In 1882, near this spot, eleven young Teton Sioux boys left Ft. Pierre on a cold November day to negotiate with a hostile band of Santee Sioux for the release of nine white women and children who had been taken four months earlier during a raid on a settlement near Lake Shetak in Minnesota. Acting on their own after hearing of the captives' plight, Martin Charger, Kills Game and Comes Home, Swift Bird, Four Bear, Mad Bear, Pretty Bear, Sitting Bear, One Rib, Strikes Fire, Red Dog, and Charging Dog sought out the Santee encampment on the east side of the Missouri River opposite the mouth of the Grand River, where about one hundred and eighty Santees led by Chief White Lodge held the captives. The Santees demanded a severe price, and the young Tetons surrendered all of their possessions, including their guns and horses, to secure the exchange. With only one horse and wagon left to carry the weak and distraught captives the one hundred miles back to the nearest white settlement at Ft. Pierre, the Tetons walked and gave their clothes to the women and children. The mission, remembered as a Christian act of mercy that was never repaid by the U.S. Government, succeeded despite great danger, and the boys became known as the Fool Soldiers Band.