4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [blll.61 



A part of the present Standing Rock Reservation (see pi. 2) was 

 included in this territory, and an additional tract extending north to 

 the Cannon Ball River was added by an Executive order dated March 

 16, 1875.' An agency near -the present site of the Standing Rock 

 Agency (Fort Yates, N. Dak.) was estabhshed July 4, 1873, and soon 

 afterward a military post was established at that point.^ Two com- 

 panies of Infantry were stationed there, and this force was increased 

 to five companies of Infantry and two troops of Cavalry during the 

 Indian troubles of 1876. The original name "Standing Rock Canton- 

 ment" was changed to Fort Yates, and the post was continued until 

 1904. 



The distinctively tribal life of the Teton Sioux may be said to 

 have closed when the last Sun dance was held in 1881 and the last 

 great buffalo hunt in 1882. A final hunt was held in November, 1883, 

 and at that time the last buffalo wore killed. Then followed a period 

 of difficult adjustment on the part of the Indians, but Gall, Crow 

 King, and others, who had been leaders in the tribal life, became also 

 the leaders of their people in the adoption of farming and other pur- 

 suits recommended by the Government. The great change, however, 

 did not come to the Indians until 1889, when the Great Sioux Reser- 

 vation passed into history. In its place were established five reser- 

 vations.^ The boundaries of these reservations were determined by 

 a commission of three, of which ex-Gov. Charles Foster, of Ohio, 

 was chairman, his associates being Maj. George Crook, and Maj. 

 WilHam Warner. This commission went from one agency to another, 

 holding councils with the Indians, who ceded about 9,000,000 acres 

 of land to the Government at that time. A reference to the council 

 which this commission held on the Standing Rock Reservation 

 appears in the description of a song of Sitting Bull (No. 194). Shortly 

 after the work of this commission was finished the boundaries of the 

 several reservations were surveyed, and the various bands of Sioux 

 were assigned to these reservations. After these agency rolls were 

 completed it was expected that the Indians would not leave their 

 reservations without passes from the agent. From that time until 

 the present there has been a steady development of education among 

 the Sioux in boarding and day schools, and also by means of practical 

 instruction in the white man's manner of life. 



' Indian Laws and Treaties, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 884. 



' " There has been established hy order of the War Department a military post at this agency of sulTicient 

 capacity for two companies of infantry."— Report of John Burke, United States Indian Agent, Standing 

 Rook Reservation, in Lnd. Aff. Rep. for 187.5, p. 247. 



■•' This was in accordance with an act of Congress dated March 2, 1889, entitled " An act to divide a portion 

 of the reservation of the Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations and to secure the 

 relinquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and for other purposes. '' Indian Laws and Treaties 

 op. cit., vol. 1, p. 328. ' 



