---
author: Eric Wagoner
date: '2000-10-11T01:00:26'
draft: false
title: 10 years before L. Frank
---

10 years before L. Frank Baum had a bestseller with _The Wizard of Oz_ , Baum was publisher of _The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer_ in Aberdeen, South Dakota. It was 1890, a dangerous time to be in South Dakota, especially if you were Native American. Chief Sitting Bull was murdered. The U.S. Army killed about 300 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee Creek. And L. Frank Baum, in his editorials, called for "[the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians](http://www.ljworld.com/section/frontpage/story/29224)." I had no idea.