Souix History, was passed down from generation to generation by tribal historians, elders, and oral storytellers. A written account was made of the important events each year with pictographs painted on hides, which were called winter counts or story robes.
The Great Sioux Nation traces its roots to the “Oceti Sakowin” or “Seven Council Fires.” Each of the allied bands within this nation spoke one of three different dialects. The Santee spoke Dakota; the Yankton, Nakota; and the Teton, Lakota. Many Sioux still speak their original languages today, either as a first language with the older members of this tribe, or as a second language for the younger members, who now speak primarily English.
There are several theories concerning the origin of the Sioux Nation. Lakota creation stories trace the nation’s birth to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Tribal oral stories say the Sioux once lived within the earth, underground, and they emerged to the surface through Wind Cave in South Dakota.
Historians say the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota migrated to the area from the woodlands of Minnesota.
By the end of the 18th century, the Sioux Nation was at the height of its power, dominating the northern Plains. Many of the tribes followed the buffalo herds, which provided them with food, clothing and shelter. Buffalo were considered sacred because of this life-giving role.
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 created the Great Sioux Reservation, which reached from the Missouri River to the Wyoming-Dakota border. After gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874, the government tried to convince the Native Americans to sell the Black Hills, which are considered a sacred place to the Sioux, since this is where their creation stories say they emerged onto the Earth’s surface.
When that effort failed, the government ordered all Indians living outside the reservations to return to them by Jan. 31, 1876, or be sent back by force. Among those who refused to follow the government order to return to the reservations were two groups led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. When Custer attacked them on June 25, 1876, he and his entire command were killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn in southeastern Montana, near the present day Crow Reservation.
In 1890, the Ghost Dance religion brought renewed hope to the people of the Sioux Nation. Dancers believed the buffalo would return, white people would go away, and ancestors who had died would come back to life. The whites were frightened by these dances, mistaking them for war dances.
On Dec. 29, 1890, as the 7th Cavalry searched Big Foot’s band for weapons at Wounded Knee, a shot rang out, triggering the massacre of nearly 300 Lakota Sioux, the majority of which were old men, women and children. The event marks the last major conflict between the U.S. Army and the Sioux Nation.
Today, there are nine Sioux tribal governments within the state of South Dakota, six with reservation boundaries and three without. They include the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Yankton Sioux Tribe. There are also Sioux tribes in Minnesota, and two branches in Canada.
Sioux History Timeline
| 1600 | The area that is now Minnesota was inhabited mainly by the Dakota or Sioux Indian Nation. |
| 1659: | Pierre-Esprit Radissonand his brother-in-law, Médard Chouart Des Groseillers, leave Trois-Rivières to go trade furs in the west. They reach the territory of Wisconsin and are the first white men to make contact with the Sioux nation. They later convince British merchants to found the Hudson’s Bay Company. |
| 1679 | Looking for the Pacific Ocean by way of the Great Lakes, Daniel Greysolon, sieur du Luth made his way to a great Sioux village on Mille Lacs Lake and claimed the area for France. |
| 1743: | Two sons of explorer La Vérendrye survive their father and reach the Rockies, encountering the Sioux along the way. New France is then an enormous empire that goes from Hudson Bay to the Mexican Gulf (through all the american midwest), and from Acadie to the Rockies. |
| 1743 – 1749 | The acquisition of horses from the South and guns from the east forever change the way Plains Indians (Sioux, Crow, Blackfoot, Arapaho, and Cheyenne) hunt, fight, and live. |
| 1762 | After the defeat of the French by the British in the French and Indian War, the control of the Minnesota area east of the Mississippi went to the British and to Spain went the lands west of the River. Under the British, trade flourished. The competing rivals in the fur trade, the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Companies dotted the waterways of Minnesota with forts and trading posts. |
| 1763 | After seven years of warfare between the French and English in North America (the French and Indian War), King George III issues a proclamation banning any colonial settlement on Indian lands west of the Appalachian mountains. Many colonists ignore the proclamation. |
| 1771 | The first major small pox outbreak. |
| 1775 | Standing Buffalo and his band of Teton Sioux reach the BlackHills. |
| 1775-1783 | In the aftermath of the American Revolution, the Northwest Ordinance of the new U.S. government declares that “the utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians” in the U.S. territory west of King George III’s old 1763 Proclamation Line. With the closing of the Revolutionary War in the treaty of 1783, the area came under the control of the new United States. |
| 1787 | Congress passes Northwest Ordinance declaring that the “land and property [of Indian tribes] shall never be taken from them without their consent.” |
| 1787 | Under provisions of the new U.S. Constitution, Congress assumes the power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and with Indian tribes.” |
| 1789 – 1850 | As a result of 245 treaties negotiated with Indian tribes, the U.S. government obtains 450 million acres of land for less than 20 cents an acre, or slightly less than $90 million. |
| 1803 | Tribes of the Louisiana Purchase Territory officially came under U.S. jurisdiction. |
| 1826 | Treaty of 1826-Assiniboine |
| 1837 | Second major smallpox outbreak |
| 1834 | Congress reserves most of the trans-Mississippi west for exclusive use by Indians. |
| 1842 | First wagons cross Sioux country on Oregon Trail. |
| 1851 | Fort Laramie Treaty between the United States and plains tribes recognizes Sioux ownership of 60 million acres of land, but allocates Powder River and Big Horn country to other tribes. |
| 1851 | Treaty with Assiniboines, Blackfeet, Gros Ventres and Crows for a hunting area–Rocky Mountains east to the mouth of the Yellowstone. |
| 1852 | May 24, Treaty of Fort Laramie Amended. |
| 1854 & 1861 | Nebraska Territory defined. |
| 1853 – 1857 | The United States acquires 157 million more acres of Indian land as a result of 52 treaties, almost all of which are violated by the government. |
| 1855 | October 17, Treaty with Blackfeet Nation. (Defines and restricts the hunting grounds of the Assiniboine. Refinement upon the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty.) |
| 1855 | Fort Stewart: Built on the Missouri River near present Blair, MT built by Frost, Todd & Co. |
| 1857 | Sitting Bull kills “Hohe” family by Poplar River |
| 1860 | Fort Kipp built on the Misouri River above the mouth of the Big Muddy, built by Jim Kipp. |
| 1860 | Mining Boom-first large non-Indian population for Montana. |
| 1861 | Fort Poplar-Built on the Missouri River near the Poplar River, built with help of Chas. Larpenture. |
| 1861 & 1864 | Dakota Territory defined. |
| 1862. | Congress passes the Pacific Railway Act authorizing the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Congress passes the Homestead Act granting free 160 acre tracts of public land on the Great Plains or in the Southwest to anybody who will occupy and farm the land five years. By 1870, more than 400,000 permanent homesteaders on the Great Plains own their land, almost doubling the Indian population of 239,000 in the trans-Mississippi West. |
| 1862 | Sioux wars begin with Santee uprising in Minnesota. Minnesota Massacre: Begin movement of Sioux toward Montana. |
| 1862 | Homestead Act passes Congress. |
| 1865 | End of Civil War. |
| 1865 | United States negotiates treaty with “friendly” Sioux bands. |
| 1866 | Indian lands are confiscated for railroad construction under the Railway Enabling Act, including a tract that deliberately runs through the sacred areas of the Sioux Pipestone Quarry lands. |
| 1866 | United States enters negotiations with hostile Sioux over travel routes to Montana. Red Cloud declares war when United States moves to fortify Bozeman Trail. Sioux annihilate Colonel William Fetterman and his troops. |
| 1867 & 1868 | Indian Peace Commission negotiates final treaties with Indians (last of 370 Indian Treaties on August 13, 1868.) |
| 1868 | Fort Buford military reserve established from the Assiniboine land. |
| 1868 &1869 | Addendum: Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, And River Crow assigned to Upper Milk River Agency. |
| 1868 | Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 establishes Great Sioux Reservation as permanent home of the Sioux Nation and preserves Powder River and Big Horn country as “unceded Indian territory.” |
| 1868 | End of Treaty Making Period |
| 1869 | January 2, Sitting Bull captured mail carrier between Fort Hall and Fort Peck |
| 1868-1869 | Sub-Agency built to furnish rations to the lower Assiniboine, Sioux, Gros Ventre and River Crows; located south of the Milk River and called Fort Browning. |
| 1870 | Baker Massacre. |
| 1870 | Grant’s Peace Policy-Fort Peck awarded to Methodist. |
| 1870 | Montana census (non-Indians) : 20,595 |
| 1871 | Fort Peck Agency established at old Fort Peck to serve lower Assiniboine and Sioux. |
| 1871 | Indians attach themselves to the Agency. |
| 1871 | August 18 Executive Order–Fort Buford |
| 1871 | The U.S. no longer recognizes Sioux or any other tribes as an autonomous group. |
| 1872 | United States aids Fort Peck Agency. |
| 1872 | August 26, Grand Peace Council at Fort Peck. |
| 1873 | Fort Peck Agency opened at the confluence of the Milk River and the Missouri Rivers. |
| 1874 | Established north of the Marias River and Missouri River extending from the summit of the Rockies to the Dakota line set aside as an undivided reservation for Blackfeet, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre and Sioux. |
| 1874 | April 15–Act of Congress. |
| 1875 | L.A. Fitch goes to Fort Peck to teach Indians to toil the land and some of the rudiments of education. |
| 1875 | December 3, order for Indians to go back to the reservation. |
| 1875 | April 13–Executive Order |
| 1875 | December 3, order for Indians to go back to the reservations. |
| 1876-1877 | Sioux Campaign with Sitting Bull. |
| 1876 | January 31–Date set for Sioux to return to reservation from hunting expedition or be considered as hostiles. |
| 1876 | June 25–Battle of the Little Big Horn. |
| 1877 | Started moving the Fort Peck Agency to Poplar River and General Miles stationed at Fort Peck to maintain order. |
| 1877 | The Fort Peck Agency was moved to a site on which a portion of the town of Poplar now stands. |
| 1877 | Sitting Bull fled into Canada. |
| 1879 | Presbyterians secured permission from the Methodists for a mission on the reservation. |
| 1880 | Indians compelled to settle on reservation. |
| 1880 | 11th Infantry established at Poplar Creek. |
| 1880 | Establishment of a military post at a point just north of Poplar, and known as Camp Poplar River. It was abandoned about 1893. |
| 1880 | Presbyterian Mission established at Fort Peck. |
| 1880 | July, Executive Order: much of the region south of the Misouri River had been opened to white settlement. |
| 1881 | Chief Gall surrenders. |
| 1881 | First Indian Tribe Allowed to Sue the Gov’t. |
| 1881 | When Sitting Bull surrendered at Fort Buford in 1881, his warriors came to Fort Peck and Camped on the site of the town of Poplar. |
| 1883 | Rev. George Wood moves from Poplar Creek to Wolf Point to establish church. |
| 1883 | April 10–Sun Dance and other Sioux customs and religious practices are forbidden by Secretary of the Interior. |
| 1883 | Winter–Buffalo Exterminated in Northeastern Montana. |
| 1883 | Starvation on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. |
| 1885 | February 28, Proposal to divide the reservation. |
| 1885 | Northwest Rebellion in Sask., Canada. |
| 1885 | February 28 proposal to divide reservation in to smaller sections. (Greater Blackfeet) |
| 1886 | Order prohibiting Sundances. |
| 1886 | May 15, Secretary of the Interior authorized new contract for reservation |
| 1886 | December 28, Fort Peck agreement signed at Fort Peck. A treaty, establishing the confines of the Fort Peck reservation, was entered into between the Indians and the government |
| 1887 | February 8, Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act which granted 160 acres to each Indian family head and 80 acres to each other single person over eighteen. |
| 1887 | February 11, Treaty signed by adult Indians giving the United States 17,500,000 acres of land and the division of the remaining 6,000,000 into three separate reservations. |
| 1887 | Railroads through Reservation in Northern Montana |
| 1887 | Teacher moves into Wolf Point. |
| 1888 | May 1, Congress passed the act of fixing the boundaries of the three reservations. |
| 1888 | May 1, Act of Congress — Agreement which established the Fort Peck Reservation |
| 1889 | Cut the rations of beef to Indians on reservation. |
| 1889 | March 2, Sioux Act reduces reservations to present size. |
| 1889 | Statehood for Montana. |
| 1889 | Ghost Dance Religion |
| 1889 | Wounded Knee |
| 1893 | Army abandoned Camp Poplar River. |
| 1895 | Capt. 8th Cav. Acting Agent Wm. Sprole suggests to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs;”a canal to be taken out of the Missouri river, running the entire length of the Reservation,…” |
| 1896 | Government aid to Indian Missions discontinuted. |
| 1897 | Catholics establish mission at Fort Peck. |
| 1902 | July, Makaicu Presbyterian church established southwest of Brockton. |
| 1904 | December, Manisda Presbyterian church established at Chelsea. |
| 1905 | Canipa Presbyterian church organized in Wolf Point in connection with the Mission School. |
| 1908 | May 30–Allotment Act for land on Fort Peck. |
| 1908 | May 30–Act of Congress Five irrigation projects for Fort Peck Reservation were contemplated in an act of Congress. These projects were never completed. |
| 1909 | Yankton and Assiniboine Council elects Business Committee and considers certain applications for enrollment. |
| 1912 | November 11-Good Voice Hawk’s Winter Count interpreted by Ben Harrison. |
| 1913 | July 25–The surplus lands on reservation were opened for homestead entry. |
| 1924 | June 2–Indians Granted U.S. Citizenship. |
| 1926 | January 1100 Indians received checks for $100 each. The estimatd numbers of Indians on the reservation on government rolls is about 2400. |
| 1927 | March 2–Act of Congress |
| 1927 | Fort Peck Tribes Constitution |
| 1927 | There is a large encampment of Indians at Chicken Hill for their 5-day July Fourth Celebration. |
| 1928 | January 30–Docket J-31 in U.S. Court of Claims |
| 1930 | June 9–Senate Joint Resolution No. 167 |
| 1930 | July 23–Docket J-31 Amended |
| 1931 | Irrigation Activities: The Little Porcupine unit has 2400 acres under constructed canels with a storage of 3800 acre feet depending upon the spring runoff. |
| 1933 | April 10–Docket J-31 Dismissed U.S.C.C. |
| 1933 | Submarginal Lands Act |
| 1934 | May 7–U.S. Supreme Court Refusal |
| 1934 | June 18–Indian Reorganization Act authorizes self government for all tribes. |
| 1946 | August 13–Indian Claims Commission Established. |
| 1948 | United Nations Convention on the Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. |
| 1950 | April 26–Docket 62 in Indian Claims Commission |
| 1952 | December 12–Docket 62 Dismissed I.C.C. |
| 1954 | June 8–Appeal Docket I-53 Dismissed U.S.C.C. |
| 1954 | October 25–U.S. Supreme Court Refusal |
| 1960 | Fort Peck Tribes Constitution & By -laws Revised |
| 1967 | Indian Policy Statement on Policy and Legislation. |
| 1972 | Congress passes the Indian Education Act of 1972, creating a BIA level Office of Indian Education as well as a National Advisory Council on Indian Education designed to improve the quality of public education for Indian Students. |
| 1978 | Indian Claims Commission Dissolved |
| 1979 | March 31–Assiniboine Claims Council Reformed |
| 1979 | December–Hearnings on S. 1796 |
| 1980 | October 10–Act of Congress |
| 1981 | January 12–Docket 10-80-L Filed U.S.C.C. |
| 1981 | August 13–U.S.C.C. Judgement |