Doane Robinson

“ In a few minutes two hundred Indian men and women and children, with sixty soldiers, were lying dead and wounded on the ground. The tepees had been torn down by the shells and some of them were burning above the helpless wounded, and the surviving handful of Indians were flying in wild panic, pursued by hundreds of maddened soldiers. The pursuit was simply a massacre, in which fleeing women, with infants in their arms, were shot down after resistance had ceased and when almost every warrior was stretched dead or dying on the ground. ”

“ Thousands of despondent men resolved at once to recover their fortunes in southern Dakota. The action of the military in preventing the entry of the miners into the Black Hills cooled the ardor of many of them, but that very obstacle made the people believe that the army was guarding a vast storehouse of wealth, and that fortunes were awaiting them. Some, hardy enough to pass the barrier, sent out reports of rich finds, and this increased the determination of very many to get into the Hills. ”

“ Just before daylight a violent thunderstorm passed over, and just as the thunder and lightning was dying away, the Rees, without warning, made a desperate attack upon the white men. Ashley rallied his men to the defense as best he could, but the advantage was all with the Indians. The fight lasted fifteen minutes, and at its close twelve white men lay dead and eleven others were severely wounded, at least one of them mortally. Ashley got the survivors into his boats, cut loose, and allowed them to drift down river, out of range of the enemy. ”

“ The present party consisted of four of these bands, one of which was the dog, the most esteemed in war, being composed of young men under thirty and noted for their prowess. It is engaged on the most desperate occasions. The bands marched in separate bodies under their several leaders. The warriors on foot came first, in platoons of ten or twelve abreast; then the horsemen. Each band bore as an ensign a spear or bow decorated with beads, porcupine quills, and painted feathers. Each bore its trophies of scalps, elevated on poles, their long black locks streaming in the wind. ”

“ The midsummer of the year 1862 came on with a bountiful harvest, and every prospect was most pleasing in the young settlements along the Missouri and on the Sioux. New settlers had come to them, new homes were springing up on every hand, the flocks were thriving, and every one indulged in rosy dreams of a bright and prosperous future ”

“ Under the terms of the treaty of 1868, which had created the great Sioux reservation, it was provided that no part of that reservation should be sold or disposed of unless three fourths of all the adult male Indians interested in the reservation should sign the treaty of sale or relinquishment. Feeling certain that it would be impossible to get three fourths of the Indians to sign the treaty of sale, the commissioners decided not to ask the Indians to sell their lands at all, but to sell the right to mine gold and other metals in the Black Hills. ”

“ To the people of southern Dakota, after the long years of dreary struggle through Indian troubles, grasshoppers, and bad crops, the Black Hills gold excitement seemed a godsend. The settlements along the Missouri were thronged with determined strangers waiting for an opportunity to slip into the Hills. ”

“ We learn there that in an ancient time a great ocean rolled over South Dakota; that some great convulsion must have occurred deep in the earth which threw up the Black Hills and other western mountains; that the ocean swept over these hills, grinding them up and washing them down across its floor toward the eastern part of the state, thus laying down a formation or stratum now compressed into hard rock which is the lowest of the many formations studied by the geologist. ”

“ The discovery of gold in the Black Hills had turned the eyes of the world upon South Dakota, and many who had come out to find gold had found the boundless prairies of fertile soil and were led to believe that they were intended by Providence for the happy homes of men. ”

“ Captain Lewis sent for the child and it was brought to him. He wrapped it in the American flag and made a speech in which he prophesied that the boy would live to become eminent among his people and a great friend of the white men. His prophecy came true, for the boy grew up to be the famous Struck by the Ree, chief of the Yankton tribe, who was probably the means of saving the entire settlement at Yankton from massacre in the War of the Outbreak in 1863. All his life Struck by the Ree took great pride in his Americanism, and in the fact that he was first dressed in an American flag. ”

“ The constitution was submitted to the people at an election on the first day of October. They approved it, and on the second day of November, 1889, President Harrison issued his proclamation, admitting South Dakota as a state in the Union. North Dakota was admitted as another state by the same proclamation.
Statehood was welcomed by the people with real rejoicing. As a territory the people had no part in the election of a President, nor in the legislation by Congress, and all of the conditions of territorial life tended to make a people dependent rather than self-reliant. ”

“ Colonel John Miller, with a detachment of the Third Infantry, was present at the council, and at the request of Governor Clark, Black Buffalo was buried with military honors. Indeed he was given the honors of an officer of high rank, and the ceremonies evidently made a deep impression upon the assembled red men, for Big Elk, chief of the Omahas, who delivered one of the funeral orations, said:—
"Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come and always comes out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. ”

“ As they drew near to the village the old men and the women began to meet them, and now a scene ensued that proved the fallacy of the old fable of Indian apathy and stoicism. Parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, met with the most rapturous expressions of joy; while wailings and lamentations were heard from the relatives of the killed and wounded. The procession, however, continued on with slow and measured step, in cadence to the solemn chant, and the warriors maintained their fixed and stern demeanor. ”

“ Wovoka's teachings spread rapidly among the Indians of North America, and as they spread they were given new significance. Wovoka was an Indian Messiah, who had come to restore the dead to life, bring back the buffalo and other game to the prairie, drive away the whites, and cause the Indians to live a life of ideal happiness. In a few months the Sioux at Pine Ridge agency had learned of this wonderful Messiah, and so interested were they that a great council was held to discuss the matter, in which all the leading men, including Red Cloud, took part. ”

“ Almost daily some miner would creep back from the Hills with exaggerated stories of the wealth of the diggings. Every one was sure that the treaty for the opening of the Black Hills would be made at once, when there would be wealth for everybody. ”

“ Red Cloud had been entirely successful and obtained everything he was fighting for. It is the only instance in the history of the United States in which the government has gone to war and afterward made a peace conceding everything demanded by the enemy and exacting nothing in return. From the date of this peace Red Cloud faithfully observed its terms and, according to Indian standards, lived a good life. ”

“ He fell from his pony exhausted and paralyzed, but he had accomplished his purpose in the line of his duty.
Mr. Brown, in 1905, was still living, a respected citizen of the town which bears his name, Brown Valley, Minnesota, between Lakes Traverse and Big Stone. He never recovered from the evil effects of his awful exertion, and was never able to take a natural step from that day. Mr. Brown was born in South Dakota, but a few miles from his present home. His ride merits a place in history beside those famous ones which have been preserved in the songs and stories of the people. ”

“ Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our path. They grow everywhere. What a misfortune for me that I could not have died to-day, instead of the chief who lies before us. The trifling loss my nation would have sustained in my death would have been doubly paid for in the honors of my burial. ”

“ When the American people learned of this secret cession of the Louisiana country to France, the western pioneers in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee were greatly concerned and aroused. The great Napoleon had just made himself the head of the French government; his fame as a soldier and conqueror had spread over the world, and the American frontiersman did not like to have him for a near neighbor. ”

“ The great king of all the American fur trade was John Jacob Astor of New York city. When the reports of Lewis and Clark's successful trip came to Astor, he immediately determined to establish a great fur depot on the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Columbia River, and to dispatch two expeditions to that point, one to go by sea around South America, the other to go overland. ”

“ Sorely as were the people of Vermilion disappointed, their sense of humor was too great to permit them to mourn long over the laughable mistake. "Governor" Bigelow lived with them for many years and in the fullness of a ripe old age died among them, respected by every one; but Yankton became the temporary and the permanent capital of Dakota territory.
After setting up his headquarters at Yankton, Governor Jayne had a census taken, which showed 2402 white people in Dakota territory; and called an election for the choice of a delegate to Congress and members of a legislature. ”

“ These heaps of ice had become so deep that they could not support their own weight, and so began to run or spread out as you may have seen a large lump of dough spread when turned from the kneading pan to the table. When we examine a piece of ice, it seems to be so hard and brittle that it does not seem possible for ice to spread in this way; nevertheless, scientific men have shown beyond doubt that ice does spread when placed under a great weight.
The spreading of this ice sent it down from the north-east until it had run far down into the South Dakota country. ”

“ Under the President's call for troops South Dakota's quota was nine hundred and twenty-five men, but she furnished in all twelve hundred and fifty, having a larger percentage of volunteers to population than any other state. A regiment of the National Guard had been in existence here since the territorial days, receiving more or less state aid, and in anticipation of a declaration of war, after the destruction of the battleship Maine, in Havana Harbor, this regiment was recruited to its full allowance of men, one thousand and eight in all. ”