Sicangu/Lakota Historical Timeline

(this is a work in progress)

Taken from the following sources: Among the Sioux of Dakota by D.C. Poole; With My Own Eyes by Susan Bordeaux Bettelyoun; The Brule Indian Agencies: 1868-1878 by Richmond Lee Clow in SD Historical Collections, Vol. 36; Brule: the Sioux People of the Rosebud by Paul Dyck; The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians by Francis Paul Prucha; Spotted Tail's Folk by George E. Hyde; The Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman; and Sioux of the Rosebud by Henry and Jean Hamilton.

1670-1700 “…the Sioux were more faithful to their promises, friends to peace, benevolent and hospitable to strangers, humane to their conquered and captive enemies ...” Emma Helen Blair's interpretation (1911) of Nicolas Perrot and the Jesuit Relations descriptions of the "Sioux"

1819 The Upper Missouri Agency was established to maintain responsibility for any tribes along the Missouri River.

1823 Spotted Tail was born near present-day Pine Ridge, SD.

1836 The Sioux, Ponca, and Cheyenne become part of the Upper Missouri Agency.

1846

• April 28 - Francis Parkman and his relative, Quincy Adams Shaw, left St. Louis, MO "on a tour of curiosity and amusement to the Rocky Mountains." Henry Chatillon, a son-in-law of the Oglala Leader Bull Bear, was their guide and hunter.
• June 8 - Parkman's group reached the south fork of the Platte River.
• June 20 - Parkman's group left Fort Laramie to reach Whirlwind's camp where Henry Chatillon's wife was seriously ill.
• July - Chatillon's wife, Bear Robe dies early in the month. His children stayed with their mothers' family.

1849

• July – Gold miners heading for the California gold fields brought Asiatic cholera into the plains. The Lakota and Cheyenne on the Republican and Solomon rivers fled north. Estimates on the number of Sicangu deaths caused by cholera range from 500 to 3,500.
• July - Trader James Bordeaux was near the North Platte River with 10 lodges of Sicangu and 30 more lodges were living nearby with their trader Joseph Bissonnette. These camps were both recovering from the cholera epidemic.

1854 August 19 Brave Bear/Conquering Bear, leader of the Sicangu, was killed when he refused to give up a Minneconjou visitor who had killed a cow left along the road near Fort Laramie by a Mormon emigrant. The Sicangu then killed Lt. Grattan and his 28 men.

1855 September 3 Little Thunder's camp (Brave Bear’s successor) of 250 is attacked by the U. S. military led by General Harney on Blue Water Creek near present-day Ash Hollow, Nebraska. 86 Sicangu were killed and 70 women and children were taken hostage in this retalliation for the Grattan affair.

1855 September 18 Spotted Tail and 2 of Brave Bear/Conquering Bear's brothers surrendered for the Grattan killing and were sent to Fort Leavenworth for the winter.

1856 September - Spotted Tail and Brave Bear/Conquering Bear's brothers received a presidential pardon and returned home.

1862 July 28 the Santee uprising occured in Minnesota.

1864 General Alfred Sully chased the Santee into eastern Dakota and fought with the Lakota at Kill Deer Mountain.

1866 The Upper Missouri Agency was located near Crow Creek on the Missouri River in Dakota Territory. Jurisdiction was restricted to the Lower Yanktonai and Sicangu living nearby.

1868 The Fort Laramie Treaty forced military rule upon the Lakota through the Agency system by establishing the Great Sioux Reservation which comprised all the land in present day South Dakota west of the Missouri River. Three smaller sub-agencies were created to better serve the needs of the Lakota and the government. All were located on the west bank of the Missouri River to ensure easy transportation of supplies and troops. Grand River was the northern most agency, Cheyenne River was the central agency, and the southern Whetstone Agency served both the Sicangu and the Oglala. Spotted Tail refused to settle along the river because of the rampant alcohol trafficing and the demoralization of the people involved with alcohol. Instead his camp roved 25-100 miles west along the south fork of the White River.

• August - Sicangu and Oglala bands began arriving at the mouth of Whetstone Creek along the west bank of the Missouri River. Among the first to arrive were the whites and Halfbreeds from Fort Laramie followed by others like Swift Bear who had been hunting in Nebraska. The whites from Fort Laramie dubbed the new settlement "Harney City" in honor of the General Harney, the military commander of all three sub-agencies.
• Fort Randall, 30 miles south of Whetstone, housed the agency provisions the first months of its operation.

1869

• Winter of 1868-1869: More that 100 elders and children die because of the poor conditions at Whetstone.
• April 10 Congress authorized President Grant to establish the Board of Indian Commissioners in an attempt to clean up the corruption in the Indian service. This move followed the post-Civil War philosophy of American evangelical revivalism represented by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The interdenominational benevolent organization worked closely with the government and reflected the Protestant character of American Christianity.
• Susan Bordeaux Bettelyoun, daughter of James Bordeaux and Huntkalutawin (daughter of Lone Dog), became the translator at the first school at Whetstone.
• October 28 Spotted Tail killed Big Mouth the Oglala leader of the Loafer Band. Thigh and Big Mouth's brother Blue Horse became leaders of the Loafer Band.

1870

• Many nonreservation Lakotas refused to settle on reservation lands and were labeled "hostile" by the government.
• In May Spotted Tail, Two Strike, Swift Bear, and Iron Shell travel to Washington to see President Ulysses S. Grant. Spotted Tail was allowed to establish a Whetstone subagency near present-day Pine Ridge, SD.
• June-July: drought conditions destroyed the 30 acres of crops planted by Swift Bear's people.

1871

• June 24th Agent Washburn arrived at Little White Clay to re-establish Whetstone Agency.
• August 31 Agent Washburn moved Whetstone agency to the Little White Clay south of the Big White Clay in Nebraska.

1874 The Upper Missouri Agency becomes the Crow Creek Agency.

1880 Spotted Tail visited his children at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. However, he removed them all from the school and took them home to Rosebud when he found that they had been baptized as Episcopalians, given Christian names, dressed like soldiers, and were not learning English.

1881

• July 20 - Hunkpapa Lakota leader Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (Sitting Bull) and 200 of his followers surrendered to the U.S. Army at Fort Buford, ND after returning from Canada. It was five years after the Lakota victory at the Little Bighorn. They were transferred to Fort Randall, Dakota Territory where they lived as prisoners of war for two years before being given land for Standing Rock Indian Agency.
• August 5th - Crow Dog kills Spotted Tail. Two Strike succeeds Spotted Tail as chief.
• September - Alice Fletcher traveled to Dakota to live with Sioux women and record their way of life. See her online diary here.

1889 There were more than 5,000 people registered at Rosebud Agency.

1889 May 4th the Crook Commission held a council at the Agency in front of the log house of Louis Roubideaux, the interpreter. The Sicangu were forced to give up nine million acres of their land.

1897 A portion of a letter from Chas. E. McChesney, United States Indian Agent, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, describing the cattle losses resulting from the previous winter.