Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/27

Rh the Big Sioux and James valleys as conquered territory. Now, however, while the Tetons' hands were full with their forty years' war with the Rees, the Omahas were threatening to come back into their old South Dakota homes. Therefore when the Yanktons, whipped and robbed by the Ottos, came up the Missouri looking for a place to rest, they were warmly welcomed by the Tetons, who gladly gave them a large territory to occupy on the James River, and fitted them out with arms and horses to enable them to defend their new home from the threatened invasion of the Omahas.

So it came about that before the end of the eighteenth century all of South Dakota, except a very small territory, not more than four or five townships in extent, near the mouth of Grand River, which was occupied by the Rees, had passed into the possession and control of the powerful Sioux tribes.