DEADWOOD, SD -- Di Lee arrived in Gam Saan, or Deadwood, luckier than most Chinese in 1876. Among the thousands of gold miners and opportunists seeking their fortune in Gam Saan, which means "Gold Mountain" in Cantonese, Lee was one of the earliest pioneers, later called "China Doll," and is remembered to present day.
She was young and "strikingly beautiful," and owned three well-furnished houses along the gold boomtown's main thoroughfare, Sherman Street, said Rose Speirs, communications director for Deadwood History Inc., which runs all four history museums in Deadwood.
About a year after she arrived, on November 27, 1987, she was brutally murdered. Late at night, three people forced their way inside her house. "One attacker smashed her in the face with a hatchet, while the other stabbed her repeatedly in the back with a small knife," the True West Magazine reported.
"A bloody print on the face of the corpse suggested one of the intruders had placed a left hand over Di Lee's mouth to stifle her screams. Blood was splattered on the walls of her room, and the furnishings were in disorder," the History Channel reported.
Theft may have been the motive, according to a 1877 news story published in the Deadwood Pioneer-Times. A paid killer from Mongolia was reportedly given $100 to commit the crime, but authorities lacked evidence to file charges. A Chinese couple, Ah Sing and Ark Hem, were arraigned for complicity in Lee's murder, but they too were released, the Deadwood Pioneer-Times reported.
"She was one of the most beautiful women ever in Deadwood, and there is evidence that leads to her being a very wealthy prostitute. She had a lot of money," Speirs told Forum News Service.
"We don't have a picture of her or anything other than the story, and we don't know if it was the Chinese who killed her or white guys, but we view it as an inside job and it is an unsolved murder," Speirs said.
Although Lee's murder case was never solved, Deadwood still remembers her. Each year, one woman is chosen during the Days of '76 parade to represent Lee as "China Doll" or "Yellow Doll," said Speirs. Years past, women would compete for the title; now a woman is selected. Speirs is aware of the derogatory meaning behind "China Doll," which can include a stereotype of hypersexuality and submissiveness, but "that is how they refer to her even today," she said.
The Days of '76 parade began in 1924, said Jim Williams, executive director of Deadwood History Inc.
Lee's death also left behind ghost stories that still haunt the town of Deadwood, population 1,343, which attracts more than 2 million visitors every year, according to the South Dakota Governor's Office of Economic Development.
The Chinese community in Deadwood, which ranged in the late 19th century between 116 to about 400 people -- including Lee and 15 other women -- was nothing like what was depicted in the HBO acclaimed television series "Deadwood."
Sheriff Seth Bullock never met "Wild Bill Hickock." The dead were not fed to Mr. Wu's pigs, although the Chinese did raise hogs. Al Swearingen did own the Gem Theater. Chinese prostitutes were not kept in cages, according to True West Magazine.
For the most part, the Chinese kept to themselves in "shabby little shops" piled high with mounds of oriental silks, embroideries, egg-shell china, sandalwood, teak and carved ivory, according to the Deadwood Downtown Design Guidelines, published in 1991 by the Deadwood Planning Department.
In Deadwood, the Chinese were treated better than their countrymen elsewhere, because most stayed away from the gold mining endeavors, according to a book entitled "The Archaeology of Deadwood's Chinatown" published in 2003 by the South Dakota Historical Society.
"There was not as much prejudice against the Chinese in Deadwood as in other western camps. Except for the problems of mining and opium smoking, (they) were generally accepted," according to "Deadwood's Chinatown."
But Deadwood was still a rough town, and collectively, they were looked down upon as inferior because of low standards of living and as a threat because they worked for lower wages, according to "Deadwood's Chinatown," published in 1975 by the South Dakota State Historical Society.
Some Chinese tried their luck at placer mining, but soon turned to other businesses like restaurants and laundry services. One Chinese merchant, Fee Lee Wong, better known as Wing Tsue, broke through cultural barriers. He bought two gold claims, then sold them for $75,000 and opened the Wing Tsue Emporium, selling Chinese imports. He became a respected liaison between the Chinese and Anglo communities, and in 2012 was entered into the Deadwood Hall of Fame. Many of his descendants still live in America today, Williams said. One of his sons became a World War II hero, according to a 1967 news article published by the Rapid City Journal.
The Chinese community also elected their own mayor and council. They built a Joss Hall or temple on Main Street in Deadwood and established a Chinese police force and fire department, with the Chinese Hose Company winning the 1888 national championship in a hose cart race, according to the "Deadwood Downtown Design Guidelines."
In Deadwood, the Chinese set up their shops and homes in what became known as the Badlands along Main Street, with dens on one side and pig pens on the other, which made "Chinatown [smell] like a bouquet of slaughterhouses," according to "Deadwood's Chinatown."
Out of the 11 restaurants in Deadwood in 1898, seven of them were Chinese owned, according to the Black Hills Residence and Business Directory. Laundry services were opened by the Chinese for one specific reason.
"One wonders sometimes at the predominance of laundrymen among those first early Chinese young men in town, but it was said the Chinese laundrymen collected gold dust washed from the miners' clothing, and sometimes made more money that way than if they had washed the gold dust directly from the streams," the Rapid City Journal reported.
"The Chinese were businessmen and entrepreneurs; they weren't here to work for someone," said Williams.
"It was also the concept of mining the miners. All these businesses popped up to capture the gold from those who were mining it," Williams said.
For the most part, however, the Chinese in Deadwood rarely reported anything to law enforcement, which is one reason why Lee's murder was never solved.
"When any one of them (the Chinese) violates one of their laws, in a few days he is found most brutally murdered, as in the case ... of the woman here in town less than two years ago, and the authorities were powerless to even find a person that could be suspected," the Black Hills Daily Times reported.
As anti-Chinese sentiment raged toward the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, many Chinese became distrustful of their neighbors and of law enforcement. In San Francisco, the murder of a young Chinese woman wouldn't have been investigated by the police, according to the History Channel.
Deadwood reportedly had two secret societies, or tongs, which means "meeting hall," that became violent at times, according to the Deadwood Pioneer-Times. They wielded hatchets, which were used in local attacks like when Coon Sing was marked for death after speaking to peace officers during an investigation into illegally-opened opium dens in 1880.
"Tongs were a mutual-aid society, most likely accommodating 'vice' interests such as gambling, opium trade and prostitution," according to the The Archaeology of Deadwood's Chinatown, an article published by the South Dakota Historical Society Press.
An organization like the Chinese Six Companies represented and protected the general welfare of Chinese in America, and their influence extended all the way to Deadwood, the article said.
Most Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century were men, with little to no hope of marriage in America. The first Chinese women were brought over by the tongs as indentured servants or as prostitutes, according to a San Francisco Chronicle news story in 1869.
From the California docks the women entered "the trade" and were taken east, costing well-to-do merchants looking for a wife upwards of $500. Those sold into the sex trade cost about $50, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Few Chinese women in the late 19th century were as financially stable as Lee was upon her arrival in America.
Soon after Lee's murder, new people moved into her house and late one night heard a "tap, tap" on the door, according to an 1878 news story published in the Yankton Press and Dakotan.
"The voice of the dead is heard in reply, the door is opened, and a male voice [from] without begs admission; the door creaks upon its hinges as it is opened wide, the hurried steps of two men is heard, a struggle follows, and then again all is still.
"And now comes the occupants of the adjacent houses, who tell that in the dead hours of the night ... there is heard in the vacant tenement struggling, muttering curses and the voice of the murdered woman exclaiming in pitiful, pleading accents, 'Moo shoot nghin. Moo shoot nghin. Moo...' and the words die away in a gurgle, as though the speaker was being strangled," the Yankton Press and Dakotan reported.
The news story determined that the Chinese community in Deadwood believed Lee's spirit had returned.
"Chinatown is stirred to its very center over the ghostly presence, and vigorous steps are being taken to conciliate the grieved ghost. Meanwhile our real estate speculators are interested, and predict that property in that neighborhood may soon be bought dirt cheap," the newspaper article reported.
Lee had an elaborate funeral procession; the air was filled with yellow spirit money or paper pierced with a hole because of the belief that demons had to go through each hole before they could reach the soul of the dead.
With firecrackers keeping malevolent spirits at bay, most Chinese wore white during the funeral procession. They lit incense, and carried a roasted pig to eat after the ceremony, according to newspaper reports. Her burial plot, however, was kept a secret, according to the History Channel.
Lee's properties were eventually transferred to someone who claimed to be a relative, Hong Lee, according to the History Channel.
A severe lack of family social organization because of the rarity of available women and local discrimination forced the Deadwood Chinese to leave, according to the The Archaeology of Deadwood's Chinatown.
But the Chinese left their impact upon the town. In the early 2000s, the area of Chinatown was excavated and a treasure trove was discovered and is being protected, Williams said.
"When you look at the collection you see a way of life for the Chinese community. It's a voice from the past that has been preserved," Williams said.
"They were here. They contributed much to our communities. They are gone now -- but they are forever a part of Black Hills history," the Rapid City Journal reported.