Each time I start organizing a blog whose subject is a Habitat for Humanity trip, I have in mind two purposes: to introduce the place where we will build, and to offer the participants information and advice on the project.
A build in the US should need a very short introduction or none at all since it should occur in a reality we are familiar with either because we live here or because our countries have a lifestyle or civilization similar to that of the USA’s. While we will operate in the US, this project represents an exception to others carried out in this country since the build will take place in Eagle Butte, which is the Headquarter of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe reservation. When traveling from Rapid City to Eagle Butte we will literally enter a territory that has never been under the direct control of the Central Government but that has always been the place where native people dwelled, fought, succumbed, and maintained their traditions and culture alive. These considerations prompted me to start this blog with an introduction on the interconnection between South Dakota and the Native Americans, as well as with a Chapter– the first one of the trip Manual– dedicated to a short history of the people we will meet, and to the evolution of the territory where they currently live, and that we will visit. The Chapters that will follow the first one will be oriented on specific aspects of our project with occasional references to the people we will meet and the territory where we will stay. All of this to say that we will have in Eagle Butte the opportunity of helping somebody, and in the process, to immerse ourselves into a culture that probably none of us has experienced yet even if some of us have heard something about.
South Dakota and the Native Americans
South Dakota is one of the six states- the others being North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas- in the Frontier Strip, which once divided the civilization of the Eastern US from the historic Wild West. Located in the north-central US, South Dakota is a predominantly rural state that takes its name from the Dakota natives belonging to one of the sub-tribes of the Sioux Nation. While agriculture dominates, tourism has its share in the state economy. Two million visitors each year, attracted by the Wild West heritage in display, outnumber a state population of less than one million individuals.
When the first Europeans arrived in the present-day South Dakota, Mandan, Ariukara, and Sioux Indians lived in the area. The first recorded European exploration of the region was made by the French brothers La Verendrye in 1743. Toward the end of 1700s, the region was visited by trappers and traders. In 1803 the land was acquired by the US as part of the Louisiana Territory Purchase. The Lewis and Clark expedition passed through the region between 1804 and 1805. The US settlements began with Fort Pierre, a trading post established by fur trappers in 1817. As settlements started growing, and the west-bound immigration wagon trains started crossing the area, frictions and threat of attack from Sioux become frequent. This situation brought the Government to sign a treaty (Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851) for defining the tribal boundaries of what was labeled as the Great Sioux Nation. The territory assigned to the Sioux extended from Canada to North, Wisconsin to the East, Kansas to the South, and Wyoming to the West. In return the Sioux were to abstain from depredation against whites through their territory. Since the situation did not improve, the Government initially sent some army contingents and eventually negotiated a new treaty in 1858. On that occasion the Sioux ceded a large portion of their land. In 1861 the Dakota Territory was officially recognized. The Homestead Act of 1862 and the completion of a railroad line in 1873 drew even more American and European settlers to the Dakota Territory. While the construction of the railroad was in progress, another Fort Laramie treaty was signed in 1868 between the Government and Sioux. By way of that treaty a Great Sioux Reservation was established and the Black Hills designated to the Lakota. In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills area and the Lakota refused to grant mining rights or ceding the land claiming that the Black Hills had long been considered sacred by their tribe. Miners began to flood in illegally anyhow, and the US Army did very little to oppose them. Eventually the Lakota chief Sitting Bull and his war leader Crazy Horse led the Sioux and the Cheyenne in a war against the intruders. This prompted the President Ulysses Grant to issue orders for rounding up the bands of natives by force, resulting in the Black Hills War. In 1876 the Sioux and Cheyenne had a resounding victory near Little Bighorn where General Custer and his cavalry were decimated. Other battles followed and the Native Americans were eventually defeated. Another treaty was signed, allowing the US to purchase the Black Hills and to legalize a number of boom- towns in the region.
In 1889 the Dakota Territory was divided into North and South Dakota and both States-along with Montana and Washington-were admitted to the Union.
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