The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-28
THE GREAT SIOUX NATION.
Shall the Crow Creek and WinnebagO
Reservation be Thrown Open?
A Serious Complication Growing Out Of
Conflicting Presidential 0rders-The
Visit of the Senate Committee.
Special Correspondence Indianapolis Journal:

Creek and Winnebago reservation lies west of
the Missouri river, with its northern boundary,
speaking ineXacty about ten or twelve miles from
the town of Pierre, and its southern boundary
is American creek, as it empties into the Mis-
souri, at Chamberlain, 175 miles above Yank-
ton. All west of the Missouri is known as the
Great Sioux reservation across which there is
wagon road from Pierre to the Black Hills, a
distance of 200 miles. The reservation question
is difficult to understand in the effete East,
where every rood of land is open to settlement
and development, and where great tracts of
country, in themselves empire, are not shut
against the encroachments of that resistless tide
of empire which takes its way westward, break
ing into angry and ever,increasing fret against
artificial barriers, which say thus far shalt thou
go and no further, 1t is the little reservation
on the east side which the subcommittee of the
Senate Indian committee came to visit, and with
that only l have to do. This little
reservation contains about 650,0 900 acres,
some of it arid and desert waste, but nj ch of it
as good land as can be found in Dakota, upon
which men are eager and anxious to go, some,
doubtless, to found homes as bona fide settlers,
but all with the American instinct which wants
to go where it can't, or shouldn't, which laughs
at impossbities and cries it must be done, and
out of which Estates are born in day. On the
9th day of February last President Arthur pro-
claimed certain portions of this land open to set
tiers, and before the next morning broke at least
three thousand people were moving upon the
land, building as rapidly as they could tempo
rary structures known as "shucks," in the YER
nacular of this country, broke each from half an
acre to five acres of the faow ground and
begun to plant enough of crop to comply with
the terms OF the homestead law. Secretary Tel
Ter examined the question, and determined that
these lands east of the Missouri were not en-
braced within the treaty made with the Sioux
in 1865, but were subject to executive order.
The people along the line of the district had been
expecting such action for long time and were
ready on the moment to spring upon the ground
when the executive document should be issued.
There were those in Washington looking out for
the interests of these woud-be settlers, and
when it was known that the President had
determined to open it, there came telegram to
Chamberlain to the effect: 1T is trail; look
to your interests This was wild Western
expression. but it conveyed its meaning, and at
night, and on till morning, wagons with lumber
and few household utensils swarmed over the
coveted Canaan. So great was the rush that
men abandoned their stores, and Offices, and shops
got together 1000 or 1900 feet of lumber each,
and paying $40 load and S. half day for the
service of anyone who could drive nail so as to
hold two boards together, the settlement" of the
reservation began. town site was laid out
just across the creek from Chamberlain, and in
twenty-four hours there were from sixty to
seventy five houses erected in the new metrop-
oils. But the boom was nipped The Indian
Rights Association-an organization of philan-
thropical Philadelphians, the members Of which,
it is TO be hoped, vastly better than they are
painted in Dakota colors by Dakotan artists
brought the matter to the attention OF the new
administration, and on the 18th of April, not
more than fifty days after the executive depart
ment had thrown open the lands President Cleve-
lana issued an order deciding that of his predeces
sor null and void. and ordering that the settlers
must abandon their claims within sixty days, Or
be forcibly put off the reservation if it required
the whole power of the government The effect
of such al order be readily imagined even
by the tame and imperturbable minds of the
East but the chaos and uproar its issuance
caused among those directly affected by it can
be but family apprehended. This was the
status of affairs that called the committee out
hereto look over the ground. examine into the
settlements, talk with the Indians. and see gen
orally what If any, action should be taken by
Congress in view of the unfortunate and almost
disastrous snarl which the antagonistic action of
the two administrations had created. Whatever
the real abstract legal right may be-whether it
is an Executive" or treaty" reservation it is
patent that there are many scores and possibly
hundreds of people who have suffered and will
continue to suffer, without fault of their own
Accepting the invitation of President Arthur,
these settlers ''shucked, broke and entered"-
hora-ap6
quired some equities which the gov
eminent cannot ignore, howsoever illegal
President Arthur's action may be finally deter.
mined to have been. The merits of this ques-
tion nor the general Indian question:" nor the
future of the governments treatment of its
Indian wards need not be discussed now; but it
may not be without interest to note some Oh
servations made on the wing. and some expert
ences enjoyed in the land of the Yanctonnais, one
of the tribes Of the great Sioux nation.
DAKOTA WEATHER AND STORIES.
We reached Pierre the terminus of the Chi
cago & Northwestern railway, on Wednesday
evening, at o'clock. The day had been ex
cessively warm, and tho night closed in sultry
and threatening Within two hours of arrival
we were greeted with the fringes of The cyclone
that Frustrated Highmore, Holabird, and one or
two other towns through which we had recently
passed, and at which the citizens had earnestly
pleaded for the commission to stop over A
seeming discourtesy, possibly, saved the actual
experience of a tornado. The next morning
gentle Dakota zephyr prevailed. Dust was in
the air as thick as a sand cloud, ard the wind
rushed along at the rate of forty or fifty miles
an hour. l tried walking not in the teeth of
the wind but with it. 1t carried mo off my
feet, and landed me at my destination with
suddenness and force that bred a deep respect for
the wind that bloweth where it listeth in
this beloved country. The next morning it was
cold enough to wear overcoats; the next the Their
mometer marked anywhere from 100 TO ll02 in
the shade, and that night most furious storm
broke at midnight, in which the hotel rocked
and swayed as reed while the sky was one
glare of binding lightning. Within four days
Dakota had treated its more or less distinguished
between 1862 and 50'; to blow" that would
strip the feathers from belated chickens, and to