USA > Minnesota > Polk County > Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota > Part 4
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FLAT MOUTH THWARTS THE BEAVER'S TREACHERY AND HAS HIM KILLED.
But while the peaee eouneils were being held above and below him, Flat Mouth, chief of the Pillager band of Chippewas, about Leech Lake, did not attend them. He quietly but industriously hunted beaver on the Long Prairie River. The peace pipe had been sent
him, but he refused it. He said the Sioux were not in earnest in their professions of peace so soon after their bloody battle on the Long Prairie. He said he knew the Sioux character, and felt sure that they were in- sincere in their protestations of desire for a future permanent peace between the two tribes.
Heading twenty or more of his band, Flat Mouth, in the fall (of 1819?), went to Otter Tail Lake with his beaver traps and eanoes. But he and his men took their guns with them and kept their powder dry. At the outlet of Otter Tail Creek, one evening, the chief beeame impressed with a sense of danger. He had his bark eanoe (which he had brought up the Crow Wing to the Otter Tail portage and then aeross to the lake) and, fearing to go to sleep on the shore, he embarked himself and family in the boat and passed the night on the lake. The next morning he discovered the trail of a war party of apparently 400 Sioux. They had been at the site of his eamp of the previous evening and had gone in the direction of Battle Lake. From a rude drawing on a blazed tree, Flat Mouth deter- mined that one of the Sioux leaders was Chahpah, the chief of the Yanktons.
There were no Chippewas at Battle Lake, south of Otter Tail, but at the Leaf Lakes, to the eastward, there were quite a number. Working his eanoe through the chain of lakes with their links of streams, like a great rosary of water, Flat Mouth reached Leaf Lakes and sounded the alarm, That morning two of his cousins were killed and their bodies muti- lated by the Sioux, but in the fight they killed three of their enemies and wounded many others. The Sioux soon learned that their plan had failed, because the Chippewas had discovered it and were fully aroused. At once they hurried southward, back and away from the Chippewa country, and soon were in their villages, near the sourees of the Minnesota and Red Rivers.
Flat Mouth repaired to his village and sent his war- pipe and war elub by fleet messengers from band to band, informing his people that he was going on the war path against the Sioux and wanted their help. It
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was as in the days of Roderick Dhu, when he was wont to send the fiery cross among his clansmen to rouse them to war. The Chippewas were soon ready to march down against the Yanktons at Lake Traversc. But meanwhile Chahpah had reached home, and alarmed at the discovery of his treachery, again sought to make peace with the Chippewas. He induced his white brother-in-law, Col. Robert Dickson, "the red- headed Scotchman," to act as mediator. Col. Dick- son's wife was Chahpah's sister.
At the Beaver's request, the Colonel sent a swift courier to Flat Mouth with a message from the Sioux chief denying all participation in the late war party of his people, and especially denying that any of his warriors had killed the two cousins of Flat Mouth. He also invited the Chippewas to meet him in another peace council at Col. Dickson's trading post, which was on the Minnesota side of the Red River, at or near "La Grande Fourche," (the Grand Forks) for the purpose of smoking the peace pipe aud re-establishing and strengthening good will between their respective people. Flat Mouth accepted the invitation and, tak- ing 30 of his best warriors with him, set out for the Grand Forks. He arrived in due time at Dickson's trading post, where he found four Frenchmen in charge of the establishment, Col. Dickson being ab- sent. On the next day Chahpah arrived, but with only two of his Yanktonnais as a body guard.
Flat Mouth refused to smoke the peace pipe with Chahpah, and the Sioux chief then realized that his treachery had become fully known and was to be pun- ished. He was undismayed, however, and told his sister, Mrs. Dickson, that if he had to die he would go like a "brave Dakota." That night it rained heav- ily and the thunder roared, but amid the tumult the Chippewas could hear the death song of Chahpah as he chanted it amid the gloomy surroundings in the trading house of his brother-in-law. The Chippewa warriors wanted to kill him and his companions out of hand, but Flat Mouth forbade them. He said they might kill the Sioux, but must not "shed blood on the steps of these white men, nor in their presence."
Then he added : "You know my heart has been sore since the death of my cousins, but though their mur- derers deserve death I do not wish to see them killed. Though it is my doing, I shall not be with you."
The next morning early Flat Mouth departed for Gull Lake, and the three Sioux, brave to the last, set out for Lake Traverse, guarded by the Chippewa war- riors, who had murder in their hearts and eyes, as an escort. Out on the prairie the escort shot the hap- less and helpless chief and his companions, took their scalps, cut off their heads, and ran swiftly with the bloody trophies until they caught up with Chief Flat Mouth. Sha-wa-ke-shig, who was Flat Mouth's head warrior, killed Chahpah and took his scalp. The chief's American medal, which he wore conspicuously on his breast, was taken by Wash-kin-e-ka, or Crooked Arm, a Red Lake warrior. This incident occurred in Polk County, perhaps a mile below the present site of East Grand Forks.
COL. ROBERT DICKSON, THE TRADER, PROTESTS THE MURDER.
Colonel Dickson was greatly exasperated when he learned of the killing and the mutilation of his In- dian brother-in-law. He sent word to Flat Mouth that thenceforth the smoke of a white man's trading house would never more rise toward the sky from the camp of a Pillager band of Chippewas. The Pillager chief laughed at the threats, and afterwards, in relat- ing the story to Warren, he said that the traders eon- tinued to visit and trade with him as usual, and that his village continued to grow larger, "notwithstand- ing the words of the red-headed Scotchman." But these traders were not the agents of Col. Dickson, who refused to trade with the Pillager chief and injured him in every way he could. Perhaps his treatment of the chief in this respect alienated Flat Mouth from the British interest and condueed to strengthen his predi- lections toward the Americans.
During the War of 1812 Col. Dickson was the prin- cipal agent of the British in Minnesota. He recruited scores of Indians from the Sioux and Chippewas and
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
sent them to fight against the Americans. Some of these red mercenaries served with the British Army as far to the eastward as in northern Ohio. But Chief Flat Mouth remained firm in his friendship toward the Americans, although he knew but little about them ; he persistently refused to fight them in aid of the British, and was true to the promises he made Lieuten- ant Pike in the eouneil of Leech Lake, February 16, 1806. Dickson sent the French Canadian, St. Ger- main, from Fort William to Leech Lake, and made rich presents to Flat Mouth to induce him to lead the Pillager band into the British eamps, but Flat Mouth sent back the wampum belts, etc., with this message : "When I go to war against my enemies, I do not call upon the whites to join my warriors. The white peo- ple are quarreling among themselves, and I do not wish to meddle in their quarrels. I do not intend to ever strike a white man or even break a window in his house." (Warren, p. 369.)
THE SIOUX SWEAR VENGEANCE AGAINST THE CILIPPEWAS.
The Yanktonnais received the news of the killing of their chief with horror and indignation, and swore vengeance against every living Chippewa thing. The Beaver (or Chahpah) was succeeded by his son Wah- nah-tah (or the Charger), previously mentioned, and who became one of the most influential and celebrated warriors and chieftains of the great Sioux nation. He was so celebrated and well known among the whites that his name was given to one of the original eoun- ties of Minnesota Territory, in 1849. Wahnatah County was about 60 miles wide from north to south, and extended from the months of the Crow Wing and the Clearwater westward to the Missouri. During his military career the great chief amply revenged the death of his father by repeatedly striking bloody blows upon the Chippewas of the Red River.
After the killing of the Beaver, active warfare was renewed between the Sioux and the Red River Valley Chippewas. Less than a month after the tragedy, Wah-nah-tah started from Lake Traverse, with a large party of Sioux warriors, to go into the Chippewa 2
country at and about Red Lake. At the same time, a body of Chippewas, headed by Chief Wash-ta-do-ga- wub, started southward to attack the Sioux at Lakes Traverse and Big Stone. They were largely Red Lakers, although Flat Mouth and a detachment of his band were with the party.
Nearly opposite the mouth of Goose River, orig- inally called by the French, "la Riviere Outarde," or the River of the Canada Goose, in what is now the southwest corner of Polk County, a little north of Neilsville, the two armies met. Two of the Chippewa scouts, in advance of the main force, were suddenly fired upon by the Sioux and one of them was killed. The Sioux then rushed forward and a bloody fight ensued. The Chippewas were taken somewhat un- awares and the Sioux pushed them back to Sand River,* after a series of stubbornly contested en- counters. The Chippewas "dug themselves in" at the little river by letting themselves down behind its south bank and by digging rifle-pits and improvised breast- works. The battle lasted till dark, when the Chip- pewas, believing that they had the worse of the fight, crossed the Sand River to the north and hastened to- ward their wigwams. They carried their badly wounded along and threw the bodies of their dead into the river, to prevent them from being sealped and otherwise mutilated. One Chippewa warrior, named Black Duck, particularly distinguished himself by
* It is possible that the stream here mentioned as the Sand River should really be called the Red Lake River, and that the battle took place at the present site of the City of Crookston. It may be that the mound on the south bank of the Red Lake, about three-fourths of a mile from the center of the city, marks the site of the burial place of the Sioux that were killed in the action. The bones found by Prof. Moore and his scholars in this mound about 25 years ago may have been those of Wah- nah-talı's slain warriors; they could not have been those of Mound Builders. After the Chippewas retreated the Sioux may have gathered up their dead in a group and heaped the earth over them, as was frequently their custom in finally disposing of their dead.
The data which warrants the assertion that the battle was at Sand River is reasonably clear, but yet there have been no tangible evidences of a deadly conflict there. And if the bones disinterred by Prof. Moore at Crookston were not relies of a battlefield, what were they? True, we have no account, and not even a legend, of an Indian battle at the Crookston mound, but many a battle between aboriginal tribes has been unre- corded and its victims gone "unhonored and unsung."-Com- piler.
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHIY OF POLK COUNTY
killing and sealping seven Sioux. Ile was a Red Laker and his name was given to the lake on which he lived, and which is a dozen miles south of Red Lake and is the source of Black Duck River. In recent years a railroad station on the Minnesota & Interna- tional was established near the lake and a town laid out ealled Black Duek. The Sioux, too, retreated dur- ing the night, and thus there was a military spectacle, often seen where white men's armies were the actors, of two hostile forces running away from each other after a battle. The Sioux soon returned and cared for their dead and sent seouts after the Chippewas without results.
It would not be practicable to detail all of the bat- tles and other hostile and sanguinary encounters be- tween the Chippewas and the Sioux while they were fighting for the control of the Red River Valley and the rest of the country embraced within the northern part of Minnesota. The narration of these incidents which ocenrred in other counties belongs in the his- tories of those counties. Except those here mentioned, it must be said regarding the old Indian fights which took place in what is now Polk County, that no reliable data regarding them can be found by the present writer. Plenty of mention is made of fights and hos- tile campaigns made in the valley by the two tribes, but no dates can be fixed when they occurred, and no localities determined; nor can it be stated positively and under conviction that these affairs took place with- in Polk County, and therefore belong solely to this history. Doubtless there was many an Indian fight in Polk County which will never be noted. Yet the history of the county will not suffer by such an omis- sion, for, really, three-fourths of the fights between hostile bands of the Sioux and the Chippewas in Min- nesota were inconsequential, and of no more impor- tance than the combats between packs of ravenous wolves on the prairies in the days long gone by. The incidents here narrated are derived, in by far the greater part, from Warren's History of the Minnesota Chippewas; and Warren's presentations are based upon the statements made to him by the renowned
Chippewa chieftain and warrior, Esh-ke-bug-e-coshe, or Flat Mouth.
AN OLD-TIME INDIAN BATTLE ON RED LAKE.
It may be well, however, to give one tradition of a great Sioux-Chippewa battle which is said to have occurred at some time between 1785 and 1800 on the east side of Upper Red Lake. There is no written ree- ord of the affair that the compiler can find; and the only evidence that there was such an affair is the testimony of Indians or mixed bloods long since dead, and such testimony is almost altogether legendary or traditional. And yet this evidenee is not to be alto- gether disregarded or despised, when the character of the testimony and of those delivering it is considered. Writing to the compiler under date of January 8, 1916, Hon. Wm. Watts, than whom there is no one more interested in or a better authority upon early Polk County history, says :
" After being driven from this part of the Red River Valley, the Sioux made several attempts to recover it, until they were finally defeated in a great battle by the Chippewas on the east side of Upper Red Lake. I have never seen a description of that battle. * * *
"I do not think this was a battle identical with that described as taking place on Thief River when the Sioux band hid themselves, etc. Battle River, which flows into Upper Red Lake from the east, is said to get its name from being near or on the site of this battle. I have heard it frequently spoken of, but cannot get anything like a definite description of it.
"According to what I have heard it was fought about 125 years ago, and was the last great battle be- tween the two tribes in northwestern Minnesota. I have heard that Pierre Bottineau frequently told of what he had learned about it from participants. The story is that it was a very bloody battle and that the Chippewas were victorious. I think l'aul Beaulieu, of Mahnomen, Minn., would be able to give the tradi- tionary account. The father of Moose Dung, the lat- ter a signer of the 'Old Crossing treaty' of 1863, was one of the Chippewa chiefs engaged in the bat- tle, and Moose Dung often told what he had heard about it."
Neither Warren's Ilistory of the Chippewas nor Prof. Winehell's "Aborigines of Minnesota," both ex- cellent authorities on the wars and feuds of the two tribes, make any reference whatever to the alleged
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COMPENDIUM OF IIISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
old-time battle on the Upper Red Lake. And yet there may have been such a battle, and certain of the mounds found on Red Lake may be the sepulchres of some of the Sioux warriors slain in the confliet.
THE CHIPPEWAS FINALLY HOLD THE COUNTRY.
In the end the Chippewas remained in control of the country, although in many justanees this control was disputed and disturbed. War parties of Sioux came up into the Chippewa country on forays and warlike excursions, at intervals, until 1863. The Chip- pewas raided the Sioux during the same period. De- tachments from the eastern band at Pokegama and the St. Croix raided Little Crow's band near St. Paul in the spring of 1842, and in April, 1853, attacked and killed fugitive members of the same band fairly in the streets of the Capital City. In May, 1858, Chippewas from the Mille Laes and Gull Lake bands went down and attacked the Sioux village of Chief Shakopee, on the lower Minnesota, and at the town bearing his name, but were defeated with a loss of 20 killed, and wounded.
THE TWO TRIBES FIGHT UNTIL THE SIOUX OUTBREAK.
August 15, 1862, only a very few days before the great Sioux Outbreak, some Red Lake Chippewas slipped down to near Red Iron's village, on the Min- nesota, not far from the Yellow Medieine Agency, and killed a Sioux man and his son and got away with their sealps. The 20th of July a detachment of the same band, presumably, had shot and killed two Sioux within 18 miles of Yellow Medicine; while in May a hunting party of Red Iron's band was attacked on the upper Pomme de Terre by a band of Chippewas (presumably Red Lakers) and chased out of the eoun- try, losing two men killed.
The bodies of the Sioux man and his son that were
killed in August were taken to their village and ex- posed in the street and thus lay in state, as it were, for two days. At last a war party of 25 was made up to go northward to the Chippewa country and avenge the killing. All but three of the party (who were Yanktonnais) were of the Wahpeton band of Sioux and the leader was Eta-zha-zha, or Gleaming Face, who, under the Christian name of Lot, died at Sisse- ton, South Dakota, only a few years sinee. In 1901, before a commission that was investigating the conduct of the Sisseton Sioux during the great Outbreak, Lot testified to the foregoing facts, and further stated that the Sioux were absent from their villages about two weeks, during which time they were mainly in the Otter Tail Lake region. When they had returned to their own country, they found, to their amazement and distress, that during their absence a great and bloody outbreak had been made against the whites. (Minn. in Three Cents., Vol. 3, p. 288.)
Certain eareless or reekless writers on Minnesota history have asserted that the great Sioux Outbreak of 1862 was the effeet of a long meditated and care- fully planned movement of the Sioux and Chippewas in combination ; that Little Crow and other chiefs for the Sioux, and Hole-in-the-Day and other leaders for the Chippewas, had been in constant communication and engaged in preparing for the uprising long before it occurred, ete. These assertions are wholly false. The two tribes hated each other too vieiously and im- placably ever to found a friendly alliance for any pur- pose. The tragie incidents mentioned, and others that might be given, show that these long-time foes eon- tinued to fight one another up to the very date of the Outbreak and prove the utter falsity of the elaim that they ever were engaged as allies in plotting against the whites.
CHAPTER III. THE FIRST WHITE MEN IN POLK COUNTY.
TIIE NORSEMEN WHO MADE THE KENSINGTON RUNE STONE WERE FIRST-THE EARLY WHITE EXPLORERS-OTHER FIRST VISITORS TO MINNESOTA-THE LA VERENDRYES DISCOVER THE RED RIVER VALLEY-FIRST PRINTED DESCRIP- TION OF THE REGION BY A CHIPPEWA HALF BREED-RED LAKE NAMED "FROM THE COLOUR OF THE SAND"- NOT MANY OTHER EARLY EXPLORERS.
It is always interesting to every citizen to learn (so as to believe) the facts connected with the carly his- tory of his country. Among the items composing these facts one of those of rarest interest is the identity of the first Caneasians or white men to visit his district or locality. Sometimes this may be ascertained with accuracy : but generally, especially in Minnesota, the information is impossible to secure beyond and with- out a reasonable doubt. The present writer is unable to assert positively, and to furnish proof of the asser- tion, who were the first white men to visit the dis- triet of country now comprised within the boundaries of Polk County. He can only furnish certain infor- mation on the subject, all that is readily accessible, and let every intelligent reader pass npon the ques- tion and decide it for himself.
WERE NORSEMEN HERE IN A. D. 1362 ?
It is fairly probable that the first white men that visited and traveled over the soil of Polk County were 32 Norsemen, who came some time in A. D. 1362. If they were here at that time. they probably came from the very early Norse Colony of "Vinland" which is said to have been on the northeastern Atlantic coast in what is now the State of Maine, or either of the Provinees of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or New- foundland.
The evidence that these men were here, or at least somewhere in this portion of the Red River Valley, is
a stone with an inscription to this effeet. This stone has come to be known as the Kensington Rune Stone, because it was found near the village of Kensington, a station on the Soo Railroad, in the southwestern por- tion of Douglas County, and because the inseription on it is in the ancient Runic dialect. The stone was found on the farm of Olaf Ohman, three miles north- east of Kensington, November 8, 1898, by himself and his two young sons. Nils Olaf Flaaten, owner of an adjoining farm, was present immediately after the finding. All the parties are Swedes, and though plain people, in modest circumstances, are honest, upright, and highly esteemed citizens. None of them have any other than a primary education.
The stone was thoroughly diseussed and examined by several Scandinavian and other archaeologists and scientists, and carried back and forth for two or three years, going in 1911 to Rouen, France. It is now in the custody of Mr. Hjalmer Rued Holand of Madi- son, Wisconsin, who obtained it in 1907 from Mr. Ohman, the finder. Mr. Holand has spent much time and money and made extensive research in his inves- tigation of this tablet and is thoroughly enthusiastic in his belief that it is genuine. This opinion is firmly held by a large majority of the experts that have ex- amined it. Those who doubt its authenticity do so on seemingly insufficient grounds. The strongest argu- ment in its favor is the stone itself, which is of the variety that geologists eall graywacke, which is
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COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY OF POLK COUNTY
abundant in the locality where the stone was found. The whole subject is well presented in 66 pages of Volume XV of the Minnesota Historical Society Col- leetions, and in Castle's recently published State His- tory.
An English translation of the inscription reads :
"Eight Goths and twenty-two Norwegians upon a journey of discovery from Vinland westward. We had a eamp by two skerries one day's journey north from this stone. We were out fishing one day. When we returned home we found ten men red with blood and dead. Hail, Virgin Mary, save us from evil.
"Have ten men by the sea to look after our vessel 14 (or 41) days' journey from this island. Year 1362.''
The term Goths means Swedes, because they were from Gothland, in the southern part of Sweden. The characters on the stone translated "Hail, Virgin Mary" are the equivalents of A. V. M., meaning in Latin, "Ave, Virgo Maria." It is uncertain whether or not the characters translated 14 should be 41, as some Runic writers put the figure denoting units be- fore the figure denoting tens; the custom varied at different times and in different countries.
Assuming the genuineness of the stone, the author- ship of the inscription may be determined with reason- able probability. The party, consisting of at least 40 persons, had set out from Vinland on an expedi- tion of exploration and discovery. Uniformly a priest accompanied such an expedition as its chaplain, and at that period, and for 200 years thereafter, all Chris- tians were Roman Catholics. In this instance the priest of the ill-fated party was, it may be presumed, a Runic scholar. The other members doubtless were illiterate. To record the tragie incident of the kill- ing of ten of their number and the fact of their pres- ence and condition in the country, for the benefit of civilized people that might come after them, the stone was prepared and inscribed. Probably the priest drew the Runic characters on the stone and a proper artificer cut them out. The priest would almost naturally offer a prayer to the Blessed Virgin for protection and preservation of the survivors from the
fate of their comrades whom they had found "red with blood and dead."
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