| Summary: | INTRODUCTION The earliest records of history point out that 20,000 years ago, late in the Ice Age, Paleo-Indians migrated across either a land or ice bridge from Asia to Alaska, and coming down the east valley of the Rocky Mountains, arrived in this region about 15,000 years ago. They were big game hunters, had spears and tools of rock and bone, used fire, made clothing and erected shelters in which to live. Remains of their culture are often found in the Western Dakotas. They raised no crops, or made no pottery. They were victims of climatic changes, so moved out during the warm, dry interval from 4,000 B.C. to 2,000 B.C. Following this drouth, Indians from Minnesota and Wisconsin moved into the areas of trees and rivers and are thought to have carved the writings in rocks and left the "tipi" rings of stone found in our area today. The dead were placed on scaffolds or in trees or burial would be made on a high bluff overlooking a river; this practice continued and confirmed by many of our early pioneers in Sioux Township. Before this time, about a million years ago, the Little Missouri, Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers flowed north to Hudson Bay, but were diverted by a glacier to their present route. Our area was populated in 1750 by the Assiniboine (Stone People, so called as they cooked by boiling water with hot stones) and 100 years later by the Teton ("Dwellers on the Prairie") and Dakota tribes. As the tribes were forced out of the eastern states by the white man, they were mingling with the Plains Indians, bringing with them the white man's culture. Soon the Indians from the south brought the horse, which gave them freedom, and power and a new area. It also brought the smallpox epidemic which decreased the numbers of all the plains Indians, including the Hidatsa, Mandans and Arikaras. This was the last frontier for the Indian people; a region the white man had called the Great American Desert. The earliest record of North Dakota Indians was made by Pierre Verendrye, believed to be the first white man to visit the state. Born in 1685 and a native of the St. Lawrence River area, he lived the life of a hunter, trapper and trader, moving west as new territory was opened up. By setting up posts and forts along the lakes and rivers, he found himself west of Lake Winnepeg. He listened to stories from the Indians about the Great Land to the West, of the Great River (Missouri) and of the Great Ocean of the West. Our explorer could contain himself no longer, so with his two sons Francis and Louis and twenty men, set out on foot, as the drouth of 1739 had dried up many streams and lakes. He traveled in a southwesterly direction into the Valley of the Mouse (Souris) River. Pierre Verendrye had crossed into the now state of North Dakota and visited a Mandan Village. On his return to Canada, they suffered severely from blizzards and cold so he never returned. However, in 1742 his two sons, now riding horses, made the trek again to the Mandan Village and another day's travel brought them to an Indian Village which some historians thought might be at or near Sanish. From Mt. Crow-Flies- High they viewed the unknown land to the west, crossed the Missouri River (into McKenzie County) and journeyed on West. Although they did not reach the Pacific, they were the first white men to see the snow-covered mountains, presumably the northern Rockies. They rejoined their father a year later. Pierre Verendrye died in 1749, a pioneer and discoverer of the Red River of the North, the Assiniboine, Mouse and Upper Missouri Rivers, and the first white man's footprints to cover Southern Manitoba, North Dakota and Eastern Montana. A French Canadian trapper, Baptiste LePage, came down the Little Missouri and in 1805 joined Lewis and Clark's expedition up the Big Missouri River. The Onkpapa Sioux called this river "Minne-sho-sho" signifying "smoky water". The Yellowstone was called "Juane" by the Indians. The expedition trapped on the creek which entered the Yellowstone River from the east, and called it "Char- bonneau" in honor of Sakakawea's husband and their interpreter. She was the "Bird Woman" who guided them to the Pacific Ocean. Later, Andrew Henry led one hundred men with two keelboats and fifty horses on a trapping and trading venture up the Missouri River into Dakota Territory. The Assiniboine's stole their horses and the keelboats snagged and sank. He and his company spent the winter trapping near the mouth of the Yellowstone River. From this time on, the expeditions were attacked by the various Indian tribes in the settling of the Dakota Territory. The Seven Tribes of the Dakota ("allies" or "friends") included the fighting Sioux who were driven out of Minnesota. They were called "Nadowi-is-iw" (interpreted as serpents or enemies) and shortened to "Sioux" by the early fur traders. The corruption by Fur Trading Posts in the West was the main cause of the uprising of the Sioux in 1876 and they waged a continuous and uncanny battle for their own land, which ended with the surrender of Sitting Bull at Fort Buford in 1881. This Fort was established in 1866 and is located northwest across the Missouri River from Sioux Township. The Sioux as well as other Indian tribes crossed the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers at the confluence as it was here the water was the least turbulent; thus the names of Sioux Crossing Ferry, Sioux Crossing School, Sioux Township and Sioux School District. Many Indian arrowheads, flint- stones and hammer heads have been found in this area, as well as other relics in the thirty mile square Fort Buford Military Reservation which encompassed much of Sioux Township. At various stages, certain areas of the Reservation were opened for homesteading, beginning in the early 1900's. In the era that followed, the horse traders were king of the range, then cattle ranchers and sheep men vied for grazing lands crowding them out, to be followed by the influx of homesteaders breaking up the fertile soil with oxen and horses, soon to be replaced by machines. By an act of Congress in 1889, Dakota Territory was divided and North Dakota became a state in its own right. McKenzie County, named after Alexander McKenzie, a political figure in his day, is known as the Island Empire, and was formed out of the unorganized counties of McKenzie, Aired and Wallace in 1905 by Governor E. V. Sarles. It can only be described in demographically characteristics. First, it is surrounded by rivers; to the west, the Yellowstone; on Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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