USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 7
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
46
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
to obtain the best terms possible-to get all of the money and other supplies and the best permanent reservation to be had. It was asserted that Little Crow had been well bribed by the traders, and by the commissioners, too, and that his opinions were the result of substantial considerations. If the charge were true, the conduct of Little Crow was somewhat strange. He spoke against considering the treaty until the money that was being held back should be paid in hand. He demanded a reser- vation that should come down the Minnesota to Traverse des Sioux, and he wanted all the money and goods, and the most favorable terms generally that could be had. He was in frequent consultation with the commissioners during the days of waiting, and at the last announced that he was ready to sign the treaty, although some of the Indians had sworn that they would shoot the first man of their tribe who put his hand to the goose quill preparatory to subscribing to the hated contract.
Monday, August 5, was an eventful day in the deliberations. The council met at Il o'clock in the morning, and Chief Good Road, of one of the band about Fort Snelling, was the first speaker. He said: "We have several things to say about the various matters before we sign this treaty." Colonel Lea replied : "The treaty has been prepared after we have all agreed as to its terms, and it is best not to delay any further. We will have the treaty read in English and explained in the Dakotah language, so that all can see that it is a good treaty." Rev. S. R. Riggs, the missionary, read the treaty slowly, and explained it in Sioux very fully. Governor Ramsey then said: "The chiefs and head men have heard the treaty in their own language. Who will sign first?" There was a silence of some minutes, when Colonel Lea indicated that Little Crow should be the first to sign, but the chief smiled and shook his head. At last Wabasha arose and said :
"You have requested us to sign this paper, and you have told these people standing around that it is for their benefit ; but I do not think so. In the treaty you have read you mention a lot about farmers, schools, physicians, traders and half-breeds, who are to be paid out of the money. To all of these I am opposed. You see these chiefs sitting around here. They and some others, who are dead, went to Washington twelve years ago and made a treaty in which some things were said ; but we were not bene- fited by them, and I want them struck out of this one. We want nothing but cash for our lands. Another thing: You have named a place for our home, but it is a prairie country. I am a man used to the woods, and do not like the prairies; perhaps some of these who are here will name a place we would all like better. Another thing: When I went to Washington to see our
47
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
Great Father, he asked us for our land, and we gave it to him, and he agreed to furnish us with provisions and goods for twenty years. I wish to remain in this country until that time expires."
Colonel Lea made an indignant and severe reply to Wabasha, although as a matter of fact Wabasha's request was not perhaps so very unreasonable. The colonel declared that the chief had a forked tongue, and was neither the friend of the white man or the Indians. "We know that the treaty does not meet his views, and we do not expect to be able to make one that will suit him," said Colonel Lea. "We know that he tried to deceive the Indians and us. He wanted to have the Madawakantons and Wahpa- kootas make a treaty by themselves-a separate treaty-and leave out the upper bands altogether. He did not want them to have a good treaty unless he could dictate just how it should be. He advised you to ask $6,000,000 for the land, which he knew was a foolish proposition. We are surprised to find a chief like him, whose father and grandfather were great chiefs. We have talked much about this treaty, and we have written and signed it, and now it is too late to talk of changing it." After Colonel Lea had finished this stinging rebuke, which must have gone deep to the heart of the proud old chief, there was evident dissatisfac- tion among the Indians. Governor Ramsey quickly asked : "Will either of the principal chiefs sign? Do they say yes or no?" But they said neither. They were silent for a time, and evi- dently displeased. For a while it looked as though the papers would not receive a single Indian signature. At last Bad Hail, the second chief of Gray Iron's band, arose and said that if two claims against the whites could be settled, he and others would sign. Chief Shakopee then came forward and laid before the commissioners a written deed, made and signed by the Indians in 1837, and conveying to their kinswoman, Mrs. Lucy Bailly (nee Faribault), the wife of Alexis Bailly, three sections of land, including the present site of the town of Shakopee. The chief said the Indians desired that this land be secured to Mrs. Bailly by the treaty ; or that, instead, the sum of $10,000 in cash be paid her. Bad Hail presented another paper, providing that a provision be made in the treaty for the reservation of several hundred acres for the heirs of Scott Campbell, the noted old interpreter at Fort Snelling. Stands Astride, the second chief of Shakopee's band, demanded that the request made in both papers be complied with. But Colonel Lea replied : "Our Great Father will not allow us to write such things in treaties. If you wish to pay Mrs. Bailly $10,000, you can do so out of your own money when the treaty is ratified, and you can pay Scott Camp- bell's heirs as much as you please; the money will be yours." Little Crow again spoke, and was, as before, listened to with the
18
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
deepest attention. He said he had been raised in a country where there were plenty of trees and extensive woods, in which wild game could be found. If the Indian reservations were made to extend castward to Traverse des Sioux, there would be plenty of woods, and he would be satisfied. The land provided for the future home of his band was too much prairie. Shakopee's brother now came forward, and, speaking very loudly and car- nestly and to the point, said he represented the Indian soldiers, or braves, and was one of the owners of the land. "The chiefs don't seem to do anything," he said, "and we must be heard." Like Little Crow, he thought the east line of the proposed reser- vation was too high up in the prairies, and he indicated Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha creek as the locality where he thought the Medawakantons would, in the future, be willing to live and die, to make it the perpetual home of the band. He said the soldiers were satisfied with the other parts of the treaty. Governor Ramsey saw a valuable opportunity. He began flatter- ing not only the warrior who had spoken, but also the other Indian soldiers, saying they had spoken out boldly and like men. The commissioners, he said, have been waiting to hear what the warriors wanted. "Now," said the governor, "we will come down with the reservation to the Little Rock river, where it empties into the Minnesota; this line will certainly give you timber enough." Another soldier arose and demanded that the treaty with the Chippewas be abrogated so that he and the other Sioux could go to war against them whenever they pleased. No attention was paid to this speech, except to laugh at it. Then Chief Wacoota, the mild-mannered. gentle-hearted head of the Red Wing band, arose, and speaking somewhat slowly and de- liberately, made a somewhat lengthy speech, in which he said that the treaty was all right upon its face, but the Indians, and he among them, feared that when it was taken to Washington it would be changed to their great injury, just as the treaty of 1837 had been changed. "I say it in good feeling," declared Wacoota, "but I think you yourselves believe it will be changed without our consent, as the other treaty was." He said, as to future reservation, he wanted it south of where he and his band then lived (in the Cannon river country), or he would like his par- ticular reservation to be at Pine Island, or on the Mississippi. which locality, he asserted, was a good place for the Indians. Ile wanted this condition put in the treaty if it was right and just, but if not, then "say no more about it." He declared he was pleased with the treaty generally, but hoped that the farming for the Indians would be better done than it had been. Governor Ramsey complimented Wacoota "as a man I always listen to with great respect." Wacoota, it will thus be seen, wanted the
49
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
reservation in the south part of what is now Minnesota, prac- tically in what is now Goodhue county, others wanted it in other places, in fact, there was so wide a diversity of opinion that the red men would probably never have agreed among themselves, even if the matter had been left entirely to them. The commis- sioners honestly considered that they had selected a good place for the Indian reservation. There would be plenty of wood and water, and the Indians could continue to hunt in the big woods and elsewhere in their former hunting grounds as usual until the whites should come in and settle upon the lands.
Wabasha now arose and asked whether or not it was designed to distinguish the chiefs and second chiefs by marks of distinc- tion, and allow them more money than the common Indians should receive. Colonel Lea answered: "Wabasha now talks like a man." The colonel said that it was due to the station and responsibility of the chiefs that they should be distinguished from the other Indians. He said that each chief ought to have a medal and a good house to live in, so that when his friends came to see him they could be accommodated properly. Wabasha again arose. This time he turned his back upon the commis- sioners and spoke to his warriors somewhat vehemently, but with dignity. "Young men," he said, "you have declared that the chief who got up first to sign the treaty, you would like killed ; it is this talk that has caused all the difficulty. It seems that you have agreed among yourselves that you will sell the land, and you have done it in the dark. I want you to say now outright, before all the people here, whether you are willing to sell the land." Shakopee's brother, the speaker for the warriors, sprang to his feet and called out excitedly : "Wabasha las ac- cused us of something we never thought of. The warriors heard that the chiefs were making a treaty and they did not like it, for the land really belongs to the warriors and not to the chiefs ; but they never spoke of killing the chiefs. It was true that the sol- diers have got together and agreed to sell the land; they have told him so, and now I have said so." Governor Ramsey, seeing this opportunity, quickly said: "This, then, being the under- standing, let the soldiers tell us what chief shall sign first." Medicine Bottle, the liead soldier of Little Crow's Kaposia band, arose and said: "To the people who did not go to Washington and make the treaty-to them belongs the land on this side of the river. There is one chief among us who did not go to Wash- ington at that time, and the soldiers want him to sign first. He has been a great war chief, and he has been our leader against the Chippewas. It is Little Crow. We want him to sign first." Little Crow promptly arose. Without a tremor hie faced the scowling warriors who had opposed the treaty, and in his well
50
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
known clarion voice, keyed to a high pitch, he thus addressed them :
"Soldiers, it has been said by some of you that the first that signs this treaty you will kill. Now I am willing to be first, but I am not afraid you will kill me. If you do, it will be all right. A man has to die sometime, and he can die but once. It matters little to me when my time comes, nor do I care much how it comes, though I would rather die fighting our enemies. I be- lieve this treaty will be best for the Dakotas, and I will sign it, even if a dog kills me before I lay down the goose quill." Then, turning to the commissioners, he said : "Fathers, I hope you will be willing to let our new reservation come down to the Traverse des Sioux, so that our people can be comfortable and not crowded, and have plenty of good hunting and fishing grounds. The Swan lake and other lakes have plenty of fish and wild rice, and there is plenty of wood. Rock creek is not far enough down for us. I am glad that we can hunt in the big woods as hereto- fore, but I hope you will bring our new home down to Traverse des Sioux." If Little Crow's request had been granted, the eastern boundary of the new reservation would have extended about forty miles below Rock creek, or two miles east of St. Peter, and would have included the present sites of that city, New Ulm and Mankato. The commissioners declined the re- quest. Colonel Lea said : "The reservation is all right as it is." Governor Ramsey said: "We have marked out a large piece of land for your home ; the soldiers asked us for more and we gave it. It is all that we can do." Colonel Lea added: "No man puts any food in his mouth by much talk, but often gets hungry if he talks too long. Let the Little Crow and the other chiefs step forward and sign." Finding the commissioners firm. Little Crow now stepped to the table and being handed a chair, sat down and signed each of the duplicate copies of the treaty. It has been said that Little Crow was taught to write by the Rev. Briggs at Lac qui Parle, and another account declares with equal assurance that his teacher was the Rev. Dr. Williamson, at Kaposia. 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. Of Wa- coota's band, the following affixed their signatures: Chief Wah- koo-tay, the Shooter ; his head soldier, Iron Cloud ; and his prin- cipal warriors, Good Iron Voice, Stands on the Ground, Stands Above, Sacred Fire, Red Stones, Sacred Blaze and Iron Cane.
At Mendota. as at Traverse des Sioux, when the treaty was concluded, each Indian signer stepped to another table where
51
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
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 reservation, $220,000, one-half to the Medawakanton 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 dis- tributed among the two bands as soon as the treaty was ratified, and $28,000 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 install- ment-$30.000 in cash, $12,000 for civilization, $6,000 for cduca- tion, 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 re- ceive in cash $150,000 in lieu of lands allowed them under the Prairie du Chien treaty of 1830, but which they had failed to claim1.
52
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
The written copies of the Traverse des Sioux and the Men- dota treaties, duly signed and attested, were forwarded to Wash- ington 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 reservations for both the upper and lower bands were stricken out, and substitutes adopted, agreeing to pay ten 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 alterations. The chiefs of the lower bands at first objected very strenuously, 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 proclaimed 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 detachments, as they felt inclined. After living on the reservation for a time, some of them returned to their old hunting grounds about Mendota, Kaposia, Wabasha, Red Wing and the Cannon river country, where they lived continuously for some time, visiting their reservation and agency only at the time of the payment of their annuities. Finally, by the offer of cabins to live in, or other substantial inducements. nearly all of them were induced to settle on the Redwood Reserve, so that in 1862, at the time of the outbreak, less than twenty families of the Medawakantons and Wahpakootas 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 Rice and Steele counties and the surrounding territory came into the possession of the whites and was thus opened for settlement and development.
The Wapakootas who signed this treaty were the head chief, Walking Whistling Horn, better known as Red Legs; his head
53
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
soldier, Pay-Pay, or the Sharp; and his principal men, Red Armor, the Third Son, Gray Crest, Voice That Can Be Heard, Bad Cloud, His Mind and Fearful Night.
Of these, Hu-sha-sha, or Red Legs, the chief, took part in the outbreak of the sixties only as a soldier. He died at the Santee Agency, Nebraska, in about 1895.
CHAPTER IV.
AS WABASHA AND DAKOTA.
Rice and Steele Counties Made Part of the Seventh District by Territorial Proclamation-Made a Part of Wabasha County By Territorial Legislature-Becomes a Part of Dakota County in 1851-Rice County Created with Extensive Area in 1853-Steele County Created in 1855.
Rice and Steele counties were originally included in Wabasha county, or Wabashaw, as it was then spelled, which was one of the nine original counties created by the first territorial legis- lature.
The first session of the legislative assembly of the territory of Minnesota was held at St. Paul, commencing on the third day of November, 1849. It convened in pursuance of the proclamation by the governor.
This proclamation, issued by Governor Ramsey, July 7. 1849, divided the territory into councillors' districts. The only settlers in what are now Rice and Steele counties were at the trading post at the present site of Faribault, in Rice county. This was included in the seventh district.
Wabashaw county, as "erected" by the act of October 27. 1849, comprised practically all of the southern part of the present state of Minnesota. Its northern boundary was the parallel running through the mouth of the St. Croix and the mouth of the Yellow Medicine rivers; its southern boundary was the Iowa line; its castern the Mississippi, and its western the Missouri. and it also included the big peninsula between the Missouri and the Big Sioux rivers, and all of what is at present southwestern South Dakota. Of this vast county the present Rice and Steele counties were a part.
By an act approved October 27, 1849, the territory was divided into the counties of Washington, Ramsey, Benton, Itasca. Waba- shaw, Dakota, Wahnahto, Mohkahto and Pembina. Only the counties of Washington, Ramsey and Benton were fully organ- ized for all county purposes. The others were organized only for the purpose of the appointment of justices of the peace, con- stables, and such other judicial and ministerial offices as might be specially provided for. They were entitled to "any number of justices of the peace and constables, not exceeding six in
54
55
HISTORY OF RICE AND STEELE COUNTIES
number, to be appointed by the governor, and their term of office was made two years, unless sooner removed by the governor," and they were made conservators of the peace.
By an act approved November 1, 1849, a tax of one mill on the dollar was levied for purposes of raising a territorial revenue, and in unorganized counties the governor was required to ap- point three assessors to assess all property therein subject to taxation, and return the assessment roll by them made to the clerk of the board of county commissioners of the county to which their counties were attached for judicial purposes, and that board was required to levy the tax, and the collector of such county was requested to collect the tax and pay the sanic into the treasury of such an organized county in the same manner as they were required to do in such organized county of which they were officers. The present Rice and Steele counties were at that time a part of the unorganized county of Wabashaw, which was attached to Washington county for judicial purposes.
By an act of the legislative assembly, approved November 1. 1849, it was provided that a general election should be held on the fourth Monday of November of that year, at which therc should be elected in each organized county for county purposes three county commissioners, one sheriff, one register of deeds. one county treasurer, one judge of probate, three assessors and two justices of the peace, as well as two constables for each election precinct. By an act of November 1, 1849, provision was made for the election in each precinct in the organized counties of two justices of the peace, their qualifications, juris- diction and duties defined, and a code of procedure in justice courts established. By an act approved October 27, 1849, provi- sion was made for the election of the boards of county commis- sioners in organized counties, consising of three members, and defining their duties. They were to hold office for three years. An act of November 1, establishing probate courts in organized counties provided for the election of a judge of probate and defined his duties. The term of office was three years. By act of October 31, 1849, the election of a sheriff in organized counties was provided for, his duties prescribed, and provision made for collecting county revenue. An act of November 1, 1849, provided for the clection of a register of deeds in organized counties and prescribed his duties. The term of office was two years, and the register was to serve as clerk of the board of county commissioners. An act of November 1, 1849, provided for the election of county treasurers in organized counties, and prescribed their duties. The term of office was one year. Clerks of the court were appointed by the judges. All the provisions made by these acts of October 31 and November I applied to
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.