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Over 11,000 years of
human history have been recorded in southwestern
South
Dakota's Badlands National Park. Consisting of more than 244,000
acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the
largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States,
South
Dakota's Badlands are filled with legends,
Indian
Wars, gold mining, and
ghost towns.
For centuries the
Badlands have been met with a mix of dread and fascination, beginning
with nomadic tribes who migrated into the area more than 10,000 years
ago. Using the area as their hunting grounds, the first known
inhabitants were the paleo
Indians, the mammoth hunters who were present at the end of the
ice age. These were followed by the
Arikara
(or Ree)
Indians in about 1500. The
Cheyenne,
Kiowa,
Pawnee,
Crow and
Sioux (or
Lakota)
migrated to the area around the 1700’s. Following the
buffalo that roamed the grasslands of the great plains, they
survived the occasional harsh weather and difficult terrain by relying
on the
bison for their almost every need. About a century and a half ago,
the Great
Sioux
Nation had displaced the other tribes from the northern prairie,
commanding more than 80 million acres, the center of which is
present-day
South
Dakota
The
Lakota
Sioux called the place "mako sica," and early French trappers
called it "les mauvaises terres a traverser," both meaning "bad
lands." Those very same French trappers would be the first of many
Europeans who would, in time, supplant the
Sioux, as
the they were soon followed by
soldiers,
miners, cattlemen, farmers and
homesteaders.
At the close of the
18th century, the dominant
Sioux were
at the height of their power, with numerous interrelated bands,
comprised of three major tribes – the Yankton, Santee and Teton.
Exceptional horsemen, the
Sioux were
also skilled hunters and superior warriors. When, in the 1700’s,
French-Canadian explorers began to come to the area, they were first
met with friendliness as the native tribes traded with the Europeans.
When
Lewis and
Clark made their trek in 1803, they too, met with little
resistance when they passed through
South
Dakota.
However, as more and more pioneers began
to encroach upon these lands, skirmishes began to occur between the
Indians and the new white settlers. Into this midst came
homesteaders,
building farms and small towns, as well as some of Wild West's most
rough-and-ready characters, such as
Jedediah Smith,
Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass and
Thomas Fitzpatrick.
The
Lakota never welcomed the white man to their hunting grounds and
as immigration increased there was a marked decline in
American Indian-white relations. The Army established outposts
nearby, but they seldom entered the
Black Hills.
Trouble escalated when bands of
Lakota began to raid nearby settlements, then retreating to the
Black Hills.
When the U.S. Congress passed the
Homestead Act
in 1862, this brought a flood of emigrants into the Badlands, where they
could purchase 160 acres for a token payment of about $18. As the push for
western expansion continued, the
Sioux
retaliated more and more against the many settlers encroaching upon their
lands, ultimately culminating with the
Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.
Establishing the Great
Sioux
Reservation, the treaty forever ceded all lands from the Missouri River
west to the Bighorn Mountains of western Wyoming to the tribes. Additional
provisions also called for agencies who would distribute food, clothing
and money to the
Sioux. The
treaty prohibited settlers or miners from entering the Hills without
authorization. In return, the
Lakota agreed to cease hostilities against pioneers and people
building the railroads. However, like most treaties made with the
American
Indians, it too, would soon be broken.
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