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Dakota Territory
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Dakota Territory was the name of an organized territory of the United States that existed from 1861 to 1889. The territory consisted of the northernmost part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of the United States.
Most of Dakota Territory was formerly part of the Minnesota and Nebraska territories. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the leftover area east of the Missouri River fell unorganized. When the Yankton Treaty was signed later that year, ceding much of what had been Lakota land to the U.S.
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Encyclopedia
Dakota Territory was the name of an organized territory of the United States that existed from 1861 to 1889. The territory consisted of the northernmost part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase of the United States.
Most of Dakota Territory was formerly part of the Minnesota and Nebraska territories. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the leftover area east of the Missouri River fell unorganized. When the Yankton Treaty was signed later that year, ceding much of what had been Lakota land to the U.S. Government, early settlers formed an unofficial provisional government and unsuccessfully lobbied for United States territory status. However, it wasn't until three years later when soon-to-be-President Abraham Lincoln's cousin-in-law, J.B.S. Todd, personally lobbied for territory status that Washington formally created Dakota Territory.
It became a historic, organized territory on March 2, 1861. Upon creation, Dakota Territory included much of present-day Montana and Wyoming; by 1868, creation of new territories reduced Dakota Territory to the present boundaries of the Dakotas.
The territorial capital was Yankton from 1861 until 1883, when it was moved to Bismarck. Dakota Territory was divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889. The admission of two states, as opposed to one, was done for a number of reasons. The two centers of population in the territory were in the northeast and southeast corners of the territory, several hundred miles away from each other. On a national level, there was pressure from the Republican Party to admit the two states rather than one to add political power in the Senate.
Life in Dakota Territory
After becoming an organized territory, the population increased very slowly during the early years and then very rapidly with the "Dakota Boom" from 1870 to 1880. The white population grew slowly for a number of reasons. Mainly, the Sioux Indians were considered very hostile and a threat to early settlers. They were gradually defeated and were not as severe a threat. The population increase can largely be attributed to the growth of railroads, specifically the Northern Pacific Railroad. Settlers that came to the Dakota Territory were from other western territories as well as many from Northern and Western Europe. These included large numbers of Norwegians, Germans, Swedes, and Canadians.
Life in Dakota was organized around agriculture and the fertile soil. Wheat became the main cash crop of the territory. Economic hardship hit the territory in the 1880s because of a decline in price of wheat and a drought that hit the territory hard. Other economic activities included mining and cattle ranching. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills and attracted more settlers to the area. This population increase in many ways led to more of a necessity for meat products and cattle ranching became prominent on Dakota's vast open ranges.
Dakota Territory was the setting for the syndicated western television series, Man Without a Gun, starring Rex Reason as newspaper editor Adam McLean and Mort Mills as Marshal Frank Tillman. The program aired from 1957-1959.
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