REPORT

OF

LIEUTENANT G. K. WARREN, TOPOGRAPHICAL ENGINEER

OF THE

"SIOUX EXPEDITION,"

OF EXPLORATIONS IN THE DACOTA COUNTRY, 1855.

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 15, 1856.

SIR: In obedience to the orders of Brevet Brigadier General Harney, which required me to present a memoir and sketch of the routes passed over during the past season, I have the honor to present this report and the accompanying maps. My duties in connexion with the "Sioux Expedition" required me to go up the Missouri river to Fort Pierre, lay out a military reserve for that post, and examine the river as high up as the mouth of the Shyenne.

Having accomplished this, and rendered a report thereon, I proceeded across the country direct from Fort Pierre to Fort Kearny. From this point I accompanied the army to Fort Laramie, and thence to Fort Pierre. From Fort Pierre I returned to the settlements at the mouth of the Big Sioux, by the direct route through Minnesota.

Over the routes thus traversed, sketches and notes were taken, and collateral information was sought from every available source. I have given the Indian names, as well as the French and English, to objects and localities, and in writing the Dacota words have adopted, as far as possible, the spelling used in the Dacota Grammar and Dictionary, published by the Smithsonian Institution. Dacota being the proper name for the so called Sioux.*

The routes traversed lead over the great plains between the Missouri, the Platte and the Shyenne, and nowhere entered the mountains. Of the geology of this interesting section, which is believed to be mainly of the tertiary and cretaceous formations, much new information has been gained by Dr. F. V. Hayden, who is at present preparing his results. To his preliminary report [in Appendix E] I would call especial attention on account of its general interest.

A note concerning specimens of rock from a ravine on l'Eau qui Court has been prepared by Mr. W. P. Blake, and will be found in Appendix E.

The letter a, is always sounded as in father; e, as in they; i, as in marine; ch as in cherry.

The country north of White river is clayey; south of this stream it is sandy. This difference has an important bearing on roads through the two sections, as the former is almost everywhere impracticable in the wet seasons, while the latter is not materially injured by rain, and in some parts is improved by it. The water in the former is generally not constant, and wherever it stands in pools is frequently salt. The streams rise and fall suddenly, and their bottoms are more or less muddy and difficult to ford.

In the sandy region the rain that falls sinks into the surface and does not run off suddenly nor evaporate; pure water in small lakes, springs, and clear running streams are the consequence, but they are not numerous. The streams and lakes have sandy bottoms and are easy to ford.

The grass in the clay region, is, as a general thing, superior to that in the other, being finer and more nutritive; but along the banks of the streams, where the clay and sand in either region are mixed, there is not much difference. Wood generally exists along the banks of all the streams where it has not been destroyed by fire, or by the Indians for forage and fuel. Pine timber is found on l'Eau qui Court, on the southern branches of White river, and in the Black Hills. From my observation, I think that continuous settlements cannot be made in Nebraska, west of the 97th meridian, both on account of the unfavorable climate and want of fertility in the soil.

Grasshoppers occasionally devastate the country, stripping it in places of almost every green thing.

The Black Hills of Nebraska are believed to be composed of primitive rock, and are the eastern portion of the great mountain belt. They are in somewhat detached ridges, ranging NW. to SE. and probably have their continuation in Snowy, Bears Paw, and Little Missouri, mountains of the upper Missouri and the Cyprus mountains, &c., in the British possessions.

Bear Peak, between the forks of the Shyenne, as well as Raw Hide Peak, a little west of north from Fort Laramie, is a detached portion of this range, and both believed to be of primitive rock. All the other hills, peaks, or buttes to the cast of these are stratified rocks, the remains of vast denudation. The rocky precipices and ridges on White river, between it and l'Eau qui Court, and on the Platte, are generally soft calcareous stone or marl, occasionally capped with hard grit.

The Bad Lands, (les Mauvaises Terres,) as generally understood, lie between the Shyenne and White rivers, and extend east along the latter stream as far as the forks. They belong to the tertiary period. Dr. Hayden thinks that the Bijou Hills are a part of the same formation; and I should think, from their appearance, the Dog's Ears and Turtle Hill also form a part of it. They lie in an extended ridge, coming from the direction of the Bad Lands of White river, and have similar lithological character. I did not, however, make sufficient examination to detect any fossil remains. Where the road passes through the Mauvaises Terres from White river to the head of Bad river, the surface is, in many places, covered with chalcedony, and is hard; in others it is clay, and in wet weather very soft. Through

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this section some of the streams have clayey beds, some of them sandy. The precipitous ridges of the Mauvaises Terres are about two hundred

feet high, and are very striking in appearance. (See sketch.) Black tailed deer and big horn are to be found here.

Scenery in the Bad Lands, (les Mauvaises Terres,) Nebraska.

The Sand Hills (les Buttes de Sable) present their most characteristic appearance just north of Calamus river, spread out in every direc

tion to the extreme verge of the horizon. (See sketch.) The sand is nearly white, or lightish yellow, and is about three fourths covered

with coarse grass and other plants, their roots penetrating so deep that it is almost impossible to pull them out.

The sand is formed into limited basins, over the rims of which you are constantly passing up one side and down the other, the feet of the animals frequently sinking so as to make the progress excessively laborious.

The scenery is exceedingly solitary, silent, and desolate, and depressing to one's spirits. Antelope, and at sometimes, buffalo, are numerous. This is the common war ground for the Dacotas, Crows, Omahas, Poncas, and Pawnees. The character of the country is well calculated to cover a stealthy approach or retreat, and if one keeps as much as possible to the hollows he may even fire his rifle within a quarter of a mile of an enemy's camp without the faintest sound reaching it. Two parties may pass close without being aware of each other's presence, and I consider it hopeless to attempt to capture any who had sought refuge in the Sand Hills. Further west, these hills, I am told, increase in height, and are impassable for horses. Their east and west limits are not well known, but they undoubtedly occupy nearly all the country between Loup Fork and l'Eau qui Court, and form a lasting barrier to any direct economical wheel communication between them. Their width where we crossed is sixty miles. The country lying between the Republican Fork of the Kansas, and the South Fork of the Platte, described by Captain Fremont, (Senate Doc. No. 174, 2d sess. 28th Congress, pp. 109, 110,) is most probably a similar region.

The Coteau du Missouri, in Minnesota, has a soil of only two or three inches, beneath which is the gravel, &c., of the boulder formation; it extends east nearly to the Vermilion river.

RIVERS.

The Missouri is the most important river as regards our dealings with the Dacotas. Flowing through the middle of their country, it furnishes us with a base from which, with short lines of march, we can reach almost any portion of their lands, and many of them have their permanent home upon its banks. My remarks upon it will be confined wholly to that portion below the mouth of the Shyenne, and which came under my own observation.

The bottom lands and some of the larger islands are from fifteen to twenty feet above low water, and rarely overflowed, though during the melting of the snows this sometimes happens. The wood on these bottom lands, from being large and dense, as in the State of Missouri, gradually becomes thinner as we ascend to the mouth of the Vermilion, and above this it generally is only a narrow belt, varying from a single tree to groves half a mile in width, alternating on either side, or occupying a few of the larger islands; sometimes these, as Farm island, below Fort Pierre, and the large island below the mouth of the Shyenne, contain prairies in their interior. I believe, however, that timber sufficient for the wants of a military post exists everywhere within reasonable distance on the Missouri, as high up as the Big Shyenne, and above this the timber is said to improve.