4th of July: 200 Years in South Dakota
Take a walk through time.
South Dakota was admitted to the United States on November 2, 1889, so it’s first official 4th of July was in 1890.
However, people living in the South Dakota area, began celebrating the holiday long before that date. In fact, the first recorded 4th of July celebration in the Dakotas dates back to 1825.
Then in 1861, President James Buchanan signed the Organic Act, which created the Dakota Territory (the states of North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and a small part of Nebraska). By 1868, the Dakota Territory consisted of only what are North and South Dakota today. During this period the 4th of July holiday became more official.
It is interesting to take a walk through time and look at some of the photos of how South Dakota celebrated this the holiday over time.
Here are a few pictures of 4th of July in the early years of statehood and several from more recent years (make sure to click the pictures to see the event details). While we can’t share pictures on Substack, we can share stories. We looks forward to hearing some of the tales from your ancestors and about your more recent 4th of July adventures.
I was interested in the supposed first 4th of July celebration in South Dakota, so I read the linked study on the history of the Atkinson-O'Fallon Treaty, the "negotiation" of which included an interlude in which the white American soldiers tried to impress the Indians by firing guns off during a celebration of July 4th. Whether this was a genuine "celebration" or a means to impress the Indians enough to extract signatures on a treaty, it is clear that the so-called "treaty" had been written down prior to even hearing what the Indians wanted. The treaty said that the tribes would recognize the "sovereignty" of the US government, but what "sovereignty" meant to Indians was vastly different from what the US side meant. The "record" of that "negotiation" did not include anything the tribal representatives said.
https://history.nebraska.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/2017The-Oglala-Lakota-and-the-Atkinson-OFallon-Treaty-of-1825.pdf
Excellent story.
The photos did not come through on my computer.