Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190

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CHAPTER V.

FIRST OCCUPANTS OF THE CITY'S SITE.

THE SIOUX INDIANS HAD THE FIRST HABITATIONS-CLOUD MAN'S BAND AT LAKE CALHOUN-OTHER SIOUX BANDS IN THE VICINITY-THE "FIRSTS"-NAME OF FORT ST. ANTHONY CHANGED TO FORT SNELLING-THE TREATY OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN- EARLY INCIDENTS OF FORT SNELLING HISTORY-THE FIRST WHITE IMMIGRANTS COME FROM RED RIVER-THE POND BROTHERS COME AS INDIAN MISSIONARIES AND BUILD THE FIRST HOUSE ON THE CITY'S PRESENT SITE-H. H. SIBLEY COMES TO MENDOTA-ZACHARY TAYLOR COMMANDS AT FORT SNELLING AND LIVES TO APPOINT THE FIRST TERRITORIAL OFFICERS FOR MINNESOTA-OLD INDIAN FIGHTS AND TRAGEDIES NEAR THE SITE OF MINNEAPOLIS-THE FIRST SHOT OF THE GREAT INDIAN BATTLES BETWEEN THE SIOUX AND CHIPPEWAS AT RUM RIVER AND STILLWATER, IN JULY, 1839, IS FIRED AT LAKE HARRIET.

THE ABORIGINES OF MINNEAPOLIS.

Of the original human inhabitants of the site of Minneapolis nothing definite is known. There is no worthy record more remote than 1670. Even since that date, up to within comparatively recent periods, the knowledge of them is limited and much of it vague and uncertain. A great deal is left to conjecture and speculation, and neither conjecture or speculation, or guesswork, ought to be set down as history.

The only evidences that the Mound Builders ever lived on the site were the two small mounds noted by Gov. Marshall, on the St. Anthony side, and the two elevations only about three feet high, noted by Alfred J. Hill, on the shores of Lake Calhoun, and which may not have been the work of Mound Build ers at all. From the time when the observations and knowledge of travelers in the region began to be re- duced to writing, (which was after Father Marquette and the Sieur Joliet descended the Mississippi from the mouth of the Wisconsin, in 1673), the inhabitants of the country surrounding the present site of Minn- eapolis, for from 50 to 100 miles, were members of the great Dakotah nation of Indians, called by the Indians east of them Nah-do-way-soos, or "our ene- mies;" in time the last syllable of the reproachful word was contracted by the French writers to Sioux, and was fastened upon the people who even yet call themselves "Dah-ko-tah," or the allied bands of the same general family bound together by the ties of blood, friendship, and self-interest.

About the middle of the 18th century a band of Cheyenne Indians, separated from their tribe, lived for years in the Minnesota Valley, coming eastward as far as the mouth of the Blue Earth ; but in about 1770 they went into what is now Ransom County, in Southeastern North Dakota, and built a large village near the present town of Lisbon, on the Sheyenne River. The name of the tribe and of the river, though spelled differently, are pronounced alike. Contem- porary with the Cheyennes was a band of Iowa In- dians, who had a considerable village at the mouth of the Minnesota, on the south side, on the site of Mendota and the Bald Knob. At one period they

were allies of the Sioux. When, however, in about 1765, the Chippewas, supplied with guns and other metallic weapons by the French traders, drove away the Sioux from the Mille Lacs region across the Mis- sissippi, the latter, in turn, fell upon the Iowas and drove them away from the Minnesota down into what is now the State named for them.

So it was that for 200 years before the southern Minnesota country was settled by the whites the land was occupied in part by the Dakota or Sioux Indians. Only a small portion of the country was really so occupied. The Indian villages were commonly located on the streams and in a few instances on the lakes .* The great Dakota nation extended from the Medawak- antons, on the Mississippi, to the Mandans and Tetons, high up on the Missouri, and practically at the Rocky Mountains. These people spoke a common language ; each great band had its peculiar dialect of that language, but a Medawakanton could talk intelligently with a Mandan.

An Indian tribe is, properly speaking, a nation. The Sioux tribe was the Sioux nation. It was divided into bands, and often these bands were divided into sub-bands, the latter having a sub-chief. The Man- dans constituted a band ; the Tetons a band; the Yank- tons a band; the Medawakantons a band, etc. East of the Mississippi, to the Delaware river, was the former great and mighty Algonquin (or Algonkin) nation, and the most western of these Indians were the Odjibwai, (Schoolcraft's Discovery, etc., p. 459) or Ojibway (Warren, Vol. 5, Hist. Socy. Coll.) or Ochipwe (Rev. Fr. Baraga's Dic.) or Chipioue, Cypoue, and Otchipoua (French) or Chipeway, Chip- peway, and Chippewa, (English) the inveterate and everlasting enemies of the Sioux. But the Chippewas became so great that they constituted a tribe or nation, although their dialect was as well understood by the Miamis of Indiana as the speech of the Wurtemberger is comprehended by the Austrian.

* " There was a small village at Lake Calhoun, one on Can- non River, and one at Two Woods, south of Lac qui Parle. With these exceptions all the Dakota villages were near the two rivers and Big Stone and Traverse Lakes."-S. W. Pond, Vol. 12 Hist. Socy. Coll.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

As set down by the early travelers and historians the original names of the Indians (or at least the spelling) were different from those in modern vogue, and this is true of most geographie names. Down as late as 1847 Featherstonhaugh, the great geologist, who explored the Minnesota River from mouth to source, in 1835, spelled its name "Minnay Sotor." The Wisconsin, among other spellings, was early " Mis- kousing" and "Meschonsing," and it was generally spelled by both French and English according to the French, "Ouisconsin," up to and after 1825. The Mississippi was spelled a score of ways before the present form was adopted, as Messibi, Meschasebe, Misipe, etc. The French explorers ealled it Concep- tion, Colbert, etc. Many names were doubtless mis- spelled by eopyists and printers because an n was mis- taken for a u and viee versa, as Miseousin, Issauti (for Isanti) Mankato (for Maukahto), etc.

The Indians who are known to have been nearest to the present site of Minneapolis from 1780 to 1853 belonged to the Medawakanton band of the Sioux or Dakota Indians of Minnesota. In its entirety the big Indian word is pronouneed eorreetly "M'day-wah- kon-tonwans" with the aecent on the second syllable, (wah) as is the ease with most Sioux words ; no mat- ter how long they are, or of how many syllables they are composed, the accent is nearly always on the second syllable. As has been said the name is inter- preted "M'day," a lake; "wah-kon," a spirit; "ton- wan," a people or a village-the People of the Spirit Lake; "tonwan," has been contracted to "ton," the common Sioux expression, and "m'day" has been changed to "meda," as it is generally pronouneed.

The Medawakantons were the deseendants of the people met by Father Hennepin and his two eom- panions at Mille Lacs in 1680, and ealled by him Nadouessioux. Their name for the big Mille Lac was M'day Wah-kon, meaning spirit or supernatural lake ; hence their name. Du Luth ealled the big lake, Lae Buade, the family name of Gov. Frontenac of Canada. Le Sueur ealled them (or perhaps his eopyists did) "Mendeoucantons."

Now, from about 1798 forward there were in the Minnesota country four principal bands of the Min- nesota Sioux, or Dakotas viz .: The Medawakantons and Wah-pay-kootas, in the eastern part, and the Wah-pay-tons and Sis-se-tons, in the western. The seeond name means the People That Shoot Leaves, based on a joke whereby they were induced to shoot into some leaf piles believing them to be Chippewas asleep ; the second name means the People That Live in the Leaves, because at one time when they lived on the upper Minnesota River they often slept in trees to keep away from rattlesnakes; the Sissetons were the People That Live by the Marsh. Then in what is now the eastern part of South Dakota lived the Ehanketonwans, or People Living at the End, from ehanke (or Ihanke, meaning end) .* In time this term beeame Yankton, which is now well known. These people were and are Sioux, but their dialect differs from the Minnesota variety. They have no sound of

D and substitute L for it, saying Lakota for Dakota, etc.

In the Atwater History (Chapter 2, p. 18) the scholarly pioneer, Mr. Baldwin, makes the strange mistake of saying that, "the aborigines of the coun- try surrounding Minneapolis at the time of the advent of the white raee belonged to the Ihanktonwan or Yankton branch of the Sioux nation." The Yank- tons never came nearer St. Anthony's Falls than to the Traverse des Sioux, and then only a small band came and did not remain long.

The Sioux Indians that lived near St. Anthony's Falls all belonged to the big Medawakanton or Spirit Lake band. When this band was driven down from Mille Lacs by the Chippewas with their Freneh guns, they established a village a few miles above the mouth of the Minnesota, near the trading post of a Freneh- man named Penichon (or Penneshon, etc.). At that time they constituted but one band, perhaps under Wapasha (or Wahpashaw) the first of the name. ' (Neill, Ed. 1858, p. 331.) In a comparatively short time, however, they were divided into sub-bands. Wapasha's sub-band was down by Winona; it was ealled the "Ke-yu-ksah" band, from the Sioux, unk- ke-yu-ksah-pe, meaning violating a law, beeause mem- bers of this band inter-married with cousins, step- brothers, and step-sisters, and even with half-brothers and half-sisters. At Red Wing was old Red Wing's (afterwards Waheouta's) band; at what is now St. Paul was Little Crow's Kaposia band; on the lower Minnesota were the bands of Black Dog, the Son of Penichon, (or Pennishon, or Penesha, etc.) Cloud Man, Eagle Head, and Shah-kpay (or Shakopee).

Aceording to Saml. W. Pond, the old missionary, (Sce Vol. 12, State Hist. Socy. Coll.,) the location of the bands in 1830-34 was clearly fixed. Wabasha's was below Lake Pepin and at Winona: Waheouta was chief of the Red Wing band; Big Thunder was ehief of the Kaposia band; Black Dog's village was two or three miles above the mouth of the Minnesota, and Great War Eagle (or Big Eagle) was chief; Penne- shon's village was on the Minnesota, near the mouth of Nine Mille Creek, and Good Road (Tchank-oo Washtay) was chief; the band of Cloud Man (Makh- pea Weehashta) had its village on Lake Calhoun and their town was ealled Kay-yah-ta Otonwa. meaning a village whose houses have roofs; Eagle Head's (Hku-ah pah's) band was at the mouth of Eagle Creek, ealled Tewahpa, or the place of lily roots, and Shakopce's band (ealled the Tintah-tonwans, or Prai- rie People) were at the present site of the town of Shakopee ; in English Shakopee (or shah-kpay) means six.

There were various spellings of the names of the old Indian bands. In 1703 Le Sueur wrote of the Medawakantons as the "Mendeoucantons:" the Wah- paytons as the "Ouapetons;" the Wat-pa-tons (the River People) as the "Oua-deba-tons:" the Shonka- ska-tons (White Dog People) as the "Songa-squi- tons," while he called the Wah-pay-kootas (Shooters in the Leaves) the "Oua-pe-ton-te-tons," and trans- lated their name as meaning "those who shoot in the

* Owehanke, inkpa, and Yush-tank-pe, each, also means end.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

large pine." As the renowned discoverer, digger, and shipper of blue elay and green mud spells it, the last name means people of the leaf living on the prai- ries, since "tetons" is a corruption of the Sioux word tintah, meaning a prairie, the n having the French nasal sound. M. Le Sueur, referring to the Medawak- antons, translates their name to mean People (or vil- lage) of the Spirit Lake, ("Gens du Lac d' Esprit"). Seldom do any two early writers, whether English or French, spell Indian proper names alike; a stand- ard orthography seems hard to establish.

Of the Indians located nearest Minneapolis from 1820 to 1853-in which latter year they were removed to the upper Minnesota-it must be borne in mind that they were Dakotas, or Sioux, belonging to the Spirit Lake band of that tribe and to the old sub- bands of Penneshon, Black Dog, and Cloud Man.

The original Penechon (however he spelled his name) was a French Canadian trader that had a post on Lake Pepin in the days of old Fort Beauharnois (1745). He had an Indian wife and by her had a son who was chosen chief of a band. In time this band eame up to the mouth of the Minnesota and while the Indian name of the chief was Wayago Enagee, he was called "the Son of Penechon" by the whites. He signed his Indian name to Pike's deed or agreement, but Pike always calls him the Son of Penechon, or in French, "Fils de Pinchon." Ofttimes his name was spelled Penneshaw. Upon his death his son sueeeeded him as chief of the sub-band, but when he died an Indian named Great War Eagle became chief; when he died Good Road, his son, succeeded him, and when Good Road died his son sueceeded him and took the name of Mahkah-toe, (now written Mankato) mean- ing Blue Earth. He led his warriors in the Sioux Outbreak, was killed by a cannon ball in the battle of Wood Lake, September 23, 1862, and was the last chief of his band.

Prior to 1840 Black Dog's band lived for many years near Hamilton Station and on the lake and marsh still bearing the name of the old chicf. He died in about 1840 and was succeeded by his son, Wamb'dee Tonka, or the Great War Eagle; he died in a few years and was sueceeded by his son, Gray Iron, or Mahzah Hkotah. When Old Gray Iron died, in 1855, his son sueceeded him and took the name of his grandfather, the Great War Eagle, but was com- monly ealled Big Eagle. He, too, led his band in the ontbreak and was in the most important battles. He surrendered at Camp Release, "graduated" from Rock Island prison, became a Presbyterian farmer, and died near Granite Falls in the winter of 1906.

The band of Cloud Man, or Makh-pea (cloud) Wi- chashta, (man), lived on the eastern shore of Lake Calhoun, between Calhoun and Harriet, literally on a part of the present site of Minneapolis. Cloud Man was not a hereditary chief; he beeame such in about 1835. The previous winter he and some other Indians, while hunting buffaloes out on the plains, near the Missouri River, were overwhelmed by a blizzard and snowed under. Samuel W. Pond says Cloud Man told him that while he lay buried beneath the snow, starving and freezing, he remembered how often Maj.

Taliaferro, the Indian Agent at Fort Snelling, had tried to induce him and other Indians to become farm- ers of the rich land about Lake Calhoun and raise bountiful supplies of provisions, and not be dependent upon the uncertain results of the chase and the hunt for subsistence in the long, eold winters, and indeed in all seasons. Cloud Man said that while shivering in his snow bed he solemnly vowed that if he lived to return to Fort Snelling he would become a farmer and induee others of his band to join him.

He lived to return to his village on the Minnesota and gathering a few families about him he started "the Village of Roofed Cabins," on Lake Calhoun. His village was not very large, but it was thrifty; its people always had enough to eat. Many of the other Indians were indignant at his proceedings and looked with scorn and sorrow upon the departure of their brethren from the aneient ways and methods. It took a long time for the Cloud Man and his fellow progressives to convince the old stand-patters that the new way was the best. The U. S. authorities eneour- aged Cloud Man in his undertakings. They reeog- nized his authority as chief of the Lake Calhoun Indians; furnished them with seed and tools; plowed much of their land for them; gave them, first Peter Quinn and then Philander Prescott, as teachers to instruct them in farming, and even put up buildings for them.

Cloud Man was popular among the whites and always friendly toward them. A dashing and aceom- plished officer at the fort, Capt. Seth Eastman, became enamored of one of the chief's daughters, about 1833, and, Pond says was married to her "in Indian form." By her he had one child, a daughter, whom the whites ealled Nancy, but who was called by the Indians the Holy Spirit woman, because she was a professed Christian. After Capt. Eastman aban- doned his Indian wife and married a gifted white woman, who was an aeeomplished poetess, the dis- carded Sioux woman-who subsequently married an Indian-came to Mr. Pond with her half-blood daugh- ter and wanted him to take the maiden and raise her as a white girl, saying: "Her father is a white man and a Christian ; I am not able to keep her, for I have no husband; my grandmother has kept her for a long time, but now she is 12 years old, and must either work hard or somebody must care for her."

The missionary said he would gladly take the girl, who was bright and smart, although with a hot temper, inherited from her mother and grandmother. But "tah-kunkshe," her grandmother, interfered. The old woman said: "I have brought up the girl to do noth- ing, but now that she is able to help me you will take her away and make a fine lady of her; you shall not have her unless you give me a horse." The missionary had no horse, and so Naney remained with her kunk- she, who worked her very hard and scolded her in- cessantly. Naney was high-spirited, but bided her time, and when she was about 15 she eloped with an Indian named Wah-kah-an-de Ota, (or Many Light- nings) of another band, and the grandmother got no horse to ride, or so much as a dog to roast! It was a great seandal and disgrace.

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN. COUNTY, MINNESOTA

Nancy Eastman, as she was called, remained an Indian, although she was nominally a Christian. The white people made her numerous presents, which she stored in the Pond brothers' mission house at Oak Grove. Learning this, the grandmother came to the Mission and took away everything her grandchild had in keeping there, whereat Nancy was very sorry. Many Lightnings was a good husband to Nancy. She bore him sons and daughters and two of her sons, Rev. John Eastman, a licensed minister, and Dr. Charles Eastman, the noted author of books on Indian life and the husband of the white authorcss, Elaine Good- ale, have become noted and useful characters. Many Lightnings was badly wounded while fighting the whites in the battle of Wood Lake. Brig. Gen. Seth Eastman, grandfather of the Eastman brothers, died in 1875.

Eagle Head became chief of the "Village where the Lily Roots are," at the mouth of Eagle Creek, also by election. He formerly belonged to Shakopee's band, but he killed a woman of that band, and fearing the vengeance of her relatives fled, with some of his relatives and friends, to the new location at the mouth of the stream which has since been called Eagle Creek. The township of Eagle Creek, in Scott County, also helps perpetuate his name.

The people of Minneapolis may well be proud that such an Indian as Cloud Man lived for many years on what became a prominent part of their city. He was an industrious and prudent man and always advised his people for the best. He never ceased to tell his fellow Dakotas that the time had come when, if they wished to save their nation from ruin, they must change their mode of life and adopt that of the white man; but only a few heeded him. Their gardens and fields in what is now southern Minn- eapolis were a great credit to their industry and sagacity, and enabled them to live in comfort. Many of the warriors worked in these fields, but the prin- cipal part of the farming and gardening was done by the women, who usually dug up the ground with hoes, planted and hoed the crop, and aided by the children drove and kept away the vast swarms of blackbirds that attacked the corn from the time it was planted until it was gathered, and sometimes destroyed entire fields.

When the treaty of Mendota was made, in July, 1851, Cloud Man accepted the inevitable and signed. His head soldier, the Star, (Wechankpe) and his principal men, Little Standing Wind, Scarlet Boy, Smoky Day, Iron Elk, Whistling Wind, Strikes Walk- ing, Sacred Cloud, and Iron Tomahawk, also "touched the goosequill" and legalized their marks to the treaty. Some of Cloud Man's people often camped temporarily on Bridge Square in 1852 and 1853, when they were no longer afraid of the Onktayhee living under the falls. In the latter year, however, pursuant to the Mendota treaty, old Cloud Man led his people to their new reservation on the upper Minnesota, and they began life anew. When the great Outbreak occurred, many of his band became hostiles, but the old chief remained loyal and faithful in his friendship for the whites. He died in the first month of the great

and bloody uprising, which really hastened his death. Almost with his last words he lamented the conduct and the infatuation of his people and predicted the bad results that followed.

Some Indians of the Lake Calhoun village were noted. Take Smoky Day (Ampatu Shota) for ex- ample. On one occasion he and another Indian, dis- regarding the commands of Agent Taliaferro, went away down into Iowa and fell upon a Sac and Fox village in the night, put 14 people to the tomahawk, and brought back their scalps. Iron Elk (Hay-Kah- Kah Mahzah) was another noted character.

BEFORE THE WHITES OWNED THE LAND.

Early incidents of Fort Snelling history may be referred to in connection with the record of the city, since the relations of the military post and the munic- ipality have always been so influential and so involved.

FIRST WHITE CHILDREN BORN.

In August, 1820, Col. Josiah Snelling arrived and relieved Lieut. Col. Leavenworth, and on the 10th of September the corner-stone of the commandant's quarters, the first building of the new fort, was laid. Mrs. Snelling accompanied her husband, and a few days after her arrival a little daughter was born to her. Perhaps this was the first full-blooded white child born in Minnesota. The child died when but thirteen months old and its interment was the first in the new fort cemetery; previous interments had been made on the Mendota side of the Minnesota. Charlotte Ouisconsin Van Cleve (nee Clark) was born earlier than Mrs. Snelling's baby, but in Wisconsin.

THE FIRST WHITE WOMEN.

The year 1821 was busily spent by the garrison in the construction of the new fort and of the mill at St. Anthony's Falls. October 1, when the work at the mill was being supervised by Lieut. R. A. MeCabe, a party composed of Maj. Taliaferro, some officers of the fort, and the accomplished Mrs. Gooding, visited the mill on horseback. Two weeks later Mrs. Gooding, accompanied by Col. Snelling, Agent Taliaferro, and Lieut. J. M. Baxley, went down the river, in the big keelboat "Saucy Jack," to Prairie du Chien, where her husband, formerly Capt. George Gooding, was post sutler at Fort Crawford, having resigned from the service. It has been noted that Mrs. Gooding was the first white woman to see St. Anthony's Falls. The first white women in Minnesota were the wives of the officers at Fort St. Anthony, and of these ladies Mrs. Gooding seems to have been the leader in accomplish- ments and general attractions.

In the fall of 1822 the buildings of the new Fort St. Anthony were sufficiently completed to admit of its occupancy by the troops. In 1823 came the steamboat Virginia and Long's expedition.

ANENT THE TREATY OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN.

In 1824 Gen. Scott visited the fort and changed its name to Fort Snelling. The same year Maj. Talia-

HISTORY OF MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY, MINNESOTA

ferro escorted a delegation of Chippewas and Sioux to Washington and arranged for the holding of a great treaty at Prairie du Chien the following year. Little Crow, Wahnatah, (the Charger) Wapasha, and Sleepy Eye were the leading Sioux chiefs. Wahnatah was a Yankton, from Lake Traverse, and Sleepy Eye's band was at Lac qui Parle. All four had their pictures painted in Washington and these were after- wards lithographed and shown in McKenny & Hall's "Indian Tribes." The Dakotas returned to Minne- sota by way of New York. In the big city the party met Rev. Samuel. Peters, who said he was the owner by purchase of the Carver deed, and he gave Little Crow a fine double-barrelled gun and asked him to have his band declare that the deed was legitimate and legal. The next year Rev. Peters sent Robert Dickson, a half-blood, some presents for him and his Indian wife; and in the same package sent a copy of the alleged deed and a long letter asking Dickson to secure evidence among the Indians that the deed was genuine, promising a large reward in event of suc- cess, etc. Dickson investigated but could not find the slightest evidence in favor of the authenticity of the preposterous paper.

THE STEAMBOAT PUTNAM.

April 5, 1825, the steamboat Rufus Putnam, Capt. Moses D. Bates commander, from St. Louis, arrived at Fort Snelling. The boat closely resembled tlie Virginia; it was built in Cincinnati and named for the founder of the Marietta (Ohio) Colony and not for Gen. Israel Putnam, of the Revolution. Capt. Bates resided at Palmyra, Mo., and laid out the town of Hannibal. May 2 the Putnam came to Fort Snelling again, this time with goods for the Columbia Fur Company, which, at a point about a mile up the Minnesota, had a trading post called Land's End. Here the goods were delivered and thus the Putnam was the first steamboat to ascend the Minnesota for any distance.

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Compendium of history and biography of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, Minnesota, Part 10

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co. Number of Pages: 1190

Author: Holcombe, R. I. (Return Ira), 1845-1916; Bingham, William H
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago : H. Taylor & Co.
Number of Pages: 1190