513 - Life on the Fort

Life was not easy in these small frontier forts, isolated by distance and a seasonally ice-bound transportation system. During the fort’s first year, eighty-one men died—thirty-seven from scurvy, twenty-four from chronic diarrhea, three of typhoid fever, ten of other diseases, and seven killed in combat. To pass the time during the first winter, the soldiers opened a theater, and from June 15 through October 9, 1865, they published their own newspaper, theFrontier Scout.
Throughout its existence, Fort Rice was a highly active military post. It served as base of operations for General Sully’s First and Second Northwestern Expeditions of 1864 and 1865. In 1866-1868, important Indian councils were held at the post. The most important of these was the Great Council with various Sioux bands in July 1868. Although a key leader of the Lakota, Sitting Bull, refused to participate, Father Pierre Jean De Smet did convince Sitting Bull to allow his chief lieutenant, Phizí (Gall), to attend this council. As a result of this council, area Sioux bands signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which ended the Red Cloud War and defined the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation. The reservation included most of the area west of the Missouri River in present-day South Dakota.