USA > Minnesota > Dahkotah land and Dahkotah life [microform] : with the history of the fur traders of the extreme northwest during the French and British dominions > Part 13
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" It is very evident that some of the names and cus- toms of the American Indians resemble those of the Tartars, and I make no doubt but that in some future era, and this not, very distant, it will be reduced to certainty that during some of the wars between the Tartars and the Chinese, a part of the inhabitants of the northern quovinces were driven from their native country,od took refuge in some of the isles before mentioned, an from thence found their way into Ame- rica. *
" Many words are used both by the Chinese and In- dians which have a resemblance to each other, not only in their sound but in their signification. The Chinese call a slave Shungo; and the Naudowessie Indians, whose language, from their little intercourse with the Europeans, is least corrupted, term .a dog Shungush (Shoankah). The former denominate our species of their tea Shoushong; the latter call their tobacco Shous- as-sau (Chanshasha). Many other of the words used .
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' EXAMINATION OF THE CARVER CLAIM.
by the Indians contain the syllables che, chaw, and chu, after the dialect of the Chinese." The comparison of languages has become a rich source of historical know- ledge, yet very many of the analogies traced are fanciful. The remark of Humboldt in " Cosmos" is worthy of re- membrance :- " As the structure of American idioms appears remarkably strange to nations speaking the modern languages of Western Europe, and who readily suffer themselves to be led away by some accidental analogies of sound, theologians have generally be- lieved that they could trace an affinity with the Hebrew, Spanish colonists with the Basque and the - English, or French settlers with Gaelic, Erse, or the Bas Breton. I one day met onsthe coast of Peru, a Spanish naval officer and an English whaling captain, the former of whom declared that he had heard Basque spoken at Tahiti; the other, Gaelic or Erse at the Sandwich Islands.'"
Carver became very poor while in England, and was a clerk in a lottery office. He died in 1780, and left a widow, two sons, and five daughters, in New England, and also a child by another wife that he had married in Great Britain.
After his death a claim was urged for the land upon which the capital of Minnesota now stands, and for many miles adjacent. As there are still many persons who believe that they have some right through certain deeds purporting to be from the heirs of Carver, it is a matter worthy of an investigation.
Carver says nothing in his book of travels in relation to a grant from the Dahkotahs, but after he was buried, it was asserted that there was a deed belonging to him in existence, conveying valuable lands, and that said
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
deed was executed at the cave now in the eastern suburbs of Saint Paul.1
The original deed was never exhibited by the assignees of the heirs. By his English wife Carver had one child, a daughter Martha, who was cared for by Sir Richard and Lady Pearson. In time she eloped and married a sailor. A mercantile firm in London, thinking that money could be made, induced the newly married couple, the" day after the wedding, to convey the grant to them, with the understanding that they were to have a tenth of the profits.
The merchants despatched an agent by the name of Clarke to go to the Dahkotahs, and obtain a new deed; .but on his way he was murdered in the State of New York.
I DEED PURPORTING TO HAVE BEEN GIVEN AT THE CAVE IN THE BLUFF BELOW ST. PAUL.
. "To Jonathan Carver, a Chief under the most mighty and potent George the Third King of the Eng- lish, and other nations, the fame of whose warriors has reached our ears, and has now been fully told us by our good brother Jonathan, aforesaid, whom we rejoice to have come among us, and bring us good news from his the said Jonathan, his heirs and country.
"We, Chiefs of the Naudowessies, who have hereunto set our seals, do by these presents, for ourselves and heirs forever, in return for the aid and other good services done by the said Jonathan to ourselves and allies, give, grant, and convoy to him, the said Jonathan, and to his heirs and 1767." assigns forever, the whole of a certain tract of territory of land, bounded
as follows, viz : from the Falls of St. Anthony, running on east bank of the Mississippi, nearly south-east, as- far as Lake Pepin, where the Chippewa joins the Mississippi, and from thence eastward, five days tru- vel accounting twenty English miles per day, and from thence again to the Falls of St. Anthony, on a direct straight line. We do for ourselves, heirs, and assigns, forever give unto assigns, with all the trees, rocks, and rivers therein, reserving the sole liberty of hunting and' fishing on land not planted or improved by the said Jonathan, his heirs and assigns, to which we have affixed our respec- tive seals.
" At the Great Cave, May 1st,
"Signed, . HAWNOPAWJATIN. OTOHTONGOOMLISHEAW.
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CARVER'S CLAIM BEFORE CONGRESS.
In the year 1794, the heirs of Carver's American wife, in consideration of fifty thousand pounds sterling, conveyed their interest in the Carver grant to Edward Houghton of Vermont In the year 1806, Samuel Peters,1 who had been a tory and an Episcopal minister during the Revolutionary war, alleges, in a petition to Congress, that he had also purchased of the heirs of Carver their rights to the grant.
Before the Senate Committee, the same year, he testified as follows :-
" In the year 1774, I arrived there (London), and met Captain Carver. In 1775, Carver had a hearing before the king, praying his majesty's approval of a deed of land dated May first, 1767, and sold and granted to him by the Naudowissies. The result was his majesty approved of the exertions and bravery of Captain Carver among the Indian nations, near the Falls of St. Anthony, in the Mississippi, gave to said Carver 13731. 138. 8d. sterling, and ordered a frigate to be prepared, and a transport ship to carry one hundred and fifty men, under command of Captain Carver, with four others as a committee, to sail next June to New Orleans, and then to ascend the Mississippi to take possession of said territory conveyed to Captain Carver, but the battle of Bunker Hill prevented."2
In 1821, General Leavenworth, having made inqui- ries of the Dahkotahs, in relation to the alleged claim, addressed the following to the commissioner of the land office :-
1 Said to have been the author of the great-grandson of Governor John a fictitious work called " Connecticut Blue Laws."
2 Peters also testified that he was
Carver, the first Chief Magistrate of Plymouth Colony.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
" Sir :- Agreeably to your request, I have the honour to inform you what I have understood from the Indians of the Sioux Nation, as well as some facts within my own knowledge, as to what is commonly termed Car -. ver's Grant. The grant purports to be made by the chiefs of the Sioux of the Plains, and one of the chiefs uses the sign of a serpent, and the other a turtle, pur- porting that their names are derived from those animals. " The land lies on the east side of the Mississippi. The Indians do not recognise. or acknowledge the grant to be valid, and, they among others assign the follow- ing reasons :-
" 1. The Sioux of the Plains never owned a foot of. land on the east side of the Mississippi. The Sioux Nation is divided into two grand divisions, viz! The Sioux of the Lake, or perhaps more literally Sioux" of the River, and Sioux of the Plain. The former subsists by hunting and fishing, and usually move from place to place by. water, in chnoes, during the summer Mason, and travel on the ice in the winter, when not on their hunting excursions, The latter subsist entirely by hunting, and have no canoes, nor do they know but .. little about the use of them. They reside in the large prairies west of the Mississippi, and follow the buffale, upon which they entirely subsist ; these are called Sioux of the Plain, and never owned, land. east of the Mis- 'sissippi.
"2. The Indians say they have no knowledge of any such chiefs, as those who have signed the grant to. Carver, eitherjamongst the Sibux of the River, or"Sioux. of the Plain. They say that af Captain Carver did. evers obtain a deed or grant, i was signed by some foolish young men who were not chiefs, and who were not
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LEAVENWORTH'S LETTER ON THE GRANT.
authorized to make a grant. Among the Sioux of the River there are no such names.
"3. They say the Indians never received anything for the land, and they have no intention to part with it, without a' consideration. From my knowledge of the Indians, I am induced to think they would not make so considerable a grant, and have it go into full effect, without receiving a substantial consideration.
+4. They have, and ever have had, the possession of the land, and intend to keep it. I know that they are very particular in making every person who wishes to cut timber on that tract, obtain their permission, to ' do so, and to obtain payment for it. In the month of May last, some Frenchmen brought a large rafyof red cedar timber out of the Chippewa river, which timber was cut on the tract before mentioned. ; The Indians at one of the villages on the Mississippi, where the prin -; cipal chief resided, compelled. the Frenchmen to. land the raft, and would not permit them to pass until they had received pay for the timber; and the Frenchmen were compelled to leave their raft with the Indians until they went to Prairie du Chien, and obtained the necessary articles, and made the payment required."
On the twenty-third of January, 1823, the Committee of : Public. Lands made a report on the claim to the. " Senate, which, to every disinterested person, is entirely satisfactory. After stating the facts of the petition, the report" continues :-
" The Bev. Samuel Peters, in his petition, further "states that Lefel, the present Emperor of the Sfoux and. Naudowessies, and Red Wing, a Sachem, the heirs and successors of the two grand chiefs who signed the said deed to Captain Carver, have given satisfactory and.
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positive proof, that they allowed their ancestors' deed to be genuine, good, and valid, and that Captain Carver's heirs and assigns are the owners of said territory, and may occupy it free of all molestation.
" The committee have examined and considered the claims thus exhibited by the petitioners, and remark that the original deed is not produced, nor any compe- tent legal evidence offered, of its execution ; nor is there any proof that the persons, whom it is alleged made the deed, were the chiefs of said tribe, nor that (if chiefs) they had authority to grant and give away the land belonging to their tribe. The paper annexed to the · petition, as a copy of said deed, has no subscribing wit- nesses; and it would seem impossible at this remote period, to ascertain the important fact, that the persons who signed the deed comprehended and understood the' meaning and effect of their act.
" The want of proof as to these facts, would interpose `, in the way of the claimants insuperable difficulties. But, in the opinion of the committee, the claim is not such as the United States are under any obligation to allow, even if the deed were proved in legal form.
" The British government, before the time when the alleged deed bears date, had deemed it prudent and necessary, for the preservation of peace with the Indian tribes under their sovereignty, protection, and dominion, to prevent British subjects from purchasing lands from". the Indians; and this rulerof policy was made known and enforced by the proclamation of the king of Great Britain, of seventh October, 1763, which contains an express prohibition;
" Captain Carver, aware of the law, and knowing that > such a contract could not vest the legal title in him,
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REPORT OF SENATE COMMITTEE.
applied to the British government to ratify and confirm the Indian grant, and though it was competent for that- government then to confirm the grant, and vest the title of said land in him, yet, from some cause, that govern- ment did not think proper to do it.
" The territory has since become the property of the. United States, and an Indian grant, not good against the British government, would appear to be not binding upon the United States government.
"What benefit the British government derived from the services of Captain Carver, by his travels and resi -.
. dence among the Indians, that government alone could determine, and alone could judge what remuneration those services deserved.
"One fact appears from the declaration of Mr. Peters, in his statement in writing, among the papers exhibited, namely, that the British government did give Captain Carver the sum of one thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds six shillings and eight pence ster- ling.1 . To the United States, however, Captain Carver rendered no services which could be assumed as any equitable ground for the support of the petitioners' claim.
" The committee being of opinion that the United States are not bound, in law or equity, to confirm the said alleged Indian grant, recommend the adoption of the following resolution
"' Resolved, that the prayer of the petitioners ought not to be granted."
1 Lord Palmerston stated in 1839,- . papers, showing "any ratification of 'that no tince could be found in the - the Carver grant.
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
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CHAPTER XII.
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SUSTAINED by French 'influence and fire-arms, the Ojibways began to advance into the Dahkotah country. Carver found the two nations at war in 1766, and was told that they had been fighting forty years. Pike, . when' at Leech Lake, in 1806, met an aged-Ojibway chief, called " Sweet," who said that the Dahkotahs lived there when he was a young man.
Ojibway tradition says that about one hundred and twenty-five years ago, a large war party, was, raised to. march against a Dahkotah village at Sandy Lake; the leader's name was Biauswah, grandfather of a well known chief of that name at Sandy Lake.
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Some years after Sandy Lake had been taken by this chief, sixty Ojibways descended the Mississippi. On their return, at the 'confluence "of the Crow Wing and Mississippi, they saw traces of a large Dahkotah party · that had ascended to their village, and probably killed their wives and children. . Digging holes in the ground . they concealed themselves, and awaited the descent of their enemies. The Dahkotahs soon came floating down, singing songs of triumph und beating the drum, with 'scalps dangling from poles. The Dahkotahs were five times as many as the Ojibways, but when the latter
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ORIGIN OF THE NAME PILLAGER.
beheld the reeking scalps of their relatives they were nerved to fight with desperation. The battle soon com- menced, and when arms and ammunition failed, they dug holes near to each other and fought with stones. The bravest fought hand to hand with knives and clubs. The conflict lasted three days, till the Dahkotahs at last retreated. The marks of this battle are still thought to : be visible.
The band of Ojibways, living at Leech Lake, have long borne the name of " Pillagers," from the fact that, while encamped at a small creek on the Mississippi, ten miles 'from Crow Wing river, they robbed a trader of his goods.
Very near the period that .France ceded Canada to England, the last conflict of the Foxes and Ojibway's took place at the Falls of the St. Croix.
The account which the Ojibways give of this battle. is, that a famous war chief of Lake Superior, whose Mme was Waub-o-jeeg, or White Fisher, sent his war club and wampum of war to call the scattered bands of the Ojibway tribes,. to collect a war party to march against the Dahkotah villages on the St. Croix and Mississippi. Warriors from St. Marie, Keweenaw, Wis- consin, and Grand Portage joined -his party, and avith. three hundred warriors, Waub-o-jeeg started from La Pointe to march into the enemy's country. He had sent his war-club to the village of Sandy Lake, and they had sent tobacco in return, with answer that on a certain day; sixty men from that section of the Ojibway stribe would meet him at the confluence of Snake river with the St. Croix .. On reaching this point on the day designated, and the Sandy Lake party not having arrived as agreed. upon, Waub-o-jeeg, not confident in
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
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the strength of his numbers, continued down the St. Croix. They arrived at the Falls of St. Croix early in the 'morning, and, while preparing to take their bark canoes over the portage, or carrying place, scouts were sent in advance to reconnoitre. They soon returned with the information that they had discovered a large party of Foxes and Dahkotahs landing at the other end; of the portage.
The Ojibways instantly prepared for battle, and the scouts of the enemy having discovered them, the hostile parties met as if by mutual appointment, in the middle of the portage. The Foxes, after seeing the compara- tively small number of the Ojibways, and over confident in their own superior numbers and prowess, requested the Dahkotahs not to join in the fight, but to sit by and see how quickly they could rout the Ojibways. This request was granted. The fight between the contend- ing warriors, is said to have been fiercely contested, and embellished with many daring acts of personal valour. About noon the Foxes commeneed yielding ground, and at last were forced to flee in confusion. They would probably have been driven into the river and killed to a-man, had not their allies the Dahkotahs, who had been quietly smoking their pipes and calmly viewing the fight from a distance, at this .juncture, yelled their war whoop, and rushed to the rescue of their discomfited friends.
The Ojibways resisted their new enemies manfully, and it was not until their ammunition had entirely - failed that they in turn showed their backs in flight. Few would have returned to their lodges to tell the sad tale of defeat; and. death of brave men, had not . the party of sixty warriors from Sandy Lake, who were to
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DEFEAT OF FOXES AT FALLS OF ST. CROIX.
have joined them at the mouth of Snake river, arrived at this opportune moment, and landed at the head of the portage.
Eager for the fight and fresh on the field, this band withstood the onset of the Dahkotahs and Foxes, till their'retreating friends could rally again to the battle. The Dahkotahs, and Foxes in turn fled, and it is said that the slaughter in their ranks was great. Many were driven over the rocks into the boiling flood below ; - and every crevice in the cliffs contained a dead or- wounded enemy.
From this time the Foxes retired to the south and for ever gave up the war with their victorious enemies ..
Tradition says that, while the English had possession of what is now Minnesota, and while they occupied a trading, post near the confluence of the waters of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, the M'de-wa;kan-ton- wan Dahkotahs sent the '" bundle of tobacco" to their friends, the Wa-rpe-ton-wan, Si-si-ton-wan, and I-han- kton-wan bands, who joined them in. an expedition against the Ojibways of Lake Superior. Notwithstand- ing the great strength of the party, they found and scalped only a single family of their enemies.
Soon after their return to their own country, a quar- rel arose between a M'dewakantonwan named Ixkatape (Toy) and their trader. The Indian name of the trader was Pagonta, Mallard Duck. The result of the quarrel was, that one day as the unsuspecting Englishman sat quietly smoking his Indian pipe in his rude hut near Mendota, he was shot dead.
At this time some of the bands of the Dahkotahs had learned to depend very much upon the trade for the means by which they subsisted themselves. At an
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HISTORY OF MINNESOTA.
earlier period it would have been to them a matter of trifling importance whether a white man wintered with them or not.
In consequence of the murder, the trade was tempo- rarily withdrawn. This was at that time a severe measure, and reduced these bands to sufferings which they could not well endure. ' They had no ammunition, no traps, no blankets. For the whole long dreary winter, they were the sport of cold and famine. That was one of the severest winters that the M'dewakantonwans ever experienced, and they had not even a pipe of tobacco to smoke over their unprecedented misery. They hardly survived.
On the opening of spring, after much, deliberation, it. was determined that the brave and head men of the band should take the murderer, and throw themselves at the feet of their English Fathers in Canada. Accord- ingly, a party of about one hundred of their 'best men and women left Mendota early in the season, and de- scended the Mississippi in their canoes to the mouth , of the Wisconsin. From thence they paddled up the Wisconsin, and down the Fox river to Green Bay. By this time, however, more than half their number had meanly enough deserted thera. While they were en- camped at Green Bay, all but six, a part of whom were females, gave up the enterprise, and disgracefully re- turned, bringing the prisoner with them." The courage, the bone and sinew of the M'dewakantonwan, band might have been found in that little remnant of six men and women.
Wapashaw, the grandfather of the present chief who bears that name, was the man of that truly heroic little
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half-dozen. With strong hearts, and proud perseverance, they toiled on till they reached Quebec.
Wapashaw, placing himself at the head of the little deserted band, far from home and friends, assumed the guilt of the cowardly murderer, and nobly gave him- self up into the hands of justice for the relief of his. suffering people.
After they had given him a few blows with the stem of the pipe through which Pagonta was smoking when he was killed, the English heard Wapashaw with that noble generosity which he merited.
He represented the Dahkotahs as living in seven bands, and received a like number of chiefs' medals; one of which, was hung about his own neck, and the remaining six were to be given, one to each of the chief men of the other bands.
It would be highly gratifying to know who were the persons who received those six chiefs' medals; ,but, although not more than one century, at the longest,- has passed, since Wapashaw's visit to Canada, it cannot. now be certainly ascertained to which divisions of the Dahkotah tribe they belonged; it seems most probable, however, that the following were the seven divisions to which Wapashay referred, viz. :- M'de-wa-kan-ton-wan, Wa-rpe-kute, Wa-rpe-ton-wan, Si-si-ton-wan, I-han-kton- wan, I-han-kton-wan-nan, and Ti-ton-wan.
The names of this" little band of braves are all lost , but that of Wapashaw. They wintered in Canada, and all had, small-pox. By such means Wapashaw re -. opened the door of trade, and became richly entitled to the' appellationr of the Benefactor of the Dahkotah tribe. Tradition has preserved the name of no greater nor better man than pashaw.
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Wapashaw did not, however, end his days in peace. The vile spirit of the fratricidal Cain sprung up among his brothers, and he was driven into exile by their mur- derous envy. To their everlasting shame be it recorded, that he died far away from the M'dewakantonwan vil- lage, on the Hoka river. It is said that the father of . Wakute was his physician, who attended on him in his last illness. The Dahkotahs will never forget the name of Wapashaw.1
During the war of the Revolution, De Peyster was the British officer in command at Mackinaw. Having made an alliance with Wapashaw, the chief desired . . that, on his annual visit, he should be received with more distinction than the chiefs of other nations. This respect was to be exhibited by firing the cannon charged with ball, in the place of blank cartridge, on his arrival, so that his young warriors might be accustomed to fire- arms of large calibre.
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