Dakota in the American Civil War
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The Territory of Dakota was an
organized incorporated territory of the United States The territory of the United States and its overseas possessions has evolved over time, from the colonial era to the present day. It includes formally organized territories, proposed and failed states, unrecognized breakaway states, internationa ...
that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.


History

The Dakota Territory consisted of the northernmost part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, as well as the southernmost part of Rupert's Land, which was acquired in 1818 when the boundary was changed to the 49th parallel. The name refers to the Dakota branch of the
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
tribes which occupied the area at the time. Most of Dakota Territory was formerly part of the Minnesota and Nebraska territories. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the leftover area between the Missouri River and Minnesota's western boundary fell unorganized. When the Yankton Treaty was signed later that year, ceding much of what had been
Sioux Indian The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
land to the U.S. Government, early settlers formed a provisional government and unsuccessfully lobbied for United States territory status.
Wilmot Wood Brookings Wilmot Wood Brookings (October 23, 1830 – June 13, 1905) was an American pioneer, frontier judge, and early South Dakotan politician. He was provisional governor of the Dakota Territory, and both the cities of Wilmot and Brookings as well as th ...
was the provisional governor. The cities of Wilmot and
Brookings Brookings may refer to: Organizations * Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Places * Brookings, Oregon, USA * Brookings, South Dakota, USA * Brookings County, South Dakota, USA ...
as well as
Brookings County Brookings County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 34,375, making it the fifth-most populous county in South Dakota. Its county seat is Brookings. The county was created in 18 ...
are named for him. Three years later President-elect Abraham Lincoln's cousin-in-law
John Blair Smith Todd John Blair Smith Todd (April 4, 1814 – January 5, 1872) was a Delegate from Dakota Territory to the United States House of Representatives and a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Early life, education, and family T ...
personally lobbied for territory status, and the U.S. Congress formally created Dakota Territory. It became an organized territory on March 2, 1861. Upon creation, Dakota Territory included much of present-day Montana and Wyoming as well as all of present-day North Dakota and South Dakota and a small portion of present-day Nebraska. President Lincoln appointed Dakota Territory's first governor,
William Jayne William A. Jayne (October 8, 1826March 20, 1916) was an American politician and physician. He served as Governor of the Dakota Territory and as the territory's delegate to the United States House of Representatives during the American Civil War. ...
, who was Lincoln's old friend and neighbor from Springfield, Illinois. A small patch of land known as "
Lost Dakota Lost Dakota was a small, uninhabited portion of land that was left over after the division and organization of the large former Dakota Territory into new territories in the late 19th century, which was overlooked by the federal government for ye ...
" existed as a remote
exclave An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
of Dakota Territory until it became part of Gallatin County, Montana Territory, in 1873. All land north of the
Keya Paha River The Keya Paha River ( ) is a river flowing U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed March 30, 2011 through the U.S. states of South Dakota and Nebraska. The name is derived from ...
(which includes most of Boyd County, Nebraska, and a smaller portion of neighboring Keya Paha County) was originally part of Dakota Territory, but was transferred to Nebraska in 1882.


American Civil War

Dakota Territory was not directly involved in the American Civil War but did raise some troops to defend the settlements following the Dakota War of 1862 which triggered hostilities with the
Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
tribes of Dakota Territory. The Department of the Northwest sent expeditions into Dakota Territory in 1863, 1864 and 1865. It also established forts in Dakota Territory to protect the frontier settlements of the Territory, Iowa and Minnesota and the traffic along the Missouri River.


Before statehood

Following the Civil War, hostilities continued with the Sioux until the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. By 1868, creation of new territories reduced Dakota Territory to the present boundaries of the Dakotas. Territorial counties were defined in 1872, including Bottineau County, Cass County and others. During the existence of the organized territory, the population first increased very slowly and then very rapidly with the "Dakota Boom" from 1870 to 1880. Because the Sioux were considered very hostile and a threat to early settlers, the white population grew slowly. Gradually, the settlers' population grew and the Sioux were not considered as severe a threat. The population increase can largely be attributed to the growth of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Settlers who came to the Dakota Territory were from other western territories as well as many from northern and western Europe. These included large numbers of Norwegians, Germans, Swedes, and Canadians. Commerce was originally organized around the
fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...
. Furs were carried by steamboat along the rivers to the settlements. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 and attracted more settlers, setting off the last
Sioux War The Sioux Wars were a series of conflicts between the United States and various subgroups of the Sioux people which occurred in the later half of the 19th century. The earliest conflict came in 1854 when a fight broke out at Fort Laramie in Wyo ...
. The population surge increased the demand for meat spurring expanded cattle ranching on the territory's vast open ranges. With the advent of the railroad agriculture intensified: wheat became the territory's main cash crop. Economic hardship hit the territory in the 1880s due to lower wheat prices and a drought. Regionalist tensions between the northern and the southern parts of the territory were present since the beginning. The southern part was always more populated, in the 1880 Census, the southern part had a population of 98,268, two and a half times the northern part's 36,909. The southern part also considered the north to be somewhat disreputable, "too much controlled by the wild folks, cattle ranchers, fur traders” and too frequently the site of conflict with the indigenous population. The railroad also connected the northern and southern parts to different hubs – the northern part, via
Fargo Fargo usually refers to: * Fargo, North Dakota, United States * ''Fargo'' (1996 film), a crime film by the Coen brothers * ''Fargo'' (TV series), an American black comedy–crime drama anthology television series Fargo may also refer to: Othe ...
and Bismarck became closer tied to Minneapolis–Saint Paul area, while the southern part became closer tied to
Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest city in Iowa. The bulk of the city is in Woodbury County, ...
and from there to
Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
. Politically, territorial legislators were appointed by the federal government, and tended to remain in the region only while they served their terms. The larger population of the southern region began to resent them, while the northerners tended to emphasize that it was cheaper to be a territory, with the federal government funding a wide range of state functions. The last straw was territorial governor
Nehemiah G. Ordway Nehemiah George Ordway (November 10, 1828July 3, 1907) was an American politician who was a New Hampshire state senator and the seventh Governor of Dakota Territory. Ordway was regarded as one of Dakota Territory's most controversial governors. ...
moving the territorial capital from Yankton to Bismarck in 1883. As the southern part had crossed the 60,000 population necessary for statehood, in September, they held a convention, where they drafted a state constitution and submitted it to the voters. It was approved by the electors and submitted to Congress. A bill providing for statehood of the Dakota Territory south of the 46th parallel of latitude was passed by the Senate in December 1884, but failed to pass the House. A second constitutional convention for South Dakota was held in September 1885, framing a new constitution and submitted it to the vote of the people, who ratified it with an overwhelming vote. Conventions favoring division of Dakota into two states were also held in the northern section, one in 1887 at Fargo, and another in 1888, at Jamestown. Both adopted provisions memorializing Congress to divide the territory and admit both North and South Dakota as states. Various bills were introduced in Congress on the matter; one in 1885 to admit South Dakota as a state, and organize the northern half as Lincoln Territory. Another bill introduced in 1886, proposed to admit the entire Territory as a single state.  Still another provided for all of the Territory east of the Missouri River to become a single state, the balance to be organized as Lincoln or North Dakota Territory. Other bills were introduced in 1887 and 1888, but failed to pass. The Territorial Legislature of 1887 submitted the question of division to a popular vote at the general election of November 1887. When full returns of this election finally came in on January 10, 1888, Territorial Governor Louis K. Church announced the vote: 37,784 favored division and 32,913 were opposed. The admission of new western states was a party political battleground, with each party looking at how the proposed new states were likely to vote. At the beginning of 1888, the Democrats under president Grover Cleveland proposed that the four territories of Montana, New Mexico, Dakota and Washington should be admitted together. The first two were expected to vote Democratic and the latter two were expected to vote Republican so this was seen as a compromise acceptable to both parties. However, the Republicans won majorities in both the House and the Senate later that year. To head off the possibility that Congress might only admit Republican territories to statehood, the Democrats agreed to a less favorable deal in which Dakota was divided in two and New Mexico was left out altogether. Cleveland signed it into law on February 22, 1889, and the territories could become states nine months after that. There had been previous attempts to open up the territory, but these had foundered because the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) required that 75 percent of Sioux adult males on the reservation had to agree to any treaty change. Most recently, a commission headed by
Richard Henry Pratt Brigadier General Richard Henry Pratt (December 6, 1840 – March 15, 1924) was an American military officer who founded and was longtime superintendent of the influential Carlisle Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is associa ...
in 1888 had completely failed to get the necessary signatures in the face of opposition from Sioux leaders and even government worker Elaine Goodale, later Superintendent of Indian Education for the Dakotas. The government believed that the Dawes Act (1887), which attempted to move the Indians from hunting to farming, in theory, meant that they needed less land (but in reality was an economic disaster for them) and that at least half was available for sale. Congress approved an offer of for reservation land (a figure they had previously rejected as outrageously high) and $25,000 to induce the Indians to sign. A new commission was appointed in April 1889 that included veteran Indian fighter general
George Crook George R. Crook (September 8, 1828 – March 21, 1890) was a career United States Army officer, most noted for his distinguished service during the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. During the 1880s, the Apache nicknamed Crook ''Nantan ...
. Crook pulled out all the stops to get the Indians to sign, using many underhand tactics. He threatened them that if they did not sign, the land would be taken anyway and they would get nothing. This would not have been seen as an idle threat; the treaty had been ignored in the past when the Black Hills were taken from the Sioux. Crook ignored leaders like
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull ( lkt, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake ; December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock I ...
and Red Cloud who opposed the sale and kept them out of the negotiations, preferring instead to deal with moderate leaders like
American Horse American Horse ( lkt, Wašíčuŋ Tȟašúŋke) (a/k/a "American Horse the Younger") (1840 – December 16, 1908) was an Oglala Lakota chief, statesman, educator and historian. American Horse is notable in American history as a U.S. Army Indian S ...
. American Horse, however, claimed immediately afterwards that he had been tricked into signing. Crook made many personal promises (such as on reservation rations) which he had no authority to make, or ability to keep. He claimed afterwards that he had only agreed to report the concerns back to Washington. Crook lied about how many signatures he already had, giving the impression that the signature he was currently asking for would make no difference. He said that those who did not sign would not get a share of the money for the land. Crook even allowed white men who had married Sioux to sign, a dubious action given that the blood quantum laws only counted full-blood Indians as members of the tribe. By August 6, 1889, Crook had the requisite number of signatures, half the reservation land was sold, and the remainder divided among six smaller reservations.


Statehood

On February 22, 1889, outgoing President Cleveland signed an omnibus bill that divided the Territory of Dakota in half. North Dakota and South Dakota became states simultaneously on November 2, 1889. President Harrison had the papers shuffled to obscure which one was signed first and the order went unrecorded. The bill also enabled the people in the new Territories of North Dakota and South Dakota, as well as the older territories of Montana and Washington, to write state constitutions and elect state governments. The four new states would be admitted into the Union in nine months. This plan cut Democratic New Mexico out of statehood and split Republican Dakota Territory into two new Republican states. Rather than two new Republican states and two new Democratic states that Congress had considered the previous year, the omnibus bill created three new Republican states and one new Democratic state that Republicans thought they would capture. The Dakota Territory was divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889.


See also

*
Bibliography of North Dakota history The following works deal with the cultural, political, economic, military, biographical and geologic history of pre-territorial North Dakota, Dakota Territory and the State of North Dakota. Surveys of North Dakota history * * * * * * * ...
*
Bibliography of South Dakota history The following works deal with the cultural, political, economic, military, biographical and geologic history of pre-territorial South Dakota, the southern part of Dakota Territory and the State of South Dakota. Bibliographies * Recommended ...
* List of governors of Dakota Territory *
American frontier The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of United States territorial acquisitions, American expansion in mainland North Amer ...
* Historic regions of the United States * History of North Dakota * History of South Dakota * List of Dakota Territory Civil War units *
Territorial evolution of the United States The United States of America was created on July 4, 1776, with the U.S. Declaration of Independence of thirteen British colonies in North America. In the Lee Resolution two days prior, the colonies resolved that they were free and independent ...
*
Dakota Territory's at-large congressional district Dakota Territory's at-large congressional district is an obsolete congressional district that encompassed the entire Dakota Territory prior to admission to the Union. The district elected a delegate to the United States Congress. From 1861 to 1 ...


Notes


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Collection of Historical Photographs of the Dakota Territory
* {{coord, 46, N, 104, W, scale:3000000, display=title Pre-statehood history of North Dakota Pre-statehood history of South Dakota Pre-statehood history of Wyoming 1861 establishments in Dakota Territory 1889 disestablishments in Dakota Territory