War Activities.— The people of South Dakota responded promptly and liberally to every demand made upon her for support of the war.
Early History—Exploration, Settlement and Development.— When in 1803 France ceded to the United States her possessions in the Northwest, the Territory of North and South Dakota was an unknown and trackless wilderness inhabited only by wild beasts and savage Indians. A few adventurers such as LeSueur, Trudeau and Loisel had traversed this land to some extent in their traffic with the Indians and in some instances attempted set tlement, but these were soon abandoned. All this region was marked on the maps of those days an gunexplorec? country. In 1804 Lewis and Clark visited the Territory. Their records show that in August of that year (1804) they camped for three days at Yankton where the Yankton or James River empties into the Missouri. From there they went up the Missouri, exploring that river through the en tire Territory of Dakota then up the Yellow stone and on to the Pacific. The first white set tlement of record in the State was made on 11 Nov. 1794 in what is now Charles Mix County, by J. B. Trudeau, but this did not become permanent, neither did the settlement on the Missouri River at Big Bend made in 1797 by Registre Loisel. Fort Pierre was settled in 1817 by Joseph LaFramboise and has remained to this day.
The American Fur Company made incur sions into the Territory as early as 1811. In June 1831 a steamboat built by this fur com pany found its way to Fort Pierre. This was the first steamboat to navigate the upper Missouri and was named the Yellowstone. This greatly accelerated fur trading and other commercial relations with the Indians. The Yellowstone made another trip up the Missouri through South Dakota in 1832 and this time went as far north as the mouth of the Yellow stone River. Among its passengers on this trip was George Catlin, the famous painter and ethnologist. Mr. Catlin spent some time at Fort Pierre during the summer of 1832, study ing the Indian in his primitive life, and again visited the State in 1836, while inspecting the work of the Indians at Pipestone quarry in Western Minnesota. In 1838 Gen. John C. Fremont, the noted pathfinder, explored the eastern portion of the State, taking levels of prominent points and discovering and naming many lakes. The next year (1839) he again visited the State, going by steamboat to Fort Pierre and from there Northeast to Devils Lake, N. D. He was accompanied this time by Joseph N. Nicollet, geographer and astronomer. By 1840 the activity of the American Fur Com pany had decreased the buffalo herds and fur bearing animals of the Dakota Territory, and the fur industry was fast losing its importance in this region. Ten or 12 years more, or by
1855, the fur trade of Dakota was about over and the great buffalo herds of the plains had nearly disappeared. Fort Pierre was sold that year by the American Fur Company to the United States government and thereafter be came a military post. Between the Fort Pierre settlement in 1817 and that of Sioux Falls in 1858 there seems to have been little attention given to the fertile prairies of this great Territory. The settlement at Sioux Falls in 1856 opened the way for rapid and permanent occupation of the rich bottomlands of the Big Sioux River. The next year (1857) the Minne sota legislature chartered the Dakota Land Company, and from that on settlements were made at various places on the eastern side of the State and along the Missouri River.
A territorial government was provided by Congress in 1861, after a long controversy be tween citizens of the Territory and Congres sional representatives from Minnesota, the lat ter claiming that Dakota belonged to and was a part of the Minnesota Territory. Indian war fare interfered very seriously with the settle ment and development of this new land for a number of years. By 1862 there were many settlers established along the Missouri and the Sioux rivers. During harvest season that year (1862) the Santee Sioux on the Minnesota River took to the warpath and massacred white settlers wherever they could find them. Near Sioux Falls these blood-thirsty savages at tacked and killed Judge Joseph Amidon and his son in the hayfield. This caused terror in the hearts of nearby settlers who left their stock and crop and fled for their lives. At this time the Indians destroyed many homes and large numbers of stock, also grain in abundance just ready for the harxest. Another outbreak oc curred in 1865 when much property was again destroyed and some settlers killed. In 1869 a treaty was signed between the Indians of Dakota Plains and the Federal authorities, but this did not last many years. By June 1876 further outbreaks occurred and the govern ment sent a large force of Federal troops under General Custer to quell the outbreak, but this brave general with some 300 of his men, were killed before peace could be arranged with the Indians. This, however, was about the last of Indian warfare and after that date settlers suffered but little from attacks by Indians.