The Dakota Prairie Grasslands proudly enjoys an extensive and colorful history and prehistory. Cultural resources on the grasslands have been found dating from approximately 11,500 years before the present (BP) to the recent past. You can learn more about the prehistory of the grasslands here. These periods include Paleoindian sites (11,500-7,500 BP), Plains Archaic sites (7,500-2,400 BP), and Plains Woodland sites (2,400 BP-1200 AD).

A historical Overview of the grasslands can be found here. This timeframe includes Plains Village sites (1200-1780 AD), Equestrian/Fur Trade sites (1780-1880 AD), and European-American settlement sites (1700-1950 AD).

Gold Rushes, Homesteads, and Railroads: Setting the stage for cultural conflict

During the late 1800s, gold rushes and railroads brought miners, traders, and homesteaders to the West, pushing Northern Plains tribes into ever smaller remnants of their former homelands. Treaties between the government and resident tribes were made and broken. Unscrupulous government agents and traders often cheated and mistreated Indians. The Sioux and other tribes responded with increasingly militant attempts to defend their homes and cultures. In this context, "Sioux" refers to several bands who fought together during the Great Sioux War, including Hunkpapa, Yanktonai, and Santee. A few Northern Cheyenne and members of other tribes sometimes joined them.

Sibley, Sully, and the Sioux

For the Santee Sioux, tensions peaked in August 1862, and the resulting uprising in Minnesota Territory left 450 – 800 settlers and soldiers dead. Governor Alexander Ramset sent Brigadier General Henry Sibley with 1,400 soldiers to suppress the uprising. Many Santee were captured, and some fled west to join other Sioux bands.

The military, led by Sibley and Brig. Gen. Alfred Sully pursued the Santee into the Dakota Territory, where Sibley fought several battles in July and August 1863. In September, Sully's attack on a Sioux village at Whitestone Hill resulted in more Indian deaths than any other conflict on the Northern Plains.

Custer Military Trail National Historic District

Between 1864 and 1876, when tensions were high between Native Americans and newcomers to the badlands, five military expeditions crossed this windswept country. Though only a couple of skirmishes occurred here, this route holds a significant place in the history of the Great Sioux War. Enjoy the landscape's rugged beauty and reflect on the rich history hidden in these hills.

Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer is only a small part of this story. He accompanied two of the five badlands expeditions (1873 and 1876) but wasn't the highest-ranking officer. However, his controversial exploits and death at the Battle of Little Bighorn gave Custer a more enduring place in history than many officers of his time – hence the name of this National Historic District.

Sully's Campaign, Battle of the Badlands, 1864

In June 1864, another expedition under the command of Sully left for Rice, Dakota Territory, to punish the Sioux further and establish military posts in the region; this was the first military expedition to traverse the badlands.

Sully's detachment engaged the Sioux at Killdeer Mountain on July 28th, then followed what is now called Sully Creek to the Little Missouri River. They fought against the Sioux again in a three-day running battle called the Battle of the Badlands on August 7 – 9, 1864, near Square Butte.

Sully's column included:

• Two thousand two hundred soldiers (Cavalry, mounted infantry, and artillerymen).
• Seventy white and Indian scouts.
• 400 freight wagons.
• A cattle herd.

They were accompanied by two civilian wagon trains of settlers bound for Montana and Idaho gold fields.

Northern Pacific Railroad Surveys, 1871 – 1873

In 1864, the Northern Pacific Railroad promoted a railway plan to link the Great Lakes and Puget Sound. The Sioux, having witnessed the decimation of bison herds brought by railroads farther south, were determined to prevent the construction of rail lines west of the Missouri River. Their attacks made military protection of railroad survey parties necessary.

Major Joseph Whistler accompanied Northern Pacific Railroad surveyors on their 1871 reconnaissance to locate the best route across the northern Dakota Territory into the Montana Territory. This expedition is thought to have followed Davis Creek to its confluence with the Little Missouri River.

In 1872, Colonel David Stanley and 600-foot soldiers accompanied a survey party that attempted to avoid the badlands by traveling about 25 miles south of Whistler's route. The southerly route was even worse than the 1871 route, so they returned east via Davis Creek.

In 1873, Stanley's force of almost 2,000 men (including Custer's 7th Cavalry), 275 wagons, and a cattle herd escorted a third survey party on Whistler's 1871 route west from Ft. Abraham Lincoln (across the Missouri River from Bismarck) into South Dakota's Black Hills.

Terry and Custer's Campaign, 1876

Ignoring an 1868 treaty, the U.S. government attempted to get the Lakota Sioux to cede the Black Hills (South Dakota) to gold seekers pouring into the area. The Sioux were told to report to their Indian agencies by January 1876 or be considered "hostile." When the order was ignored, the government sent the military to enforce it.

In May, Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry headed west from Ft. Abraham Lincoln with 1,108 officers and enlisted men, 45 Indian scouts and interpreters, and 190 civilian employees, as well as a wagon train, pack train, spare horses, a cattle herd, and a heavy weapons platoon. The detachment included most of Custer's 7th Cavalry.

They entered the badlands on May 27th near Easy Hill, continued down Davis Creek, and ascended "Custers Wash" before reaching the uplands above the Little Missouri River at Snow Camp. From this point, they continued west into Montana toward the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Custer and most of his men died.

Brigadier General George Crook was also sent to Montana that summer in pursuit of the Lakota Sioux, who refused to go to the reservation. From there, his unit traveled east through the North Dakota badlands to South Dakota, where they engaged the Sioux in the Battle of Slim Buttes.