- 1890, South Dakota
is one year old.

Its frontier is closed,
the wild horses are gone.

The buffalo are gone.

The Sioux are forced
onto the reservations.

One year earlier, the
vast Sioux Reservations

had been reduced from an
area that included all of

western South Dakota,
minus the black hills

to five smaller
reservations, The Pine Ridge,

The Rose Bud, The Lower
Brule, The Standing Rock

and the Cheyenne
River reservations.

Gone was their
nomad way of life.

The federal government
wanted the Sioux to

become farmers and ranchers.

But the Sioux had no
history of grain farming

and never adapted
to this way of life.

They continued to live
along the rivers and creeks

where water flowed and the
trees grew and the land

gave shelter from
the winter wind.

This left large tracts of
upland grass lands unused

or grazed only by Indian
cattle in the summer.

For the federal government
had created an allotment

program, giving each Indian
160 acres of land, title

to which held in trust by
the federal government.

The idea was patterned
after The Homestead Act.

While farming success
was at best questionable,

raising cattle and horses
met with some success.

- "The Indian's devote their
attention to stock raising,

freighting and farming.

They have been very
successful at stock.

Nearly every family having a
few head of cattle and horses.

And many of the more
progressive have large herds

ranging from 10 to 100 cattle."

Perrine P. Palmer, United
States Indian Agent.

- "The climatic conditions
are such as to preclude the

probability of successfully
growing crops in this locality.

With these conditions
against them on the one hand,

there remains but
one alternative.

Which is more congenial to the
habits of the Indian and more

profitable than the tilling
of the soil, stock raising."

Ira A. Hatch, United
States Indian Agent.

- If some of the young Sioux
saw the possibilities of

grazing stock on the wide
open range land of the

reservations, so did the
cattle barons of the Southwest.

By the turn of the century,
the railroads had reached

the east side of
the Missouri River.

A strip of land six miles wide
and 90 miles long was opened

on the north side of the
Cheyenne River Reservations,

so cattle from western
South Dakota, Wyoming and

Montana could be
trailed to the railhead,

on the river at Everts.

There was big business for
the railroads in hauling

homesteaders to their
new homes in the west and

in hauling their cattle and
grain to markets in the east.

The Sioux and their
sympathizers didn't hold the

reigns of power in
Washington, the railroads did.

And southwestern cattle
barons were already dreaming

of new lands to pasture
their herds of cattle.

All that stood in the
way of their dreams,

was the Sioux nation.

A Sioux nation nearly
destroyed by war,

by disease and by defeat.

A Sioux nation the federal
government was trying to convert

into ranchers on the Cheyenne
River Indian Reservation.

A Sioux nation that
did not want to give up

its lands once again.

But give them up they did.

Over two million acres of
Cheyenne River Reservation

were opened to grazing leases.

Some in the federal
government felt the decision

to lease would be unfair
to the Sioux and would be

a setback to national
Indian policy.

The cattle barons of the
southwest were pleased.

Barons like Captain
Burton C, Cap Mossman.

His dreams would soon come true.

When Cap was first informed
of the availability of

land to lease in South
Dakota, he was in Kansas City.

The leases were made with the
understanding that livestock

would be furnished
by the Hansford Land
and Cattle Company,

a Scotch syndicate.

Since Cap could not handle
all four tracts being offered,

he contacted Murdo MacKenzie,
general manager of the

Matador Land and Cattle
Company, to see if

he was interested in
part of the lease.

He was and he accompanied
Cap to South Dakota.

Mossman met MacKenzie in tiny
Everts, the railhead across

the Missouri River from the
Cheyenne River Reservation.

What they saw when the
crossed the river was

a land almost untouched
by settlement.

A land that had supported
huge herds of buffalo.

A land that could grow cattle.

Mossman fell in love.

Writer Fraizer Hunt paints
this picture of Mossman's

first view of the vast
prairie he was about to lease.

"To Cap there was a
sheer magnificence about

this endless rolling prairie.

It was still new and unspoiled.

Plowman had not yet uprooted
its fine natural grass

and turned it wrong side up.

It was as God had created it.

And there was every
prospect that it would long

remain untouched by
the steel plows of

iron hearted nesters.

He wanted this land,
this way of life.

He wanted it to
have and to hold.

To keep all the
days of his life.

Until he could no
longer sit on a horse

or count his cattle."

Mossman wanted the south
half of the Reservation,

not the North half.

The south half had a natural
boundary, the Cheyenne River.

It also had more
bottom lands and breaks

to protect the cattle in winter.

But how to out maneuver the
equally wiley MacKenzie?

- When they met MacKenzie
told the Cap how impressed

he was with the north
half of the reservation,

what a wonderful area it was.

And Cap said, well I
sure wish I had ridden

over that part and looked at it.

Which caused MacKenzie
to decide that he wanted

the north half of
the reservation.

And so Cap agreed with him and

then Cap took the south half.

Which provided all of this,
because it tipped to the south

and was parted by the
Cheyenne River, provided

good shelter for the cattle.

- With the southeastern
portion of the Reservation

secured, 500,000 acres,
Mossman proceeded

to ship in cattle
from the southwest.

About three years after
winning the leases,

the Hansford Land and
Cattle Company left the deal

and Cap sought out
the Thatcher brothers.

Bankers from Pueblo Colorado
and their brother in law

Bloom, banker from
Trinidad Colorado.

The Diamond "A" Cattle
Company was formed.

It would last until 1944.

Cap gradually acquired
ownership of most of the

best river bottoms on the
Missouri and Cheyenne Rivers

from the original
Indian allottees.

Since Mossman controlled
surrounding leases, the

Diamond "A" was the
only game in town.

He shipped in yearlings,
fattened them on the

Reservation grass for
a couple of years.

Then shipped them off to market
in Sioux City and Chicago.

Because Mossman ran his
cattle over the leases,

Indian ranchers
could not run theirs,

except for around
their small allotments.

Cap Mossman had a fierce
reputation for fighting

Mexican cattle rustlers
as the founder and

first Captain of
the Arizona Rangers.

He brought that reputation
with him to the Diamond "A".

He used his cowboys as
he had done in Arizona,

to rid rustlers of his
Diamond "A" cattle.

- Rustling in large numbers
was not a major problem.

For me, they had enough
cowboys riding the range

continually so that no
one ever made off with

large numbers of their stock.

But all through the years
they were here, they lost

cattle through individuals
butchering the cattle.

Some for their own use,
some to sell the meat.

And it never ceased
to be a problem.

It got worse at times
and it got less at times.

But it was always a
problem for Diamond "A".

- But it was more
complicated than that.

Times were touch
on the Reservation.

After all many Indians
had lost their livelihood.

And many homesteaders
talked about how they

raised their kids
on Diamond "A" beef.

- One time Cap and I were
down there at the agency

in the Rangers office and
an Indian come in there

I don't know he was
probably 40 or 50 years old.

And this Ranger asked Cap
if he knew of this folk.

Oh yes, he says I know him.

He says Ellie cut his
cheese off my beef.

- Well, we didn't have any
milk for the baby because

my husband went across
the Cheyenne River every

evening and milked two cows
and they gave him milk.

Then the river rose
and he couldn't get it.

And so he said
don't worry, we fed

her bean soup for a while.

Two or three days.

And she kept her
crying carrying on.

She was just little.

He said I'm going to run
in a couple of little

Diamond "A" cows.

He ran in four of them.

We milked four of them before
we got a bottle full of milk.

- While the politics and
race relations surrounding

the Diamond "A" may have
been rough, to the cowboys

who worked there it was
a top flight outfit.

The Diamond "A" was a place
a young man could get a job

and an education in ranching.

One such man was Hans Mortenson.

The son of Danish
immigrants, Hans grew up on

a homestead ranch
in Stanley County,

immediately south
of the Reservation.

In the spring of 1907,
at the age of 16, Hans

Mortenson rode north to the
reservation looking for work.

He was hired for the
summer and fall and was

told to come back
the next spring.

In 1908 he went to work
for the Diamond "A".

And was on their payroll until
his death, March 21, 1940.

- Well, we lived in Eagle
Butte but those were

tough times for the Diamond "A".

Following the end of World
War I, by 1920 the price

of agricultural products
had started to slide.

And the agricultural economy
went into a period of decline.

And the bottom wasn't
hit until the drought,

combined drought and
depression in the 1930s.

During that period it
was extremely difficult

for the Diamond
"A" to make money.

And so the manager's job was
to try to hold the company

together and keep the
operations profitable enough

so they could stay in business.

Within five years of the
time he was appointed General

Manager, the Indian
reorganization was
passed in 1934.

And the Diamond "A" lost a
good share of their big leases.

- Like Hans, most of the
other cowboys who worked on

the Diamond "A"
have also passed on.

However, there are two
cowboys left from the hay day

of the Diamond "A".

Nelson Babcock and Kirk Myers.

For them, the time they
spent as cowboys on the

Diamond "A" was the greatest
time of their lives.

- It was work that I
liked, you know, which was

what I wanted to do.

When I was a kid, I was
raised on the Lower Brule

Reservation and Scotty Phillips

ran a lot cattle
down there then.

And later on the
DZ Cattle Company.

And their cowboys used
to come to our place.

My folks had the
post office there.

And cowboys used to come
there to get their mail.

And a lot of times
it was noon time,

where we would give
them something to eat.

And I got to liking cowboys
and saddles and horses.

I always thought I
wanted to be a cowboy.

- I like it, I liked
it, it was hard work.

I mean it was tough
work, I'll tell you.

When you was gathering
cattle it was 16 hours a day.

If you slept all the
time, you wasn't working.

You could sleep six hours.

Sometimes you got a
little interference

and you didn't get that much.

That didn't bother some people,
that didn't bother me much.

But poor old John Haigle,
or not John Haigle, but John

Holloway, he'd fall asleep
trying to eat breakfast,

he just couldn't hardly take it.

- Although the ranch operated
during the first half

of this century, it was
run like ranches in the

last half of the 19th century.

Horse, cowboys, open
range and line camps.

No electricity, no vehicles.

Yearling cattle came to the
Diamond "A" via railroad

from southwest pastures.

During the spring, summer
and fall the cattle

grazed on the vast reservation
which was largely unfenced

except for a drift fence.

Sometimes there would be
primitive housing at semi

permanent camps, but more
often than not a cowboy slept

under a wagon or the open
sky in every sort of weather.

- In the early 1930s when
they still ran the wagons

and they were shipping lots
of cattle, and ran the wagon,

dad as the foreman was one
of the more fortunate ones,

because at least he got to
come to town on Saturday night

and stay overnight.

Where most of the cowboys had
to turn around with the wagon

and go back out to gather
the herd for the next week.

But he would come in,
particularly in the fall when it

was wet weather and I
remember my mother unrolling

his bed roll and during
the period when it would

be wet and drizzly weather.

And I remember the blankets
being mildewed because

of course he got up when
he was with the wagon

like everyone else and
stood guard, whether it was

raining or drizzling
or snowing or whatever.

- As the herd and cowboys
moved, so did the chuck wagon.

Or as most cowboys simply
called it, the wagon.

- Whenever we moved, Cap
or the cook drove the, we

called it the mess
wagon, chuck wagon.

With four horses
strung out to them.

Two tandem, two horses,
nine and two in front.

The cook drove but the cook
never helped harness up the

horses, hitch them up.

The cowboys did that before
they went on round up.

He takes these wagon horses
and bed wagon horses out

of the round up out
of the rope corral.

And harness them
and hitch them up

and hand the lines to the cook.

- Since the work was
strenuous, food was important.

And with the foods importance
came the cooks importance.

You didn't mess with the
cook, particularly the

Diamond "A"'s cook, Skully.

- Skully at one
time had been with

Buffalo Bills wild west show.

Of course when that was
over with, he came back

to the range again and
got to be a round up cook.

And he was there when
the tent blowed down.

He insisted on, instead
of cooking in the shack,

setting the tent up on the
ridge above the house there.

And we got one of them
squalls with a hell of a wind

with it and it
blowed the tent down.

And Nels and Skully they
both jumped out there,

running around in their
shirt tails trying to hold

that tent town, but the
damn thing pulled in two.

It tore it right in
two in the middle.

And it pulled up on of them
big iron or wooden stakes.

The wind it twirled it
around and hit old Skully

right on his shin bone.

You could hear him
hollering for a mile.

- Vacations were unheard of.

If you didn't work
you didn't get paid.

Still the men had to go
into town for supplies

and there were dances to attend.

The fourth of July we
worked cattle, but we went

to a dance that night and
Skully got drunk again.

And brought home another jug,
and he (beep) in the bed.

Do you want that in your thing?

Its in there I guess.

(laughing)

You can cut it out if you
don't want it in there.

And it went through the river

that way, with his
dirty clothes on.

There wasn't no water to wash
with until he got down there.

- About once a year you could
get a few days off, you know.

Buy some new clothes and
that was usually in the fall.

Get some winter clothes,
maybe another blanket or

two for your bed roll.

And sometimes then a
cowboy get pretty drunk.

We drink too much
and get pretty drunk.

Might be a little late,
might be a day or two late

getting back to the wagon.

- Well they get a few
shots of moonshine and they

didn't mind nothing,
it was okay.

You know they could really
dance when they get that

moonshine because they
weren't bashful then.

Gave them life.

Oh, I had a good time.

I can remember we moved
everything out of the room,

and just stepped outside
and went ahead and danced.

Next day they helped
moved it all back,

and that's all there was to it.

- Married or single there
was always work to do.

And it wasn't always
riding the range.

Cowboys dipped cattle
for scab in huge vats

of hot lime and sulfur.

In the summer,
cowboys became farmers

putting up hay, cane and oats.

They also built fences
and repaired camps.

Hundreds of horses were
needed, as each cowboy

had six to eight horses
which were his to ride.

Many work horses were also
used for pulling the wagons,

haying machinery, fencing and
transportation of supplies.

Despite the diminished size
of the reservation, white

settlers were calling
for more free land.

- "Settlement of the Cheyenne
Reservation should be

the impetus for the development
of central South Dakota.

It means the building of a
great city right at Pierre."

Pierre Daily Capital
Journal 13, April 1908.

- "It is a matter of the
utmost importance to the

development of the state."

Senator Robert Gamble

- "Congress has the right to
open the Indian Reservations

by legislative enactment
without obtaining

the consent of the Indians."

James McLaughlin, Indian Agent

- Despite the fact that
their own Indian Agents knew

that continued taking of
the land from the Sioux

was taking the only
viable livelihood left

to the Indians, raising cattle.

South Dakota's congressmen
continued to introduce bills

to open the un-allotted
Indian Reservation

lands to settlement.

The Diamond "A" was growing
and also needed more land.

In 1907 two additional tracts
of land came up for lease

and Cap found the backing
he needed to add another

500,000 acres, bringing the
total to over one million.

This made up the entire south
half of the reservation.

Also in 1907 political
pressure was building to open

to homesteaders those grass
lands the Indians didn't use

that would make
the best farm land.

The World War I years through
the 1920s were good years

for the Diamond "A".

Cattle prices were good.

The grass was good.

Yearlings came up
from the southwest

in the spring and in the fall.

Feeder cattle weighing six
to eight hundred pounds

were shipped off to market.

Cap Mossman was
leading the good life.

- He was a very stately man.

He was just a personification
of what a small

boy in South Dakota
would think of as someone

who was of immense stature
and who was entitled

to great respect.

- Cap was a originally a
cowboy, so he knew what you

could do and what
you couldn't do.

And knew how it should be done.

- When I was about six years
old, the Cap would come up here

every summer, sometimes
twice during the summer.

He would come up on the
Burlington Railroad into

Deadwood and my dad would
go out and pick him up

and bring him to Eagle Butte.

And he would stay for
ten days or two weeks.

During which time he
would go to all the camps

and look over the affairs
of the company here.

And make plans for the
shipping season in the fall

and generally lay out
the work with my dad

for those things that
needed to be done.

- But with the crash of
1929 and the onset of the

Great Depression came
another problem, drought.

During much of the 1930s
the lush green grass Mossman

had raved about in 1904
was now skimpy and brown.

The water holes were dried up.

The land broken by
homesteaders now blew great

black blizzards of dust.

The Diamond "A" could no
longer support the great

herds of cattle it once had.

And if low prices and
drought weren't enough, the

Diamond "A" was in danger
of losing its leases.

In 1934 Congress passed
the Wheeler Howard Act.

The act gave Indian tribes
much more self determination

over their own affairs.

And with that power, came
the power to decide leases.

The Diamond "A"s leases.

While rustlers, drought
and low prices could not

defeat Cap Mossman, the
federal government could.

One by one the Cheyenne River
Reservation leases expired.

The land was going under
the control of the tribe,

the people the land was
originally set aside for.

In 1934 the Diamond "A"
began to shrink in size.

The herd was sold off.

Fewer cowboys were needed.

The ranch continued to
operate into the early 50s

in a greatly reduced state,
under different ownership.

But it would never recapture
the color and the glory

of its first 30 years.

It was the end of an era.

It was the last ranch.

A ranch from a different time.

The Diamond "A" may be
gone, life on the open range

may be gone, but the legacy
of the Diamond "A" remains.

- Most of those young
people that went and worked

with them and stayed with
them developed friendships

and acquaintances and when
they decided to go out

on their own to ranching,
head ranches all over

western South Dakota but
throughout the years maintained

those friendships and contacts.

Yes, it definitely had a
very great affect on where

South Dakota is and
what it is today.

And it had what I
think will be a lasting

affect on what it
will be in the future.

(harmonica playing)