Editing Aberdeen, South Dakota (section)

===Settlement===
Before Aberdeen or Brown County was inhabited by European settlers, it was inhabited by the [[Lakota people|Sioux Indians]] from approximately 1700 to 1879. Europeans entered the region for business, founding [[fur trading]] posts during the 1820s; these trading posts operated until the mid-1830s. The first "settlers" of this region were the [[Arikara]] Indians, but they would later be joined by others.

The first group of Euro-American settlers to reach the area that is now Brown County was a party of four people, three horses, two mules, fifteen cattle, and two wagons. This group of settlers was later joined by another group the following spring, and, eventually, more settlers migrated toward this general area, currently known as [[Columbia, South Dakota]]. This town was established on June 15, 1879, was settled in 1880,<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Dale H. |editor-last=Hoiberg |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Aberdeen |edition=15th |year=2010 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |volume=I: A-ak Bayes |location=Chicago |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/28 28] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/28}}</ref> and was incorporated in 1882.