This timeline of South Dakota is a list of events in the history of South Dakota by year.
First people
Paleo-Indians settle the Americas. List of archaeological periods (North America) Before 11000 BCE: Clovis culture Before 8000 BCE: Folsom tradition Circa 5000 BCE: Plains Archaic period begins with drier climate. Beginning 35th century BCE: Mound Builders begin living in eastern South Dakota, encompassing the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian cultures: 11th century BCE: The Woodland period begins in eastern South Dakota: the period between hunter-gatherers and agriculture that includes innovation in pottery, textiles, and tools. Climate improves to its modern state. Trade with farther cultures is common. 11th century: Agriculture begins with the Mississippian culture. 1325: More than 450 people were massacred at a Crow Creek village. 15th century: Arikara and other Plains Village people arrive and live along the Missouri River valley.
16th century In the pre-colonial time before the Europeans arrived, there were hunter-gatherer peoples west of the Missouri River, Woodland culture along the eastern lakes, and Plains Villages and Oneota cultures all in what is now South Dakota. The western cultures are now known as the Crow Nation and Cheyenne. The Plains Villagers are now known as Mandans, Arikaras, and Hidatsas. The easternmost tribes are now known as Omahas, Poncas, and Dakotas.
17th century Sioux people arrive. 1670-1707 South Dakota land is part of the English territory of Rupert's Land.
1683 French explorer and fur trader Pierre-Charles Le Sueur probably visited Sioux Falls to buy furs which he shipped by flatboat to the mouth of the Mississippi River.
1699-1764 South Dakota land is part of the French colony of La Louisiane.
18th century 1700 Le Sueur's traders from Fort L'Huillier (Mankato, Minnesota) traded on Big Sioux River at Flandreau and Sioux Falls.
1743 Verendrye brothers visited western part of South Dakota and claimed soil for French king. Planted lead plate inscribed with arms of France near Pierre.
1745 De Lusigan visited Big Stone Lake to call in unlicensed traders.
1750 Teton Sioux at about this date, having driven Omahas from Big Sioux and James river valleys, reached Missouri River and engaged Arikara (Rees) in forty years' war.
1762 The Treaty of Fontainebleau cedes the French colony of La Louisiane, including South Dakota land, to Spain.
1764-1803 South Dakota land is part of the Spanish (though predominantly Francophone) district of Alta Luisiana.
1775 Oglala Tetons discover Black Hills and soon afterward drive Kiowas from that region.
1780 Yankton and Yanktonais Sioux, about this date, having been driven from western Iowa by Ottos, came up and settled in James River valley.
1785 Pierre Dorion, afterward guide to Lewis and Clark, married a Yankton woman and settled in trade at mouth of James River.
1790 Pierre Garreau settled with Rees at mouth of Grand River.
1792 Sioux finally conquer Rees and drive them from their strong position in neighborhood of Pierre. The Rees retreat up river and settle with relatives at mouth of Grand River.
1796 Loisel, or L'Oiselle, builds post on Cedar Island, between Pierre and Big Bend. First recorded post in South Dakota.
1797 Trudeau builds "Pawnee House" on east side of the Missouri, opposite Fort Randall, in Charles Mix County.
19th century 1800 Third Treaty of San Ildefonso led to the return of the Louisiana Territory to France.
1803 French district of Haute-Louisiane. Unorganized U.S. territory created by the Louisiana Purchase.
1804 Lewis and Clark explore Missouri valley through South Dakota, en route to Pacific. District of Louisiana, 1804–1805
1805 Pierre Dorion conducts party of Sioux chiefs to St. Louis. Territory of Louisiana, 1805–1812
1806 Lewis and Clark return from Pacific passing through South Dakota.
1807
Manuel Lisa undertakes trade with Indians at head of Missouri. Sergeant Nathaniel Pryor attempts to conduct Big White, a Mandan chief who visited Washington with Lewis and Clark, to his home and is attacked and driven back by Rees, assisted by Minneconjou Teton Sioux under Black Buffalo. Four whites killed, nine wounded.
1808 St. Louis Missouri Fur Company organized for trade on Upper Missouri. Established post in Loisel house on Cedar Island.
1809 Manuel Lisa, for St Louis Missouri Fur Company, safely conducts Big White to his home in North Dakota. Finds Rees friendly.
1810 Loisel post burned with large stock of furs.
1811 Astorian party go up Missouri to Grand River where they buy horses of Rees and go thence up Grand River toward Pacific. First recorded exploration of northern Black Hills region. Manuel Lisa finds Sioux excited over "Prophet craze" and believes it due to hostile English influence. Reports condition to General Clark, Indian agent.
1812 Red Thunder, Flathead Yanktonais chief from Elm River, Brown County, with son, Waneta, and twenty-two Sissetons enlist to serve English in war against Americans. Territory of Missouri, 1812–1821.
1813 Manuel Lisa made subagent for Missouri River Sioux and keeps them friendly to American interests.
1815 Teton Sioux sign treaty of friendship at Portage des Sioux. Black Buffalo dies there July 14. Given military funeral.
1816 Pawnee House burns.
1817 Fur trade revives. Joseph La Framboise builds Fort Teton at site of Fort Pierre. First continuous settlement.
1818 Anglo-American Convention.
1822 La Framboise builds trading post at Great Bend of Big Sioux (Flandreau). Fort Tecumseh built at site of Fort Pierre by Columbia Fur Company. Fort Recovery built upon American Island at Chamberlain by Missouri Fur Company. (It is possible this post was built ten years earlier to compensate loss of Loisel post, and was headquarters of Manuel Lisa during War of 1812–1815.)
1823 General Ashley, lieutenant governor of Missouri, en route to Yellowstone, with cargo of goods and one hundred men, attacked by Rees at Grand River and thirteen men killed and ten severely wounded. Colonel Henry Leavenworth, with 220 men, marches from Fort Atkinson, near Omaha, to punish Rees for attack on Atkinson. At Yankton, July 3, Sergeant Samuel Stackpole and six men drowned by overturning of boat. Leavenworth is joined by Joshua Pilcher, manager of Missouri Fur Company, with forty volunteers at Fort Recovery. General Ashley and eighty men join party at Cheyenne River. Seven hundred and fifty Sioux Indians volunteer for the campaign. August 9 Ree towns reached and besieged. Rees punished and beg for terms. First general military movement in Dakota.
1825 General Henry Atkinson and Benjamin O'Fallon sent up Missouri with an escort of 476 men to make treaties for trade and intercourse with Indian tribes. Very successful. Destroy English influence with Indians. First Fourth of July celebration in Dakota. Wamdesapa, a Wakpekuta chief, kills his brother Tasagi and is driven from his tribe. Settles on Vermilion River in South Dakota.
1828 American Fur Company absorbs Columbia Fur Company and becomes dominant in Dakota trade.
1831 Pierre Chouteau, Jr., navigates first steamboat, the Yellowstone, on upper Missouri, reaching Fort Tecumseh. Revolutionizes fur trade methods.
1832 Fort Pierre built to succeed Fort Tecumseh. George Catlin, famous painter of Indian pictures, visits Fort Pierre and paints many likenesses. Frederick Le Beau, a trader, kills Francois Querrel, an employee, at mouth of Cherry Creek, on Cheyenne River. Le Beau arrested by order of William Laidlaw, burgeois of Fort Pierre, and sent to St. Louis in chains.
1837 Great smallpox epidemic on Missouri River. All tribes suffer severely. Mandans practically destroyed.
1838 Dr. Joseph N. Nicollet, accompanied by John C. Frémont, visits the coteau region of eastern South Dakota, mapping and naming the lakes.
1839 Nicollet and Fremont again visit South Dakota, coming up the river to Fort Pierre, thence passing over to James River, and finally to the Minnesota. Father Pierre John De Smet visits the renegade band of Wakpekuta Sioux under Wamdesapa, to try to effect a peace between them and the Potawatomies of central Iowa.
1840 Dr. Stephen R. Riggs, celebrated missionary from Minnesota River, visits Fort Pierre and preaches first Christian sermon in Dakota.
1842 Audubon, the naturalist, visited the section upon a professional trip and observed and noted most of the birds and animals. Father Alexander Ravoux visits Fort Pierre and baptizes many Indians.
1845 Father Ravoux visits Fort Vermilion.
1847 Mrs. Joseph La Barge comes to Fort Pierre, with her husband, Captain La Barge of the steamboat Martha. First white woman to visit South Dakota. The Martha attacked by Yankton Indians at Crow Creek.
1849 Inkpaduta, son of the renegade Wamdesapa, massacres his cousin Wamundiyakapi and seventeen other Wakpekutas.
1851 Father De Smet visits the Teton Sioux. Santee Sioux relinquish title to all land east of Big Sioux River by treaty of Traverse des Sioux. This was the first Euro-American settlement of the land to become South Dakota. Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1851.
1855 Government buys Fort Pierre. General William S. Harney, after battle of Ash Hollow, in Nebraska, brings army of twelve hundred men to Pierre. Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren, afterward famous in Civil War, examines and makes topographical survey of much of South Dakota.
1856 Fort Randall established by General William S. Harney.
1857 Settlement begun at Sioux Falls, Flandreau, and Medary. "The Noble Road" built across the state from Lake Benton to Crow Creek. Fort Randall completed and occupied. Inkpaduta, the renegade, massacres forty-two settlers at Spirit Lake, Iowa, and retreats into South Dakota with three white women captives.
1858 Yankton Sioux make treaty relinquishing title to lands between Big Sioux and Missouri. Yankton Indian Reservation established. This was the second treaty with the Sioux within seven years to open land to Euro-American settlement, and the land became known as the Yankton Triangle. Mrs. Goodwin, first white woman settler, arrives at Sioux Falls. Settlement at Medary destroyed by Smutty Bear, Yankton Sioux. Settlers at Sioux Falls build and fortify Fort Sod. Provisional government organized. Legislature elected and convened. Alpheus G. Fuller sent as delegate to Congress. Henry Masters, governor.
1859 Yankton treaty ratified. July 10 Indians surrender lands. Yankton, Vermilion, and Bon Homme founded. Dakota Democrat newspaper established by Samuel J. Albright. Governor Masters dies. New legislature elected at Sioux Falls. Jefferson P. Kidder elected delegate to Congress. Wilmot W. Brookings provisional governor.
1860 First church society organized at Vermilion by Presbyterians. First school opened at Vermilion. First schoolhouse built at Bon Homme. Non-Native population was approximately 1100 people, mostly in trading posts or military garrisons along the rivers.
1861 Dakota Territory erected by Congress March 2. Dr. William Jayne appointed governor. Establishes temporary capital at Yankton. Calls election for legislature and delegate to Congress. John B.S. Todd elected delegate. Dakota in the American Civil War
1862 First territorial legislature, the "Pony Congress", meets March 17. They chartered the Missouri and Niobrara Valley Railroad Company, a planned but never completed railway. Company A, Dakota cavalry, organized at Yankton. South Dakota State Historical Society founded May 7, 1862. Great Indian Outbreak in Minnesota, August 18. The Amidons massacred at Sioux Falls. Settlers flee in wild panic. Stockade at Yankton. All men called to arms. Crow Creek Reservation established. The Homestead Act of 1862 provides ownership of South Dakota land to people who farm it for several years.
1863