History of Wabasha County, Minnesota, Part 4

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Winona, Minn. : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1222

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S. E. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, section 15, T. 110-10. This group of 21 mounds was probably connected with the last. Three of these are short elongated mounds of the ordinary form, and form part of the series. They are all on a plateau about 15 feet above the bottom. The largest is 48 by 41/2 feet.

N. W. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 15, T. 110-10. On a plateau 25 feet above the bottom. The ground now consists of 6 mounds, but formerly many more existed north of these. Three of these are 50 feet in diameter, one is 42 feet, and two are 30 feet.

S. W. 1/4, N. W. 14, section 15, T. 110-10. On a plateau about 65 feet above the bottom are two circular and one elevated mound. The largest is 30 feet by 21/2 feet; another is 26 feet in diameter and has been excavated.

A lone mound is on a spur of the bluff about 150 feet above the river, on S. W. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 18, T. 110-10. It is 35 feet in diameter and 31/2 feet high; and another is on a high bluff on N. 1/2, S. W. 1/4, section 17, T. 110-10, also about 150 feet above the Zumbro. This is 30 feet by 21/2 feet. Another is on a point of the plateau about 70 feet above the river, on N. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 27, T. 110-10, 35 feet by 2 feet. This is west of Kellogg about one mile.

S. W. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 21, T. 110-10. Three circular mounds are on a plateau about 70 feet above the Zumbro, the largest being 32 feet by 4 feet.

A lone mound is situated on the S. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 19, T. 110-10. It is 45 feet in diameter and 21/2 feet high.

S. 1/2, S. E. 1/4, section 21, and N. 1/2, N. E. 1/4, section 28, T. 110-11. This group of 22 mounds is on the bluff of the Zumbro, 70 feet above the river, where it flows north. They are all circular but one, which has the dimensions 70 feet by 40 feet by 5 feet. One tumulus, 32 feet in diameter and 31/2 feet high, has been excavated.

A lone mound is on N. W. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, section 5, T. 109-11, 40 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. Formerly there were several others at this point,

S. 1/2, S. E. 1/4, section .21, and N. 1/2, N. E. 1/4, section 28, T. 110-11. This

HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY

group of 22 mounds is on the bluff of the Zumbro, 70 feet above the river, where it flows north. They are all circular but one, which has the dimensions 70 feet by 40 feet by 5 feet. One tumulus, 32 feet in diameter and 31/2 feet high, has been excavated.

A lone mound is on N. W. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, section 5, T. 109-11, 40 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. Formerly there were several others at this point.

Two tumuli are on N. W. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 24, T. 110-11, about 75 feet above the river. One is 38 feet and the other 28 feet in diameter, but they are each 3 feet high.

`N. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 22, T. 110-10. These six mounds extending in a somewhat irregular line from southeast to northwest, are all circular but one, which has the dimensions 42 by 35 feet. The top of the last mound to the north- west is 39 feet above the top of its nearest neighbor to the southeast, and is about 130 feet above the river. These mounds were built from dirt and broken sandrock taken from the bluff.

Center of S. E. 1/4, section 22, T. 110-10. Group of 5 tumuli is situated on the terrace about 25 feet above the river. These tumuli are of ordinary size, the largest being 44 feet in diameter and the smallest 26 feet.

W. 1/2, N. W. 1/4, section 19, T. 110-10, about 75 feet above the Zumbro. This group consists of 13 circular mounds, the largest being 58 feet by 41/2 feet, and the smallest 24 feet by 1 foot.

S. E. 1/4, section 14, and S. W. 1/4, section 13, T. 110-11. This group of 34 mounds embraces 3 effigies and 4 elongated mounds. The former are not in the line along the brow of the bluff with the tumuli, but the elongated mounds are in the general line of extension of the group. Still, the effigies are not far removed, and are apparently to be considered as parts of the group. One repre- sents a bird in flight, but with its wings half closed, as if descending to its perch. The others are near together and represent some animal with a heavy tail and short neck, but a large head. They might be considered a poor imita- tion of the profile form of a dog, or a fox, or a wolf, or a beaver, or a raccoon. The tail of the bird has not a rectangular termination like those of Prior Lake in Scott County, but a widening and rounded end, which is encroached on by the public road. Between the wings this bird is 2 feet high. The largest tumulus is 52 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. Another is 42 feet by 61/2 feet; another 50 feet by 3 feet, and still another 42 feet by 5 feet. The plateau on which this group is situated is 75 feet above the Zumbro.

N. E. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, section 12, T. 110-11. Here are three sub-groups. The first contains two tumuli about 40 feet above the bottom, about 25 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. The second contains three tumuli situated nearly east of the last 150 yards. The terrace here is about 40 feet above the bottom. The mounds are near the edge of the slope. The largest is 46 feet by 81/2 feet. The third sub-group contains two similar tumuli, 300 yards southeast of the last and about 60 feet above the valley.

A lone mound is on a point about 200 feet above the valley, on N. W. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 10, T. 110-11. It is 35 feet by 31/2 feet.

Hill group, S. W. 1/4, section 10, T. 110-11. This group contains 98 mounds. They are on a terrace about 55 feet above the bottom. There are many others that are just traceable. In this group are a number of circular excavations, some of which have embankments on the outside. It includes 5 elongated mounds or embankments, one bird effigy, and many "Mandan lodges," or circles. The elongated mounds have about the same width as the average diameter of the tumuli, many of which are 18 feet or 20 feet, the largest 45 feet by 6 feet. One circular embankment has an exterior diameter of 38 feet and interior 20 feet. The bird effigy has a rounded termination of tail (or body) and the head is hardly a head, being only a low rounded protuberance without any neck. This effigy is 41/2 feet high in the center between the wings, 1 foot at the nar- rowest part of the body, and two feet near the end of the body. Including the head the body is 63 feet long.

HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY

There is every reason, excepting only the form of the effigy, to class it as a cotemporary work and a part of the group. It is highly improbable that a single earthwork, such as this effigy, should be erected at this spot by any earlier race. If it be supposed that it was formerly accompanied by others of like form, it is highly improbable that all the others should have disappeared, leaving this only intact. It appears, therefore, that the makers of the round tumuli and of the embankments were the architects of the effigy. The two mounds just south of the circular excavation with outside embankment, already described, are each 24 feet in diameter, one 2 feet high and the other 21/2 feet. Hence this locality has the appearance of having been the residence of a class of people who constructed circular houses, identical with those of the Mandans, who are a branch of the Dakota family. It is possible that on excavation some remnants of the wooden posts that supported the superstructures would be found. Mr. Brower denominated these "earthern lodge circles."

Mounds west of Lake City, N. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 5, T. 111-12, situ- ated on a terrace about 15 feet above a lower terrace. This group now shows 10 mounds, but formerly others existed toward the northwest, which have been scraped down. These tumuli average about 35 feet in diameter, and three of them have been excavated. The one farthest north is peculiar in having an extension which tapers from a width of 25 to 20 feet, with a rounded end. At one end it is 4 feet high; at the other 11/2 feet.

According to Dr. L. C. Estes (Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 366) extensive fortifications and forts once existed at Lake City. It is evident, however, that he exaggerated the regularity and size of these embankments. He notes, how- ever, one "very large mound," "the only one out of line." He considered the mounds generally as places of habitation rather than of burial, the large ones being "forts."

Mounds 11/2 miles south of Lake City, S. W. 1/4, section 9, T. 111-12, on a plateau about 22 feet above the creek. The "marsh mounds" opposite this group contained pottery, stone axes and arrow-heads. This group embraces 57 mounds of which nine are elongated and the rest tumuli. The largest is 38 feet by 3 feet and the smallest 17 feet by one foot. Several are 18 feet and 20 feet in diameter.

A lone mound is on the shore of Lake Pepin, S. W. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 15, T. 111-11, about 25 feet above the lake, 25 feet in diameter and 2 feet high.

Kellogg mounds, S. W. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 16, T. 110-10. Including one inclosure there are 15 earthworks in this group. One of the mounds is ovate, rather than conventionally oblong. They are about 30 feet above the river. One of the mounds seems to be composed of an elongated mound and a tumulus, the latter attached so as to form a rounded enlargement near one end. The embankment of the inclosure above mentioned is 14 feet wide and 1 foot high. The sides are 68 feet long.

Wabasha mounds, W. 1/2, section 29, T. 111-10, upper group. This group contains 80 mounds, mostly small tumuli, crowded so that some of them are quite in contact. The width of the embankments is from 20 feet to 26 feet. They are also sometimes in contact with each other and with some of the tumuli. They run parallel with the bluff, and are nearest the bluff, the tumuli being irregularly spread over the land further back. The terrace is 441/2 feet above the river and slopes westward.

On the point of land inside the city limits, and between the Mississippi and the slough back of the town, there have been found old earthern lodge circles and pieces of ancient clay vessels.

Wabasha mounds, S. W. 1/4, section 29, T. 111-10. These are five large mounds having diameters 54 feet, 80 feet, 68 feet, and 60 feet, the heights being, respectively, 3. feet, 41/2 feet, 41/2 feet and 2 feet. They are on the original townsite. There is a slough between this plateau and the main town. A traveled road runs over the sides of the mounds next the slough.

HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY

Mounds two miles below Wabasha, on S. E. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 3, T. 111-10, on a plateau 42 feet above the bottomland. This group contains 11 tumuli, the larger ones being on the brow of the bluff and the smaller ones scattered over the surface further back. The largest is 60 feet by 3 feet and the smallest are 23 feet by 1 foot.

Mounds two miles below Wabasha, W. 1/2, N. W. 1/4, N. W. 1/4, section 3, T. 110-10, about 40 feet above the slough. This is a large group of 81 mounds, mostly small tumuli, ranged closely along the brow of the bluff, some of them in contact. Two of them are connected by a low embankment, 125 feet long, and one of the elongated mounds tapers from a width of 27 feet to 18 feet, being 99 feet long. The other elongated mounds are normal as to size and position. One mound is entirely nondescript. It seems to have been started as a wide elongated mound, but one end flares out into three short, spreading prongs. Its form suggests nothing. It is curious anomaly in the midst of simplicity and uniformity.

Indian Creek mounds, S. E. 1/4, N. E. 1/4, section 24, T. 109-10, on a terrace about 60 feet above Indian Creek. The group embraces 11 tumuli of rather uniform and medium size, ranging from 22 feet to 35 feet in diameter. The group is about 600 feet from Indian Creek.

Whitewater River mounds, N. W. 1/4, S. W. 1/4, section 29, T. 109-9, on a terrace about 60 feet above the river. This group contains 6 tumuli of rather uniform and medium sizes, ranging from 25 feet to 42 feet in diameter, and from 21/2 feet to 6 feet in height.

One mile south of Weaver, N. W. 1/4, section 32, T. 109-9. This group com- prises two tumuli of the same size and height on cultivated land on a plateau about 40 feet above a slough.

A low mound is at Minneiska, S. E. 1/4, S. E. 1/4, section 34, T. 109-9, on a. very small terrace about 65 feet above the river. It is 30 feet in diameter and 2 feet high.

CHAPTER III.

REIGN OF THE INDIANS.

From the days of the early explorers Wabasha County was ranged by the M'dewakanton band of the Dakota Indians, although, so far as is known, they had no permanent villages here. In the forties and fifties of the nineteenth century they had several favorite camping places here, especially in the Zumbro Valley.

The Chippewa, who lived to the northward, made many a murderous foray against the Dakota of this region, even as late as the days of the white settle- ment in the fifties, using the Chippewa River as their warpath.

The Dakota embrace the principal division of the Siouan family, and are more commonly called by their family name of Sioux, rather than by their individual name of Dakota. In the Siouan family are numbered not only of the Dakota proper, but also of the Winnebago, the Assiniboin, the Minnetare group, and the Osage and southern kindred tribes.

The word Sioux, now applied to the whole linguistic family, though by the early settlers applied to the Dakota alone, is a corruption of the word Madouessi or Nadouescious, the French rendering of a word meaning literally "the snake- like ones," or figuratively "the enemies," the name by which the Chippewa and other Algonquin Indians called the Dakota. Dakota, variously spelled, was applied by this branch for the Siouan family to themselves, and means "joined together in friendly compact," an unconscious prophecy of the "E. Pluribus Unum" which was to become the motto of the United States of America.

An important division of the Dakota were the M'dewakanton tribe, who ranged the Mississippi as far south as the Illinois River country. At one time the M'dewakanton had their headquarters about the Mille Lacs region in north- ern Minnesota, hence their name which means "The People of the Spirit Lake." Evidently driven out by the Chippewa, who had obtained arms from the whites, they established themselves in seven villages along the Mississippi and Minne- sota Rivers.

The Wabashas were the head chiefs of the M'dewakanton. Their immedi- ate band, in which was probably a mingling of the former Mantanton, became the buffer band between the other Dakota and their enemies on the south. From Mille Lacs they moved to the mouth of the Rum River, near Anoka, Minn., then to the mouth of the Minnesota River, not far from St. Paul, Minn., then to Red Wing, Minn., and then to Winona, Minn., where they established themselves permanently. With headquarters at Winona, which they called Ke-ox-ah, and where the annual games of all the M'dewakanton were held, they had at dif- ferent times, temporary villages on the Upper Iowa, on the Root River, at Trem- pealeau, and at Minnesota City.

Three Wabashas are known to the history of Wabasha County. The origin of the dynasty is shrouded in antiquity. But some time in the first quarter of the eighteenth century a powerful Dakota chief married a beautiful Chippewa princess, and by her had two sons, both of whom were raised as Dakotas. The eldest was Wabasha I. Later, returning to her own people, the Chippewa princess married a noted Chippewa brave. One of the children born to this union was Mamongazida, a famous Chippewa chief, who was the father of the still more famous Wabajeeg. Thus the princess became the ancestress of two royal houses, one ruling the M'dewakanton Dakota and the other the Chippewa. Wabasha I was probably born about 1720. In spite of his traditional Chippewa blood, he frequently engaged in fierce warfare against the people of that nation.

HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY

Our first real knowledge of Wabasha I (then rendered by the French, Ouabashas) dates from March 9, 1740, when he is recorded as having met Pierre Paul, the Sieur Marin (after commander of a Lake Pepin stockade in 1750-52) on the Rock River, in Wisconsin. At that time Wabasha I and those with him offered to surrender themselves and to submit to punishment for the slaughter by some Dakota warriors of several Chippewa who had been under the personal protection of the French.

After France, by the treaty of 1763, relinquished its titles in North America to England and Spain, the French traders began to withdraw from the Sioux country. The English were slow to take their places because they feared the Indians. The Sauk and other Algonquin leaders continued their fight against the English. The French had withdrawn their authority, and the British had not yet time to look after the Indians of the west. Passage through the Indians of the Wisconsin country was fraught with the greatest danger .- And the attitude of the Sioux themselves was suspected by reason of a murder which had taken place about 1761, when a trader, called by the Indians, Pagonta, or the Mallard Duck, was shot while smoking in his cabin at Mendota by Ixkata- pay, a Sioux Indian with whom he had quarreled.

The absence of the traders worked a great hardship on the Indians. They had degenerated by contact with the whites. No longer were they the noble lords of the wild who had been able to wrest their living from the forests and plains and streams. They had lost their skill with the spear and with the arrow. They had been taught to depend on the whites for ammunition and provisions. Now they could no longer obtain these articles, and as the result they were reduced to absolute want.

Therefore, the Indians of the neighborhood of Winona, Red Wing, South St. Paul and the Minnesota River held a conference, as the result of which they resolved to surrender Ixkatapay, to promise peace, to beg the traders to return, and to implore the protection of the British. The council selected a delegation of nearly 100 to go to Quebec on this mission, with Ixkatapay as a prisoner. Wabasha I was leader of this party. They went by way of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, but before they reached Green Bay one after another deserted. There all but six had turned back, taking Ixkatapay with them. The chief, Wabasha I and five others, true to their trust, kept on their way.

Reaching Quebec, Wabasha I explained the situation and the condition. of his people, and offered himself for execution for the murder of the trader, in the place of Ixkatapay, but implored the British to take his people under their protection and to send ammunition and goods at once to his suffering tribes in exchange for the furs that they had on hand. Struck with his noble character the English granted all he asked, and gave him seven medals for the seven bands of his tribe, one of which medals was hung about Wabasha's own neck. It is said that Wabasha I was also presented with a red cap and gaudy uniform.

It was natural that Wabasha I having been signally honored by the British, and having received succor at their hands, should side with the English against the colonists in the Revolutionary War. The British traders were active in instigating the Indians to hostility against the Americans. Wabasha I was recognized as a leading chief. He was directed in his movements by the Eng- lish commander at Mackinac. In 1779 Wabasha I and his warriors were at Prairie du Chien, awaiting instructions as to whether he should attack the Sauk and Fox for favoring the Americans. In 1780 Wabasha I was the leader of a thousand Sioux, designed to reinforce the British at Kaskaskia and attack the settlements at St. Genevieve, Mo. Wabasha I, who in the official reports is called General Wabasha, was highly commended by the British officers for his discipline, valor and uncommon abilities, and was mentioned in the war cor- respondence of the time as commanding a force of Indians in no way inferior as soldiers to the regulars of the British army. Wabasha I was at Prairie du

HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY

Chien at the conclusion of the peace between Great Britain and the colonies, and promised to respect the fact that war had ceased. During the revolution Wabasha I made several trips to Montreal, and it was especially stipulated that on account of his position as commander of so large a force, his visits to Mack- inac were always to be welcomed by the British with a salute of the cannon, the cannon to be loaded with solid shell instead of with blank cartridges.

Wabasha I died of cancer of the neck on the Root River in Houston county, January 5, 1806. There is a traditional story that he had been exiled from the main body of the band by the murderous hate of his brothers, but as he had been in public life sixty-six years, and must have been considerably more than eighty years of age, it seems more probable that he had gradually committed the chieftainship to his son.

Some time before the death of his father, Wabasha II became nominal chief of the band. He was low of stature, was not a warrior, and is said to have hated war. He was a wise and prudent man, especially in council, and was a strict abstainer from whiskey. He highly admired and appreciated the arts of civilization and desired that his people should be profited by them. He was called The Leaf, La Feuille, corrupted to Lafoy and to La Fye. Unless there is a mistake in Pike's map the Wabasha band in 1805 was located on the upper Iowa River, though possibly this was a temporary camp for that year. It was evidently during the early years of the reign of Wabasha II that the band moved its headquarters to the present site of Winona, though probably the Indians had used the prairie site of the city for various purposes long before that date.

Wabasha's braves espoused the cause of the British in the war of 1812. Wabasha II himself was opposed to war, but was sometimes led into it by his hot-headed soldiers. He was with the other Indians at the unsuccessful siege by the British, in 1813, of Ft. Meigs, on the Maumee River, in northwestern Ohio. The fort was then held by the Americans under William Henry Harrison, later president of the United States. The Winnebago having killed an Ameri- can soldier, appointed a feast at which each guest was to eat a morsel of the soldier's body. One of the Dakota, being invited to partake, said: "We came here, not to eat the Americans, but to wage war against them." Then Wabasha II said to the Winnebago: "We thought that you, who live near to the white men, were wiser than we who live at a distance; but it must, indeed, be other- wise if you do such deeds." The result was that the feast was not held.

After the treaty of peace made at Ghent, December 24, 1814, the British agents in Canada sent invitations to the Dakota chiefs to attend council to be held at Drummond Island, about fifty miles east of the Straits of Mackinac. Wabasha II, Little Crow and others attended. The agents explained to them that the king across the waters had made peace with the Amercans and that hostilities must cease. After lauding the valor of the Indians, the British offered them blankets, knives and other goods as presents, but they were rejected. The paltry presents so aroused the indignation of Wabasha II that he addressed the English officer as follows:

"My Father, what is this I see before me? A few knives and blankets. Is this all you promised at the beginning of the war? Where are those promises you made at Michilimackinac, and sent to our villages on the Mississippi? You told us that you would never let fall the hatchet until the Americans were driven beyond the mountains; that our British father would never make peace without consulting his red children. Has that come to pass? We never knew of this peace. We are told it was made by our Great Father beyond the water, without the knowledge of his war-chiefs; that it is your duty to obey his orders. What is this to us? Will these paltry presents pay for the men we have lost, both in the battle and in the war? Will they soothe the feelings of our friends ? Will they make good your promises to us? For myself, I have always found means of subsistence, and I can do so still."

HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY

Beginning with Pike, Wabasha II met all the early explorers who came up the river in the next twenty years. He signed the treaties of 1816, 1825 and 1830. He visited Washington in 1824. He was at the head of his tribe during the Red Bird War and the Black Hawk War and at the time of the bringing in of the Winnebago. Every white who came in contact with him spoke most highly of his worth and character. He died about 1836 of small-pox. He was probably at that time about sixty-three years old. Many of his band perished at the same time. The Wabasha band thus reduced in numbers, faded in influ- ence and importance, though its head continued to be recognized as the nominal head chief of all the seven bands of the M'dewakanton.

Wabasha II, at his death in 1836, was succeeded by his son, Wabasha III, whose original name was Tahtapesaah, the Upsetting Wind. Wabasha III is the Wabasha best known to the whites. He signed the treaties of 1836, 1837, 1851 and 1858. Like the two Wabashas who came before him he was shrewd and cautious. He was friendly to the whites, but from a sense of justice upheld the Winnebago in their opposition to their removal to the inhospitable Long Prairie country in central Minnesota. By the treaties of 1851 he relinquished his title to all his remaining lands in Wabasha county, but he and his band continued to hunt here at least until 1860. Wabasha III led his warriors in the Sioux Uprising of 1862, but he was opposed to it, and was the first to make proposals of peace even while his nation were still in arms. He finally with- drew his followers from Little Crow's camp, and in his new camp of some 100 lodges, protected many whites and mixed bloods. Before this he had been in friendly communication with the white commanders for some months. He died April 23, 1876, at the Santee agency in Nebraska. With profound grief he has seen the gradual degeneration of his people at the whim of the whites, and well realized the duplicity and theft that the Dakota suffered from all the white men with whom they came in contact. The descendant of an ancient line whose empire had once been larger and richer than many a European nation, he spent his latter years as a lonely old man, refusing to join in the readjusted life of his people, and sadly pondering over the wrongs that had been done him.

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History of Wabasha County, Minnesota, Part 4

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Winona, Minn. : H.C. Cooper Number of Pages: 1222

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn. cn
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Winona, Minn. : H.C. Cooper
Number of Pages: 1222