So remote was Dakota from railway and telegraph (though only half way across the continent) that the news did not reach Yankton for eleven days. To spread the good tidings only one home newspaper was abroad in the land." The Dakotian, F. M. Ziebach, editor, Yankton, was to come the next June in good time to extend the right hand of patriotic, if not political, fellowship to the first executive of Dakota Territory.

THE FLIGHT OF PIONEERS

The territory was immense, the largest organized in the United States. It extended west, far beyond bounds of white settlement, to the undefined line called the Rocky Mountains. It included the present Montana and the eastern slopes of Idaho, but its people were only a few thousands-2,402; fewer than the numbers in almost the least of the many Indian tribes that used its 220,000,000 acres for shifting lodging camps and hunting grounds, unwilling to make farms and stock ranches upon them. Only the lower and branching valleys of the Red, the Big Sioux, the James rivers, all of the Vermillion and an eastern part of the Missouri, with the intervening uplands, were open legally to white settlement. And upon the less part of them had settlers placed their "shacks," built their small farm houses, staked out town sites, or founded incipient cities. Most of the people had come with slender capital; many on foot with light luggage. Little wealth had yet been won. The chief source of it, then known, was the land, and "holding down a claim" was the main employment of the earnest, toiling, hopeful pioneers who had come to stay, talk least of their privations, and make most of their opportunities.

It was a red letter day, May 27, 1861, when Yankton, the future capital, and her guests gave welcome to William Jayne, M. D.," the governor, an intimate friend and fellow townsman of President Lincoln, who had appointed him. There was no mistake in sending this accomplished and loyal gentleman to govern an intelligent, enterprising and patriotic people. They may have wondered why all the federal officers, except the secretary, John Hutchinson, of Minnesota, were imported from distant states, but that fact came by an old rule. They were law-abiding at a time when law-breaking and revolt were rending the nation in

twain, and were soon to disturb the Territory. First the southron, then the Sioux, had their restraining effects upon the development of a country then so dependent upon immigration, peaceful industries and the westward extension of railroads.

The memorable ice gorge below Yankton, and the high flood in the valley, in March, 1862, did not prevent the first legislature from convening on St. Patrick's day. The nine members of the council and the thirteen representatives met in private houses, held sessions for sixty days, enacted a creditable code of laws, and had the first free "capital fight" (worse than a flood), Yankton being the winner, over Sioux Falls," the oldest, and Vermi!lion, the largest, town in South Dakota.

Already the call to arms for service in the great national conflict had reached Dakota. Among the volunteers who responded was Nelson Miner, for whom a county was afterwards named." With due authority he organized Company A, First Dakota Cavalry, became its captain and served three years and a half, becoming one of the most noted Indian fighters in the West. Another later company was mustered into the United States service under Captain William Tripp. These warriors were all needed on Dakota soil.

The August of 1862 began with gladdening promise. The crops were fine and new settlers were coming in encouraging numbers. The Yankton Sioux and the Poncas were friendly to the white people, and were trusted as protectors against the hostile tribes along the upper Missouri River. Yet certain roving Indians were foraging in the Sioux Valley. On one of their raids, August 25, 1862, Judge Amidon and his son were shot down in their cornfield near Sioux Falls, the lad being nearly covered with arrows. A squad of Captain Miner's cavalry was out scouring the country, when a party of Indians came over the bluffs, fired into their camp and fled to the river, where they hid in the high grass and the woods.

46_2

Not yet had the people of Sioux Falls heard of the dreadful Sioux massacre going on in western Minnesota, but soon two couriers from Yankton came with the alarming news and with orders from Governor Jayne, commanding the soldiers to march at once thither and bring with them all the settlers in the valley. The fear was that Little Crow and his allies might send their

braves from the Minnesota River into Dakota. At once there was a stampede of white people, taking with them what goods they could readily pack, and most of their live stock, and leaving their crops, their houses and their hopes of fortune in Dakota, perhaps forever.

Yankton became a place of refuge for the frightened pioneers, who did not all take steamers and leave the country. The remaining Yanktonians gave welcome to all who came from near and far settlements. A sod stockade was thrown around the printing office of the Dakotian, and Editor Ziebach was provisionally "chief of the army of Fort Yankton." Sixty brave men guarded the capital, but no Indians came near enough to draw a random shot from their guns. Thus several weeks passed, and the panic was calmed in that quarter.

In response to the governor's call for men to enlist as the militia of the territory, about four hundred citizens responded and left their fields, shops, stores and offices, to protect the frontier homes and families from the expected attack. They furnished their own outfit, even the fire-arms. Some fortifications were thrown up at a few points. But where was the enemy in any organized force? Skulking Indians, here and there, were waylaying a defenseless man, robbing a mail carrier, killing a stage driver or wounding a ferryman. But Little Crow," as it was learned later, had reason to hold his braves in Minnesota, and when defeated to slip away straight toward Manitoba. The Sioux, trading at Fort Pierre," had not put on the war paint at his request. At that point the government had troops, which were strongly reinforced in the next June, when General Sully built at Pierre (east side of the river) the fort" which bore his name, and which was afterwards removed to its present location. nearly opposite the mouth of the Big Cheyenne.

Never be it forgotten that the old chief, Struck-by-the-Ree, was standing heroically between the remnant of settlers and the more savage of his people, among whom was his rival, Smutty Bear, and the marauding Santees. Fifty of his men were enlisted as guards and scouts by Governor Faulk, who afterwards said: "This venerable chief never quarreled with the whites, never stole from them, but lived and died at peace with them. He was really a great man. I have heard him in many a council,

and once in a conversation with me he extended both his hands and said, in a voice and manner which I shall never forget: 'Not a drop of white man's blood is on these hands.' It was a most touching scene."

Late in the autumn of 1862, Captain Miner and about twenty men rode from Yankton across the deserted country to see what was left of Sioux Falls. They were prudent; they camped three miles south of the town. The captain's reconnoitre by moonlight, without the sign of a live Indian, encouraged the owners of property there to view the desolate scene by daylight. They all started in the dawning; they reached the top of the south hills, and to their surprise a party of mounted Indians arose out of the valley, and formed in battle array on the north bluffs. The Indians were largely in the majority, but the captain and his men knew there is often a tremendous power in earnest minorities. With supreme audacity, that alone was their safety, they dashed forward. The Sioux, thinking that the skirmishers of an army were after them, broke in disorder for the woods. The pursuers overtook one rascal who had run his pony into a bog, leaped off and fled for life. While he was protesting that he was a "heap good injun," they ended his career on earth.” The rest of his band were now in the bush, or in taller woods. The captain led his men back into the devastated town, where only three houses remained unburnt. They gathered up a few relics of the ruined city, and wisely rode back fifty miles, with only one brief halt at the Vermillion River.

Living men, brave at the time, and ever sympathetic women, are now apt to find humor in "the great scare." They recall many a ludicrous incident in the hurried flight, when the dusky foes were nowhere near in strong force on the war path; but the settlers found it serious enough. Certainly the stampede almost depopulated South Dakota, and the Sioux Valley remained almost deserted until May, 1865, when Fort Dakota was established at Sioux Falls, and kept well manned for four years.

IMMIGRATION RENEWED

53

One January morning, 1861, a stranger was viewing the town lots of Yankton, mostly vacant, when fifteen of the hardest roughs employed in the river trade saw him passing the rude