History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 18

Author: J. Fletcher Williams
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Minnesota > Dakota County > History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 18

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In the fall of 1826, all the troops at Prairie du Chien had been removed to Fort Snelling, the commander taking with him two Winnebagoes that had been confined in Fort Crawford. After the soldiers left the Prairie, the Indians in the vicinity were quite insolent.

In June, 1827, two keel-boats passed Prairie du Chien on the way to Fort Snelling with provis- ions. When they reached Wapashaw village, on

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA ..

the site of the present town of Winona, the crew were ordered to come ashore by the Dahkotahs. Complying, they found themselves surrounded by Indians with hostile intentions. The boatmen had no fire-arms, but assuming a bold mien and a defiant voice, the captain of the keel-boats ordered the savages to leave the decks; which was suc- cessful, The boats pushed on, and at Red Wing and Kaposia the Indians showed that they were not friendly, though they did not molest the boats. Before they started on their return from Fort Snelling, the men on board, amounting to thirty-two, were all provided with muskets and a barrel of ball cartridges.

When the descending keel-boats passed Wapa- shaw, the Dahkotas were engaged in the war dance, and menaced them, but made no attack. Below this point one of the boats moved in ad- vance of the other, and when near the mouth of the Bad Axe, the half-breeds on board descried hostile Indians on the banks. As the channel neared the shore, the sixteen men on the first boat were greeted with the war whoop and a vol- ley of rifle balls from the excited Winnebagoes, killing two of the crew. Rushing into their ca- noes, the Indians made the attempt to board the boat, and two were successful. One of these stationed himself at the bow of the boat, and fired with killing effect on the men below deck. An old soldier of the last war with Great Britain, called Saucy Jack, at last despatched him, and began to rally the fainting spirits on board. Du- ring the fight the boat had stuck on a sand-bar. With four companions, amid a shower of balls from the savages, he plunged into the water and pushed off the boat, and thus moved out of reach of the galling shots of the Winnebagoes. As they floated down the river during the night, they heard a wail in a canoe behind them, the voice of a father mourning the death of the son who had scaled the deck, and was now a corpse in possession of the white men. The rear boat passed the Bad Axe river late in the night, and escaped an attack.

The first keel-boat arrived at Prairie du Chein, with two of their crew dead, four wounded, and the Indian that had been killed on the boat. The two dead men had been residents of the Prairie, and now the panic was increased. On the morn- ing of the twenty-eighth of June the second

keel - boat appeared, and among her passengers was Joseph Snelling, the talented son of the colonel, who wrote a story of deep interest, based on the facts narrated.

At a meeting of the citizens it was resolved to repair old Fort Crawford, and Thomas McNair was appointed captain. Dirt was thrown around the bottem logs of the fortification to prevent its being fired, and young Snelling was put in com- mand of one of the block-houses. On the next day a voyageur named Loyer, and the well-known trader Duncan Graham, started through the in- terior, west of the Mississippi, with intelligence of the murders, to Fort Snelling. Intelligence of this attack was received at the fort, on the evening of the ninth of July, and Col. Snelling started in keel boats with four companies to Fort Crawford, and on the seventeenth four more companies left under Major Fowle. After an absence of six weeks, the soldiers, without firing a gun at the enemy, returned.

A few weeks after the attack upon the keel boats General Gaines inspected the Fort, and, subsequently in a communication to the War Department wrote as follows;

"The main points of defence against an enemy appear to have been in some respects sacrificed, in the effort to secure the comfort and conven- ience of troops in peace. These are important considerations, but on an exposed frontier the primary object ought to be security against the attack of an enemy.

" The buildings are too large, too numerous, and extending over a space entirely too great, enclosing a large parade, five times greater than is at all desireable in that climate. The build- ings for the most part seem well constructed, of good stone and other materials, and they contain every desirable convenience, comfort and securi- ty as barracks and store houses.

"The work may be rendered very strong and adapted to a garrison of two hundred men by re- moving one-half the buildings, and with the ma- terials of which they are constructed, building a tower sufficiently high to command the hill be- tween the Mississippi and St. Peter's [Minnesota], and by a block house on the extreme point, or brow of the cliff, near the commandant's quarters, to secure most effectually the banks of the river, and the boats at the landing.

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DEATH OF COL. JOSIAH SNELLING.

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" Much credit is due to Colonel Snelling, his officers and men, for their immense labors and excellent workmanship exhibited in the construc- tion of these barracks and store houses, but this has been effected too much at the expense of the discipline of the regiment."

From reports made from 1823 to 1826, the health of the troops was good. In the year ending Sep- tember thirty, 1823, there were but two deaths; in 1824 only six, and in 1825 but seven.

In 1823 there were three desertions, in 1824 twenty-two, and in 1825 twenty-nine. Most of the deserters were fresh recruits and natives of America, Ten of the deserters were foreigners, and five of these were born in Ireland. In 1826 there were eight companies numbering two hun-

dred and fourteen soldiers quartered in the Fort.

During the fall of 1827 the Fifth Regiment was relieved by a part of the First, and the next year Colonel Snelling proceeded to Washington on bus- iness, where he died with inflammation of the brain. Major General Macomb announcing his death in an order, wrote :

" Colonel Snelling joined the army in early youth. In the battle of Tippecanoe, he was distinguished for gallantry and good conduct. Subsequently and during the whole late war with Great Britain, from the battle of Brownstown to the termination of the contest, he was actively employed in the field, with credit to himself, and honor to his country."

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CHAPTER XVII.

OCCURRENCES IN THE VICINITY OF FORT SNELLING, CONTINUED.

Arrival of J. N. Nicollet-Marriage of James Wells-Wicollet's letter from Falls- of St. Anthony-Perils of Martin McLeod-Chippeway treachery-Sioux Re venge-Rum River and Stillwater battles-Grog shops near the Fort.

On the second of July 1836, the steamboat Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its passengers was the distinguished French a8- tronomer, Jean N. Nicollet (Nicolay). Major Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote; " Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific research, and at present in my family, has shown me the late work of Henry R. Schoolcraft on the discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the twenty-seventh, Nicollet ascended the Mississippi on a tour of observation.

James Wells, a trader. who afterwards was a member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth of September, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed in 1862, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre in the Minnesota Valley.

Nicollet in September returned from his trip to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote the following to Major Taliaferro the Indian Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the earliest letter extant written from the site of the city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and one of the finest avenues of that city bears his name it is worthy of preservation. He spelled his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia- tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as if written Nicollet in French. The letter shows that he had not mastered the English language : "ST. ANTHONY'S FALLS, 27th September, 1836,

DEAR FRIEND :- I arrived last evening about dark ; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken, happy and a very successful journey. But I done exhausted, and nothing can relieve me, but the pleasure of meeting you again under your hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the garrison who have been so kind to me.

" This letter is more particularly to give you a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with me. The day before yesterday I met them again at Swan river where they detained me one day. I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer. All terminated by their own resolution that they ought to give you the hand, as well as to the Guinas of the Fort ( Colonel Davenport. ) I thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be- forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit they pay you. Please give them a good welcome until I have reported to you and Colonel Daven- port all that has taken place during my stay among the Pillagers. But be assured I have not trespassed and that I have behaved as would have done a good citizen of the U. S. As to Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will have full and complete satisfaction from Flat Mouth himself. In haste, your friend, J. N. NICOLEY."

EVENTS OF A. D. 1837.

On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar- rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has given his name to a county.

He left the Red River country on snow shoes, with two companions, one a Polander and the other an Irishman named Hays, and Pierre Bot- tineau as interpreter. Being lost in a violent snow storm the Pole and Irishman perished. He and his guide, Bottineau, lived for a time on the flesh of one of their dogs. After being twenty- six days without seeing any one, the survivors reached the trading post of Joseph R. Brown, at Lake Traverse, and from thence they came to the fort.

. EVENTS OF A. D. 1838.

In the month of April; eleven Sioux were slain in a dastardly manner, by a party of Ojibways,

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INDIAN BATTLES AT RUM RIVER AND STILLWATER.

under the noted and elder Hole-in-the-Day. The Chippeways feigned the warmest friendship, and at dark lay down in the tents by the side of the Sioux, and in the night silently arose and killed them. The occurrence took place at the Chippe- way River, about thirty miles from Lac qui Parle, and the next day the Rev. G. H. Pond, the Indian missionary, accompanied by a Sioux, v.ent out and buried the mutilated and scalpless bodies.

On the second of August old Hole-in-the-Day, and some Ojibways, came to the fort. They stopped first at the cabin of Peter Quinn, whose wife was a half-breed Chippeway, about a mile from the fort.

The missionary, Samuel W. Pond, told the agent that the Sioux, of Lake Calhoun were aroused, and on their way to attack the Chippe- ways. The agent quieted them for a time, but two of the relatives of those slain at Lac qui Parle in April, hid themselves near Quinn's house, and as Hole-in-the-Day and his associates were pass- ing, they fired and killed one Chippeway and wounded another. Obequette, a Chippeway from Red Lake, succeded, however, in shooting a Sioux while he was in the act of scalping his comrade. The Chippeways were brought within the fort as soon as possible, and at nine o'clock a Sioux was confined in the guard-house as a hostage.

Notwithstanding the murdered Chippeway had been buried in the graveyard of the fort for safety, an attempt was made on the part of some of the Sioux, to dig it up. On the evening of the sixth, Major Plympton sent the Chippeways across the river to the east side, and ordered them to go home as soon as possible.

EVENTS OF A. D. 1889.

On the twentieth day of June the elder Hole- in-the-Day arrived from the Upper Mississippi with several hundred Chippeways. Upon their return homeward the Mississippi and Mille Lacs band encamped the first night at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and some of the Sioux visited them and smoked the pipe of peace.

On the second of July, about sunrise, a son-in- law of the chief of the Sioux band, at Lake Cal- houn, named Meekaw or Badger, was killed and scalped by two Chippeways of the Pillager band, relatives of him who lost his life near Patrick

Quinn's the year before. The excitement was intense among the Sioux, and immediately war parties started in pursuit. Hole-in-the-Day's band was not sought, but the Mille Lacs and Saint Croix Chippeways. The Lake Calhoun Sioux, with those from the villages on the Minnesota, assembled at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and on the morning of the fourth of July, came up with the Mille Lacs Chippeways on Rum River, before sunrise. Not long after the war whoop was raised and the Sioux attacked, killing and wounding ninety.

The Kaposia band of Sioux pursued the Saint Croix Chippeways, and on the third of July found them in the Penitentiary ravine at Stillwater, under the influence of whisky. Aitkin, the old trader, was with them. The sight of the Sioux tended to make them sober, but in the fight twenty-one were killed and twenty-nine were wounded.

Whisky, during the year 1839, was freely in- troduced, in the face of the law prohibiting it. The first boat of the season, the Ariel, came to the fort on the fourteenth of April, and brought twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph R. Brown, and on the twenty-first of May, the Glaucus brought six barrels of liquor for David Faribault. On the thirtieth of June, some soldiers went to Joseph R. Brown's groggery on the opposite side of the Mississippi, and that night forty - seven were in the guard-house for drunkenness. The demoralization then existing, led to a letter by Surgeon Emerson on duty at the fort, to the Sur- geon General of the United States army, in which he writes :

"The whisky is brought here by citizens who are pouring in upon us and settling themselves on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river, in defiance of our worthy commanding officer, Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set at naught. At this moment there is a citizen named Brown, once a soldier in the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at this post, while Colonel Snelling commanded, and who has been since employed by the Ameri- can Fur Company, actually building on the land marked out by the land officers as the reserve, and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very expensive whisky shop."

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EXPLORERS AND PIONEERS OF MINNESOTA.

CHAPTER XVIII.

INDIAN' TRIBES IN MINNESOTA AT THE TIME OF ITS ORGANIZATION.

Blouz or Dahkotah people-Meaning of words Siouz and Dahkotah-Early villages -Residence of Sioux in 1849-The Winnebagoes-The Ojibways or Chippeways.

The three Indian nations who dwelt in this region after the organization of Minnesota, were the Sioux or Dahkotahs; the Ojibways or Chip- peways; and the Ho-tchun-graws or Winneba- goes.

SIOUX OR DAHKOTAHS.

They are an entirely different group from the Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the early settlers of the Atlantic States, on the banks of the Connecticut, Mohawk, and Susquehanna Rivers.

When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the European adventurers, large numbers were occu- pying the Mille Lacs region of country, and appro- priately called by the voyageur, "People of the Lake," "Gens du Lac." And tradition asserts that here was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though we have traces of their warring and hunting on the shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory evidence of their residence, east of the Mille Lacs region, as they have no name for Lake Superior.

The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be designated, signifies allied or joined together in friendly compact, and is equivalent to " E pluri- bus unum," the motto on the seal of the United States.

In the history of the mission at La Pointe, Wisconsin, published nearly two centuries ago, a a writer, referring to the Dalikotahs, remarks :

"For sixty leagues from the extremity of the Upper Lake, toward sunset; and, as it were in the centre of the western nations. they have all united their force by a general league."

The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and even until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux, or Soos. The name originated with the early voy- ageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of Lake Superior waged war against the Dahkotahs; and,

whenever they spoke of them, called them Nado- waysioux, which signifies enemies.

The French traders, to avoid exciting the atten- tion of Indians, while conversing in their pres- ence, were accustomed to designate them by names, which would not be recognized.

The Dahkotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word composed of the two last syllables of the Ojibway word for foes

Under the influence of the French traders, the eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mille Lacs region. A trading post at O-ton-we-kpa- dan, or Rice Creek, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, induced some to erect their summer dwellings and plant corn there, which took the place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan Those who dwell on the creek. Another division was known as the Ma-tan-ton-wan.

Less than a hundred years ago, it is said that the eastern Sioux, pressed by the Chippeways, and influenced by traders, moved seven miles above Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River.

MED-DAY-WAH-KAWN-TWAWNS.

In 1849 there were seven villages of Med-day- wah-kawn-twawn Sioux. (1) Below Lake Pepin, where the city of Winona is, was the village of Wapashaw. This band was called Kee-yu-ksa, because with them blood relations intermarried. Bounding or Whipping Wind was the chief. (2) At the head of Lake Pepin, under a lofty bluff, was the Red Wing village, called Ghay-mni-chan Hill, wood and water. Shooter was the name of the chief. (3) Opposite, and a little below the l'ig's Eye Marsh, was the Kaposia band. The word, Kapoja means light, given because these people are quick travelers. His Scarlet People, better known as Little Crow, was the chief, and is notorious as the leader in the massacre of 1862. On the Minnesota River, on the south side

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NOTICE OF THE HOTCHUNGRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES.

a few miles above Fort Snelling, was Black Dog village. The inhabitants were called, Ma-ga-yu- tay-shnee. People who do not a geese, be- cause they found it profitable to sell game at Fort Snelling. Grey Iron was the chief, also known as Pa-ma-ya-yaw, My head aches.

At Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, eight miles above the fort, was (5) Hay-ya-ta-o- ton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contigu- ous was (6) O-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People, Known as Good Roads Band and (7) the largest village was Tin-ta-ton-wan, Prairie Village ; Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the site of the town of Shakopee.

West of this division of the Sioux were-

WAR-PAY-KU-TAY.

The War-pay-ku-tay, or leaf shooters, who occupied the country south of the Minnesota around the sources of the Cannon and Blue Earth Rivers.

WAR-PAY-TWAWNS.

North and west of the last were the War-pay- twawns, or People of the Leaf, and their princi- pal village was Lac qui Parle. They numbered about fifteen hundred.

SE-SEE-TWAWNS.

To the west and southwest of these bands of Sioux were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land west of the Blue Earth to the James River, and the guardianship of the Sacred Red Pipestone Quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse, and the number of the band was estimated at thirty-eight hundred.

HO-TCHUN-GRAWS, OR WINNEBAGOES.

The Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, belong to the Dahkotah family of aborigines. Cham- plain, although he never visited them, mentions them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ, visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an early Relation mentions that he saw the Ouini- pegous, a people called so, because they came from a distant sea, which some French erron- eously called Puants. Another writer speak-

,ing of these people says: "This people are called ' Les Puants ' not because of any bad odor .peculiar to them, but because they claim to have come from the shores of a far distant lake, towards the north, whose waters are salt. They call themselves the people 'de l'eau puants,' of the putrid or bad water."

By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to Iowa, and by another treaty in October, 1846, they came to Minnesota in the spring of 1848, to the country between the Long Prairie, and Crow Wing Rivers. The agency was located on Long Prairie River, forty miles from the Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered about twenty-five hundred souls.

In February 1855, another treaty was made with them, and that spring they removed to lands on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Con. gress, by a special act, without consulting them, in 1863, removed them from their fields in Min- nesota to the Missouri River, and in the words of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above Fort Randall"

OJIBWAY OR CHIPPEWAY NATION.

The Ojibways or Leapers, when the French came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement at Sault St. Marie, and were called by the French Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan, Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters.

When Du Luth erected his trading post at the western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were constantly at war with their hereditary enemes, the Nadouaysioux. By the middle of the eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occu- pied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820 the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. Since then, other treaties have been made, until in the year 1881, they are confined to a few res- ervations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity.

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CHAPTER XIX.

EARLY MISSIONS AMONG THE OJIBWAYS AND DAHKOTAHS OF MINNESOTA.

Jesait Missions not permanent-Presbyterian Mission at Mackinaw-Visit of Rev. A. Cos and J D. Stevens to Fort Snelling-Notice of Ayers, Hall, and Boutwell -Formation of the word Itasce-The Brothers Pond-Arrival of Dr. William. son -Presbyterian Church at Fort Snelling-Mission at Lake Harriet-Mourn. ing for the Dead-Church at Lac-qui parle-Father Ravouz-Mission at Lake Pokegums-Attack by the Sioux-Chippeway attack at Pig's Eye -- Death of Rev. Sherman Hall-Methodist Missions Rev. S. W. Pond prepares a Sioux Grammar and Dictionary Swiss Presbyterian Mission.

Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, their missions to the Northwest; yet it is erroneous to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any perma- nent influence on the Aborigines.

Shea, a devoted member of the Roman Catho- lic Church, in his History of American Catholic Missions writes : " In 1680 Father Engalran was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect writers of the West at this time, make any mention, or in any way allude to their existence." He also says that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux mission ; Marquette, Allouez, Druilletes, all en- tertained hopes of realizing it, and had some intercourse with that nation, but none of them ever succeeded in establishing a mission."

Father Hennepin wrote: "Can it be possible, that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage converts could escape the sight of a multitude of French Canadians who travel every year ? * * How comes it to pass that these churches so devout and so numerous, should be invisible, when I passed through so many countries and nations ?"

After the American Fur Company was formed, the island of Mackinaw became the residence of the principal agent for the Northwest, Robert Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian.

In the month of June, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw, and in consequence of statements published by

him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary Society in the state of New York sent a graduate of Union College, the Rev. W. M. Ferry, father of the present United States Senator from Michi- gan, to explore the field. In 1823 he had estab- lished a large boarding school composed of children of various tribes, and here some were educated who became wives of men of intelli- gence and influence at the capital of Minnesota. After a few years, it was determined by the Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the place of a great central station, to send mission- aries among the several tribes to teach and to preach.

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History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 18

Author: J. Fletcher Williams Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: J. Fletcher Williams
Publication date: 1881
Publisher:
Number of Pages: