THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

THE GREAT SIOUX RESERVATION

The Fort Phil Kearney massacre led to the adjustment of existing difficulties with the Indians and to the Treaty of April 29, 1868, and the establishment of the Great Sioux Reservation. It was a treaty by Warrior Chiefs on the one side and illustrious soldiers, viz: Lieut. Gen. William T. Sherman, Brevet Maj. Gen. William S. Harney, Brevet Maj. Gen. Alfred H. Terry, Brevet Maj. Gen. Christopher C. Augur, Brevet Maj. Gen. John B. Sanborn, and several distinguished citizens.

Section I declared: "From this day forward all war between the parties to this agreement shall forever cease. The Government of the United States desires peace and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it.. The Indians desire peace and they now pledge their honor to maintain it.”

The United States agreed by this solemn treaty, ratified and proclaimed, that no person excepting certain designated persons, officers, agents and employees of the Government authorized so to do in order to discharge duties enjoined by law, should ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon or reside in the territory set aside for this reservation, the United States relinquishing to the Indians all claim to the land within such reservation. And if there was not enough to give each Indian 160 acres of arable land it was agreed they should have more.

The United States agreed to erect agency buildings, a saw mill and grist mill. Each head of a family was allowed to select 320 acres of land and each other person over eighteen years of age was allowed to select 80 acres of land and each male person over 18 years of age, after residing upon his selection for three years and making certain improvements: was to receive a patent for 160 acres. Assistance in farming was provided for and provision made for school houses and schools. Clothing was promised for 30 years for men, women and children. Food was also promised for four years after settling upon the land, together with oxen and utensils for use in operating their farms.

The Indians agreed to allow the construction of the Pacific Railroad and any railroad not passing over their reservation, and that they would not attack or molest any one or carry off white women or children from their homes nor kill and scalp white men.

And yet hostilities continued and eight years later the Custer massacre occurred, growing out of resistence by the Indians to the demands for opening of the Black Hills and the extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad. But the hostilities were at first mere depredations by lawless individual characters.

CHAPTER XXI

POLITICS IN INDIAN AFFAIRS

THE CUSTER MASSACRE AND THE CAUSES LEADING UP TO IT-VIOLATED INDIAN
TREATIES-STEAMBOAT LOADS OF SUPPLIES STOLEN-HOLDING UP THE INDIAN
AND MILITARY TRADERS—THE BELKNAP SCANDAL AND HOW IT WAS SPRUNG-
CUSTER'S LAST CHARGE-THE STORY OF THE BATTLE-LISTS OF THE DEAD AND
WOUNDED-RENO AT THE LITTLE BIG HORN-HEROISM OF DR. H. R. PORTER-
LIGHTNING TRIP OF THE STEAMER "FAR WEST"-CAPT. GRANT MARSH-DR. POR-
TER'S STORY-FIRST NEWS OF THE BATTLE-THE NEW YORK HERALD.

The story of the Custer massacre, June 25, 1876, is a part of the history of Dakota not only because of its effect in opening the western parts of the territory to settlement, the early construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and the forced amendment of the Sioux treaty creating the Great Sioux Reservation, but because of those slain, every one of whom had friends or acquaintances at Bismarck. Some had wives and children there, others near and dear ones. All had friends, and friendship seemed closer then, when Bismarck was a frontier city. The people at Bismarck, Jamestown, Valley City, Fargo, Moorhead and even Brainerd were neighbors, but the nearest and dearest friends of Bismarck and Bismarck people were at the military posts. The families of the officers and men at Fort A. Lincoln were part of the social life of Bismarck. Forts Rice, Stevenson and Buford were also always taken into consideration and were considered their next best friends and next nearest neighbors.

The Sixth United States Infantry had its headquarters at Fort Buford, the Seventeenth at Fort Rice. Both had companies at Bismarck or Fort A. Lincoln. Mrs. Gen. W. B. Hazen, later Mrs. Admiral Dewey, then a bride passed through Bismarck in the spring to join her husband at Fort Buford. She landed at Bismarck during the raging snow storm early in May, 1873, and passed up the river by ambulance to Fort Buford.

Only construction trains were then run between Fargo and the end of the track, some forty miles east of Bismarck, and there was no regular communication between there and Bismarck. The mails were carried by the quartermaster department, Bismarck receiving its supply from Fort A. Lincoln. Samuel A. Dickey was the postmaster at Bismarck and Mrs. Linda W. Slaughter, his assistant, had charge of the office. She was later appointed postmaster, resigning in February, 1876, when Col. Clement A. Lounsberry succeeded her and remained the postmaster until he resigned in 1885, the office having grown in the meantime from fourth to second class. Dickey was post trader at Fort A. Lincoln. Col. Robert Wilson was in charge of the trader's store.