USA > Minnesota > Concise history of the state of Minnesota > Part 4
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In' the autumn of 1SOS, he established himself at Lac qui Parle, and went with a party of Sioux, to Big Stone Lake, to hunt for buffalo. There, for the first time, he heard the distant rumble, then, the terrible bellowing of thousands of buffaloes. A large number were killed, and when the Indians returned to the camp fire, the bones were roasted, and then, the marrow taken out, and eaten, and Anderson thought it very delicious. The next year he was in the same region, and the Yankton, old Wack-haw-a-du-tah or Red Thunder was the head
4S
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
chief, highly esteemed by the traders, and the Sioux. He gained his reputation for bravery some years before, while hunting, near the Omaha Indians, on the Mis- souri. With Red Thunders' party, there happened to be an Ottawa of Michigan, whose people were hostile to the Omahas, and the latter determined to capture him. As they approached seeing he could not save his guest, he raised his gun and shot him, and the ball which passed through the Ottawa, then killed one of the Oma- has. The next morning, Red Thunder mounted his horse and rode alone to the Omaha camp, singing his death dirge, and with his knife cutting flesh from his thighs, and said: "My friends ! I fed my dogs with your flesh, yesterday, and now am come to feast your dogs, on my poor flesh that we may continue as brethren." The foe was astonished and impressed by his course, and taking him from his horse, dressed his thighs, gave him presents, and sent him home, as a brave man, and from that time he was recognized as a leader among the Sioux.
Red Thunder passed the winter of 1809-10, at the tra- ding post, but he and the traders were obliged to live on bitter-sweet, and other roots, and at one time upon the flesh of an old horse. In March, 1810, the Indian hunt- ers arrived, and Anderson had a good trade. In his narrative, he writes: "I made a splendid trade, gave them two kegs, each, containing three gallons of high wines and six of water. True, they might have gotten the water at their camp, but carrying it on their backs twenty five miles would mix it better." It was perhaps well for Anderson that soon after this sharp practice he left the Lac qui Parle region.
In the autumn of 1810, under the guidance of Robert Dickson, several traders, among others, Anderson, James,
49
DRUNKEN INDIANS.
and George Aird, Allen Wilmot, and Joseph Rolette, under the cover of a dark night, sneaked around the American fort, at Mackinaw, and smuggled into the Indian country, goods valued at 'about ten thousand pounds. Dickson, and the brothers Aird went above the Falls of St. Anthony, to trade; and Wilmot, Rolette and Anderson chose the island at the mouth of the Min- nesota river, as a wintering place. Wilmot and Rolette had never before been in the Sioux country. About three hundred lodges of Sionx came from their hunts in the spring, to the island, and after trading was fin- ished, high wines were issued. That day, Anderson was left at the post with only a negro and two white men, and in a few hours the Indians had become drunk, and began singing, dancing,, hair pulling, and stabbing each other. By midnight all the liquor was exhausted and one thirsty fellow leaped over the pickets of the post, then fired his gun, sending a bullet through the door. Rolette was greatly frightened, and broke his ram-rod in loading his gun.
During the summer of 1811, Anderson visited the upper Mississippi, above Crow Wing river, in a Mack- inaw boat, with a one-pound swivel, which was dragged around the Falls of Saint Anthony. About the year 1810, he took a young Sioux half-breed woman, for a wife, and had by her a son and a daughter, but when he left Minnesota in March, 1814, he sent them to their band, in accordance with the custom of the tra- ders. The girl grew up to be a decent woman, and in 1850, was the wife of a Scotchman, who was farmer, at the village of Kaposia, just below the city of Saint Paul
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50
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
CHAPTER FOURTH.
EVENTS FROM A. D. 1800 TO A. D. 1819.
On the seventh of May, 1800, the Northwest territory, which included all of the country north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi River, was divided. The portion, not designated as Ohio, was organized as the Territory of Indiana.
On the twentieth of December, 1S03, the province of Louisiana, of which that portion of Minnesota west of the Mississippi was a part, was officially delivered up by the French, who had just obtained it from the Spaniards, according to treaty stipulations.
To the transfer of Louisiana by France, after twenty days' possession, Spain at first objected, but in 1S04 withdrew all opposition.
President Jefferson now deemed it an object of para- mount importance for the United States to explore the country so recently acquired, and make the acquaint- ance of the tribes residing therein; and steps were taken for an expedition to the upper Mississippi.
Early in March, 1804, Captain Stoddard, of the United States army, arrived at St. Louis, the agent of the French Republice, to receive from the Spanish authorities the possession of the country; which he immediately transferred to the United States.
On the twentieth of the same month the territory of upper Louisiana was constituted, comprising the pres-
51
EXPLORATION OF LT. Z. M. PIKE.
ent States of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and a large portion of Minnesota, and on the eleventh of January, 1805, the territory of Michigan was organized.
The first American officer who visited Minnesota, on business of a public nature, was one who was an orna- ment to his profession, and in energy and endurance a true representative of the citizens of the United States, the gallant Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who afterwards fell in battle at York, Upper Canada, and whose loss was justly mourned by the whole nation.
When a young lieutenant, he was ordered by General Wilkinson to visit the region now known as Minnesota, and expel the British traders who were found violating the laws of the United States, and form alliances with the Indians. With only a few common soldiers, he was obliged to do the work of several men. At times he would precede his party for miles, to reconnoitre, and then would do the duty of hunter. During the day he would perform the part of surveyor, geologist, and as- tronomer, and at night, though hungry and fatigued, his lofty enthusiasm kept him awake until he copied his notes and plotted the courses.
He reached on the twenty-first of September, 1805, at breakfast time, the village of the Kaposia band of Sioux, which was then on the east bank of the Mississippi, just below Saint Paul, at the marsh known by frontiersmen, as Pig's Eye. The same day he passed the encampment of J. B. Faribault, then a subordinate trader, three miles below Mendota. Arriving at the island at the conflu- ence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers, he set up his tents, and on Monday, the twenty-second, held a council with the Sioux, under a covering made by sus- pending sails, in the presence of traders Fraser and
52
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
Murdoch Cameron, assisted by interpreters Pierre Roseau and Joseph Renville. At the conference, an agreement was made, by which the Sioux agreed to cede land from below the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi, up the latter stream, to include the Falls of Saint Anthony, and extending nine miles on each side of the river.
The morning after the council, Lt. Pike was indignant at finding that his flag which had been flying, was not to be found, and supposing that it was negligence, had the soldier that had been on duty, arrested and flogged. The trader, Anderson, mentions in his " Narrative," that while the soldier was under disgrace, the Chief of the Kaposia band came up from his village and said that during the storm in the night, the flag had been blown into the river, and that some of his young men had found it, and they would return it, and then spoke as follows:
"Young man! my name is Onk-e-tah-en-du-tah. It was your fault, and not the soldier's, that your flag floated down the river. Now, I warn you, if you hurt this man during the winter, I will make a hole in your coat when you come back in the spring. Go, now; you may tell all the Sioux you meet that I desire them to be kind to you and your soldiers, but, as I have warned you, beware of hurting that man's back." The story is probably exaggerated, but Pike records in his journal that he did whip a soldier for the loss of the flag, and on the twenty-seventh of the month makes an entry that "two young Indians brought my flag across by land. just as we came in sight" of the Falls of Saint Anthony. On the last of the month, he was encamped upon Hen- nepin Island, above the Falls. By the tenth of October, he had ascended the Mississippi, as far as an island
BILLS of ST ANTHONY.
....
...
1
REFERENCES.
Fall of the Water in length of the Portuge ok toel . naan Arrows denoting the main Shoals I Width of the River alme the Falls 622. Nurds.
c Wulth of' the River below the Falls 209. do. Perpendicular hight of the Fidts 1012.
I
26
PHOTO ENG CO. NY
PIKE'S PLAN OF STANTHONY FALLS
53
PIKE VISITS LEECH LAKE.
where, in 1797, the traders Porlier and Joseph Renville had wintered, and by the last of the month, had erected winter quarters, enclosed with pickets, in the vicinity of Swan River, and here was visited by the noted British trader, Robert Dickson, who was then trading at a point about sixty miles below. With sleds, on the third of January, 1806, he reached the trading post of the North- west Company, at Red Cedar, now Cass Lake, and was disturbed by seeing the British flag flying. From thence he went to Sandy Lake, and found a trader by the name of Grant in charge. Afterwards he proceeded to Leech Lake, where he arrived on the first of February, and was hospitably received by Hugh McGillis, the head of the Northwest Company in this district. and hoisting the United States flag, allowed the Indians and soldiers to shoot at the British flag until it fell. McGillis made fair promises to obey the laws of the United States, and by the eleventh of April, Pike had returned to the mouth of the Minnesota River, and the next day began his voyage to Saint Louis.
Notwithstanding the professions of friendship made to Pike, in the second war with Great Britain, Dickson and others were found bearing arms against the Republic.
A year after Pike left Prairie du Chien it was evident that, under some secret influence, the Indian tribes were combining against the United States. In the year 1809, Nicholas Jarrot declared that the British traders were furnishing the savages with guns for hostile purposes. On the first of May, 1812, two Indians were appre- hended at Chicago, who were on their way to meet Dick- son at Green Bay. They had taken the precaution to hide letters in their moccasins, and bury them in the ground, and were allowed to proceed after a brief deten-
5
54
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
tion. Fraser, of Prairie du Chien, who had been with Pike at the council at the mouth of the Minnesota River, was at the portage of the Wisconsin when the Indians delivered these letters, which stated that the British flag would soon be flying again at Mackinaw. At Green Bay, the celebrated warrior, Black Hawk, was placed in charge of the Indians who were to aid the British. The American troops at Mackinaw were obliged, on the sev- enteenth of July, 1812, to capitulate without firing a single gun. One who was made prisoner writes from Detroit to the Secretary of War:
" The persons who commanded the Indians are Rob- ert Dickson, Indian trader, and John Askin, Jr., Indian agent, and his son. The latter two were painted and dressed after the manner of the Indians. Those who commanded the Canadians are John Johnson, Crawford, Pothier, Armitinger, La Croix, Rolette, Franks, Living- ston, and other traders, some of whom were lately con- cerned in smuggling British goods into the Indian country, and in conjunction with others, have been using their utmost efforts, several months before the declara- tion of war, to excite the Indians to take up arms. The least resistance from the fort would have been attended with the destruction of all the persons who fell into the hands of the British, as I have been assured by some of the British traders."
On the first day of May, 1814, Governor Clark, with two hundred men, left St. Louis, to build a fort at the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi. Twenty days before he arrived at Prairie du Chien, Dickson had started for Mackinaw with a band of Dakotahs and Winnebagoes. The place was left in command of Cap- tain Deace and the Mackinaw Fencibles. The Dako-
55
SURRENDER OF FORT SHELBY.
tahs refusing to co-operate, when the Americans made their appearance, they fled. The Americans took pos- session of the old Mackinaw house, in which they found nine or ten trunks of papers belonging to Dickson; in one of the papers was the following: "Arrived, from below, a few Winnebagoes with scalps. Gave them tobacco, six pounds powder and six pounds ball."
A fort was immediately commenced on the site of the old residence of the late H. L. Dousman, which was composed of two block-houses in the angles, and another on the bank of the river, with a subterranean communi- cation. In honor of the Governor of Kentucky it was named "Shelby."
The fort was in charge of Lieutenant Perkins and sixty rank and file; and two gunboats, each of which carried a six-pounder and several howitzers, were commanded by Captains Yeiser, Sullivan and Aid-de-camp Kennerly.
Anderson, the former Minnesota trader, was at Mack- inaw, when the news came of the American occupation of Prairie du Chien. He was active in raising a com- pany of volunteers1 to attack them, in which Joseph Renville, Pike's interpreter, was a lieutenant. About the twentieth of July, they reached the mouth of the Wisconsin river, and sending a flag of truce to the American fort, demanded its surrender, which was refused. The next day, the British attacked, and were successful, taking sixty-five prisoners, which, on parole, were sent to St. Louis, in a boat, under the escort of Lt. Brisbois.
A few of the Sioux remained true to the American flag, among others Red Wing, whose band generally
1. Among the volunteers, were Joseph Rolette, Louis and P. Provencale, J B. Faribault, J. B. Parant, John and Colin Campbell, and J. J. Porlier.
56
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
went with the British. On the twenty-fourth of August. 1S14, Anderson, then in command of Fort McKay, ordered Joseph Renville to visit the band of Sioux friendly to Great Britain, and to ask Little Crow, and other chiefs, to hold themselves in readiness at Prairie La Crosse. Three days later fifty Sioux of the Feuille (Fuhyay) band, joined the British at Prairie du Chien. Duncan Graham, Feuille (Fuhyay) and a number of Sioux participated in an attack, on the seventh of September, upon the Americans at Rock Isl- and. On the twenty-eighth Feuille (Fuhyay) and Little Crow, with one hundred warriors and their families came to Fort McKay, and remained, in the vicinity, for several weeks.
Among those who came to St. Louis, after the surren- der of Fort Shelby. was a one-eyed Sioux, called by the French, Orignal Leve, ( Rising Moose) and by his own people Tah-ma-hah. In the fall of 1814, with another Sioux, he ascended the Missouri river as far as the Au Jacques or James River, and from thence struck across the country, enlisting the Sioux in favour of the United States, and at length arrived at Prairie du Chien. On his arrival, Dickson accosted him, and inquired from whence he came, and what was his business; at the same time rudely snatching his bundle from his shoulder. and searching for letters. The "one-eyed warrior" told him that he was from St. Louis, and that he had promised the white chiefs there, that he would go to Prairie du Chien, and that he had kept his promise.
Dickson then placed him in confinement in Fort Me Kay, as the garrison was called by the British, and ordered him to divulge what information he possessed, or he would put him to death. But the faithful fellow
57
TAHMAHAH, THE ONE-EYED SIOUX.
said he would impart nothing, and that he was ready for death if he wished to kill him. Finding that con- finement had no effect, Dickson at last liberated him. He then left, and visited the bands of Sioux on the Up- per Mississippi, with which he passed the winter. When he returned in the spring, Dickson had gone to Macki- naw, and Capt. A. Bulger, of the Royal New Foundland Regiment, was in command of the fort.
On the twenty-third of May, 1815, Capt. Bulger, wrote from Fort McKay to Gov. Clark at St. Louis: "Official intelligence of peace reached me yesterday. I propose evacuating the fort, taking with me the guns captured in the fort. * I have not the smallest hesi- , tation in declaring my decided opinion, that the pres- ence of a detachment of British and United States troops at the same time, would be the means of embroil- ing one party or the other in a fresh rupture with the Indians, which I presume it is the wish of both govern- ments to avoid."
The next month the "One-Eyed Sioux," with three other Indians and a squaw, visited St. Louis, and he in- formed Gov. Clark that the British commander left the cannons in the fort when he evacuated, but in a day or two came back, took the cannons, and fired the fort with the American tlag flying, but that he had rushed in and saved it from being burned. As Superintendent of In- dian affairs of Missouri Territory, Governor Clark gave him the following certificate: "In consideration of the fidelity, zeal and attachment testified by Tar-mah-hah, of the Red Wing's band of Sioux, to the government of the United States, and by virtue of the power and author- ity in me vested, do hereby confirm the said Tar-mah- halı as chief in the said band of Sious aforesaid, having
58
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
bestowed on him the small sized medal, wishing all and singular, the Indians. inhabitants thereof, to obey him as a chief, and the officers and others in the service of the United States to treat him accordingly." Tah-ma-hah did not die until 1863, and was more than eighty years of age.
In the year 1S11, Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, a kind but visionary Scotch nobleman, conceived the project of establishing an agricultural colony near Lake Winnipeg, and obtained a grant of land from the Hud- son Bay Company, which he called Ossiniboia.1 In the autumn of 1812 a few Scotchmen sent out by Selkirk arrived at Pembina within United States territory, and there passed the winter, and called the post Fort Daer. In the fall of 1S15 Selkirk arrived in New York city on his way to visit the dispirited settlers in the Red River valley. Proceeding to Montreal he found a messenger who had traveled on foot, in mid-winter, from the Red River, by way of Red Lake, and Fond du Lac, of Lake Superior. He sent back by this man kind messages to the colonists, but he was way-laid near Fond du Lac and robbed of his canoe and dispatches. An Ojibway chief at Sandy Lake afterwards testified that a trader named Grant offered him rum and tobacco to send persons to intercept a bearer of dispatches to Red River, and soon this messenger was brought in by a negro and some In- dians.
Failing to obtain military aid from the British anthor- ities in Canada, Selkirk made an engagement with four officers and eighty privates of the discharged Meuron
1. Lt. Edward Chappell, of the British Navy, in "Narrative of a Voyage to Hudson's Bay," published in 1-17 in London, asserts that Ossinibola is a Gaelic compound word, Osna-Boia . Ossian's Town), and chosen to please the immi- grants, and also because of its resemblance to the name of the Aesineboine Indians, pronounced by the half-breeds, Osnaboyne.
59
LORD SELKIRK'S COLONY.
regiment, twenty of the De Watteville, and a few of the Glengary Fencibles, which had served in the late war with the United States, to accompany him to Red River. They were to receive monthly wages for navigating the boats to Red River, to have lands assigned them, and a free passage if they wished to return.
When he reached Sault St. Marie he received the in- telligence that the colony had again been destroyed, by the influence of traders upon suspicious half-breeds, and that Semple, a mild, amiable, but not altogether ju- dicious man, the chief governor of the factories and territories of the Hudson Bay Company, residing at Red River, had been killed.
Before he heard of the death of Semple, the Earl of Selkirk had made arrangements to visit his colony by way of Fond du Lac, the St. Louis River, and Red Lake of Minnesota, but he now changed his mind and proceeded with his force to Fort William, the chief trading post of the Northwest Company on Lake Supe- rior; and apprehending the principal partners, warrants of commitment were issued, and they were forwarded to the Attorney-General of Upper Canada.
While Selkirk was engaged at Fort William, a party of immigrants in charge of Miles MeDonnel, Governor, and Captain D'Orsomen, went forward to reinforce the colony. At Rainy Lake they obtained the guidance of a man who had all the characteristics of an Indian, and yet had a bearing which suggested a different origin. By his efficiency, and temperate habits, he had secured the respect of his employers, and on the Earl of Sel- kirk's arrival at Red River, his attention was called to him, and in his welfare he became deeply interested. By repeated conversations with him, memories of a dif-
60
HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
ferent kind of existence were aroused, and the light of other days began to brighten. Though he had forgotten his father's name, he furnished sufficient data for Sel- kirk to proceed with a search for his relatives. Visitmg the United States, in 1817, he published a circular in the papers of the Western States, which led to the identifi- cation of the man.
It appeared from his own statement, and those of his friends, that his name was John Tanner, the son of a minister of the gospel, who, about the year 1790, lived on the Ohio River, near the Miami. Shortly after his location there, a band of roving Indians passed near the bouse and found John Tanner, then a little boy, filling his hat with walnuts from under a tree. They seized him and fled. The party was led by an Ottawa whose wife had lost a son, and to compensate for his death, the mother begged that a boy of the same age might be captured.
Adopted by the band, Tanner grew up an Indian in his tastes and habits, and was noted for bravery. Sel- kirk was successful in finding his relatives. After twen- ty-eight years of separation, John Tanner, in 181S, met his brother Edward, near Detroit, and went with him to his home in Missouri. He soon left his brother and went back to the Indians. For a time he was interpreter for Henry R. Schoolcraft, but became lazy and ill-nat- ured, and in 1836, skulking behind some bushes, shot and killed Schoolcraft's brother, and fled to the wilder- ness, where, in 1847, he died. His son, James, was kindly treated by the missionaries to the Ojibways of Minnesota; but he walked in the footsteps of his father. In the year 1851, he attempted to impose upon the Pres- byterian minister in Saint Paul, and when detected.
61
SELKIRK'S TREATY AT GRAND FORKS.
called upon the Baptist minister, who, believing him a penitent, cut a hole in the ice, and received him into the church by immersion. In time, the Baptists found him out, when he became an Unitarian missionary, and, at last, it is said, met death, by violence.
Lord Selkirk was in the Red River Valley during the summer of 1S17, and on the eighteenth of July con- cluded a treaty at the Grand Forks of Red River, in the territory of the United States, with the Crees and Saulteaux, for a tract of land beginning at the mouth of the Red River, and extending along the same as far as the Great Forks (now Grand Forks) at the mouth of Red Lake River, and along the Assinni- boine River as far as Musk Rat River, and extending to the distance of six miles from Fort Douglas on every side, and likewise from Fort Daer (Pembina) and also from the Great Forks, and in other parts extending to the distance of two miles from the banks of the said rivers.
Having restored order and confidence, attended by three or four persons, he crossed the plains to the Min- nesota River, and from thenee proceeded to St. Louis. The Indian agent at Prairie du Chien was not pleased with Selkirk's trip through Minnesota; and on the sixth of February, 1818, wrote the Governor of Illinois under excitement, some groundless suspicions :
"What do you suppose, sir, has been the result of the passage through my agency of this British nobleman? Two entire bands, and part of a third, all Sioux, have deserted us and joined Diekson, who has distributed to them large quantities of Indian presents, together with flags, medals, etc. Knowing this, what must have been my feelings on hearing that his lordship had met with a
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