On this date, April 29, 1868, a number of Lakota tribes and the Arapaho signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation.  The rest, as the say, his history. 

Source: http://www.historicaldocuments.com/TreatyofFortLaramielg.htm

Historical Documents
Treaty of Fort Laramie

In this treaty, signed on April 29, 1868, between the U.S. Government and the Sioux Nation, the United States recognized the Black Hills as part of the Great Sioux Reservation, set aside for exclusive use by the Sioux people.

Source: http://puffin.creighton.edu/lakota/1868_la.html

FORT LARAMIE TREATY APRIL 29, 1868

TREATY WITH THE SIOUX-- BRULÉ, OGLALA, MINICONJOU, YANKTONAI, HUNKPAPA, BLACKFEET, CUTHEAD, TWO KETTLE, SANS ARCS, AND SANTEE--AND ARAPAHO

15 Stat., 635.
Ratified, Feb. 16, 1869.
Proclaimed, Feb. 24, 1869

Articles of a treaty made and concluded by and between Lieutenant-General William T. Sherman, General William S. Harney, General Alfred H. Terry, General C. C,. Augur, J. B. Henderson, Nathaniel G. Taylor, John B. Sanborn, and Samuel F. Tappan, duly appointed commissioners on the part of the United States, and the different bands of the Sioux Nation of Indians, by their chiefs and head-men, whose names are hereto subscribed, they being duly authorized to act in the premises.

*** 

On this date, April 11, 1989, Deadwood residents voted to legalize gambling in their historic community. 

Source: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6DE1631F930A25757C0A96F948260&n=Top%2fNews%2fNational%2fU%2eS%2e%20States%2c%20Territories%20and%20Possessions%2fSouth%20Dakota

Deadwood Favors Gambling 

Voters overwhelmingly approved a return to legalized gambling Tuesday in this historic Black Hills town, where Wild Bill Hickock was shot to death in a frontier card game. City leaders hope games of chance will revive Deadwood's economy. The measure to legalize poker, blackjack and slot machines received 690 votes, or 75 percent, in favor to 112 votes against. The measure needed 60 percent to pass.

On this date, April 9, 1988, the New York Times reported that the State of South Dakota received a $600 million jury verdict against the Kansas City Southern Railway Co. over the scrapped coal slurry pipeline that would have taken Missouri River water from South Dakota to ship coal southward.

Source: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0710FF395C0C7A8CDDAD0894D0484D81&n=Top%2fNews%2fNational%2fU%2eS%2e%20States%2c%20Territories%20and%20Possessions%2fSouth%20Dakota

 State Wins $600 Million in Suit  More information.

A Federal jury awarded South Dakota $200 million today in the state's antitrust suit against Kansas City Southern Railway Company over the demise of a coal slurry project. A Federal jury awarded South Dakota $200 million today in the state's antitrust suit against Kansas City Southern Railway Company...

On this date, March 27, 1861, William F. Shaffer was appointed the first federal marshall for Dakota Territory.

Source: http://www.usmarshals.gov/district/sd/history/history.htm

President Andrew Johnson.On this date,  March 22, 1866, President Andrew Johnson ordered the release of the 177 surviving Dakota prisoners of the 1862 Sioux Uprising that occurred in Minnesota and eastern South Dakota. They were moved to the Santee Reservation near Niobrara , Nebraska.

Source: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/Dak_account.html

On this date, March 18, 1833, Civil War brevet Brigadier General and hero and one of the first justices to the South Dakota Supreme Court, John Bennett, was born. 

Source: http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=state&FSstateid=44

Bennett, John b. March 18, 1833 d. December 31, 1893
Civil War Brevet Brigadier General. Served in the Civil War as Colonel and commander of the 75th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was brevetted Brigadier General , US Volunteers on April 6, 1865 for "gallant and meritorious services". he entered the Regular Army at the conclusion of the war, but resigned at the rank of 1st Lieutenant in 1868. He served as a Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1871 to 1874, then as a Justice of the South Dakota Supreme Court from 1889 to 1893. (Bio by: Russ Dodge )
Rose Hill Cemetery , Clark , Clark County , South Dakota , USA
Plot: Block A, Sec. 5, Lot 8

Cover of the book, "Jack McCall, Assassin"On this date, March 1, 1877, Jack McCall, the convicted murderer of Western legend Wild Bill Hickok, was hanged in Yankton, D.T.

Source: http://www.yankton.net/stories/091599/bus_jackmccall.html

At the gallows, McCall calmly mounted the platform with Fr. Daxacher, and while the prisoner knelt with the priest, his legs and arms were tied. When he rose, he kissed a proffered crucifix and the black hood was drawn over his head.

McCall asked the marshal for an additional moment of prayer, after which the noose was placed around his neck. "Draw it tighter, Marshal," the doomed man supposedly said. Then, at precisely 10 minutes after 10 a.m. , the trap was sprung. Faulk's story continued:

"Twelve minutes after the drop fell, Drs. D. F. Etter and J. M. Miller were admitted to the interior of the gallows and examined the body, pronouncing life extinct. McCall's head was inclined in a drooping position toward his breast, his hands were clenched and blue, in one of which was still grasped the crucifix.

Sen. Thomas Sterling (R-S.D.)On this date, February 20, 1851, former U.S. Senator and former dean of the University of South Dakota Law School, Thomas Sterling, was born near Amanda, Ohio.

Source: http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/SD/lawyer.html

Thomas Sterling (1851-1930) — of Springfield, Sangamon County, Ill.; Redfield, Spink County, S.Dak.; Vermillion, Clay County, S.Dak. Born near Amanda, Fairfield County, Ohio, February 20, 1851. Son of Charles Sterling and Anna (Kessler) Sterling; married to Anna Dunn (died 1881) and Emma R. Rowe-Thayer (died 1923); brother of John Allen Sterling. Republican. Lawyer; delegate to South Dakota state constitutional convention, 1889; member of South Dakota state senate 30th District, 1889-90; dean, college of law, University of South Dakota, 1901-11; U.S. Senator from South Dakota, 1913-25. Congregationalist. Member, American Bar Association; American Political Science Association; Freemasons; Knights Templar; Shriners; Ancient Order of United Workmen; Odd Fellows. Died in 1930. Interment at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suitland, Md.

On this date, February 15, 2005, the ACLU filed a voting rights violation lawsuit against Charles Mix County, alleging that it was diluting the votes of Native Americans.

Source: http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096410358

LAKE ANDES, S.D. - A lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union's voting rights division accused Charles Mix County of diluting the votes of the American Indian population, a frequently heard accusation in a state that has seen its share of voting rights lawsuits.

District lines are drawn north and south in a county that is shaped as a near-rectangle, diluteing the American Indian vote, the ACLU claims.

The southern portion of the county is occupied by the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

The plaintiffs claim that the county violates the ''one person, one vote'' rule of the constitution and dilutes American Indian voter strength, a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

 

On this date, February 12, 1991, Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of killing two FBI agents in the 1970s on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was denied a new trial by a federal judge in Kansas.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEED9153BF930A25751C0A967958260&n=Top%2fNews%2fNational%2fU%2eS%2e%20States%2c%20Territories%20and%20Possessions%2fSouth%20Dakota

Indian Leader Denied New Trial in Slayings

A Federal district judge today denied a new trial for Leonard Peltier, a former leader of the American Indian Movement who has been imprisoned 15 years in the slayings of two Federal agents at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.