10/10/2011:
Governor Newton Edmunds, the second Territorial Governor of Dakota Territory, concluded a peace treaty with the Sioux Nation on this date in 1865. The purpose of the treaty was to protect settlers and frontier towns, and to facilitate peace among the different tribes.
A New York native, Edmunds was born in 1819. He lived in Hartland, New York, until 1832, when he moved with his family to Michigan. His brother served as Commissioner of the United States Land Office, and Edmunds followed in his footsteps by joining the Surveyor-General’s Office as a Chief Clerk. In this position, he arrived in Dakota Territory in 1861. Following the Santee uprising of 1862, Edmunds was elected to the position of Corporal with Company A of the Dakota Militia. After the resignation of Territorial Governor William Jayne, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Edmunds to the Governorship.
The numerous challenges that had led Jayne to resign continued to plague Edmunds, including the constant threat posed to new settlers by some Native American groups. Despite the danger, few roads, and an absence of schools, tax collection, and law enforcement, Governor Edmunds was under constant pressure from the federal government to attract settlers and businesses. Edmunds realized early on that to do so, he would first have to make peace with the numerous tribes dotting the vast territory. Unfortunately, the U.S. War Department would not allow him to enter into negotiations with the tribes or to enter their territory. It took him nearly two years to finally receive the necessary consents from the War Department, but finally in 1865, he was able to gather a commission of several thousand Native Americans and political figures in a meeting at Fort Sully, six miles south of Pierre. Representatives of the U.S. Government met with chiefs, headmen, and members of the Yanktonais, Uncpapas, Blackfeet, Minneconjous, Sans Arcs, Two Kettles, Lower Brules, and Oglalas. The parties agreed to terms providing for an overland route through the Sioux Reservation in exchange for an annual payment of $10,000; they also prohibited any Sioux member to injure any settler or one another.
Although the treaties were not the end of violence between the tribes and the settlers, they were the first step on a road toward peace, and allowed Governor Edmunds to overcome some of the initial challenges of settling the Territory.
-Jayme L. Job
Sources:
Lounsberry, Clement A. 1919 Early History of North Dakota: Essential Outlines of
American History: pp. 327. Liberty Press: Washington, D.C.
Robinson, Doane. 1904 A History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, Vol. II. Pp. 337-53.
News Printing Co.: Aberdeen, S.D.
http://history.nd.gov/textbook/unit3_2_govletter.html
http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/governors/tgovernors2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_Edmunds
http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/bla0898.htm