Thunder Butte

I've often wondered how my grandfather ended up settling with his family on the South Dakota plains right in the middle of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. These lands and others had been set aside at one time for the benefit of the Lakota people, who had seen their reservation allotments shrink with each successive wave of white settlement. In the early 1900s, white encroachment on tribal lands continued. How were these later encroachments justified? Reformers who pushed for greater integration of Native Americans into white society felt that the relationship between the tribes and their land was one obstacle. Traditional native views of land did not have much in common with eurocentric views of property rights as practiced by most other Americans at the turn of the 20th Century (and as still practiced today). These "reformers" felt that if the reservations were broken up into individual property allotments for tribal members, this would help ease the assimilation of Native Americans into society. At the same time, so called "excess" property -- not needed by individual tribal members -- could be opened up to homesteaders, who would further the assimilation of the tribes into mainstream America. Or so that was what they told themselves as they pursued opening up tribal land for homesteading by whites. The reservation today is a checker-boarded patchwork quilt of privately owned plots and reservation land, which has contributed to walling off much of the land to tribal members and making the reservation economically non-viable. What follows below is the 1908 law that may have benefited my grandfather and his family, but probably didn't do anything positive for the Lakota people living on the land.

--Mike Crowley

May 29, 1908. [S. 1385.] | [Public, No. 158.] 35 Stat., 460

An act to authorize the sale and disposition of a portion of the surplus and unallotted lands in the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian reservations in the States of South Dakota and North Dakota, and making appropriation and provision to carry the same into effect.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed, as hereinafter provided, to sell and dispose of all that portion of the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian reservations in the States of South Dakota and North Dakota lying and being within the following described boundaries, to-wit: Beginning at a point on the one hundred and second meridian of longitude west, where the township line between townships nine and ten north intersects the same; thence east on said township line to a point where the same intersects the range line between ranges twenty-four and twenty-five east of the Black Hills meridian; thence north on said range line to a point where the same intersects the township line between townships fifteen and sixteen north; thence east along said township line to a point in the center of the main channel of the Missouri River; thence in a northerly direction along the center of the main channel of said Missouri River to a point where the township line between townships eighteen and nineteen north intersects the same, and including also entirely all islands, if any, in said river; thence west on said township line to a point where the range line between ranges twenty-two and twenty-three east intersects the same; thence north along said range line to the northwest corner of section nineteen in township twenty-one north of range twenty-three east; thence east on the section line north of sections nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four to a point where the same intersects the range line between ranges twenty-three and twenty-four east; thence north along said range line to the State line between the States of South Dakota and North Dakota; thence west on said State line to a point where the range line between ranges eighty-four and eighty-five west in North Dakota intersects the same; thence north on said range line to a point where said range line intersects the center of the main channel of the South Fork of the Cannon Ball River; thence in a westerly direction up and along the center of the main channel of the said river to a point where the same intersects the one hundred and second meridian of longitude west; thence south along said one hundred and second meridian of longitude west to the place of beginning, except such portions thereof as have been allotted to Indians: Provided, That sections sixteen and thirty-six of the lands in each township therein shall not be disposed of, but shall be reserved for the use of the common schools of the States of South Dakota and North Dakota, as the same may be located in the said States, respectively; Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior may reserve such lands as he may deem necessary for agency, school, and religious purposes, to remain reserved as long as needed, and as long as agency, school, or religious institutions are maintained thereon for the benefit of said Indians: Provided, however, That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to issue a patent in fee simple to the duly authorized missionary board, or other proper authority of any religious organization heretofore engaged in mission or school work on said reservations, for such lands thereon (not included in any town site herein provided for) as have been heretofore set apart to such organization for mission or school purposes.

SEC. 2

That the lands shall be disposed of by proclamation under the general provisions of the homestead and town-site laws of the United States, and shall be opened to settlement and entry by proclamation of the President, which proclamation shall prescribe the manner in which the lands may be settled upon, occupied, and entered by persons entitled to make entry thereof, and no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy, or enter any of said lands except as prescribed in such proclamation: Provided, That prior to the said proclamation the Secretary of the Interior, in his discretion, may permit Indians who have an allotment within the area described in section one of this act to relinquish such allotment and to receive in lieu thereof an allotment anywhere within the respective reservations thus diminished to which reservation the said Indians may belong: Provided further, That prior to the said proclamation the Secretary of the Interior shall cause allotments to be made to every man, woman, and child belonging to or holding tribal relations in said Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Reservations who have not heretofore received the allotments to which they are entitled under provisions of existing laws: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to cause to be surveyed all the lands embraced within said reservations, and to cause an examination to be made of the lands by experts of the Geological Survey, and if there be found any lands bearing coal, the said Secretary is hereby authorized to reserve them from allotment or disposition until further action by Congress: Provided further, That the rights of honorably discharged Union soldiers and sailors of the late Civil and Spanish Wars or Philippine insurrection, as defined and described in sections twenty-three hundred and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of March first, nineteen hundred and one, shall not be abridged.

SEC. 3

That the price of said lands entered as homesteads under the provisions of this act shall be fixed by appraisement as herein provided. The President of the United States shall appoint two commissions, one for each reservation, each commission to consist of three persons to inspect, appraise, and value all of said lands that shall not have been allotted in severalty to said Indians, or reserved by the Secretary of the Interior or otherwise disposed of, and excepting sections sixteen and thirty-six in each of said townships, each commission to be constituted as follows: One resident citizen of the States of North or South Dakota, one representative of the Indian Bureau and one person holding tribal relations with one of said tribes of Indians. That within twenty days after their appointment the said commissioners so appointed for each of the said reservations, respectively, shall meet and organize by the election of one of their number as chairman. Each commission is hereby empowered to select such clerks and assistants at such compensation as the Secretary of the Interior may approve. That said commissioners shall then proceed to personally inspect, classify, and appraise, in one hundred and sixty acre tracts each, all of the remaining lands embraced within each rreservation as described in section one of this act. In making such classification and appraisement said lands shall be divided into the following classes: First, agricultural land of the first class; second, agricultural land of the second class; third, grazing land; fourth, timber land; fifth, mineral land, if any, the mineral land not to be appraised. That said commissioners shall be paid a salary of not to exceed ten dollars per day each while actually employed in the inspection and classification of said lands and necessary expenses to be approved by the Secretary of the Interior; such inspection and classification to be completed within six months from the date of the organization of said commissions respectively, and no compensation shall be paid to either the commissioners or employees after the said six months. That when said commissions shall have completed the classification and appraisement of all of said lands the same shall be subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior.

SEC. 4

That the price of said lands shall be paid in accordance with the rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior upon the following terms: One fifth of the purchase price to be paid in cash at the time of entry, and the balance in five equal annual installments, to be paid in one, two, three, four, and five years, respectively, from and after the date of entry. In case any entryman fails to make the annual payments, or any of them, when due, all rights in and to the land covered by his entry shall cease, and any payments theretofore made shall be forfeited and the entry canceled, and the lands shall be reoffered for sale and entry under the provisions of the homestead law at the appraised price thereof: And provided, That nothing in this act shall prevent homestead settlers from commuting their entries under section twenty-three hundred and one, Revised Statutes, by paying for the land entered the price fixed herein, receiving credit for payments previously made. In addition to the price to be paid for the land, the entryman shall pay the same fees and commissions at the time of commutation or final entry as now provided by law, where the price of land is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and when the entryman shall have complied with all the requirements and terms of the homestead laws as to settlement and residence and shall have made all the required payments aforesaid he shall be entitled to a patent for the lands entered: And provided further, That all lands remaining undisposed of at the expiration of four years from the opening of said lands to entry may, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, be reappraised in the manner provided for in this act. And it is further provided that any lands remaining unsold after said lands have been open to entry for seven years may be sold to the highest bidder for cash without regard to the prescribed price thereof fixed under the provisions of this act, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.

SEC. 5

That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to reserve from said lands such tracts for town-site purposes as in his opinion may be required for the future public interests, and he may cause the same to be surveyed into blocks and lots and disposed of under such regulations as he may prescribe, in accordance with section twenty-three hundred and eighty-one of the United States Revised Statutes. The net proceeds derived from the sale of such lands shall be credited to the Indians as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 6

That from the proceeds arising from the sale and disposition of the lands aforesaid, exclusive of the customary fees and commissions, there shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United States, to the credit of the Indians belonging and having tribal rights on the reservations aforesaid in the States of South Dakota and North Dakota the sums to which the respective tribes may be entitled, which shall draw interest at three per centum per annum; that the moneys derived from the sale of said lands and deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of said Indians respectively shall be expended for their benefit under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

SEC. 7

That sections sixteen and thirty-six of the land in each township within the tract described in section one of this act shall not be subject to entry, but shall be reserved for the use of the common schools and paid for by the United States at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and the same are hereby granted to the States of South Dakota and North Dakota for such purpose as the same are located in the said States respectively; and in case any of said sections, or parts thereof, are lost to said States by reason of allotments thereof to any Indian or Indians, or otherwise, the governors of said States, respectively, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, are hereby authorized, within the area in the respective States described in section one of this act, to locate other lands not occupied not exceeding two sections in any one township, which shall be paid for by the United States as herein provided, in quantity equal to the loss, and such selections shall be made prior to the opening of such lands to settlement.

SEC. 8

That there is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of not more than two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to pay for the lands granted to the States of South Dakota and North Dakota, as provided in section seven of this act. And there is hereby appropriated the further sum of seventy-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, for the purpose of making the appraisement and classification and allotments provided for herein: Provided, That the latter appropriation, or any further appropriation hereafter made for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act, shall be reimbursed to the United States from the proceeds received from the sale of the lands described herein or from any money in the Treasury belonging to said Indian tribes respectively.

SEC. 9

That nothing in this act contained shall in any manner bind the United States to purchase any portion of the land herein described, except sections sixteen and thirty-six or the equivalent in each township, or to dispose of said land except as provided herein, or to guarantee to find purchasers for said lands or any portion thereof, it being the intention of this act that the United States shall act as trustee for said Indians to dispose of the said lands and to expend and pay over the proceeds received from the sale thereof only as received and as herein provided: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to deprive the said Indians of the Cheyenne River or Standing Rock Indian Reservations, in South Dakota and North Dakota, of any benefits to which they are entitled under existing treaties or agreements not inconsistent with the provisions of this act: Provided, That Indians residing upon their allotments in townships sixteen north of ranges twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, and thirty-one east shall have the right to use timber in said townships, except on sections sixteen and thirty-six for domestic purposes only as long as the lands remain part of the public domain.

Approved, May 29, 1908.

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol3/HTML_files/SES0373.html

Building the Railroad Near Dupree, December 16, 1910

Here is an interesting photo showing work in progress on the Milwaukee Road railroad line as it neared Dupree, South Dakota, on December 16, 1910. If you click on the photo to see a larger version and inspect it carefully, you can actually see that the rail cars on the tracks adjacent to the work site are stacked with metal rails and wooden ties to be laid underneath the tracks. If this is the same branch line that led to the first train entering Faith on January 6, 1911 -- and I believe that it is -- then the work must have been relatively non-stop. The men laying down the tracks would have had to cover over 22 miles in less than three weeks time. Was covering this distance with new rail tracks possible in that amount of time? Across relatively flat terrain, yes. When the first transcontinental railway was constructed in the 1860's, a couple of records were set when eight miles of track were laid in a single day and later, in 1869, when ten miles of track were laid in one day.

--Mike Crowley

First Train to Stop at Faith, January, 6, 1911

Here's an interesting photo of the first train to stop at Faith, South Dakota, after the establishment of the new end of the line. In its heyday, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, which was usually referred to as the Milwaukee Road, stretched from Chicago and the Great Lakes to Washington State. Various branch lines, including the one that ran to Faith, were important conduits of immigrants anxious to take up ranching and farming in the Dakotas. These lines also replaced cattle drives as an inexpensive way to ship cattle off to market back east.

The new town of Faith reportedly got its name because "Faith" was one of the daughters of an important Milwaukee Road investor. Construction of the branch line took place in 1910, and then the first train pictured in the photo above arrived on January 6, 1911. It's not clear whether the people pictured in the photo are the first group of immigrants to arrive in Faith via train. However, subsequent trains brought many more people who helped to settle the town and nearby homesteads.

--Mike Crowley

(Editor's Note--Apologies for my absence of over a year. I offer none but the typical excuses: career, family, a move, etc.)

Using the REO Speedwagon for a Photo Shoot, 1936

Here's an interesting photo taken near Thunder Butte (background on the right) in 1936 with my grandmother, Mayme Crowley, sitting on the running board of an old REO Speedwagon truck. Her son, Neil, is sitting on the hood of the truck and her brother, Joe Shockley, is sitting on the fender. A friend, Bill Williamson, is standing with a foot propped up on the truck. Of course, it could have just been the sun in her eyes, but Mayme does look downcast. The photo was taken on the occasion of Joe's planned departure from the area. Joe was a long-time resident of Glad Valley.

--Mike Crowley

The Old Line Shack on Thunder Butte Creek

Git go`n Lindy!
Reins slap Lindy on the flank.
It`s been a long time Ole Buddy, we
gotta git home.

This ole man has been gone about
70 years and he`s go`n home.
Where`s home? It`s just a line shack
about ten mile from Thunder Butte
down on Thunder Butte Creek.

What`s a line shack, Dad?

Oh, it`s just a little frame house down
on the creek. I grew up there, then
when I went away to high school, the
ranchers in the area just moved in and
took it over for the cowboys to bunk in
when doing roundup and scout`n strays.

What`s so important about it now? Why '
go back to an old line shack?

Git up, Lindy. Well, son, you know how
important were some of those great days
in your life, the day you graduated from
college, that day you got your MA down
in Texas? Well, when Tony Roach and I
found that pool full of wild fish, that was
the same kind of day for me. Tony told me
they were wild fish and I filled my pockets
full of them and took them home and my
Mother found me emptying all those pollywogs
out on the floor. That was graduation day
for me. Boy did I get a whupp`n. Yup, that
was the day I became a man.

What else do you remember about that old
shack, Dad?

Whoa. That`s a long story son. Got a few
days to listen?

--John Crowley

Dave Doan sent in this brief video clip of Thunder Butte. Much appreciated!



And, while we're on the topic of pictures from around Thunder Butte, here's one from 1918 or earlier:




Here's another view of Thunder Butte shot by Mike Welfl on July 20, 1980,as posted on flickr.com:



And, here's an amazing December sunset over Thunder Butte from Christian Begeman, as published on his blog. South Dakota Magazine also named this their photo of the month in their January 2012 newsletter:



Editor's Note: One of the photos and the video appears here by permission of Dave Doan. The photo of Thunder Butte circa 1918 or earlier is a scanned image from a turn of the last century and copyright expired publication. The other photos are not copied, but are merely clickable links to the photos as published by the original photographers elsewhere on the internet.