De Smet Forest / De Smet

The bronze dates the fight at Lake Thompson to June 29, 1857, and credits it to half breeds and braves, its words for men of mixed descent and Dakota warriors. The fuller record differs. Superintendent Cullen withheld the annuities until the bands pursued Inkpaduta, and on July 19 Little Crow led 106 warriors out of the Upper Agency, with the interpreter Joseph Campbell and six mixed-blood men to watch. Late in July they caught part of the band and killed three men, Fire Cloud, a twin son of Inkpaduta, among them. Inkpaduta himself escaped to a Yankton camp.

What the plaque says

De Smet Forest Half mile Southeast of De Smet De Smet Forest was established by the South Da- kota Fish, Game and Parks Department in 1946 and is one of hundreds of small roadside parks now existent or planned along South Dakota highways. At many of them, markers such as this, tell some- thing of the history of the surrounding area. De Smet Half mile Northwest Was established in 1880; named for Father Peter J. DeSmet, S.J., famous missionary who first visited South Dakota in 1840. Was the "Little Town on the Prairie" of Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories of pioneering, four having their setting here; birthplace of Rose Wilder Lane, whose novels depicted pioneering in this area. The Ingalls Home- stead was one-half mile S. of this spot. There is a marker at the site. The birthplace of Harvey Dunn, N.A., noted illustrator, famed for his paintings of prairie settlers and Western subjects, 9 miles W., 3 miles S. and 3/4 mile E. of this spot. There is a marker at the site. At Lake Thomson, then called Big Dry Wood Lake, on June 29, 1857, a group of half breeds and braves from Yellow Medicine Agency, Minn., caught up with Inkpaduta, Sioux renegade, killed 3 of his band including his son Mah pi yah peta (Fire Cloud) in battle at S. end of Lake 9 miles S. and 2 miles E. Erected 1955 De Smet Chamber of Commerce and State Highway Commission.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ingalls Homestead and the De Smet Historic Homes — 0.6 mi
  The quarter section a mile from De Smet that Charles Ingalls filed on in 1880 and proved up in 1886, the house in town he built, and the cottonwoods he planted.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Ingalls Homestead 1880 — 0.5 mi
• Charles and Caroline Ingalls Homestead — 0.5 mi
• St. Petri Lutheran Church — 1.4 mi
• Father Pierre Jean De Smet — 1.6 mi