The Dakota Territory was an organized territory of the United States that existed from 1861 until 1889, when North Dakota and South Dakota became new states. The territory consisted mostly of the northernmost part of the area included in the Louisiana Purchase.
The Dakota Territory was created from part of the former territories of Minnesota and Nebraska. When Minnesota became a state in 1858, the area east of the Missouri River was left unorganized. The Treaty of Yankton was signed a year later, ceding much of the Lakota land to the United States government, while the original inhabitants formed an unofficial provisional government, which failed to achieve territorial status. John Blair Smith Todd, Abraham Lincoln’s cousin-in-law, personally claimed territorial status from Washington three years later.
On March 2, 1861, Dakota Territory became an organized territory. In its original extent, Dakota Territory included much of present-day Montana and Wyoming. The creation of new territories reduced Dakota’s boundaries to the present borders of the Dakotas. In 1863, the area that now belongs to Montana and Wyoming was transferred to Idaho Territory. A year later, Idaho ceded much of present-day Wyoming back to Dakota, which in 1868 became Wyoming Territory.
The territorial capital was Yankton from 1861 until 1883, when it was moved to Bismarck. Dakota Territory was divided into the states of North Dakota and South Dakota on November 2, 1889. The admission of two states, rather than one, occurred for a number of reasons. The two population centers of the territory were in the northeast and southeast corners of the territory, several hundred miles apart. At the national level, there was pressure from the Republican Party to admit two states instead of one in order to gain political clout in the Senate.
NEVADA
Nevada Territory was a historic organized territory of the United States, from March 2, 1861, to October 31, 1864, when it became Nevada, the 36th state of the Union. Prior to its designation as a territory, the region was the western part of Utah Territory and was known as Washoe, after the native Washoe people. Despite Nevada’s abundance of silver, and the growing population of miners who came to mine it, Nevada was not populated enough to warrant statehood, but the Union’s need for silver and the generally anti-slavery attitude of its people obviated the demographic problem and allowed for statehood.
Nevada gained most of its present boundaries in 1866, when the eastern portions of the state (e.g., Lincoln County) and the southern tip were transferred from Utah and Arizona Territories, respectively.
The exact position of the California-Nevada border, between Lake Tahoe and the intersection of the 35th parallel with the Colorado River, was disputed and was surveyed and measured several times during the 20th century.1 Congress transferred some land west of the Colorado River, including Pah-Ute County, from Arizona Territory to Nevada on May 5, 1866. This southern tip of Nevada was renamed Clark County and now contains the city of Las Vegas.
The territorial capital was moved from the provisional capital of Genoa to Carson City. James W. Nye succeeded Isaac Roop, the first provisional territorial governor, and became the first and only governor of Nevada Territory.2 The Secretary of the Territory was Orion Clemens, the older brother of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).