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Book Review
| Fort Randall on the Missouri, 1856–1892. By Jerome A. Greene. (Pierre: South Dakota Historical Society Press, 2005. x + 264 pp. Illustrations, maps, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $24.95.)
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Fort Randall on the Missouri, 1856–1892, provides the reader with a concise institutional history of one of the most important forts established on the upper Missouri River. Though it existed only thirty-six years, Fort Randall was a vanguard of the moving frontier and suffered the same fate as its many predecessors when it had outlived its purpose. |
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Greene depicts Fort Randall as a vibrant, living thing from its founding in 1856 to its obsolescence in 1892. Established by Colonel William S. Harney and named for the late Deputy Paymaster General Daniel Randall, the fort served as a concentration point for soldiers and a supply distribution center throughout the Dakota area. |
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During the late 1850s, soldiers at Fort Randall helped construct the post, arbitrated disagreements among surrounding tribes, and protected Native Americans from the incursions of white settlers. Former soldier John B. S. Todd, post suttler, and later, territorial delegate, typified those who exploited the natives and grew wealthy. |
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The Santee Sioux uprising of 1862 in Minnesota resulted in unintended consequences for the tribes surrounding Fort Randall. In 1863, the federal government moved 1,500 Santees onto a reservation at Crow Creek, about forty-five miles above Fort Randall. Adding the eastern Dakota to the volatile mix of Lakotas, their allies, and reservation-bound Yanktons and Poncas, caused great unrest among all tribes. |
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After the close of the Civil War, incursions of white settlers into the area, the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, and ambivalent federal policies toward the Indians and white settlement led to the Great Sioux War of 1876–1877. In that campaign, Fort Randall functioned in a support capacity for new posts upriver and to army operations against the Lakotas and their allies. The federal government's victory in that war resulted in the establishment of the Great Sioux Reservation and the Sioux's lost freedom of movement. Another result was that Sitting Bull, his immediate family, and other Indian allies sought refuge in Canada where they remained until the summer of 1881. On 18 September, Sitting Bull and 171 other Lakotas disembarked at Fort Randall where they remained until April 1883, when they were removed to Standing Rock Agency. |
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Over the next few years Fort Randall maintained its function as a supply depot as well as a recruit rendezvous. The fort, however, fell victim to the changing military needs during the early 1890s and despite citizens' protests was disestablished. |
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One of the most outstanding features of Fort Randall on the Missouri is the twenty-four stereopticon views of the incarceration of Sitting Bull and his allies, produced by Bailey, Dix, and Mead. In reference to these photographs, however, one wishes that Greene had included a footnote describing the errors in the original captions. Using all available sources and his many years of experience in the field, Greene has produced a balanced and well-researched history detailing the short life of a strategic fort on the upper Missouri. Fort Randall on the Missouri belongs on the shelf with the other excellent volumes by Greene, who is quickly becoming the most prolific historian of the Indian Wars. |
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| Patricia Y. Stallard
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| Knoxville, Tennessee |
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ISSN 1939-8603
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