| Human beings have lived in what is today South | | | | Land speculators founded two of eastern South |
| Dakota for at least several thousand years. French | | | | Dakota's largest present-day cities: Sioux Falls in 1856 |
| and other European explorers in the 1700s | | | | and Yankton in 1859. In 1861, Dakota Territory was |
| encountered a variety of groups including the Omaha | | | | recognized by the United States government (this |
| and Arikara (Ree), but by the early 1800s the Sioux | | | | initially included North Dakota, South Dakota, and parts |
| (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota) were dominant. In 1743, | | | | of Montana and Wyoming). Settlers from Scandinavia, |
| the LaVerendrye brothers buried a plate near the | | | | Germany, Ireland, and Russia, as well as elsewhere in |
| modern capital Pierre (pronounced as "peer") claiming | | | | Europe and from the eastern U.S. states, increased |
| the region for France as part of greater Louisiana. In | | | | from a trickle to a flood, especially after the completion |
| 1803, the United States purchased the Louisiana | | | | of an eastern railway link to the territorial capital of |
| Territory from Napoleon, though the native peoples | | | | Yankton in 1872, and the discovery of gold in the Black |
| inhabiting most of this area were not aware of the | | | | Hills in 1874 during a military expedition led by George |
| transaction. | | | | A. Custer. This expedition took place despite the fact |
| President Thomas Jefferson organized a group called | | | | that all of Dakota Territory west of the Missouri River |
| the Corps of Discovery, led by Meriwether Lewis and | | | | (along with much of Nebraska, Montana, and |
| William Clark (commonly referred to as "Lewis and | | | | Wyoming) had been granted to the Sioux by the |
| Clark Expedition"), to explore the newly-acquired region. | | | | Treaty of 1868 as part of the Great Sioux Nation. The |
| In 1817, an American fur trading post was set up at | | | | Sioux declined to grant mining rights or land in the Black |
| present-day Fort Pierre, beginning continuous American | | | | Hills, and war broke out after the U.S. failed to stop |
| settlement of the area. Through much of the 19th | | | | white miners and settlers from entering the region. |
| century, exploratory expeditions such as those of | | | | Native Americans were unable to compete with the |
| Lewis and Clark and Joseph Nicollet coincided with an | | | | greater numbers and superior weaponry available to |
| increasing presence of the U.S. Army. In 1855, the U.S. | | | | U.S. forces. They were also hampered by the sharp |
| Army bought Fort Pierre but abandoned it the following | | | | decline in numbers of the buffalo, which was a major |
| year in favor of Fort Randall to the south. Settlement | | | | food source of the Sioux. Between 1878 and 1886, the |
| by Americans and Europeans was, by this time, | | | | Euro-American settler population of eastern Dakota |
| increasing rapidly, and in 1858, the Yankton, Dakota, and | | | | Territory tripled. The last major incident in this struggle |
| Sioux resigned themselves to signing the 1858 Treaty, | | | | occurred on December 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee |
| ceding most of present-day eastern South Dakota to | | | | Creek in present-day western South Dakota, when |
| the United States. Of this, Yankton leader | | | | U.S. soldiers massacred as many as 300 Sioux, mostly |
| Strike-the-Ree said "The white men are coming like | | | | women and children. |
| maggots. It is useless to resist them.... Many of our | | | | Just over a year earlier, on November 2, 1889, Dakota |
| brave warriors would be killed, our women and children | | | | Territory was incorporated into the United States as |
| left in sorrow, and still we would not stop them." | | | | the modern states of North Dakota and South Dakota. |