Editing Ekalaka, Montana (section)

== History ==
Ekalaka was named after a [[Sioux]] girl, '''Ijkalaka''',<ref name=cw>{{cite book | last1=Speiser| first1=James| first2=Mildred| last2=Speiser| first3=Johnnie| last3=Gilman|first4=Gertrude| last4=Gilman| title=Changing West |year=1975|publisher=H&T Quality Printing|location=Miles City, MT}}</ref>  who was the wife of David Harrison Russell, a scout.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.montanahistory.net/placenames/indexc.htm |title= Montana Place Names: E-G |access-date= February 4, 2008}} condensed from the 1957 Montana Almanac</ref>

Ijkalaka (Restless or Moving About) was an [[Oglala Lakota]] and the daughter of Wombalee We-chosh (Eagle Man).<ref name=cw/> She was born in 1858 on the Powder River,<ref name=cw/> while she was living with a cousin, Hi Kelly, at a ranch on [[Chugwater Creek]], near Laramie, Wyoming.<ref name=cw/> She was 16 when she met Russell, who was a scout and frontiersman.<ref name=cw/>

The town was created by Russell on the edge of his ranch. A man named Carter bogged down in mud the spring of 1885 opened a saloon and is credited with saying "Anyplace in Montana is a good place to open a saloon".<ref name=mt>{{cite web |url= http://visitmt.com/categories/City.asp?CityID=102|title= Montana: Official State Travel Site |access-date= December 31, 2011}}</ref> The site became a trade center for cattle ranchers and sheepherders.<ref name="mt"/>  He put up houses to house freight workers and hunters who ran the local freight line (team and horses), and others added to it.