East Wall Yankton Stockade

The people whose land Yankton stood on did not join the 1862 war. Ben C. Ash recalled that settlers sent Charles Picotte, who belonged to the Ihanktonwan (Yankton), with William P. Lyman and an Indian woman to the agency some sixty miles west to ask Struck by the Ree where his people stood. The envoys came back with his word that his people liked the whites and would let no harm come to them. Struck by the Ree also refused to join the Mdewakanton when Little Crow talked of attacking Fort Pierre, and sent warriors to protect it.

What the plaque says

East Wall Yankton Stockade In September 1862 - after a skir- mish with Hostile Indians near James River, it was determined to finish stockade at once, north wall being of sod with ditch in front already finished, and East wall of posts with boards on either side with earth packed between. It was completed overnight. This wall 450 feet long was about 150 feet west of this marker. Erected 1960 by Northwest Public Service Company

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 22 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.
• Santee Sioux Nation Museum — 23 mi
  The Isanti Dakota nation's museum and research room beside its headquarters at Santee, with census rolls from 1866, the mission school's photographs and a Dakota-language newspaper that ran for 68 years.

More markers nearby

• First Dakota National Bank of Yankton — steps away
• North Wall Yankton Stockade — steps away
• Yankton Stockade — steps away
• West Wall Yankton Stockade — steps away