A Fortified Earthlodge Village Near Fort Thompson, South Dakota as it Appeared in 1866

Abstract

The accounts of an observant army surgeon of a hundred years ago.During the summer of 1863, several thousand Santee Sioux and Winnebago Indians were exiled from their traditional homes in Minnesota to the vicinity of Crow Creek on the Missouri River in the present state of South Dakota. An agency for these Indians was established, buildings erected and enclosed by a stockade, and troops stationed there to protect the agency employees and maintain order. The agency and military establishment was named Fort Thompson after Clark W. Thompson, Minnesota Superintendent of Indian Affairs, who had general supervision of the Santee removal.