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try about the lakes in northern Minnesota, were forced away from their homes by the Chippewas, and some of their bands came out to the prairie. For many years they remained upon the upper Minnesota River and Big Stone and Traverse lakes, and, having secured horses, began to hunt the buffalo far out on the plains of South Dakota. In the course of time they learned that west of the Missouri River the
Buffalo snowfall was very light, and that the buffalo gathered there in the winter season to feed upon the rich grasses of what are now the famous South Dakota ranges. This fact made the Sioux wish to live there, where they could secure plenty of buffalo meat with little effort both summer and winter. But the country which they wished to occupy was the home and hunting ground of the Rees, who stubbornly fought off the invading Sioux. It was before 1750 that these prairie or Teton Sioux undertook to conquer the buffalo ranges west of the Missouri. A war of more than forty years followed, in which the Sioux were finally successful. They could not dislodge the Rees from their strong forts on the Missouri, but having succeeded in crossing the river, they were able to keep the buffalo so far