Page:A Brief History of South Dakota.djvu/96

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SOUTH DAKOTA

panied by George Catlin, the famous artist, who came to study the Indian in his primitive condition; and to the pictures which he painted at Fort Pierre and along the Missouri we are indebted for the preservation of clear representations of the life, habits, and fashions of the early red men.

Another famous traveler, who came out the next year, 1833, was Maximilian, Prince of Wied. He, too, was a
General John C. Frémont
student of native conditions; he was much more careful and accurate than Catlin. He spent but little time, however, in South Dakota, doing most of his work in the vicinity of Fort Union.

In 1839 Dr. Joseph N. Nicollet, the famous French scientist, came up the river to Fort Pierre, accompanied by General John C. Frémont, then a young man. They were in the employ of the government and had been sent out to map the Dakota country, the first official action of this kind. They remained at Pierre for several weeks, preparing for their work, and then set out for the James River and arrived at Medicine Knoll, near Blunt, on the evening of July 3. At midnight Frémont went to the top