troops were scattered along the river from Fort Pierre to the mouth of the Sioux, the strongest forces being at Fort Lookout and the Sioux camp.
On the 24th of October, 1856, Lieut. Col. J. J. Abercrombie arrived at Fort Pierre with a battalion of the Second Cavalry, consisting of about two hundred men. He came across country from Fort Ridgely, Minnesota, his route leading him up the Minnesota river
from Ridgely to the Lacqui Parle, thence entering Dakota just north of Gary, in Deuel county, to the Indian village of Chanopa (Two Woods lakes, near Altamont). Thence just north of Lake Kampeska, through Oak Gulch in Clark county, crossing the Jim on a bridge built for the purpose at Armadale, thence falling southwest to Snake creek at the mouth of the east fork, thence making a circular course to the northwest, crossing the main stream west of Faulkton and crossing the divide, passed down Medicine creek to the Knoll, whence they struck straight west to Snake Butte, where they crossed the river and passed down the west side to old Fort Pierre. General Sully, then a captain, ac- companied the battalion and made the map of the route. This was Sully's first introduction to the locality where he was eventually to win fame and where his name was to be permanently pre- served in the geography of the section. In this trip he mapped some of the streams and a por- tion of the topography of the county which now bears his name. Abercrombie remained at Pierre but a day or two, for on November 2d he reported with his force at Fort Lookout.
Captain Lovell, with his Company A, Second Infantry, garrisoned Fort Pierre during the win- ter of 1856-57, but with the breaking up of the river in the spring the steamer "H. D. Morton" arrived and embarked the men, together with every thing movable and thought to be valuable for the construction of the new fort, and Fort Pierre was abandoned. Major Charles E. Gal- pin secured the contract for taking down and removing the cottages to Randall, but he appro- priated so much of the material to his own use that the government retained more than half of the contract price for the work. When Galpin com- pleted his work the Indians took a hand at it and smashed the windows, broke down the doors and left the premises so dilapidated that when Cap- tain Paige visited the post the merest shell only remained. He made an estimate of the cost of repairs, but the war department decided that it was not worth the candle. On June 18, 1859. Captain W. F. Reynolds wrote in his diary : "As we passed old Fort Pierre, I noticed that but little
155
HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.
was left of the structure; the remains consisting of the shell of one row of houses." And so the famous old post became a matter of history only, and the end had come to the first period in the development of the great Dakota country, a period filled with tales of romantic interest, of adven- tures such as the vivid imaginations of romanti- cists have not surpassed ; of valor of daring do, of persistent progress under circumstances which try the temper of heroes, of accomplishments and of failures which go to make one of the tragically interesting pages of the great primitive American record.
The story of the period which we have now followed down to its termination may have little philosophic value to the student; it may have offered but little to point the way to future suc- cesses to the South Dakotan of today. The life and environment was so different from the life and surroundings of the present citizens of this commonwealth, even of the agricultural pioneers in the first years of the soil breaking, that it has few lessons for us. Nevertheless, it possesses for the thoughtful and conscientious student of our early history a thrilling interest which amply repays the study of it.
CHAPTER XXII
THE WARREN EXPLORATIONS.
When General Harney started up the Platte in the spring of 1855, with the intention of ultimately reaching the newly acquired military post of Fort Pierre in the next autumn, he ordered his topographical engineer, Lieutenant Gouvernor K. Warren, to proceed up the Mis- souri to Fort Pierre, and there survey off a suit- able military reservation. It is a pity that Gen- eral Harney had not been supported by other officers of the skill and energy of Lieutenant Warren. He received his orders on the 4th of June and thirty-nine days were occupied by the steamboat "Clara" in reaching Fort Pierre, but the Lieutenant utilized all of the time in noting the physical features of the Missouri valley. He had by the 7th of August completed the survey of the military reservation, which embraced three hundred ten square miles, had established its boundaries and mapped it topographically and was ready to start upon his return to Fort Leavenworth, which he proposed to do by travel- ing overland from Fort Pierre in a southerly course to Fort Kearney on the Platte. For this enterprise he was accompanied by eight men only. When it is remembered that his course lay directly through the country of the hostile Brules, against whom Harney was at that 1110- ment waging relentless warfare, something of the hazard of the enterprise may be understood. So hazardous was this enterprise considered that Major Montgomery, who had recently arrived at Fort Pierre in command of the first detachment of troops to arrive there, threatened to forbid it
as the military superior of the lieutenant, for he could see nothing but inevitable destruction in so rash and reckless an adventure. It was the 7th of August, in one of the dryest years Dakota has known, and War- ren reasoned that war parties of Sioux would keep in the shade while such heated and dry weather prevailed, and too that at that particular season they would be confined to their settlements making sweet corn. He therefore took all risks and started out, proceeding a few miles up the Teton and thence almost south, reached the White river on August 11th, the Niobrara on the 14th and arrived at Fort Kearney on the 24th without noteworthy adventure, having seen not a single Indian on the route, and having acquired an invaluable fund of information about a hitherto unknown portion of the country. Har- ney determined to keep Warren with him, and he, with a single day's rest, started up the Platte with his chief and was with him at the battle of Ash Hollow on September 3d and made a map of the famous battlefield. Thence they proceeded up the river to Fort Laramie, whence the com- mand started for Fort Pierre on September 29th, crossing over the divide and the headwaters of the Niobrara to White river, which they fol- lowed down to about the present location of Interior, whence they crossed over to the Teton, in the vicinity of Midland postoffice, and followed down the north bank of that stream to Fort Pierre, where they arrived on October 19, 1855. Remaining at the fort until October 27th, Lieu-
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