Tensions between settlers and Dakota Indians resulted in over 300 deaths in Minnesota in 1862.
Many people of the Dakota Nation moved to North Dakota to get away from the trouble in Minnesota.
General Sibley and General Sully were sent by the U.S. government to round up Dakota Indians in North Dakota.
General Sibley’s troops fought with Dakota warriors at the Battle of Big Mound near Dawson and the Battle of Stony Lake near Driscoll.
Many Dakota women and children drowned in the Missouri River while trying to get away from Sibley’s army.
General Sully’s troops killed from 150 to 200 Dakota people at Whitestone Hill, including women and children. It was one of the bloodiest conflicts ever fought in North Dakota.
General Sully’s troops fought with Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota warriors at the Battle of Killdeer Mountains and the Battle of the Badlands.
Captain James Fisk and about 200 settlers and gold seekers built the sod-walled Fort Dilts in southwestern North Dakota in 1864.
Teenager Fanny Kelly spent five months as a captive of Lakota warriors before writing secret messages which led to her freedom.
A chain of army forts was set up in North Dakota between 1858 and 1878 to provide protection and keep peace.
Fort Abercrombie, built on the Red River near Wahpeton, was the first army fort in North Dakota.
Women at Fort Abercrombie helped save the fort by providing the soldiers with pellets to use as bullets.
Fort Rice was the first army post located on the Missouri River.
Linda Slaughter, who worked with her doctor husband at Fort Rice, helped establish the city of Bismarck, North Dakota.
Fort Ransom, about 30 miles south of Valley City, closed after five years, and its lumber was used to build Fort Seward at Jamestown.
Fort Totten, near Devils Lake, later served as a boarding school for Indian children.
Fort Buford, built from the lumber of abandoned Fort Union, was the farthest west fort in North Dakota.
The site of Fort Stevenson is now under the waters of Lake Sakakawea.
Fort Pembina, on the Red River in northeastern North Dakota, was open for 25 years.
The name of Fort McKeen, an infantry post, was changed to Fort Abraham Lincoln when cavalry was added.
Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer commanded the 7th Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln.
Custer and the 7th Cavalry were wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876.
Elizabeth (Libby) Custer spent 57 years trying to convince people that her husband was a hero.
Fort Yates, located on the Missouri River near the South Dakota border, was turned over to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
Army leaders were called “officers,” and men who signed up for a job were called “enlisted men.”
The uniforms of each branch of the army were decorated with different colors and symbols.
Laundresses, who lived on Suds Row at the forts, did the soldiers’ laundry.
The lives of American Indians were severely impacted by the westward movement of Euro-Americans.
