ing on the Strip! I ran to tell Ida Mary.

As it chugged and caterpillared from town through the Reservation, Chris
Christopherson's tractor caused almost as much excitement as the first
steamship up the Hudson. Men, women and children gathered about and
stared wide-eyed at the new machine as its row of plows cut through the
stubborn sod like a mighty conqueror. He was plowing a hundred acres.

A few cattlemen from the open country rode into the Strip to see it and
bowed their heads to this evidence of the coming of agriculture.

Old Ivar Eagleheart, Two-Hawk, and others of the Indian braves looked
on. This mystic power sealed their fate. It was in a last desperate
attempt to save territory for his race that an old Indian chief had
stood indomitable, contending with the White Fathers. "Wherever you find
a Sioux grave, that land is ours!" In this plowing up of the Indians'
hunting grounds no one thought of Sioux graves.

The McClure homesteaders had filed on their claims, proved up and gone,
many of them, leaving empty shacks. Here on the Strip were increasing
signs of permanency. Many Brule settlers went back home and disposed of
whatever property they had in order to make permanent improvements on
their claims. Other machinery came. Within a radius of three miles of
Ammons three tractors ran all day. All night one could see their bright
headlights moving and hear their engines chug-chugging over the dark
plain, turning under the bluebells and anemones as they went, and the
tall grass where buffalo had ranged. Fragrant scent of wild flowers
blended with the pungent odor of new-turned earth and floated across the
plain. When those owning tractors got through breaking for themselves
they turned over sod for other settlers.

In every direction on the Brule and all over the plains which had been
settled, teams went up and down, making a black and green checkerboard
of the prairie.

Ida Mary and I had Chris break and sow sixty acres of our land to flax.
It cost $300, and we again stretched our credit to the breaking point to
borrow the money. Try out fifteen or twenty acres first? Not we! If we
had a good crop it would pay for the land.

The winners in the Rosebud Drawing were swarming onto their claims,
moving their families and immigrant goods in a continuous stream. Towns
for many miles around were deluged with trade. It was estimated that the
Rosebud alone would add 25,000 new people to the West, with the
settlers