The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1895-03-02
fHE YAnkToE RESERVATION
Prospective Settlers on the Bord
ess Of the Promised Land.
tndiass Have Taken All but 10000
Acres-Lo Has Picked the Shifting
Valleys and Left the Arid
Wastes.

II Valleys ana LEU inc ARA
Wastes.
Yankton, S. D., Feb. 26.-The much
.alked of Yankton Indian reservation,
which will be opened for settlement on
April l, is receiving a great deal of at
tention, and intending settlers are
moving to the borders of the reserva-
ton. to be ear the promised land
when 1t can lawfully be invaded by
white men. Not m person in a hundred
who leaves the east with the intention
of taking up this land will ever
make his filings. During the last year
the Indians ave taken all the land
upon the reservation. except 16S. 600
acres, and of curse they took only the
very best tracts to be found There
are some pieces left that are fair. but
none of 1t Is worth 1915 an acre.
Swamp beds. hill tops and hill sides are
not desirable for farming purposes. A
great many pieces of this available
land are surrounded by land allotted
to the Indians, and nyone familiar
with the characteristics of these In
dians Will understand that such close
proximity to these government begSars
would foretell n miserable existence
for the white settler who is obliged to
cross the Indians Ian to reach his own,
At best these Indians are u idle loaf
ers. and will not work. In this lies the
white mans advantage, for nearly all
the and allotted to the Indians will
be leased during the next twenty-five
years, and advantageous contracts
may be made. Another advantage
which the white man will have, Is hat
he is only obliged to pay SO cents pei
acre upon entering his land, and will!
iot have to make any further paymen,
COR eight years. during which time ht
will have no taxes to pay. At the enc
Of eight years he may get a patent for
he land by paying s3.25 per acre, or he
may continue to occupy the land until
he is ready to pay for it. Certainly In
sight years a settler ought to discover
he value Of the land.
The Indians who own the greater
part of this reservation have been a
IL time in possession. and come origi-
aally from the most hostile tribes of
he Indian race. Some of the older
mes participated. in the Minnesota
massacre of 1862, and while all of these
profess to nave befriended the whites,
t is positively known that a few at
SaS WIN III dSliNC PdIl III lIle plOOuS
campaign. One of the most conspicu-
,us figures in the New Ulm massacre
vas a young negro, Who nae Joined the
hostile Indians, and committed some of
he most brutal atrocities OF that
,ventfnl period. This negro resides at
Yanktcn agency, where he has been for
.hirty- three years. For twenty years
ne dared no, leave the reservation,
fearing death at the hands of the
friends OF his Minnesota victims. A
score of times he has been shot at from
ambush, and bears wounds which he
obtained in this manner.
Fort Randall. now abandoned by the
army, lies across the Missouri from the
Yankton reservation. In the los his
vas an important post, n in those
lays was the trading point for large
II of Ponca, Santee and Yankton
indians, and was the center of the
toughest region in all the northwest.
1t was a country infested by horse
thieves and hunted criminals. Differ
mt tribes stole horses from each other
and white men stole from the Indians,
and the business tiourished, the horses
being driven to southern Minnesota
and northwestern Iowa, where they
we're sold. The Indians began to sus-
oect the whites of stealing their horses,
and a close watch was kept during the
winter of 1871. No stock was stolen.
and finally some white horse thieves
stole a couple of horses belonging to
the Sioux, ran them down the river to
The Ponca agency, and turned them
loose among the horses belonging to
The Poncas. They then notified the
Sioux that two of their horses had been
seen in the Ponca corrals. This was
sufficient. A strong war party was
organized n an unexpected raid was
mad upon the Poncas and hundreds
Of agency horses and cattle were soon
In the possession of the Sioux. Gray
Face. a Yankton chief, still living at
Yankton agency, had watched the fight
from a hill opposite the Ponca agency.
He was friendly with the Poncas, and
finally, seeing that his friends were
getting the worst Of the fight, crossed
the river with t%hirty-five OF his best
men. The fight lasted all day and re-
suited in the killing OF a dozen Indians
on each side, while the Sioux returned
home with 109 Ponca horses which they
had captured. While the Indians were
celebrating the capture of these horses,
a number of white men dressed to rep
iSoSAAA SAASASb NV NiiS oAouAC OlIdlS,
captured the stolen horses and ESCAPED
to Minnesota with them. On the re-
turn OF these white men two of them
were lynched and the Ponca Indians
were moved south to avoid the depre-
dations Of the Sioux. One of the horse
thieves was elected to the legislature in
1S74-Bin Mckay. The legislature that
winter was held in the court room, and
Mckay. who was in custody for a grave
o~ffense, vas brought up from the Jail
every morning to Occupy his seat in the
Legislature, and helped to make the
laws that year.
This is the region t.at is now open to
settlement, but the times are changed,
n while now and then a tough char
acter nay be encountered, as a rule
the people are all peaceably inclined,
and making fairly good citizens.
Imprisoned Miners Rescued.
London, Feb. 26.-The miners who
were imprisoned at tho bottom of tho
shaft Of the Normanton c%olliery by the
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