At the time of the creation of Buncombe County (now Lyon), in 1851, the title to the soil still vested in the Indians.

On the 23rd of July, 1851, a treaty was concluded with the Sioux, by which they relinquished to the United States all their lands in Iowa.

The Yanktons and Tetons, tribes of the Sioux, formerly inhabited the region watered by the Big Sioux and Rock rivers and their tributaries, comprising what is now Lyon County.  These were the most savage and warlike of any of the great Sioux nation, and maintained an almost constant warfare against the Iowas, Omahas and Ottoes, powerful rivals, who lived to the south.

Here in our beautiful county of Lyon has been the home and the favorite hunting ground of the Yanktons for ages.  Depending principally upon the chase for sustenance, the countless herds of buffalo, elk, antelope and deer, which constantly roamed over these prairies, rendered this region especially attracting to the Sioux.  These they hunted on horseback, using the bow and arrow.  And the countless numbers of these animals which they annually slaughtered may be inferred from the heaps of bones and skulls which still lie about their old camping grounds.  They specially delighted in the meandering valleys of the Sioux and Rock rivers.  The timber skirting these streams supplied them with fuel, shelter, and ash for making their bows and arrows, and constructing their tepees.

The Sioux have left many evidences of a long occupation of this country.  Prominent among these are their burial places.  One situated on a high table land, on the west bank of Rock river, overlooking the town of Doon, bears evidence of great age.  This consists of many series of circular mounds, each about fifteen feet high.  They are encased at the summit in stone, and contain the bones of their dead.  But the most remarkable of all their relies are situated on a plateau extending back from the east bank of the Big Sioux river, on the south side of a small creek in Township 100, range 49.

 These works are of the most singular character, and bear evidence of great labor and ancient origin.  The surface of the earth appears to have been removed to a considerable depth, from a large field being thrown up into pyramids or mounds from fifteen to twenty-five feet high.  Of these, there are a great number covering over twenty acres.  Some of these works assume the form of an amphitheatre composed of circular terraces rising one above another from the ground.  In other places circles have been formed of huge blocks of Sioux quartzite rock.  Ornaments of copper, vessels of pottery, pipes and pieces of curious workmanship, cut out of the famous pipe-stone, have been found upon these grounds.  Not having the appearance of works of defense, habitation, or burial places, they must have been devoted to athletic feats, public games, and religious exercises.

On the north bank of the creek are the remains of long lines of redoubts and breastworks, having the appearance of an old fortification.  Their village, or camping-ground, was situated a short distance to the southward.

These have been the loved and consecrated grounds of the Yanktons from time immemorial.  Here, in one common family, these children of nature met to worship the Great Spirit.  And here they hade farewell to their happy hunting-grounds, and departed forever.