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Whitestone
Hill Battlefield State Historic Site, located twenty-three miles southeast of
Kulm, Dickey County, marks the scene of the fiercest clash between Indians and
white soldiers in North Dakota. On September 3, 1863, General Alfred Sully's
troops attacked a tipi camp of 
Yanktonai,
some Dakota, Hunkpapa Lakota, and Blackfeet (Sihasapa Lakota), as part of a
military mission to punish participants of the Dakota Conflict of 1862. In the
ensuing battle, many Indian men, women, and children died or were captured.
Military casualties were comparatively light. The Indians also suffered the
destruction of virtually all of their property, leaving them nearly destitute
for the coming winter.
That morning, Major Albert E. House, a Battalion Commander of the Sixth Iowa
Cavalry, led a scouting party in search of Indians. In the early afternoon,
their Métis guide, Frank LaFrambois, discovered a small encampment of
Sioux on a small lake near Whitestone Hill. LaFrambois notified Major House,
who moved his battalion toward the village. Upon closer reconnaissance, House
discovered that the "small" encampment included 300 to 600 lodges.
Frank
LaFrambois and two soldiers were dispatched to notify General Sully of the discovery
and to request reinforcements. While they were gone, the Indians detected the
presence of the troops, and some of the villagers prepared to flee, while others
prepared to fight. Major House sent two reconnaissance parties to opposite sides
of the tipi encampment to gather tactical information while he waited for the
main column to arrive. For nearly three hours, an uneasy standoff continued,
during which a delegation of Indian elders approached the soldiers and offered
to surrender some of their chiefs. House, however, insisted on total surrender,
and negotiations broke down.
Sully's command was less than a mile away when the Indians saw them coming, and departure preparations became frantic. Tipis were stripped, travois were hastily attached to ponies and dogs, and possessions and small children were strapped to the travois. Masses of Indians began streaming east, down a ravine that opened into a shallow mouth at the rear of the village. It was nearly sunset when Sully's troops reached the scouting party.