History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 34

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

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"OLD BETS."

One of the latest survivors of the Sioux, in Dakota county was "Old Bets." She was born near Mendota in 1788, and her Indian name was Aza-ya-man-ka-wan, or Berry Picker. Her son, Taopi, was somewhat noted as an Indian convert to Christianity, and Bets herself embraced that faith shortly before her death, which occurred at Mendota in 1873. She is especially worthy of mention for her kindness to the white prisoners during the Sioux war, and was widely known by tourists and almost universally by the early set- tlers of Dakota county.

Very few Indians of unmixed blood are at present living here; scarcely a dozen in the county. These are mostly the few quiet people who cultivate a little land on the bottoms below Hastings, and sell pipes and bead-work to the whites. They are regular attendants of the Episcopal church.

The principal man among them is Ma-pi-a-wa- con-sa, (IIe who Rules the Cloud,) or, as he is fa- miliarly known, "Indian John." The old man is able to communicate much that is interesting through an interpreter, and contributes many of the Indian names mentioned in these pages. He was born near Hudson, Wisconsin.

At the commencement of the Indian massacre, in 1862, he was employed as a farmer at the Red- wood agency, and saved the lives of several women and children. IIe secreted them in "holes" dug in the river bank, after the Indian cnstom, and bravely defended them when dis- covered. He was struck in the breast with the butt of a gun by a hostile Indian, and was often threatened with death for his attitude to- ward the whites. He persevered, however, and saved the lives of those who had sought his protection. He was employed by General Sibley as a scout, and did valuable service. He suffered in several fearful snow-storms, on the plains, and his exposure, while devoted to the cause of the whites, together with the effects of the blow he had received, has left him broken in constitu- tion. He has sometimes been aided by the citi-

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HISTORY OF DAKOTA COUNTY.

zens, and deserves a liberal pension at the hands of the government, as well as a just remembrance on the part of the people whom he befriended.

In addition to the little band of which "John" is the head, there is an encampment of seven tepees on the wood-crested bluff back of Men- dota. There are some thirty-five women and children in this camp, with possibly one or two men. The squaws state that the men are princi- pally away in Dakota. They are not located to stay like the Indians below Hastings, and live in a much more primitive and savage manner. They speak no English, profess no religion and own no land.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

EARLY EXPLORERS -- VOYAGEURS - INDIAN TRADERS-MISSIONARIES.

It is customary to cite the growth of the North- west as unparalleled in history and never to be equalled. But while this is done with great jus- tice, while it is true in a sense, that we have lived decades in years and centuries in decades. yet the periods from discovery to exploration, and from exploration to settlement, have been longer than is commonly supposed. It is in the period from first permanent settlement, to an advanced and ad- mirable state of civilization, that the rapid prog- ress has been made; that the soil has been trans- formed as with the wand of magic, that the rivers have been improved, and the forests shorn of their strength to build us cities.

DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION

progressed with slowness rather than rapidity, and the virgin country waited for the agencies of steam, and the era of great immigration from the old world. to accomplish its final conquest. When De Soto was laid at rest in the waters of the Miss- issippi, which he had discovered in 1541, the event was typical of the slumber, which should brood over the great river and remain unbroken by the white man, for more than a century. Even when Father James Marquette re-discovered it in 1673, and when Louis Hennepin in 1680, passed

up the stream on the eastern boundary of Dakota county, a captive, even then, another century must elapse, and still another be largely spent, before the real beginning of white civilization should be made. An account of this weary pe- riod, which, though long, is full of romantic in- terest, and during which events of the most vital importance were transpiring to the eastward, will be found in the preceeding pages on the early history of Minnesota. Nevertheless an allusion to such events in the period as relate more in- timately to localities, now embraced in the limits of this county, will not here be out of place.

Father Louis Hennepin. a Franciscan Priest. accompanied La Salle in his exploration of the great lakes, the Upper Mississippi and its tributa- ries. From his post in Illinois, La Salle, despatch- ed Hennepin and one or two companions to explore the Upper Mississippi themselves, and to trade with the Indians. This party, with Hennepin as its head, were captured by the savages near Lake Pepin, and brought up the Mississippi as prison- ers to the vicinity of St. Paul. There they were taken by land to Mille Lac, and in September, Hennepin descended the river and discovered the Falls of St. Anthony.

Thus Hennepin and those with him, were the first white men to behold Dakota county. This must have been on the 29th day of April, 1680, as they arrived near the site of St. Paul on the 30th of that month. As an illustration of the eager- ness with which information of this new country was received abroad at that time, it is stated that there were twenty-three different editions of Hen- nepin's narrative, published on his return to Europe, and that these were in several different languages.

The Mississippi now became the great avenue of exploration, and nearly all, both earlier and later explorers, passed up the two streams which form the northeastern and northwestern bounda- ries of this county.

Baron La Hontan, in 1688, discovered a river, tributary to the Mississippi, which he says he entered from the latter, on the twenty-third of November, and ascended it for more than five hundred miles. He named it Riviere Lugue.

Was it the Cannon river? Was it the Minne- sota? or would it be an impossibility to navigate those streams at the time of year he mentions?

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EARLY EXPLORERS.

Nicollet believed that La Hontan was the dis- coverer of the Cannon, but the conjecture is not to be reduced to certainty. It is quite certain that La Hontan visited some part of what is now Dakota county.

Sieur Du Luth, also, five years previously, had passed down the Mississippi, from the Falls of St. Anthony; and Le Sueur, in 1695, had built a fort and trading-house on Isle Pelee (without trees,) or Mud-Hen Isle, midway between Lake Pepin and the mouth of the St. Croix river. Here the French remained during the winters, until, in the springtime, the Indian hunters from this county, and elsewhere, had brought in their coveted merchandise.

Again Le Sueur, in 1700, by order of the French commander, Iberville, ascended the Mississippi in a felucca, with some twenty men, and came opposite to the site of Hastings, September six- teenth. He also ascended the Minnesota "which he probably named the St. Pierre (St. Peters), from a Canadian captain."

The Sioux wished him to build a fort and post near Mendota, but for reasons given elsewhere their request was not complied with.

The Connecticut Yankee, Jonathan Carver, visited this region in 1767. It is certain that be was fond of adventure, and anticipated glory, but he was neither a missionary nor a voyageur. He had several geographical questions running in his mind, and confessed a desire to accomplish their settlement; still his tendencies were mainly in the direction of "business."

He speaks of "disclosing new sources of trade," of the "repayment of every expense of the es- tablishment of a settlement;" also of the "com- pletion of schemes" and the "reaping of emolu- ments, beyond the most sanguine expectations." Carver went up the Minnesota river, and wintered among the Sioux. On his return to its mouth in the spring, he states that three hundred Indians accompanied him, among whom were many chiefs.

A history of ('arver and his purported "grant" is given elsewhere. Ile is worthy of mention here simply as a visitant to this locality, and as marking the far-away commencement of "land speculation," and the beginning of a deeper "business interest" in the section of country of which Dakota county is a part.

. In 1805 the United States government began to be much interested in the new territory which it had lately acquired from Napoleon the Great, and Lieutenant, afterwards General, Z. M. Pike was accordingly dispatched to visit the Indian tribes of the Upper Mississippi, to look after the trading interests, and to make such explorations as were deemed expedient.

He speaks of the slaughter of ten Sioux by Saulteurs (Ojibways), at the mouth of the St. Peters. Under date of Saturday, September 21st, 1805, he writes as follows: "Embarked at a reason- able hour, breakfasted at the Sioux Village, (Ka- posia), on the east side. It consists of eleven lodges, and is situated at the head of an island just below a ledge of rocks. The village was evacuated at this time, all the Indians having gone out to the lands to gather fols avoin (wild rice.) About two miles above, saw three bears swimming over the river, but at too great a dis- tance for us to have killed them; they made shore before I could come up with them. Passing a camp of Sioux, of lodges, in which I saw only one man, whose name was Black Soldier. The garrulity of the women astonished me, for at the other camps, they never opened their lips, but here they flocked round us, with all their tongues going at the same time; the cause of this freedom must have been the absence of their lords and mas- ters. Passed the encampment of Mr. Ferrebault, who had broken his peroque, and had encamped on the west side of the river about three miles be- low St. Peters. We made our encampment in the north-east point of the big island opposite St. Peters. (Since called Pike Island.) * * *

" I observed a white flag on shore to-day. and on landing, discovered it to be white silk; it was sus- pended over a scaffold, on which was laid four dead bodies, two enclosed in boards and two in bark. They were wrapped up in blankets, which appeared to be quite new. They were the bodies, I was informed, of two Sioux women, (who had lived with two Frenchmen), one of their children, and some other relative; two of whom had died at St. Peters and two at St. Croix, but were brought here to be deposited upon this scaffold to- gether. This is the manner of the Sioux burial, when persons die a natural death, but when they are killed, they suffer them to lie unburied.".

September 22d, Sunday. about three

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o'clock, Mr. Frazer arrived with his peroques, and in three hours after, the Petit Corbeau at the head of his band arrived with one hundred and fifty warriors. They ascended the hill in the point be- tween the Mississippi and St. Peters, and gave us a salute, a lo mode saurage, with balls; after which we settled the affairs for the council the next day, * * The Sioux had marched * on a war excursion, but bearing (by express ) of my arrival, they returned by land. We were treated very hospitably and hallooed after to go into every lodge to eat. Returned to our camp about eleven o'clock and found the Sioux and my men peaceably encamped. September 23d, Mon- day. "Prepared for the council (on Pike Island), which we commenced about twelve o'clock. I had a bower or shade made of my sails, on the beach, into which only my gentlemen (the hunt- ers) and the chiefs entered. I then addressed them in a speech, which, though long and touch- ing on many points, had for its principal object the obtaining of a grant of land at this, and at St Croix, amd the making peace between them and the Chippewas. I was replied to by Fils de Penichon (Son of Penichon), Le Petit Corbeau (Little Crow) and L'Orignal Leve (Rising Moose.) They gave me the land required,about one hundred thousand acres (equal to $200,000 in value,) and promised me a safe passport for myself and the chiefs, I might bring down; but spoke doubtfully with respect to the peace. I gave them presents to the amount of about $200, and as soon as the council was over, I allowed the traders to present them with some liquor, which, with what I gave, was equal to sixty gallons. In half an hour they were all embarked for their respective villages."

The treaty was signed by Little Crow and the son of Penichon, or Wah-yah-gah-nalı-zheen,"The trees standing up." It granted to the United States, for the purpose of establishing a military post, the tract of land from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters, up the Missis- sippi, extending nine miles on each side of the river. The United States senate, inserted $2,000 as the consideration for this grant.

The line of this "original reservation," included a tract of land in what is now Dakota county, about the width of a section, lying on the south- ern side of the Minnesota river, and extending

entirely across what are now Mendota and Eagan townships.

Surely in reading Pike's narrative of his kindly treatment by the Indians and the narratives of the other explorers also, it seems scarcely credi- ble, that long afterwards, there could have been an Indian massacre of the whites. That unfor- tunate and terrible occurrence, however it may disclose the brutality and treachery of the sav- age, is not at best a favorable comment, on the character and conduct of many whites.

Pike was succeeded in 1823, by Major Stephen H. Long, another government explorer. He thus speaks of the village at Kaposia. "One of their cabins is furnished with loopholes, and is situated so near the water, that the opposite side of the river is within musket-shot range from the build- ing. By this means the Petit Corbeau is enabled to exercise a command over the passage of the river, and has in some instances compelled tra- ders to land with their goods, and induce them, probably through fear of offending him, to be- stow presents to a considerable amount, before he would suffer them to pass. The cabins are a kind of stockade buildings, and of a better ap- pearance than any Indian dwellings I have before met with."

In 1832 Mr. Schoolcraft conducted a United States exploring expedition to Itasca lake. His companion, Rev. W. T. Boutwell, made observa- tions in his journal much like the preceding.

Featherstonhaugh, a dyspeptic Englishman, but under the direction of our government. vis- ited Minnesota in 1835. He was accompanied by Professor Maltier, and together they made known / Fri many new facts as to the geology of the Minnesota valley. Featherstonhaugh's narrative of expe- riences at the site of Hastings, where he en- camped, is given elsewhere.

These explorers contributed much information with regard to the state. its natural advantages and characteristics, and the manners, customs and strength of its Indian population. Several of them published accounts of their adventures abroad, and wherever they did so it appears that their works were received with no little avidity. Yet it was nearly a hundred and seventy-five years from the commencement of their work be fore the face of the country which they visited was very materially changed.

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INDIAN TRADERS.

VOYAGEURS.

The religious element in man's nature has great strength. A religious purpose has actuated many discoveries, explorations and settlements. It was a priest who, first among white men, cast his eyes upon the soil now embraced in Dakota county. But preceding the priest and the missionary, in other parts of the state, was the voyageur, the boatman, the trader.

These French nomads were early in their vis- itations here, as well, and their impulses were mainly a love of adventure and gain. They were of all classes, from the noble who might direct an expedition, to the plebeian who should serve as a menial.

They mingled freely with the Indian tribes, and often became much attached to their manner of living. Separated from the restraints of civ- ilized life, and breathing in the unbounded free- dom of the forest and prairies, they set few bounds to their desires, and acknowledged few high obligations. They contracted alliances with the Indian maidens. oftentimes regardless of pre- vious alliances made at home.

Their half-breed progeny, belonging neither to the one race nor the other, were disliked by both, and were often the cause of considerable strife between them. On the other hand, these mixed bloods were of great use as interpreters and "couriers des bois," and sometimes, as in the case of Joseph Renville, acquired great influence with the tribes.

There have been many of them about Men- dota and Kaposia, and some still linger in the county, of respectable character and high de- scent. It was not always the case, either, that the Indian wives of the voyageurs and traders were discarded. In the early days of the fur trade, they were scarcely regarded as wives at all, but the later traders were not infrequently mar- ried to them, according to law, and continued with them during life. Joseph Renville, alluded to was born at Kaposia, in 1779, being the son of a French trader and a Dakota woman. He served the early traders in the state and "followed the trails from Mendota to the Missouri." He is said to have had much business tact, and to have been a worthy man. In later life, he engaged largely in the fur trade for himself.

Lieutenant Pike wrote highly of him from

Mendota in 1805. This allusion to Renville suf- fices to show that

INDIAN TRADERS

visited this county at Mendota and the vicinity at a very early day. Neill relates a tradition, that even before Renville's birth, there was an English trading post at Mendota, and gives the Indian name of the trader as Pagonta, or Mallard Duck. A quarrel arose between him and a Dakota, named Ixkatape (Toy), and one day as the unsuspecting Englishman sat quietly smoking his Indian pipe, in his rude hut at Men- dota, Ixkatape shot and killed him.

Mr. Mallard proved a dear duck for the Da- kotas to have removed, since he had furnished them many articles which their later contact with the whites had made necessities.

They suffered much during the winter and re- solved in the spring to journey to Canada with the murderer and implore forgiveness at the feet of the English Fathers. Accordingly, one bun- dred of their best men and women left Mendota in canoes and paddled through the various streams to Green Bay. Here all of the party save six, deserted the expedition and returned home with the prisoner. These six, with Wapa- shaw, grand-father of the latest chief of that name, at their head, pushed on, weary and toil- worn, but not disheartened to Quebec. Wapa- shaw offering himself as a propitiation for the guilt of the murderer plead with noble eloquence for the relief of his suffering people.

The English, however. inflicted no further punishment than a few blows from the pipe, which Pagonta was smoking, when killed, and they further created Wapashaw, the first "civil" chief, presenting him with a medal.

He brought back six other medals, also one for each bravest man, in the six other divisions of the Sioux. He is accredited with re-opening the channels of trade, and is said to have died, an object of envy.

It is worthy of remark in this connection, that the Sioux of this region, including the Kaposia band, both sympathised with the British, during the war of 1812. and under direction of the tra- ders, Dickson and Renville, were present, as British allies, at the siege of Fort Meigs.

The earliest date, which can be fixed upon with

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certainty, as marking the location of a trader in Dakota county, is 1812. In that year, a Mr. Aitkin came across the country from Lake Su- perior with Little Crow's grand-father. and joined Mr. James Aird, established at Mendota. He said that the post had the appearance, at that time of having been occupied thirty or forty years.

Duncan Campbell, is also reported as having a trading house at Mendota in 1820. In 1826, be was located at the Falls of St. Croix.

Jean Baptiste Faribault located at Mendota, as Indian trader in 1826. In 1820 he had estab- lished a post on Pike's island, which is not now included in Dakota county. A more extended notice of Mr. Faribault will be given as the chap- ter advances.

D. Lamont is also mentioned as a licensed trader, in 1826, "at the mouth of the Minnesota." About this time, also, Alexis Bailly bought out Mendota for the American Fur Company, and made it the depot of trade for the Minnesota be- low Traverse des Sioux.

It should be stated that Mr. Faribault, while having built a house at Mendota, which his fam- ily occupied the year round, passed the winters himself at Little Rapids (Carver), where his actual trading-post was established.

Alexis Bailly continued in charge at Mendota for the American Fur Company until 1834.

There was difficulty, now and then, with all the early traders on the subject of the minne wakon, or whisky, which they sometimes furnished the Indians contrary to law. To obviate some of these difficulties, the American Fur Company sent out Henry HI. Sibley, in 1834, to superin- tend their interests from Laic Pepin to the Can- ada line. General Sibley continued a resident of Mendota for twenty-eight years, and has been honored by the citizens of the state and of Da- kota county with their highest trusts, gratitude and esteem.

Joseph R. Brown, also famous in the annals of the state, had a trading-post at Oliver's Grove, now Hastings, in 1834. He is further reported to have occupied it again in 1839- 40.

In 1834 Alexander Faribault, son of Jean Bap- tiste, had a trading-post on the Cannon river.

In 1850-'51 the Baillys, Alexis and Henry G., maintained a post at ITastings, or, as it was then

called, Olive Grove. They built a new trading- house of logs. the one formerly occupied by Brown having decayed or been destroyed.

These traders, who located within the limits of Dakota county, were a remarkably fine class of men. There were degrees of superiority among them, both as related to morality and intelligence; but as a class they must ever command admira- tion and respect. They were not only identified with the period, which has been called so aptly "the heroic age of American commerce," but they have been "first settlers," founders of town sites, and pioneers in all the good and early works, since these were first inaugurated.

The profits the earlier trade with the Indians were simply enormous. Penicaut states in his relation of Le Sueur's voyage and explorations in 1700: "We sell in return wares which come very dear to the buyers, especially tobacco from Bra- zil, in the proportion of a hundred crowns ($500) the pound; two little horn-handled knives, or four leaden bullets are equal to ten crowns ($50), in ex- change for their merchandises of skins, and so on with the rest."

So late as 1836, it appears that "sixty rat skins, valued at $12.00, were received for a yard and a half of scarlet cloth costing only $3.00 in Saint Louis." With this profit of $9.00, on a yard and a half of cloth, it would seem that the Indian trader could be satisfied. As this was neither an unusual nor extraordinary gain, it would seem further that those traders ought to have amassed colossal fortunes. But, in truth, most of them. including those who had posts in this county, died poor. They were rich at times, but were either victimized by shrewder men who came upon the scene at a later day, or else were careless and unbusiness-like in the preservation of their wealth. Even their descendants. in many in- stances, continue at the present writing as "hewers of wood and drawers of water."

MISSIONARIES.

In the annals of unselfishness, missionary achievements must ever stand conspicuous. The experiences of the Jesuits can never be, in full, recorded, since they sometimes, as in the case of Father Menard, became too early the victims of either exposure or the tomahawk. The later missionaries, as well, endured many hardships

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MISSIONARIES.

and suffered all things willingly "for the greater glory of God."

The first missionaries to settle permanently in this region were two brothers, S. W. and Gideon H. Pond. They came from Connecticut in 1834, and settled at Lake Calhoun, and consequently outside this county. Their enterprise was wholly private, planned and executed by themselves.

In 1837 Rev. Alfred Brunson and Rev. David King, of the Methodist Episcopal church, estab- lished missions among the Sioux at Kaposia and St. Peters. "Elder" Brunson built the first house at Kaposia, for mission and school purposes. John Holton, afterwards Indian farmer, occupied it for a time, and he was succeeded by Rev. David King, from Ohio, who taught school there until appointed Indian farmer in 1840-'41.

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History of Dakota County and the City of Hastings, Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 34

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

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