Description

Era of the Lakota-French Fur Trade from the Missouri River to the Black Hills 

South Dakota Humanities Council Speaker’s Bureau Scholar, Donovin Sprague, will present a program focusing on the Lakota-French fur trade which includes personal accounts of the life of Fred Dupris and his wife, Good Elk Woman, along with Felix Benoit, Sr., and Chief Hump – these individuals are Sprague’s great grandparents. He will bring primary source data such as letters about the fur trade dated 1861 along with letters from the period of 1900. On the French side he will present information on trading posts, and on the Lakota side he will show how the people lived and interacted as cultures came together as one family. A last buffalo hunt of the family will also be shared. Excerpts of the presentation will come from a chapter on the fur trade from an unpublished book by Donovin Sprague, along with photographs from his published books. Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center; 12:00 noon; admission by donation.