THE TREATY of 1867 with the upper Sioux provided for a reservation
between Devils Lake and the Sheyenne River, chiefly for those Santees
who were still fugitives on the plains but also for the Cuthead bands of
Yanktonais who claimed that area. When five hundred Indians had
gathered there, an agent was to be appointed for them. Four years pas-
sed before this provision was complied with, and in the meantime the
Indians who resided in the vicinity were largely under the supervision
of the commanding officer of Fort Totten, established in 1867 on the
south shore of Devils Lake. ¹ In the fall of that year 57 lodges--some 250
souls--were said to be living permanently there, and more were ex-
pected during the winter. Later reports mentioned 80 and even 130
lodges; the Indians were all in "great destitution" by December, when
efforts were made to subsist them out of military stores. Those efforts
failing, Sisseton Agent Benjamin Thompson arranged with Joseph R.
Brown to supply a limited amount of provisions, to be paid for when an
appropriation was made by Congress. Justus C. Ramsey, brother of the
former Minnesota governor, was designated to receive the supplies
from Brown, accompany them to Devils Lake, and there distribute them
to the Indians. The mission, carried out in mid-winter under conditions
of extreme hardship, kept life in the Indians till spring. ²

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