Page:1862 Territory of Dakota Session Laws.pdf/520

CHAP. XCIX.] place a road from Sioux city to Fort Randall, thereby shortening the distance from Fort Ridgley and Southern Minnesota to Fort Randall and Southern Dakota, one hundred miles.

And your memorialists would further show, that all mails from Southern Minnesota would pass over the same, and that all emigration from Wisconsin and Southern Minnesota to Dakota would pass over said road instead of passing over the circuitous route now travelled by Spirit lake and Sioux city in Iowa.

It is further shown, that said road would pass over a fine rolling country, free from marsh and slough, well watered and timbered, nearly every acre of which is capable of cultivation. And your memorialist, will ever pray.
 * Approved April 20, 1862.

W. JAYNE, Governor.

To the Honorable Secretary of the Interior:

Your memorialists, the legislative assembly of the Territory of Dakota, would respectfully represent that the interests of this territory would be greatly promoted, and its early settlement rapidly hastened, if the Indian title to the country now claimed and occupied by the Brule Sioux Indians was extinguished.

Only a small fragment of the vast region embraced within the boundaries of Dakota, is open for settlement. These Indians possess a belt of land extending from the Missouri to the Niobrara rivers, and lying next beyond the country ceded