Part 5: The Frontier Army

Part 5: Vocabulary

Ammunition

  • Bullets

Artillery

  • Cannons and other large guns

Battle of Killdeer Mountains

  • General Sully fought Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota people in the Killdeer Mountains

Battle of the Little Bighorn

  • Battle fought along the Little Bighorn River in Montana
  • Also called the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek
  • Custer and his entire 7th Cavalry were wiped out

Boarding school

  • School with housing

Cavalry

  • Soldiers on horseback

Custer, Elizabeth

  • Nicknamed “Libby”
  • Wife of George Custer
  • Spent 57 years trying to save her husband’s reputation

Custer, George Armstrong

  • Commander of 7th Cavalry at Fort Abraham Lincoln
  • Lieutenant Colonel in the army
  • He and his troops were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana

Fisk, Captain James

  • Escorted wagon trains through North Dakota
  • Established temporary Fort Dilts when attacked by Lakota warriors

Fort Abercrombie

  • First army fort in North Dakota
  • Located on the Red River about 12 miles north of present-day Wahpeton
  • Was attacked by Dakota warriors for about six weeks in 1862

Fort Abraham Lincoln

  • Cavalry and infantry post south of present-day Mandan
  • Had originally been named “Fort McKeen”
  • Custer’s 7th Cavalry stationed there

Fort Buford

  • Farthest west army fort in North Dakota
  • Located near confluence of Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers
  • Built with lumber from the abandoned fur trading post, Fort Union

Fort Dilts

  • Temporary fort with walls built of sod
  • Built by Captain Fisk’s party when attacked by Lakota warriors

Fort Pembina

  • Located near the confluence of the Red and Pembina Rivers
  • Built near the old Fort Pembina fur trading post

Fort Rice

  • Headquarters for Sully’s troops in 1864
  • Located on Missouri River about 30 miles from present-day Mandan

Fort Yates

  • Army fort along Missouri River near South Dakota border
  • Turned over to Standing Rock Sioux Reservation
  • Site of present-day town of Fort Yates

Infantry

  • Soldiers on foot

Kelly, Fanny

  • Woman held captive by Lakota warriors for five months
  • Saved herself and Fort Rice by writing secret messages

Laundress

  • Woman who did the laundry for soldiers at an army fort

Lincoln, Abraham

  • U.S. President who saved hundreds of Dakota warriors from being hanged
  • Signed bill establishing Dakota Territory

Provisions

  • Food supplies

Quadrangle

  • Rectangular area with buildings on all four sides

Reservation

  • Land reserved for American Indians

Settlers

  • People who came to an area to live there

Sibley, Henry

  • Led about 3,300 soldiers into North Dakota to round up Dakota warriors
  • Many Dakota women and children drowned in Missouri River trying to get away
  • Destroyed Dakota provisions and equipment along Missouri River

Slaughter, Linda

  • Author, public speaker, artist, nurse
  • Worked with her surgeon husband at Fort Rice

Suds Row

  • Area of army fort where laundresses lived and worked

Sully, Alfred

  • Led 2,000 cavalry into North Dakota to round up Dakota warriors
  • Led army which killed 150 to 300 Dakota people, including women and children, at the Battle of Whitestone Hill
  • Destroyed Dakota provisions and equipment after battles at Whitestone Hill and Killdeer Mountains

Treaty

  • An agreement between the U.S. government and an American Indian tribe

U.S. 7th Cavalry

  • Army cavalry company stationed at Fort Abraham Lincoln Commanded by George Custer
  • Command by George Custer
  • Wiped out at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

White flag

  • Symbol of a truce or peace

Whitestone Hill

  • From 150 to 200 Dakota people, including women and children, were killed
  • Bloodiest conflict ever fought in North Dakota