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​Coteau Valley Farm sits just west of Sisseton, South Dakota off of State Highway Ten. Seated about two-thirds of the way up the Coteau plateau. The farm lends sweeping easterly views of the Coteau Valley reaching upwards of ten to twenty miles. Large deciduous trees grow to the West of the property, boasting upward views of the higher elevation of the Coteau des Prairies. North of the farm are fields of agriculture that blend into many slopes and ravines. South of the property are agricultural fields. The seasons of the Coteau are well defined. The Fall colors of the trees that grace the prairie, gloriously paint the land with unmatched variety. Spring is a cooler and a more rainy season, it's a time when everything wakes up from its cold slumber. The buds are on the plants, and large puddles and streams prove the snow will disappear soon. The migratory birds come and fill the sky with their sights and sounds. Calling geese in tight formations and other birds flow across the skies. Summers are hot and windy and the prairie boasts a large amount of wildlife including deer, badger, coyote, raccoons, and runs of turkeys, and many more animals. The skies are usually teeming with birds at all times of the year, whether it is the large migrations of geese and black trumpeter swans or the game birds such as pheasant and grouse, red-tailed hawks, and eagles to name a few that are native to the area. If you like fishing, there is a large amount of fish in the numerous lakes, such as walleye, catfish, perch, bluegill, and crappie, to name a few varieties. There are countless insects like bees, grasshoppers, and butterflies. Swarms of dragonflies pass through every year, diving and eating as they fly. The farm is a migratory stopping area for a massive colony of ladybugs. Every year they come and cling to the house and fly all over. It is hard not to become covered in ladybugs as you walk close to any building in October. The farmland has rich, black soil produced by a large glacial shift years earlier in the South Dakota regions, these glaciers produced the highlands where Coteau Valley Farm sits today. The weather on the Coteau is fierce, especially in the winter. The area receives about forty-four inches of snow yearly, with twenty-four inches of rain in the warmer seasons. Wind can produce blizzard-like conditions in minutes on the Coteau and whiteouts are not unusual events. Large thunderstorms roll evenly across the prairie all spring and summer and sometimes into the fall. This creates nice rains and exciting sounds of thunder and lightning on the prairie. Coteau Valley Farm is often mistaken as being on reservation land, however, it does not sit on the reservation nor is it tribal land. The boundary of the tribe is much like a quilt, where small areas of land are reservation owned and the rest are private citizens. The tribe sold much of their land in 1851, known as the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux 1851. As cited in the following excerpt, the tribal boundaries are no longer what they once were but certain allotments are still in place. What once was a much larger area of tribal land now is only about one-third of its original size. In 1975, the Supreme Court made a 6-3 decision in DeCoteau v. District County Court to disestablish the reservation boundaries. The decision cited an 1891 agreement between the Sisseton Wahpeton and the U.S. government to open the reservation to non-Native settlers within its boundaries. A dissenting opinion argued that there wasn’t any indication in the agreement that the reservation boundaries were altered or disestablished. While the U.S. Congress did pass a federal law recognizing the reservation existed after the 1975 decision, it was limited to allotments and tribal lands within the original boundaries, EagleWoman said, and did not provide the full federal recognition needed of its 1867 boundaries." As reported by Dakota News Now. ​Tourism has a small place in the area, Sica Hollow State Park, and Fort Sisseton are to the west. Nicollet Tower, which was built to honor a French explorer, geographer, astronomer, and mathematician who explored the area in the eighteen thirties and mapped the entire region. The tower is north of the farm and is a fun place to visit if you like heights and breathtaking views. The tower is eighty feet high and shows amazing views of the Coteau Valley below. Consisting mostly of hunters, fishermen, and people who like quiet, far away from cities. The closest and largest city is Fargo, North Dakota, to the north, about an hour and fifteen minutes drive. There are many things to do and see in Fargo, North Dakota. If you are feeling energetic, the Twin Cities are four and a half hours to the east of Sisseton, South Dakota.