brule lakota

Joseph Bissonette relocated to LaBonte Creek in 1854, just weeks before the Grattan Fight ignited the First Sioux War. Raided twice and stripped of trade by military restrictions, his least successful post reveals how quickly the North Platte’s independent trading era collapsed.

James Bordeaux built an independent trading post at Sarpy’s Point on the North Platte after the 1849 sale of Fort John. For two decades it served Lakota bands and Oregon Trail emigrants and stood near the outbreak of the 1854 Grattan Fight.