4/11/2011:
The Sisseton Indian reservation lay along the southern border of Richland County, and on this date in 1892, President Harrison signed a proclamation opening the reservation for settlement. Hundreds camped out under the stars for days from Minnesota on the east to Browns Valley, South Dakota on the south and along the western edge of the reservation. At Lidgerwood and Hankinson on the north, large crowds began to form the first part of the week. Throughout the evening on Thursday and into the early morning hours of Friday they made their way to the edge of the reservation, which was guarded by mounted cavalry and over two hundred and fifty deputies. Many of the hopeful were without food, so haphazardly had they come to take part in the onslaught of land-seekers. For many, the aim was to locate their claim on a possible townsite on the Milwaukee Railroad deep inside the reservation.
At 12:00 noon on Friday, April 15th, hundreds of men, women and children, people of all nationalities, old and young, rich and poor lined the boundary awaiting the signal for the headlong dash for free land and a new home. At precisely twelve o’clock, a bugle call, followed by the crack of a carbine and a volley from troops of cavalry, announced to the thousands that the great Dakota land rush had begun. Hundreds of mounted horsemen dashed across the line, unmercifully lashing their horses. Wagons thundered behind them, each trying to outdistance his neighbor with whips snapping amid the shouts of the drivers. One team of fiery broncos lurched at the sound of the gun, breaking the wagon’s single tree and quickly dashed off out of sight leaving driver and wagon at the starting line. A horse ridden by a man named Kansas Jack stepped in a hole tumbling both horse and rider to the ground, but in an instant they were upright and on their way. A wagon bogged down in a slough was soon abandoned by the owners who mounted the horses and continued on with the race leaving their supplies behind. Riding, running or walking, the hopeful masses of humanity swarmed out across the plains, spreading out as they became ever distant, until they finally vanished from sight, only occasionally to reappear as they topped a distant knoll on their way to find a new home amid the waving prairie grass.
Dakota Datebook written by Jim Davis
Source:
North Dakota Globe April 14, 1892 and April 21, 1892