The August 1, 1908, issue of the Custer Weekly Chronicle contained this headline:  “JACK SULLY’S WIDOW WINS FIRST ROUND.”  In the news story coming out of Sioux Falls which was the location of the federal court where Mrs. Sully’s case was being heard, it was reported:

“The first round in the United States court in this city in the fight for possession of about 10,000 acres of land valued at approximately $125,000, had been won by Mrs. Mary Sully, widow of ‘Jack’ Sully the famous desperado and socalled ‘King of Cattle Rustlers,’ who was shot and killed a few years ago during a running fight with the deputy United States marshal and members of his posse.”

Mrs. Sully and the other plaintiffs in the law suit were seeking to have the land allotted to them as Indians under acts of congress, she being a mixed blood Sioux Indian woman.  The land involved in the suit was west of the Missouri River in south central South Dakota near the Nebraska border.

Judge Carland, of the Federal Court had overruled the demurrers of the U. S. Government and John Scriven, the allotting agent for the B. I. A. who was the individual that determined who received parcels of federal land.  The judge also granted Mrs. Sully a temporary writ of injunction which prevented Mr. Scriven from certifying any of the land involved in this case until the lawsuit had been resolved.

Plaintiffs were required to post a $2,000 bond before the injunction would be issued.  The U. S. Government and Allotting Agent Scriven were given until the first Monday in September to file their answer to the bill of complaint from the plaintiffs

A news story with a Gregory, S. D. dateline of October 12, 1908 contained this headline:  “HOLLOW HORN BEAR OPPOSES ALLOTENT TO THE SULLY HEIRS — Mrs. Sully Not a Sioux Indian and Big Chief Fights Case on that Basis.”    Hollow Horn Bear was Chief of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and at the time his picture appeared on the Silver Certificate $5.00 and $20.00 bills.  He was the only living man pictured on U. S. currency at the time.  Earlier, in 1889, he made a speech to Congress, and being a handsome Indian Chief, his picture was engraved on two different silver certificates.

The Sully claim was that they had left the Yankton Sioux Reservation and having made Gregory County (Rosebud Sioux Reservation) their home for years, they should be granted lands on the Rosebud Reservation.  Hollow Horn Bear wanted to prevent the allotment to the Sully family and he went to Yankton to see U.S. Senator Gamble in regard to that matter.

Hollow Horn Bear was the son of Iron Shell, a famous Sioux chief.  He was, next to Spotted Tail, the greatest chief of that generation.  Hollow Horn Bear was then chief of the Rosebud Sioux Council by election and not by heritage.

He was then fifty-eight years old.  It was said, at the time, that there was dignity in his talk and his sound judgement.  Without his signature, Tripp County could not have been opened for settlement.  He favored the settlement of Tripp County because he thought it would bring white men into contact with the Indians and both would benefit.

In December of 1908, William Wallace, of Aberdeen, arrived in Dallas for the purpose of taking testimony in the suit filed by Mrs. Sully and her heirs.  Mr. Wallace was appointed by Judge Carland as special examiner, with the authority to take the testimony of the plaintiffs.  He also visited the Rosebud Indian Agency and such other places in the state as was necessary.

Under the provisions of Judge Carland’s order, Mrs. Sully and her heirs had until January 1 to submit their testimony.  After this date, the defendants, the United States and John Scriven had until January 15 to offer their testimony.  Following this date, the plaintiffs were given an additional fifteen days in which to offer testimony in rebuttal.  All testimony taken by Special Examiner Wallace was submitted to Judge Carland and used in the trial which followed.

A February 15, 1909 story in the Omaha Daily Bee with a Sioux Fall dateline reported that the wife of Narcissus Drapeau who was the mother of Mrs. Sully was a full-blood Yankton Sioux Indian woman.  Drapeau was a French fur trader and married Mrs. Sully’s mother in 1854.

Mrs. Sully and the plaintiffs claimed the right to be allotted land on the Rosebud Reservation through the mother of Mrs. Sully, by reason of having been adopted into the Brule Sioux Tribe of Indians, who occupied the Rosebud Reservation.

Although Mrs. Sully was a Yankton Sioux Indian, she did not file for her allotment on the Yankton Indian Reservation until all the lands had been allotted.  It was then that the Drapeaus and Mrs. Sully and her heirs moved to the Rosebud Reservation.  They sought to be allotted an aggregate of 10,000 acres on the Rosebud.

Agent Scriven refused to allot them the lands on the Rosebud, holding that they could not rightfully take their allotments elsewhere than on the Yankton Reservation.  This action was sustained by the higher authorities in Washington, which resulted in the lawsuit filed by Mrs. Sully.

Earlier, Drapeau and his family had squatted on public land at the mouth of Platte Creek in Charles Mix County.  This is where the plaintiffs in this case were reared and where Jack Sully met and married Mrs. Sully.

 

Author Clarence Shoemaker, originally published in the Gregory Times-Advocate on April 5, 2023