64 
The following paper was read. 
Notes of some Observations made in Dakota, during two Expedi- 
tions, under Command of General Alfred Sully against 
the Hostile Sioux, in the Years 1864 and 1865. 
By CHARLES FROEBEL. 
Both of the expeditions in question started from Sioux 
City, Iowa, in the beginning of the summer, and followed the 
general course of the Missouri River, on its eastern shore, to 
a point at the mouth of Long Lake Creek, and a few miles 
above the mouth of the Cannonball, a small tributary affluent 
from the west. At this point the first expedition crossed the 
Missouri and encamped on the site of the military fort, then 
projected, and built during the same summer, known as 
Fort Rice. Leaving their camp on or about the 10th of 
July, 1864, the expedition followed for a number of days the 
course of the Cannonball, then passed to the northward cross- 
ing the Big Knife and Heart Rivers and encountering the 
hostile Sioux, in a wide, dry valley, on the southern flank 
of the Takaokutah Mountains on the 29th of July. Return- 
ing thence to the camp before occupied on Heart River, the 
expedition pursued the course of this stream to its source, 
crossed the valley of the Little Missouri des Gros Ventres 
‘on the 8th and 9th of August, and some smaller streams, and 
reached the banks of the Yellowstone, 35 miles above its 
mouth on or about the 13th day of the same month. Fol- 
lowing the western bank of the Yellowstone to its confluence 
with the Missouri and fording the latter, the expedition 
returned homeward by way of Fort Berthold and Fort Rice, 
on the eastern shore of the Missouri Valley. The second 
expedition left their camp at the mouth of Long Lake Creek 
about the 20th of July, 1865, traversed the high plateau 
frequently designated on maps as the “ Prairie du Coteau du 
Missouri,” and reached the shores of Mini-Wakan (Mini- 
Water; Wakan-Medecine, t. i. mystic influence, &c. or better 
“ Fetish”) or Devil’s Lake, on the 29th day of the same 
month. Starting from the eastern extremity of the lake on 
2 
