USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Minnesota (Volume 1) > Part 4
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"I regret my inability to give you anything more definite in regard to this matter. Will A. Powell has no knowledge of the papers mentioned. I had no thought the matter would ever be wanted, so neglected to peruse the story with anything but curi- osity. I have also forgotten some. My recollection is, though vague, that in his boyhood (Winneshiek's) the then ancient men of his tribe were very familiar with the story, or had participated in the event. He told me of this in 1880. He was apparently then over one hundred years of age. His face was the oldest piece of human parchment in the tribe. I am sure he told me the Chippewas were the people who had driven them. Without know- ing positively I retain an impression from Winneshiek that the Lanesboro battle was not much less than two hundred years nor very much more than that length of time. But please remem- ber that this is but a vague impression."
According to the Chatfield Democrat, mounds situated seven miles southwest from Chatfield, on Jordan creek, one mile west of the middle branch of Root river, were examined by Dr. M. A. Trow, accompanied by William Carson and J. M. Underleak. They uncovered six skeletons, but the bones were much decayed, but were thought to have indicated men of enormous size. In some of the mounds, and in the immediate vicinity were found
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flint arrow heads and pieces of pottery. These mounds numbered fifteen to twenty and were on the farm of Elijah McGrew.
Pilot Mound Group. On section twenty-two in Pilot Mound there are about a dozen mounds from two to three feet high, and from fifteen to eighteen feet in diameter and circular in their outline. On one of these mounds was found growing by the first settlers a very large maple tree, that must have been very old. James Keatch dug into this mound and found human bones in such quantities as to indicate that a large number had been buried there, and all of these bones appear to have been broken. A copper instrument was also unearthed, one and one-half inches wide, a half-inch thick, and six inches long; also a stone pipe-bowl.
Modern Indian Cemetery. When the valley was first settled a burial place was found near Sprague's old mill. It had been used up to the time that the Indians left, on the advent of the white settlers. There were as many as one hundred graves there. and they were made by laying the cadaver on the ground and heaping earth upon it.
Indian Cornfield. The Indians were acquainted with the value of the lands in the valleys for raising corn, and there was a cornfield near the house of G. W. White in South Rushford; the hills were about the same distance apart as now usually planted, not in rows, but in a hap-hazard sort of a way. The squaws did the planting and harvesting, and to them we are indebted for preserving the seed of this cereal, which the world does not even yet appreciate at its true value.
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CHAPTER III. INDIAN TREATIES.
Successive Relinquishments by Which Fillmore County Came Into the Possession of the United States-First Visit to Washington -Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1825-Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1830- Corner of Fillmore Ceded as a Part of the Half- Breed Tract-Winnebago Treaty of 1832-Winnebagoes Given Possession of the Southeast Corner of Fillmore County-Later Relinquish Their Claim-Doty Treaty-Treaty of Traverse des Sioux-Treaty of Mendota-Fillmore County Passes from the Possession of the Indians.
From prehistoric days up to the time of the treaty signed at Mendota, August 5, 1851, ratified and amended by the United States senate, June 23, 1852, accepted with amendments by the Indians, September 4 and 6, 1852, and proclaimed by President Fillmore, February 24, 1853, practically all the territory embraced in Fillmore county remained in the undisputed possession of the Indians, being claimed, at least since the coming of the explorers, as a hunting ground by the Sioux Indians, but also being visited by other redmen. Before this treaty, however, several agree- ments were made between the Indians of this vicinity and the United States government, regarding mutual relations and the ceding of lands.
Visit to Washington. In the spring of 1824 the first delega- tion of Sioux Indians went to Washington to see their "Great Father," the president. A delegation of Chippewas accompanied, and both were in charge of Major Taliaferro. Wabasha, then properly called Wa-pa-ha-sha, the head chief of the band at Winona; and Little Crow, head of the Kaposia band; and Wah- natah, were the principal members of the Sioux delegation. The object of the visit was to secure a convocation of all of the upper Mississippi Indians at Prairie du Chien to define the boundary line of the lands claimed by the separate tribes and to establish general and permanently friendly relations among them. The party went in keel boats from Fort Snelling to Prairie du Chien, and form there to Pittsburgh by steamboat, thence to Washington and other eastern cities by land.
Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1825. This treaty was important
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to the Indians who ranged over what is now Fillmore county, in that it purported to fix certain boundaries. The treaty was par- ticipated in by the Chippewa, Sauk (Sac) and Fox; Menominee, Iowa, Sioux, Winnebago; and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi tribes living on the Illinois. The line between the Sioux and the confederated Sauks and Foxes extended across a part of northern Iowa. It was declared in the treaty to run up the Upper Iowa (now the Oneota) river to its left fork, and up that fork to its source; thence crossing the Cedar river to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines, and in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet (Big Sioux) river, and down that river to the Missouri river.
N. HI. Winchell says: "This may be understood to mean : Up the Oneota river to the vicinity of Taopi in Mower county, crossing the Cedar river a little south of Austin, and thence west- ward to Beaver creek in Murray county, near Currie, and thence westward to the Big Sioux and down that river to the Missouri.
However, Charles C. Royce, in the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (following the map which is numbered 112, in the Office of Indian Affairs at Washington, based on the survey by James Craig, completed in 1833), draws this line as follows: Up the Oneota river to Decorah, Iowa, thence south about seven miles, and thence southwestwardly through the villages of New Hampton and Clarion, and crossing the Des Moines at about the present location of Dakotah.
The boundary lines were certainly, in many respects, quite indefinite, and whether this was the trouble or not, in any event, it was but a few months after the treaty when it was evident that none of the signers were willing to be governed by the lines estab- lished-and hardly by any others. The first article of the treaty provided : "There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between the Sioux and the Chippewas; between the Sioux and the con- federated tribes of Sacs and Foxes; and between the 'Ioways' and the Sioux." But this provision was more honored in the breach than the observance, and in a little time the tribes named were flying at one another's throats and engaged in their old- time hostilities.
Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien. In 1830 the second treaty with the northwest Indian tribes was signed at Prairie du Chien. A few weeks previous to the convocation, which was begun July 15, a party of Wabasha's band of Sioux, and some Menominees, ambushed a party of Fox Indians some twelve or fifteen miles below Prairie du Chien and killed eight of them, including a sub- chief called the Kettle.
The Foxes had their village near Dubuque, and were on their way to Prairie du Chien to visit the Indian agent, whom they
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had apprised of their coming. They were in canoes on the Mis- sissippi, and as they reached the lower end of Prairie du Pier- reaux, they paddled up a narrow channel which ran near the eastern shore. At this point their concealed enemies opened fire. The Foxes returned to their village, bearing their dead, while the Sioux and Menominees went home and danced over their vic- tory. A few weeks provious the Foxes had killed some of Wabasha's band on the Red Cedar river in Iowa, a few miles southwest of Fillmore county, and the Sioux claimed that their part in the Prairie du Pierreaux was taken in retaliation for the Red Cedar affair. In June of the following year, a large number of Menominees were camped on an island in the Mississippi, less than half a mile from Fort Crawford and Prairie du Chien. One night they were all intoxicated-men, women and children- when two hours before daylight the Dubuque Foxes took dread- ful reprisal for the killing of their brethren at Prairie du Pier- reaux. Though but a small band, they crept into the Menominee encampment, fell upon the inmates, and in a few minutes put numbers of them to the gun, tomahawk and the scalping knife. Thirty Menominees were killed. When the entire Menominee band had been aroused, the Foxes, without having lost a man, retired, calling out in great exultation that the cowardly killing of their comrades at Prairie du Pierreaux had been avenged.
Because of the Prairie du Pierreaux affair, the Foxes at first refused to be present at the second treaty of Prairie du Chien, but finally came. Delegates were present from four bands of the Sioux, the Medawakantons, the Wapakootas, the Wahpatons and the Sissetons; and also from the Sacs (Sauks), the Foxes and Iowas, and even from the Omahas, Otoes and Missouris, the homes of the last three tribes being on the Missouri river. At this treaty the Indian tribes represented ceded all of the claims to the land in western Iowa, northwestern Missouri, and especially the coun- try of the Des Moines river valley. The lower bands had a special article inserted in the treaty for the benefit of their half-blood relatives :
"The Sioux bands in council have earnestly solicited that they might have permission to bestow upon the half-breeds of their nation the tract of land within the following limits, to-wit : Beginning at a place called the Barn, below and near the village of the Red Wing chief, and running back fifteen miles; thence, in a parallel line, with Lake Pepin and the Mississippi river about thirty-two miles, to a point opposite Beef, or O'Boeuf, river, thence fifteen miles to the Grand Encampment, opposite the river aforesaid, the United States agree to suffer said half-breeds to occupy said tract of country, they holding the same title, and in the same manner that other Indian titles are held."
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Certificates or "scrip" were issued to many half-breeds, and there was much speculation in them and litigation over them in subsequent years.
The Sioux also ceded to the United States a tract of land twenty miles wide, from the Mississippi to the Des Moines, north of the line defined in the Treaty of 1825 as the boundary between the Sioux on the north and the Sacs and the Foxes on the south. The Sacs and the Foxes also ceded a strip twenty miles wide south of this line, thus making a strip of land forty miles wide, which for many years was known as the Neutral Strip.
The northern boundary of this neutral strip, according to the survey by James Craig, completed in 1833, entered Fillmore county between sections 1 and 12, Preble township, crossed that township, then crossed a part of Amherst, Canton and Harmony townships, and left the county on the southern line of section 36 in Bristol township. The part of the county south of that line was in the Neutral Strip and the rest of the county in Sioux territory.
Treaty of Ft. Armstrong, Rock Island, 1832. This treaty was entered into between the United States and the Winnebago nation, by which the Winnebagoes gave up certain lands in Wis- cosin, and in return received a grant to the eastern part of the Neutral Strip bounded on the west by the east fork of the Cedar river to its mouth, and for a short distance by the Cedar river itself. A part of this strip, as already stated, lay in the southeast corner of what is now Fillmore county. By a treaty signed at Washington in 1837, the Winnebagoes agreed to move, within eight months after November 1, 1837, to the portion of the Neutral Strip that had been granted to them. They further agreed that the most eastern twenty miles of this strip along the Mississippi would be used by them only as a hunting ground and not for the establishment of permanent residences. By a treaty signed at Washington October 13, 1846, the Winnebagoes relinquished all claim to the Neutral Strip, and were granted lands near the Minnesota river.
The Doty Treaty. The Doty treaty, made at Traverse des Sioux (St. Peter), in July, 1841, failed to be ratified by the United States senate. This treaty embodied a Utopian dream that a ter- ritory of Indians could be established, in which the redmen would reside on farms and in villages, living their lives after the style of the whites, having a constitutional form of government, with a legislature of their own people elected by themselves, the gov- ernor to be appointed by the president of the United States, much along the plan long followed with the Cherokees in what is now Oklahoma, except that it embodied for the Indians a much higher type of citizenship than was found in Oklahoma. The
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Indians were to be taught the arts of peace, to be paid annuities, and to be protected by the armies of the United States from their Indian enemies on the west. In return for these benefits to be conferred upon the Indians, the United States was to receive all the lands in what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas and north- western Iowa. This ceded land was not to be opened to the set- tlement of the whites, and the plan was to have some of it reserved for Indian tribes from other parts of the country who should sell their lands to the United States, and who, in being moved here, were to enjoy all the privileges which had been so beautifully planned for the native Indians. But no one can tell what would have been the result of this experiment, for the senate, for political reasons, refused to ratify the treaty, and it failed of going into effect. This treaty was signed by the Sisseton, Wahpaton and Wahpakoota bands at Traverse des Sioux, July 31, 1841, and by the Medwakanton bands at Mendota, August 11 of the same year.
Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. In the spring of 1851 Presi- dent Fillmore appointed Governor Alexander Ramsey and Luke Lea as commissioners to open negotiations with the Indians for the purpose of opening to settlement what is now the greater part of Minnesota. The conference was held at Traverse des Sioux (now St. Peter), between the chiefs and head men of the Sisseton and Wahpaton, or Upper Bands, as they were called, and the two commissioners. The Indians were accompanied by their families, and many prominent pioneers were also present. The meeting was held under a brush arbor erected by Alexis Bailly, and one of the incidents of the proceedings was the mar- riage of two mixed blood people, David Faribault and Nancy Winona McClure, the former the son of Jean Baptist Faribault, and the latter the daughter of Lieut. James McClure. The treaty was signed July 22, 1851, and provided that the upper bands should cede to the United States all their land in Iowa as well as their lands east of a line from the Red River to Lake Traverse and thence to the northwestern corner of Iowa.
Treaty of Mendota. From July 29, 1851, to August 5, Men- dota was the scene of the conference which opened Fillmore and surrounding counties to white settlement. The chiefs and head men of the lower bands were thoroughly familiar with the proceedings of the Indians and the representatives of the United States at Traverse des Sioux and all were on hand that bright August day, waiting for the negotiations to open at Mendota. The first session was held in the warehouse of the Fur Company at that place, but the Indians found the atmosphere stifling, and not in accord with their usual method of outdoor councils, so the consideration of the treaty was taken up under a large brush
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arbor, erected by Alexis Bailly, on an elevated plain near the high prominence known as Pilot Knob. Dr. Thomas Foster was secre- tary for Commissioners Lea and Ramsey; the interpreters were Alexander Faribault, Philander Prescott and Rev. G. H. Pond; the white witnesses were David Olmsted, W. C. IIenderson, Alexis Bailly, Richard Chute, Henry Jackson, A. L. Carpenter, W. H. Randall, A. S. H. White, H. L. Dousman, Fred C. Sibley, Martin McLeod, George N. Faribault and Joseph A. Wheelock. After much deliberation and many disagreements, the treaty was signed August 5, 1851. Little Crow was the first signer. To the treaty Little Crow signed his original name, Tah O-ya-te Doota, meaning His Red Nation. Wabasha was the next to sign, making his mark. Then the other chiefs, head soldiers and principal warriors crowded around to affix their marks. In all, there were sixty- five Indian signatures.
At Mendota, as at Traverse des Sioux, when the treaty was concluded, each Indian signer stepped to another table where lay another paper which he signed. This was called the traders' paper, and was an agreement to pay the "just debts," so called, of the Indians, including those present and absent, alive and dead, owing to the traders and the trading company. Some of the accounts were nearly thirty years old, and the Indians who had contracted them were dead, but the bands willingly assumed the indebtedness and agreed that it might be discharged out of the first money paid them. The territory ceded by the two treaties was declared to be: "All their lands in the state of Iowa, and also all their lands in the territory of Minnesota lying east of the following line, to-wit: Beginning at the junction of Buffalo river with the Red River of the North (about twelve miles north of Morehead, at Georgetown station, in Clay county), thence along the western bank of said Red River of the North, to the mouth of the Sioux Wood river; thence along the western bank of said Sioux Wood river to Lake Traverse; thence along the western shore of said lake to the southern extremity thereof; thence, in a direct line, to the juncture of Kampeska lake with the Tehan-Ka-Sna-Duka, or Sioux river; thence along the west- ern bank of said river to its point of intersection with the north- ern line of the state of Iowa, including all islands in said rivers and lakes."
The lower bands were to receive $1,410,000, to be paid in the manner and form following: For settling debts and removing themselves to the new reservations, $220,000, one-half to the Meda- wakanton bands, and one-half to the single Wahpakoota band; for schools, mills and opening farms, $30,000. Of the principal of $1,410,000, the sum of $30,000 in cash was to be distributed among the two bands as soon as the treaty was ratified, and $28,000
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was to be expended annually, under the president's direction, as follows: To a civilization fund, $12,000; to an educational fund, $6,000; for goods and provisions, $10,000. The balance of the principal, or $1,160,000, was to remain in trust with the United States at 5 per cent interest, to be paid annually to the Indians for fifty years, commencing July 1, 1852. The $58,000 annuity interest was to be expended as the first installment-$30,000 in cash, $12,000 for civilization, $6,000 for education, and $10,000 for goods and provisions. The back annuities under the treaty of 1837 remaining unexpired were also to be paid annually. Their reservation was to extend from the mouth of the Yellow Medicine and Hawk creek southeasterly to the mouth of Rock creek, a tract twenty miles wide and about forty-five miles in length. The half-breeds of the Sioux were to receive in cash $150,000 in lieu of lands allowed them under the Prairie du Chien treaty of 1830, but which they had failed to claim.
The written copies of the Traverse des Sioux and the Mendota treaties, duly signed and attested, were forwarded to Washington to be acted upon by the senate at the ensuing session of congress. An unreasonably long delay resulted. Final action was not had until the following summer, when, on July 23, the senate ratified both treaties with important amendments. The provisions for res- ervations for both the upper and lower bands were stricken out, and substitutes adopted, agreeing to pay 10 cents an acre for both reservations, and authorizing the president, with the assent of the Indians, to cause to be set apart other reservations, which were to be within the limits of the original great cession. The provision to pay $150,000 to the half-bloods of the lower bands was also stricken out. The treaties, with the changes, came back to the Indians for final ratification and agreement to the altera- tions. The chiefs of the lower bands at first objected very stren- uously, but finally, on Saturday, September 4, 1852, at Governor Ramsey's residence in St. Paul they signed the amended articles, and the following Monday the chiefs and head men of the upper bands affixed their marks. As amended, the treaties were pro- claimed by President Fillmore, February 24, 1853. The Indians were allowed to remain in their old villages, or, if they preferred, to occupy their reservations as originally designated, until the president selected their new homes. That selection was never made, and the original reservations were finally allowed them. The removal of the lower Indians to their designated reservation began in 1853, but was intermittent, interrupted, and extended over a period of several years. The Indians went up in detach- ments, as they felt inclined. After living on the reservation for a time, some of them returned to their old hunting grounds, where they lived continuously for some time, visiting their reser-
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vation and agency only at the time of the payment of their annuities. Finally, by the offer of cabins to live in, or other sub- stantial inducements, nearly all of them were induced to settle on the Redwood Reserve, so that in 1862, at the time of the out- break, less than twenty families of the Medawakantons and Wah- pakootas were living off their reservation. With the subsequent history of these Indians this volume will not deal in detail; the purpose of treating with the Indians thus far in this chapter having been to show the various negotiations by which Fillmore county and the surrounding territory came into the possession of the whites and was thus opened for settlement and development.
It should be stated in this connection that the Medawakanton Sioux, generally speaking, had their villages along the west banks of the Mississippi, within the present limits of the state of Minne- sota, while the Wahpakoota Sioux had their headquarters around the headwaters of the Blue Earth and Cannon rivers, both within easy marching distance of their hunting grounds in Fillmore county.
Summary. The territory that is now Fillmore county may, generally speaking, be said to have remained in the possession of the Sioux from some time before the days of the early explorers until the proclamation of the treaty of Mendota, Feb- ruary 24, 1853. It was practically under the domain of Wabasha's band of the Medewakanton Sioux, but was visited at various times by the Chippewas and the Winnebagoes from the eastern side of the Minnesota river, by the Sacs and Foxes who lived to the southward, and by the Iowas who lived to the westward.
The southeast corner of Fillmore county was ceded to the United States by the Sioux, in 1830, and became a part of the Neutral Strip. As a part of the eastern portion of the Neutral Strip, the southeast corner of the county was ceded to the Win- nebagoes in 1832, and they agreed to move thereon. The Win- nebagoes relinquished their rights in 1846. They were moved onto this strip in 1840, and moved away in 1848. The land was opened to settlement in 1849.
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CHARLES B. WILLFORD
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CHAPTER IV.
GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY.
Early Claims of Title-Spain, France and England-Treaties and Agreements-Louisiana Purchase-Indiana-Louisiana District-Louisiana Territory-Missouri Territory-North- west Territory-Illinois Territory-Michigan Territory-Wis- consin Territory-Iowa Territory-No Man's Land-Sibley in Congress-Minnesota Territory-Minnesota State.
The history of the early government of what is now southern Minnesota is formulated with some difficulty, as, prior to the nineteenth century, the interior of the country was so little known and the maps upon which claims and grants were founded were so meager, as well as incorrect and unreliable that descriptions of boundaries and locations as given in the early treaties are vague in the extreme, and very difficult of identification with present-day lines and locations.
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