Julius Durage, The Dakota Territory (1878)

This map of the Dakota Territory includes notes and dates from a variety of land surveys and exploration routes, battlegrounds, and Native American treaties and reservations. The Dakota Territory became incorporated into the United States on March 2, 1861, when President James Buchanan signed the Dakota Organic Act. Later, in 1889, North and South Dakota would join the Union as the 39th and 40th states. Prior to the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, European Americans had barely explored the Dakota Territory. However, as migrants flocked to the Dakotas following the Homestead Act of 1862, tensions increased with Indigenous populations in the area, particularly with the Sioux. Their name is featured prominently on the bottom left portion of the map. Just below "Sioux Indians," the words "Treaty April 29 1868" refers to the Treaty of Fort Laramie, in which the United States recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people. However, by the time this map was published in 1878, that agreement had ended. With the 1874 discovery of gold, prospectors and the U.S. Army poured into the Black Hills and onto the Sioux Reservation. In 1877, after armed resistance, the Sioux were forced to yield the Black Hills to the U.S. government.