1 00:00:01,766 --> 00:00:05,233 - 1890, South Dakota is one year old. 2 00:00:06,666 --> 00:00:10,700 Its frontier is closed, the wild horses are gone. 3 00:00:11,766 --> 00:00:13,433 The buffalo are gone. 4 00:00:14,700 --> 00:00:17,633 The Sioux are forced onto the reservations. 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:21,333 One year earlier, the vast Sioux Reservations 6 00:00:21,333 --> 00:00:24,066 had been reduced from an area that included all of 7 00:00:24,066 --> 00:00:26,800 western South Dakota, minus the black hills 8 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:30,533 to five smaller reservations, The Pine Ridge, 9 00:00:30,533 --> 00:00:34,233 The Rose Bud, The Lower Brule, The Standing Rock 10 00:00:34,233 --> 00:00:36,033 and the Cheyenne River reservations. 11 00:00:37,633 --> 00:00:40,166 Gone was their nomad way of life. 12 00:00:42,033 --> 00:00:43,966 The federal government wanted the Sioux to 13 00:00:43,966 --> 00:00:45,866 become farmers and ranchers. 14 00:00:47,233 --> 00:00:49,866 But the Sioux had no history of grain farming 15 00:00:49,866 --> 00:00:52,166 and never adapted to this way of life. 16 00:00:53,566 --> 00:00:55,833 They continued to live along the rivers and creeks 17 00:00:55,833 --> 00:00:58,933 where water flowed and the trees grew and the land 18 00:00:58,933 --> 00:01:01,433 gave shelter from the winter wind. 19 00:01:01,433 --> 00:01:06,033 This left large tracts of upland grass lands unused 20 00:01:06,033 --> 00:01:09,933 or grazed only by Indian cattle in the summer. 21 00:01:09,933 --> 00:01:12,733 For the federal government had created an allotment 22 00:01:12,733 --> 00:01:17,733 program, giving each Indian 160 acres of land, title 23 00:01:19,166 --> 00:01:21,533 to which held in trust by the federal government. 24 00:01:21,533 --> 00:01:24,633 The idea was patterned after The Homestead Act. 25 00:01:26,033 --> 00:01:29,200 While farming success was at best questionable, 26 00:01:29,200 --> 00:01:33,066 raising cattle and horses met with some success. 27 00:01:33,066 --> 00:01:36,133 - "The Indian's devote their attention to stock raising, 28 00:01:36,133 --> 00:01:38,300 freighting and farming. 29 00:01:38,300 --> 00:01:40,700 They have been very successful at stock. 30 00:01:40,700 --> 00:01:44,066 Nearly every family having a few head of cattle and horses. 31 00:01:44,066 --> 00:01:46,333 And many of the more progressive have large herds 32 00:01:46,333 --> 00:01:48,466 ranging from 10 to 100 cattle." 33 00:01:49,866 --> 00:01:52,466 Perrine P. Palmer, United States Indian Agent. 34 00:01:53,933 --> 00:01:56,200 - "The climatic conditions are such as to preclude the 35 00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,966 probability of successfully growing crops in this locality. 36 00:01:59,966 --> 00:02:02,433 With these conditions against them on the one hand, 37 00:02:02,433 --> 00:02:04,733 there remains but one alternative. 38 00:02:04,733 --> 00:02:07,466 Which is more congenial to the habits of the Indian and more 39 00:02:07,466 --> 00:02:10,666 profitable than the tilling of the soil, stock raising." 40 00:02:11,866 --> 00:02:14,166 Ira A. Hatch, United States Indian Agent. 41 00:02:15,566 --> 00:02:18,300 - If some of the young Sioux saw the possibilities of 42 00:02:18,300 --> 00:02:21,200 grazing stock on the wide open range land of the 43 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:25,533 reservations, so did the cattle barons of the Southwest. 44 00:02:26,966 --> 00:02:29,733 By the turn of the century, the railroads had reached 45 00:02:29,733 --> 00:02:32,533 the east side of the Missouri River. 46 00:02:32,533 --> 00:02:36,900 A strip of land six miles wide and 90 miles long was opened 47 00:02:36,900 --> 00:02:39,733 on the north side of the Cheyenne River Reservations, 48 00:02:39,733 --> 00:02:42,733 so cattle from western South Dakota, Wyoming and 49 00:02:42,733 --> 00:02:45,766 Montana could be trailed to the railhead, 50 00:02:45,766 --> 00:02:48,333 on the river at Everts. 51 00:02:48,333 --> 00:02:51,366 There was big business for the railroads in hauling 52 00:02:51,366 --> 00:02:54,900 homesteaders to their new homes in the west and 53 00:02:54,900 --> 00:02:58,333 in hauling their cattle and grain to markets in the east. 54 00:02:59,700 --> 00:03:02,200 The Sioux and their sympathizers didn't hold the 55 00:03:02,200 --> 00:03:06,500 reigns of power in Washington, the railroads did. 56 00:03:06,500 --> 00:03:09,533 And southwestern cattle barons were already dreaming 57 00:03:09,533 --> 00:03:12,866 of new lands to pasture their herds of cattle. 58 00:03:12,866 --> 00:03:15,233 All that stood in the way of their dreams, 59 00:03:15,233 --> 00:03:16,633 was the Sioux nation. 60 00:03:17,766 --> 00:03:21,033 A Sioux nation nearly destroyed by war, 61 00:03:21,033 --> 00:03:23,533 by disease and by defeat. 62 00:03:25,066 --> 00:03:28,800 A Sioux nation the federal government was trying to convert 63 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:32,900 into ranchers on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. 64 00:03:32,900 --> 00:03:35,700 A Sioux nation that did not want to give up 65 00:03:35,700 --> 00:03:37,866 its lands once again. 66 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:40,900 But give them up they did. 67 00:03:42,366 --> 00:03:45,066 Over two million acres of Cheyenne River Reservation 68 00:03:45,066 --> 00:03:48,166 were opened to grazing leases. 69 00:03:48,166 --> 00:03:50,566 Some in the federal government felt the decision 70 00:03:50,566 --> 00:03:54,033 to lease would be unfair to the Sioux and would be 71 00:03:54,033 --> 00:03:56,666 a setback to national Indian policy. 72 00:03:57,900 --> 00:04:00,600 The cattle barons of the southwest were pleased. 73 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,166 Barons like Captain Burton C, Cap Mossman. 74 00:04:04,166 --> 00:04:06,966 His dreams would soon come true. 75 00:04:06,966 --> 00:04:09,900 When Cap was first informed of the availability of 76 00:04:09,900 --> 00:04:13,833 land to lease in South Dakota, he was in Kansas City. 77 00:04:15,266 --> 00:04:18,166 The leases were made with the understanding that livestock 78 00:04:18,166 --> 00:04:21,566 would be furnished by the Hansford Land and Cattle Company, 79 00:04:21,566 --> 00:04:22,833 a Scotch syndicate. 80 00:04:24,633 --> 00:04:28,100 Since Cap could not handle all four tracts being offered, 81 00:04:28,100 --> 00:04:31,833 he contacted Murdo MacKenzie, general manager of the 82 00:04:31,833 --> 00:04:34,600 Matador Land and Cattle Company, to see if 83 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:36,966 he was interested in part of the lease. 84 00:04:38,433 --> 00:04:42,133 He was and he accompanied Cap to South Dakota. 85 00:04:44,233 --> 00:04:48,400 Mossman met MacKenzie in tiny Everts, the railhead across 86 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:51,133 the Missouri River from the Cheyenne River Reservation. 87 00:04:52,333 --> 00:04:54,766 What they saw when the crossed the river was 88 00:04:54,766 --> 00:04:58,333 a land almost untouched by settlement. 89 00:04:59,733 --> 00:05:02,800 A land that had supported huge herds of buffalo. 90 00:05:04,100 --> 00:05:06,166 A land that could grow cattle. 91 00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:09,433 Mossman fell in love. 92 00:05:10,900 --> 00:05:13,900 Writer Fraizer Hunt paints this picture of Mossman's 93 00:05:13,900 --> 00:05:18,633 first view of the vast prairie he was about to lease. 94 00:05:20,533 --> 00:05:23,100 "To Cap there was a sheer magnificence about 95 00:05:23,100 --> 00:05:25,333 this endless rolling prairie. 96 00:05:25,333 --> 00:05:27,366 It was still new and unspoiled. 97 00:05:27,366 --> 00:05:30,900 Plowman had not yet uprooted its fine natural grass 98 00:05:30,900 --> 00:05:33,433 and turned it wrong side up. 99 00:05:33,433 --> 00:05:36,133 It was as God had created it. 100 00:05:36,133 --> 00:05:38,633 And there was every prospect that it would long 101 00:05:38,633 --> 00:05:41,466 remain untouched by the steel plows of 102 00:05:41,466 --> 00:05:42,933 iron hearted nesters. 103 00:05:44,400 --> 00:05:47,733 He wanted this land, this way of life. 104 00:05:47,733 --> 00:05:50,533 He wanted it to have and to hold. 105 00:05:50,533 --> 00:05:52,700 To keep all the days of his life. 106 00:05:52,700 --> 00:05:54,700 Until he could no longer sit on a horse 107 00:05:54,700 --> 00:05:55,900 or count his cattle." 108 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:00,733 Mossman wanted the south half of the Reservation, 109 00:06:00,733 --> 00:06:02,566 not the North half. 110 00:06:04,133 --> 00:06:08,200 The south half had a natural boundary, the Cheyenne River. 111 00:06:10,133 --> 00:06:13,366 It also had more bottom lands and breaks 112 00:06:13,366 --> 00:06:15,233 to protect the cattle in winter. 113 00:06:17,233 --> 00:06:22,000 But how to out maneuver the equally wiley MacKenzie? 114 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:28,000 - When they met MacKenzie told the Cap how impressed 115 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,066 he was with the north half of the reservation, 116 00:06:30,066 --> 00:06:31,800 what a wonderful area it was. 117 00:06:32,966 --> 00:06:36,000 And Cap said, well I sure wish I had ridden 118 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:38,266 over that part and looked at it. 119 00:06:38,266 --> 00:06:42,633 Which caused MacKenzie to decide that he wanted 120 00:06:42,633 --> 00:06:45,733 the north half of the reservation. 121 00:06:45,733 --> 00:06:47,633 And so Cap agreed with him and 122 00:06:47,633 --> 00:06:50,500 then Cap took the south half. 123 00:06:50,500 --> 00:06:54,633 Which provided all of this, because it tipped to the south 124 00:06:54,633 --> 00:06:59,266 and was parted by the Cheyenne River, provided 125 00:06:59,266 --> 00:07:00,800 good shelter for the cattle. 126 00:07:02,233 --> 00:07:03,933 - With the southeastern portion of the Reservation 127 00:07:03,933 --> 00:07:08,233 secured, 500,000 acres, Mossman proceeded 128 00:07:08,233 --> 00:07:11,366 to ship in cattle from the southwest. 129 00:07:11,366 --> 00:07:14,133 About three years after winning the leases, 130 00:07:14,133 --> 00:07:17,400 the Hansford Land and Cattle Company left the deal 131 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:20,333 and Cap sought out the Thatcher brothers. 132 00:07:20,333 --> 00:07:23,933 Bankers from Pueblo Colorado and their brother in law 133 00:07:23,933 --> 00:07:27,266 Bloom, banker from Trinidad Colorado. 134 00:07:27,266 --> 00:07:31,200 The Diamond "A" Cattle Company was formed. 135 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,900 It would last until 1944. 136 00:07:35,266 --> 00:07:38,333 Cap gradually acquired ownership of most of the 137 00:07:38,333 --> 00:07:41,733 best river bottoms on the Missouri and Cheyenne Rivers 138 00:07:41,733 --> 00:07:43,933 from the original Indian allottees. 139 00:07:45,133 --> 00:07:47,833 Since Mossman controlled surrounding leases, the 140 00:07:47,833 --> 00:07:51,000 Diamond "A" was the only game in town. 141 00:07:52,133 --> 00:07:54,766 He shipped in yearlings, fattened them on the 142 00:07:54,766 --> 00:07:57,333 Reservation grass for a couple of years. 143 00:07:57,333 --> 00:08:01,833 Then shipped them off to market in Sioux City and Chicago. 144 00:08:01,833 --> 00:08:04,833 Because Mossman ran his cattle over the leases, 145 00:08:04,833 --> 00:08:07,666 Indian ranchers could not run theirs, 146 00:08:07,666 --> 00:08:10,166 except for around their small allotments. 147 00:08:11,366 --> 00:08:14,200 Cap Mossman had a fierce reputation for fighting 148 00:08:14,200 --> 00:08:17,200 Mexican cattle rustlers as the founder and 149 00:08:17,200 --> 00:08:19,900 first Captain of the Arizona Rangers. 150 00:08:21,333 --> 00:08:24,500 He brought that reputation with him to the Diamond "A". 151 00:08:24,500 --> 00:08:27,866 He used his cowboys as he had done in Arizona, 152 00:08:27,866 --> 00:08:30,766 to rid rustlers of his Diamond "A" cattle. 153 00:08:32,166 --> 00:08:35,633 - Rustling in large numbers was not a major problem. 154 00:08:35,633 --> 00:08:40,166 For me, they had enough cowboys riding the range 155 00:08:40,166 --> 00:08:44,566 continually so that no one ever made off with 156 00:08:44,566 --> 00:08:47,166 large numbers of their stock. 157 00:08:47,166 --> 00:08:51,033 But all through the years they were here, they lost 158 00:08:51,033 --> 00:08:56,033 cattle through individuals butchering the cattle. 159 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,900 Some for their own use, some to sell the meat. 160 00:09:02,333 --> 00:09:04,100 And it never ceased to be a problem. 161 00:09:04,100 --> 00:09:07,066 It got worse at times and it got less at times. 162 00:09:07,066 --> 00:09:09,466 But it was always a problem for Diamond "A". 163 00:09:10,933 --> 00:09:13,233 - But it was more complicated than that. 164 00:09:14,366 --> 00:09:16,500 Times were touch on the Reservation. 165 00:09:17,900 --> 00:09:21,233 After all many Indians had lost their livelihood. 166 00:09:22,433 --> 00:09:25,200 And many homesteaders talked about how they 167 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:28,566 raised their kids on Diamond "A" beef. 168 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,566 - One time Cap and I were down there at the agency 169 00:09:32,566 --> 00:09:37,566 in the Rangers office and an Indian come in there 170 00:09:39,033 --> 00:09:42,300 I don't know he was probably 40 or 50 years old. 171 00:09:44,166 --> 00:09:47,133 And this Ranger asked Cap if he knew of this folk. 172 00:09:47,133 --> 00:09:48,800 Oh yes, he says I know him. 173 00:09:48,800 --> 00:09:50,933 He says Ellie cut his cheese off my beef. 174 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:57,033 - Well, we didn't have any milk for the baby because 175 00:09:58,866 --> 00:10:02,633 my husband went across the Cheyenne River every 176 00:10:02,633 --> 00:10:05,866 evening and milked two cows and they gave him milk. 177 00:10:05,866 --> 00:10:09,266 Then the river rose and he couldn't get it. 178 00:10:09,266 --> 00:10:14,266 And so he said don't worry, we fed 179 00:10:15,133 --> 00:10:16,700 her bean soup for a while. 180 00:10:17,700 --> 00:10:18,900 Two or three days. 181 00:10:18,900 --> 00:10:21,366 And she kept her crying carrying on. 182 00:10:21,366 --> 00:10:23,366 She was just little. 183 00:10:23,366 --> 00:10:25,400 He said I'm going to run in a couple of little 184 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:26,766 Diamond "A" cows. 185 00:10:27,766 --> 00:10:29,300 He ran in four of them. 186 00:10:29,300 --> 00:10:32,400 We milked four of them before we got a bottle full of milk. 187 00:10:33,833 --> 00:10:36,633 - While the politics and race relations surrounding 188 00:10:36,633 --> 00:10:40,066 the Diamond "A" may have been rough, to the cowboys 189 00:10:40,066 --> 00:10:43,866 who worked there it was a top flight outfit. 190 00:10:43,866 --> 00:10:47,166 The Diamond "A" was a place a young man could get a job 191 00:10:47,166 --> 00:10:49,433 and an education in ranching. 192 00:10:51,166 --> 00:10:53,700 One such man was Hans Mortenson. 193 00:10:55,033 --> 00:10:58,000 The son of Danish immigrants, Hans grew up on 194 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,466 a homestead ranch in Stanley County, 195 00:11:00,466 --> 00:11:02,833 immediately south of the Reservation. 196 00:11:02,833 --> 00:11:07,000 In the spring of 1907, at the age of 16, Hans 197 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:10,833 Mortenson rode north to the reservation looking for work. 198 00:11:11,966 --> 00:11:14,300 He was hired for the summer and fall and was 199 00:11:14,300 --> 00:11:17,233 told to come back the next spring. 200 00:11:17,233 --> 00:11:20,300 In 1908 he went to work for the Diamond "A". 201 00:11:20,300 --> 00:11:24,833 And was on their payroll until his death, March 21, 1940. 202 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:32,600 - Well, we lived in Eagle Butte but those were 203 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:35,833 tough times for the Diamond "A". 204 00:11:37,266 --> 00:11:42,200 Following the end of World War I, by 1920 the price 205 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:45,933 of agricultural products had started to slide. 206 00:11:45,933 --> 00:11:50,900 And the agricultural economy went into a period of decline. 207 00:11:52,133 --> 00:11:55,066 And the bottom wasn't hit until the drought, 208 00:11:55,066 --> 00:11:57,933 combined drought and depression in the 1930s. 209 00:11:59,300 --> 00:12:01,733 During that period it was extremely difficult 210 00:12:01,733 --> 00:12:04,033 for the Diamond "A" to make money. 211 00:12:04,033 --> 00:12:09,033 And so the manager's job was to try to hold the company 212 00:12:10,733 --> 00:12:15,733 together and keep the operations profitable enough 213 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:17,566 so they could stay in business. 214 00:12:19,533 --> 00:12:23,600 Within five years of the time he was appointed General 215 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:28,600 Manager, the Indian reorganization was passed in 1934. 216 00:12:29,966 --> 00:12:33,600 And the Diamond "A" lost a good share of their big leases. 217 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,600 - Like Hans, most of the other cowboys who worked on 218 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:39,700 the Diamond "A" have also passed on. 219 00:12:39,700 --> 00:12:43,033 However, there are two cowboys left from the hay day 220 00:12:43,033 --> 00:12:44,533 of the Diamond "A". 221 00:12:44,533 --> 00:12:47,100 Nelson Babcock and Kirk Myers. 222 00:12:48,333 --> 00:12:51,166 For them, the time they spent as cowboys on the 223 00:12:51,166 --> 00:12:55,433 Diamond "A" was the greatest time of their lives. 224 00:12:55,433 --> 00:12:58,233 - It was work that I liked, you know, which was 225 00:12:58,233 --> 00:12:59,766 what I wanted to do. 226 00:12:59,766 --> 00:13:02,600 When I was a kid, I was raised on the Lower Brule 227 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:04,866 Reservation and Scotty Phillips 228 00:13:04,866 --> 00:13:06,900 ran a lot cattle down there then. 229 00:13:06,900 --> 00:13:09,833 And later on the DZ Cattle Company. 230 00:13:11,033 --> 00:13:13,933 And their cowboys used to come to our place. 231 00:13:13,933 --> 00:13:16,633 My folks had the post office there. 232 00:13:19,633 --> 00:13:22,033 And cowboys used to come there to get their mail. 233 00:13:22,033 --> 00:13:24,333 And a lot of times it was noon time, 234 00:13:24,333 --> 00:13:27,166 where we would give them something to eat. 235 00:13:27,166 --> 00:13:31,833 And I got to liking cowboys and saddles and horses. 236 00:13:32,966 --> 00:13:36,233 I always thought I wanted to be a cowboy. 237 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:39,966 - I like it, I liked it, it was hard work. 238 00:13:39,966 --> 00:13:41,833 I mean it was tough work, I'll tell you. 239 00:13:41,833 --> 00:13:46,833 When you was gathering cattle it was 16 hours a day. 240 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:50,266 If you slept all the time, you wasn't working. 241 00:13:50,266 --> 00:13:52,100 You could sleep six hours. 242 00:13:55,133 --> 00:13:57,866 Sometimes you got a little interference 243 00:13:57,866 --> 00:13:59,666 and you didn't get that much. 244 00:13:59,666 --> 00:14:03,100 That didn't bother some people, that didn't bother me much. 245 00:14:03,100 --> 00:14:08,066 But poor old John Haigle, or not John Haigle, but John 246 00:14:08,066 --> 00:14:11,033 Holloway, he'd fall asleep trying to eat breakfast, 247 00:14:11,033 --> 00:14:13,466 he just couldn't hardly take it. 248 00:14:13,466 --> 00:14:15,800 - Although the ranch operated during the first half 249 00:14:15,800 --> 00:14:18,466 of this century, it was run like ranches in the 250 00:14:18,466 --> 00:14:21,433 last half of the 19th century. 251 00:14:21,433 --> 00:14:26,100 Horse, cowboys, open range and line camps. 252 00:14:26,100 --> 00:14:29,966 No electricity, no vehicles. 253 00:14:29,966 --> 00:14:33,266 Yearling cattle came to the Diamond "A" via railroad 254 00:14:33,266 --> 00:14:35,200 from southwest pastures. 255 00:14:36,566 --> 00:14:39,133 During the spring, summer and fall the cattle 256 00:14:40,533 --> 00:14:43,033 grazed on the vast reservation which was largely unfenced 257 00:14:43,033 --> 00:14:45,400 except for a drift fence. 258 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:48,700 Sometimes there would be primitive housing at semi 259 00:14:48,700 --> 00:14:52,566 permanent camps, but more often than not a cowboy slept 260 00:14:52,566 --> 00:14:57,566 under a wagon or the open sky in every sort of weather. 261 00:14:59,033 --> 00:15:03,400 - In the early 1930s when they still ran the wagons 262 00:15:04,833 --> 00:15:08,600 and they were shipping lots of cattle, and ran the wagon, 263 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:13,000 dad as the foreman was one of the more fortunate ones, 264 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,033 because at least he got to come to town on Saturday night 265 00:15:16,033 --> 00:15:18,433 and stay overnight. 266 00:15:18,433 --> 00:15:21,333 Where most of the cowboys had to turn around with the wagon 267 00:15:21,333 --> 00:15:24,466 and go back out to gather the herd for the next week. 268 00:15:24,466 --> 00:15:28,100 But he would come in, particularly in the fall when it 269 00:15:28,100 --> 00:15:32,100 was wet weather and I remember my mother unrolling 270 00:15:32,100 --> 00:15:36,566 his bed roll and during the period when it would 271 00:15:36,566 --> 00:15:38,900 be wet and drizzly weather. 272 00:15:38,900 --> 00:15:43,266 And I remember the blankets being mildewed because 273 00:15:44,533 --> 00:15:47,133 of course he got up when he was with the wagon 274 00:15:47,133 --> 00:15:49,300 like everyone else and stood guard, whether it was 275 00:15:49,300 --> 00:15:51,600 raining or drizzling or snowing or whatever. 276 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,666 - As the herd and cowboys moved, so did the chuck wagon. 277 00:15:56,666 --> 00:15:59,933 Or as most cowboys simply called it, the wagon. 278 00:16:01,433 --> 00:16:05,433 - Whenever we moved, Cap or the cook drove the, we 279 00:16:07,500 --> 00:16:09,666 called it the mess wagon, chuck wagon. 280 00:16:10,900 --> 00:16:14,166 With four horses strung out to them. 281 00:16:15,333 --> 00:16:18,333 Two tandem, two horses, nine and two in front. 282 00:16:20,433 --> 00:16:24,633 The cook drove but the cook never helped harness up the 283 00:16:24,633 --> 00:16:26,066 horses, hitch them up. 284 00:16:26,066 --> 00:16:28,766 The cowboys did that before they went on round up. 285 00:16:28,766 --> 00:16:33,433 He takes these wagon horses and bed wagon horses out 286 00:16:33,433 --> 00:16:38,366 of the round up out of the rope corral. 287 00:16:38,366 --> 00:16:42,866 And harness them and hitch them up 288 00:16:42,866 --> 00:16:45,766 and hand the lines to the cook. 289 00:16:45,766 --> 00:16:50,233 - Since the work was strenuous, food was important. 290 00:16:50,233 --> 00:16:54,100 And with the foods importance came the cooks importance. 291 00:16:55,433 --> 00:16:58,200 You didn't mess with the cook, particularly the 292 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:00,633 Diamond "A"'s cook, Skully. 293 00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:04,200 - Skully at one time had been with 294 00:17:04,200 --> 00:17:07,433 Buffalo Bills wild west show. 295 00:17:08,633 --> 00:17:11,766 Of course when that was over with, he came back 296 00:17:11,766 --> 00:17:15,566 to the range again and got to be a round up cook. 297 00:17:17,266 --> 00:17:20,366 And he was there when the tent blowed down. 298 00:17:20,366 --> 00:17:23,966 He insisted on, instead of cooking in the shack, 299 00:17:23,966 --> 00:17:28,733 setting the tent up on the ridge above the house there. 300 00:17:28,733 --> 00:17:31,200 And we got one of them squalls with a hell of a wind 301 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,733 with it and it blowed the tent down. 302 00:17:33,733 --> 00:17:37,666 And Nels and Skully they both jumped out there, 303 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:42,666 running around in their shirt tails trying to hold 304 00:17:42,666 --> 00:17:45,100 that tent town, but the damn thing pulled in two. 305 00:17:45,100 --> 00:17:47,833 It tore it right in two in the middle. 306 00:17:47,833 --> 00:17:51,333 And it pulled up on of them big iron or wooden stakes. 307 00:17:52,733 --> 00:17:54,800 The wind it twirled it around and hit old Skully 308 00:17:55,733 --> 00:17:56,933 right on his shin bone. 309 00:17:56,933 --> 00:17:58,800 You could hear him hollering for a mile. 310 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:02,900 - Vacations were unheard of. 311 00:18:02,900 --> 00:18:06,233 If you didn't work you didn't get paid. 312 00:18:06,233 --> 00:18:09,866 Still the men had to go into town for supplies 313 00:18:09,866 --> 00:18:13,333 and there were dances to attend. 314 00:18:13,333 --> 00:18:16,800 The fourth of July we worked cattle, but we went 315 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:19,600 to a dance that night and Skully got drunk again. 316 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:23,900 And brought home another jug, and he (beep) in the bed. 317 00:18:26,300 --> 00:18:27,833 Do you want that in your thing? 318 00:18:28,833 --> 00:18:30,300 Its in there I guess. 319 00:18:30,300 --> 00:18:32,800 (laughing) 320 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:35,833 You can cut it out if you don't want it in there. 321 00:18:37,233 --> 00:18:38,700 And it went through the river 322 00:18:38,700 --> 00:18:40,533 that way, with his dirty clothes on. 323 00:18:42,166 --> 00:18:45,033 There wasn't no water to wash with until he got down there. 324 00:18:47,633 --> 00:18:51,633 - About once a year you could get a few days off, you know. 325 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:57,666 Buy some new clothes and that was usually in the fall. 326 00:18:58,866 --> 00:19:02,233 Get some winter clothes, maybe another blanket or 327 00:19:02,233 --> 00:19:03,933 two for your bed roll. 328 00:19:05,133 --> 00:19:09,533 And sometimes then a cowboy get pretty drunk. 329 00:19:10,733 --> 00:19:13,366 We drink too much and get pretty drunk. 330 00:19:13,366 --> 00:19:18,366 Might be a little late, might be a day or two late 331 00:19:19,233 --> 00:19:19,833 getting back to the wagon. 332 00:19:21,200 --> 00:19:25,300 - Well they get a few shots of moonshine and they 333 00:19:25,300 --> 00:19:29,066 didn't mind nothing, it was okay. 334 00:19:33,366 --> 00:19:36,433 You know they could really dance when they get that 335 00:19:36,433 --> 00:19:39,300 moonshine because they weren't bashful then. 336 00:19:41,633 --> 00:19:42,566 Gave them life. 337 00:19:45,033 --> 00:19:47,366 Oh, I had a good time. 338 00:19:47,366 --> 00:19:51,833 I can remember we moved everything out of the room, 339 00:19:51,833 --> 00:19:55,466 and just stepped outside and went ahead and danced. 340 00:19:55,466 --> 00:19:58,066 Next day they helped moved it all back, 341 00:19:58,066 --> 00:19:59,633 and that's all there was to it. 342 00:20:01,933 --> 00:20:06,300 - Married or single there was always work to do. 343 00:20:06,300 --> 00:20:09,233 And it wasn't always riding the range. 344 00:20:10,433 --> 00:20:13,500 Cowboys dipped cattle for scab in huge vats 345 00:20:13,500 --> 00:20:16,333 of hot lime and sulfur. 346 00:20:16,333 --> 00:20:18,733 In the summer, cowboys became farmers 347 00:20:18,733 --> 00:20:21,766 putting up hay, cane and oats. 348 00:20:21,766 --> 00:20:25,033 They also built fences and repaired camps. 349 00:20:26,633 --> 00:20:29,833 Hundreds of horses were needed, as each cowboy 350 00:20:29,833 --> 00:20:33,100 had six to eight horses which were his to ride. 351 00:20:34,533 --> 00:20:37,900 Many work horses were also used for pulling the wagons, 352 00:20:37,900 --> 00:20:41,866 haying machinery, fencing and transportation of supplies. 353 00:20:43,333 --> 00:20:46,400 Despite the diminished size of the reservation, white 354 00:20:46,400 --> 00:20:49,700 settlers were calling for more free land. 355 00:20:51,866 --> 00:20:54,000 - "Settlement of the Cheyenne Reservation should be 356 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:57,233 the impetus for the development of central South Dakota. 357 00:20:57,233 --> 00:21:00,633 It means the building of a great city right at Pierre." 358 00:21:00,633 --> 00:21:05,333 Pierre Daily Capital Journal 13, April 1908. 359 00:21:05,333 --> 00:21:08,266 - "It is a matter of the utmost importance to the 360 00:21:08,266 --> 00:21:10,000 development of the state." 361 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:12,000 Senator Robert Gamble 362 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:14,833 - "Congress has the right to open the Indian Reservations 363 00:21:14,833 --> 00:21:17,466 by legislative enactment without obtaining 364 00:21:17,466 --> 00:21:18,866 the consent of the Indians." 365 00:21:19,833 --> 00:21:22,066 James McLaughlin, Indian Agent 366 00:21:23,566 --> 00:21:26,400 - Despite the fact that their own Indian Agents knew 367 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:29,666 that continued taking of the land from the Sioux 368 00:21:29,666 --> 00:21:33,200 was taking the only viable livelihood left 369 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:36,233 to the Indians, raising cattle. 370 00:21:36,233 --> 00:21:39,866 South Dakota's congressmen continued to introduce bills 371 00:21:39,866 --> 00:21:42,366 to open the un-allotted Indian Reservation 372 00:21:42,366 --> 00:21:43,966 lands to settlement. 373 00:21:46,066 --> 00:21:49,900 The Diamond "A" was growing and also needed more land. 374 00:21:51,333 --> 00:21:54,900 In 1907 two additional tracts of land came up for lease 375 00:21:54,900 --> 00:21:57,766 and Cap found the backing he needed to add another 376 00:21:57,766 --> 00:22:02,733 500,000 acres, bringing the total to over one million. 377 00:22:04,233 --> 00:22:08,200 This made up the entire south half of the reservation. 378 00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,533 Also in 1907 political pressure was building to open 379 00:22:12,533 --> 00:22:16,533 to homesteaders those grass lands the Indians didn't use 380 00:22:16,533 --> 00:22:18,666 that would make the best farm land. 381 00:22:20,066 --> 00:22:24,700 The World War I years through the 1920s were good years 382 00:22:24,700 --> 00:22:26,333 for the Diamond "A". 383 00:22:26,333 --> 00:22:28,266 Cattle prices were good. 384 00:22:28,266 --> 00:22:30,366 The grass was good. 385 00:22:30,366 --> 00:22:32,533 Yearlings came up from the southwest 386 00:22:32,533 --> 00:22:34,566 in the spring and in the fall. 387 00:22:34,566 --> 00:22:37,700 Feeder cattle weighing six to eight hundred pounds 388 00:22:37,700 --> 00:22:39,500 were shipped off to market. 389 00:22:39,500 --> 00:22:43,433 Cap Mossman was leading the good life. 390 00:22:43,433 --> 00:22:48,066 - He was a very stately man. 391 00:22:50,300 --> 00:22:53,533 He was just a personification of what a small 392 00:22:54,933 --> 00:22:59,333 boy in South Dakota would think of as someone 393 00:22:59,333 --> 00:23:03,766 who was of immense stature and who was entitled 394 00:23:03,766 --> 00:23:05,700 to great respect. 395 00:23:05,700 --> 00:23:10,533 - Cap was a originally a cowboy, so he knew what you 396 00:23:10,533 --> 00:23:12,333 could do and what you couldn't do. 397 00:23:15,600 --> 00:23:17,366 And knew how it should be done. 398 00:23:18,900 --> 00:23:23,566 - When I was about six years old, the Cap would come up here 399 00:23:23,566 --> 00:23:27,600 every summer, sometimes twice during the summer. 400 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:29,833 He would come up on the Burlington Railroad into 401 00:23:29,833 --> 00:23:31,966 Deadwood and my dad would go out and pick him up 402 00:23:31,966 --> 00:23:34,000 and bring him to Eagle Butte. 403 00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:37,700 And he would stay for ten days or two weeks. 404 00:23:37,700 --> 00:23:41,433 During which time he would go to all the camps 405 00:23:41,433 --> 00:23:43,733 and look over the affairs of the company here. 406 00:23:45,100 --> 00:23:48,133 And make plans for the shipping season in the fall 407 00:23:48,133 --> 00:23:51,233 and generally lay out the work with my dad 408 00:23:51,233 --> 00:23:54,833 for those things that needed to be done. 409 00:23:54,833 --> 00:23:58,066 - But with the crash of 1929 and the onset of the 410 00:23:58,066 --> 00:24:02,133 Great Depression came another problem, drought. 411 00:24:03,533 --> 00:24:07,700 During much of the 1930s the lush green grass Mossman 412 00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:11,966 had raved about in 1904 was now skimpy and brown. 413 00:24:12,866 --> 00:24:14,766 The water holes were dried up. 414 00:24:16,266 --> 00:24:19,566 The land broken by homesteaders now blew great 415 00:24:19,566 --> 00:24:21,466 black blizzards of dust. 416 00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:26,000 The Diamond "A" could no longer support the great 417 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,133 herds of cattle it once had. 418 00:24:29,733 --> 00:24:32,666 And if low prices and drought weren't enough, the 419 00:24:32,666 --> 00:24:35,966 Diamond "A" was in danger of losing its leases. 420 00:24:37,166 --> 00:24:41,400 In 1934 Congress passed the Wheeler Howard Act. 421 00:24:42,833 --> 00:24:46,333 The act gave Indian tribes much more self determination 422 00:24:46,333 --> 00:24:47,700 over their own affairs. 423 00:24:49,133 --> 00:24:52,966 And with that power, came the power to decide leases. 424 00:24:52,966 --> 00:24:54,966 The Diamond "A"s leases. 425 00:24:56,166 --> 00:24:59,233 While rustlers, drought and low prices could not 426 00:25:01,166 --> 00:25:03,366 defeat Cap Mossman, the federal government could. 427 00:25:03,366 --> 00:25:08,033 One by one the Cheyenne River Reservation leases expired. 428 00:25:08,033 --> 00:25:11,166 The land was going under the control of the tribe, 429 00:25:11,166 --> 00:25:14,533 the people the land was originally set aside for. 430 00:25:15,733 --> 00:25:20,233 In 1934 the Diamond "A" began to shrink in size. 431 00:25:20,233 --> 00:25:22,533 The herd was sold off. 432 00:25:22,533 --> 00:25:24,266 Fewer cowboys were needed. 433 00:25:26,133 --> 00:25:29,633 The ranch continued to operate into the early 50s 434 00:25:29,633 --> 00:25:33,333 in a greatly reduced state, under different ownership. 435 00:25:35,133 --> 00:25:39,200 But it would never recapture the color and the glory 436 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:41,900 of its first 30 years. 437 00:25:41,900 --> 00:25:44,100 It was the end of an era. 438 00:25:44,100 --> 00:25:46,233 It was the last ranch. 439 00:25:46,233 --> 00:25:48,733 A ranch from a different time. 440 00:25:48,733 --> 00:25:52,733 The Diamond "A" may be gone, life on the open range 441 00:25:52,733 --> 00:25:54,333 may be gone, but the legacy of the Diamond "A" remains. 442 00:25:57,633 --> 00:26:00,200 - Most of those young people that went and worked 443 00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:03,966 with them and stayed with them developed friendships 444 00:26:03,966 --> 00:26:08,900 and acquaintances and when they decided to go out 445 00:26:08,900 --> 00:26:12,700 on their own to ranching, head ranches all over 446 00:26:12,700 --> 00:26:15,900 western South Dakota but throughout the years maintained 447 00:26:15,900 --> 00:26:17,733 those friendships and contacts. 448 00:26:21,866 --> 00:26:25,333 Yes, it definitely had a very great affect on where 449 00:26:25,333 --> 00:26:27,633 South Dakota is and what it is today. 450 00:26:28,733 --> 00:26:32,033 And it had what I think will be a lasting 451 00:26:32,033 --> 00:26:34,366 affect on what it will be in the future. 452 00:26:35,433 --> 00:26:38,433 (harmonica playing)