If you drive north on Cliff Avenue past the Smithfield plant in northern Sioux Falls, you might notice a stone obelisk on the top of a bluff above the Big Sioux River. It's a memorial to the pioneers of Minnehaha County. It is not a memorial to the so-called Amidon Affair. That bleak bit of local history is memorialized by a bronze plaque situated a few yards northeast of the obelisk. Given their proximity to one another, it's easy to confuse the two.
The Minnehaha County Historical Society secured the land and had the 25-foot tall obelisk erected in 1949. Like so many of the structures of old Sioux Falls, it is built from locally-mined quartzite. The original design blended the goals of honoring all of the county's pioneers and memorializing Judge Joseph B. Amidon and his son Willie, who were killed by a Native raiding party during the so-called Dakota War of 1962.
This is the inscription on a stone at the base of the Minnehaha County Pioneer Memorial obelisk:
"Honors the early settlers who faced the harsh and lonely prairie, the ferocity of the elements, and the uncertainty of their fate in this new land between 1856 when Sioux Falls city was platted and 1889 when South Dakota achieved statehood. They built homes, farms and businesses and planted their family roots in Minnehaha county. This Sioux Quartzite obelisk was erected in their memory in 1949."
This is the inscription on the Amidon Affair marker, which was erected in 1991:
The 1862 Sioux Uprising, a result of unjust government treatment, claimed many Indian and non-Indian lives. Near this place on August 25, 1862, two of its victims, Judge Joseph B. Amidon and his son, William, were killed while making hay on their claim which was a mile north of their cabin in Sioux Falls.
Amidon was a County Probate Judge, Treasurer and Commissioner appointed by Governor Jayne and the Territorial Legislature. When he and William failed to return home at sundown, Mrs. Amidon became alarmed and sought help from the Dakota Calvalry detachment in the village. A search was to no avail, but their bodies were found in the morning. Joseph died of a single bullet wound, William was riddled with arrows.
George B. Trumbo brought their bodies back to the village. Later, Sgt. Jesse Buel Watson, Company A, Dakota Cavalry, reported, “we picked up the bodies and buried them in a cemetery…(on what is now)…North Duluth Avenue.”
In the opinion of John Renville and Joseph Laframboise, veteran fur traders and plainsmen, the Amidons were slain by members of the band of the warrior White Lodge. He was under orders from Chief Little Crow, Indian leader in the “Dakota War”, to drive white settlers from the Sioux Valley. Pure chance placed the Amidons in the path of White Lodge’s scouting party.
Two days later, orders came by courier from Governor William Jayne to abandon Sioux Falls and seek shelter at the Territorial Capitol at Yankton. Settlers and soldiers together hastily set out in a wagon train before sundown.
Following the settlers flight to Yankton, Sioux Falls remained abandoned until the establishment of Fort Dakota by federal troops in 1865, when settlement was resumed.
Joseph B Amidon was born in Connecticut in 1801. He came to Sioux Falls from Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife Mahala, son William and daughter Eliza, sometime before 1860.
The Pioneers Monument has fallen into disrepair in the past few years. The Minnehaha County Historical Society has been looking at ways to raise money for a maintenance project that would include tuck pointing of the masonry, improved lighting, and other improvements to the site. Jim Carlson, a past president of the society and currently the chair of the Society's marker program spoke about the monuments on SDPB's "In The Moment" radio program.
Lori Walsh:
If you have driven past the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls or traveled north along Cliff Avenue, you may have noticed a stone monument at the crest of a hill above the Sioux River. This quartzite obelisk was erected in 1949 to commemorate the lives of Minnehaha County pioneers. But in the past few years, it's become a target for vandals. It's starting to fall apart in some places. Some community members are calling for its rescue.
Joining me on the phone now for today's Images of the Past, we have Jim Carlson. He's a past president of the Minnehaha County Historical Society and the current chair of the society's historical marker program. Jim, welcome to the program. Thanks for being here.
Jim Carlson:
Well, thank you. Thank you for giving me a call.
Lori Walsh:
So when you go up on this hill, and I went up last night around sunset to look and walk around the area, there is this quartzite obelisk and a marker about pioneers. And then next to it is this historic marker about the Amidon, Amidon, I don't know how to say their last name, affair, about the killing of-
Jim Carlson:
Amidon.
Lori Walsh:
Amidon. So these two things are right next to each other, help people understand what this memorial is for and how those two markers are connected or not.
Jim Carlson:
Okay. Judge Joseph Amidon and his son William were killed near where the obelisk is while they were making hay in August of 1862. That was when the Indians were uprising in this area and in Minnesota. It was decided that they (the Amidons) should be honored. And what happened was, in the historical society, this is one of their first projects in 1927 was to honor Judge Amidon. They got going on it and then the Depression hit so they put it aside. During that time, some member had a program at the historical society and he said, you should be honoring women too. So then they changed it to honoring all the pioneers to face the harsh and the lonely prairie and all the elements in between 1857 and 1889.
Lori Walsh:
Hmm. So I want to jump ahead, because certainly there's a lot of history here, and after Judge Amidon and his son die, the city of Sioux Falls is really abandoned. The attack was part of this really ongoing oppression of the Indigenous People as the pioneers came. So there's a lot of really complicated history here, but I want to make sure we get to saving the marker and interpreting that history so people can still have that conversation. What do you think needs to happen next with the marker to sort of help with the interpretation and preservation?
Jim Carlson:
Yeah, well, as I said, it was always on their mind and then they got started again in 1941. Then of course, World War I hit and they put it off till 1949, which as you said, it was actually put up. The monument, it's granite shaft and erected to the early pioneers in the area.
Lori Walsh:
Jim, thank you for being here with us today for just a small part of the story and we hope people will go online and see more. We appreciate your time.
Jim Carlson:
Okay. All right. Thank you.
