USA > Minnesota > Washington County > History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley, including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota > Part 32
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traders. Encouraged, and abetted by the French, the Ojibwas made incursions into Minnesota about 1726, with the purpose of driving out tribes hostile to the French by means of the fire-arms placed in their hands by them. Under the lead- ership of Bi-ans-wab, they drove the Dakotas from their homes in the north at Leech Lake, Mille Lacs and other points. Forced to take up their residences on lands below, and near the Valley of the St. Croix, frequent hunting excur- sions were made through this valley, and many a hostile encounter took place between the deter- mined foes. The last conflict between the Foxes and Ojibwas took place at St. Croix, the account of which is here condensed from that of the late Anglo-Ojibwa, Wm. W. Warren. Waub-o-jug, or White Fisher, a famous war chief of Lake Superior summoned by means of his war club and wampum sent to all the scattered tribes of the Ojibwas, his combined forces to march against the Sioux village.
The different bands responded by sending to- bacco as a favorable reply to the message con- tained in the war club; emblems full of signifi- cance to savage intelligence. The band from Sandy Lake village were, however, behind time in meeting their appointment; Waub-o-jug, there- fore, proceeded cautiously down the St. Croix. On reaching the falls early in the morning, they were preparing to make the portage, when scouts sent forward to reconnoitre returned hurriedly to give information of a large party of Sioux and Foxes landing at the other end of the same portage.
Instant preparation was made for the battle which was now inevitable, and as their presence had become known at the same time to their foes, the hostile parties met as if by mutual agree- ment, in the middle of the portage. The Ojib- was numbered but three linndred, and the Foxes seeing their own superiority in numbers and con- fident in their valor, requested the Sioux not to join in the fight, but to sit by and see how quickly they could rout the Ojibwas. Accordingly the Foxes alone encountered their old foes, and inch by inch the field was contested, many daring acts of personal prowess exhibiting the deadly nature of their hate. About noon the Foxes commenced yielding ground, and at last were forced to flee in confusion.
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INDIAN BATTLE.
Fortunately the Sioux who had been smoking their pipes in what appeared stoical indifference now raised the war whoop and stopped the rout in season to save their allies who would otherwise have perished to a man.
For a time the battle raged again with the greatest fury, until the Ojibwas having exhausted their ammunition were forced in turn to retreat. This retreat was just turning into a rout, at the head of the portage, when the tardy band from Sandy lake arrived at this opportune moment, and eager and fresh they withstood the onset of Sioux and Foxes, until their retreating friends could rally again to the battle. Victory again changed sides, and the former victors were forced back with great slaughter in their ranks. Many were driven over the rocks into the boiling flood below, and every crevice in the cliffs contained a dead or wounded enemy. From this time the Foxes retired south and forever gave up the war with their victorious enemies.
The old Ojibwa chief, Buffalo, of La Pointe, says that the fires of the Foxes were by this stroke nearly extinguished, and they were reduced to fifteen lodges. They were subsequently absorbed in the Algonquin tribe.
Not so with the Sioux, whose prowess enabled them to sustain themselves, and in time to become more than a match for their former victors.
Carver's first acquaintance with the Dakotas, or Sioux, commenced near the river St. Croix. He says: "Near the river St. Croix, reside bands of the Naudowessie Indians, called the River Bands. This nation is composed at present of eleven bands. They were originally twelve, but the Assinepoils, some years ago, revolting and separating themselves from the others, there re- main at this time eleven. Those I met here are termed the River Bands, because they chiefly dwell near the banks of the river; the other eight are generally distinguished by the title of Naudo- wessies of the plains, and inhabit a country more to the westward. The names of the former are Nehogatawonahs, the Mawtawbauntowahs and Shashweentowahs."
On the Otis farm, above Marine Mills, in the valley of the St. Croix, there are numerons mounds, and every appearance of an Indian set- tlement. Dakota tradition alleges that there was
once a small and powerful band that lived above Lake St. Croix. The Mautauton Dakotas, which are spoken of by Le Suenr and Carver, may re- fer to these.
Rev. S. W. Pond, in commenting on Indian warfare, states that great slaughters seldom oc- cur. He says: "Indeed, Indians consider it fool- hardiness to make an attack when it is certain some of them will be killed. Bloody battles were seldom fought by them, except when the party attacked, rallied and made an unexpected resist- ance. The Dakotas had traditional accounts of very few battles where many were killed ; yet, such an event, if it occurred, would not be soon forgotten. He often spoke of an attack made by the Chippewas long ago, on a party of Dakotas who were encamped by the Mississippi where Prescott now stands, in which many Dakotas were killed; also of a very successful winter cam- paign made by them against the Chippewas, some seventy or eighty years ago. But they told of very few great battles or great slaughters, and had preserved no definite account of the number killed. It is probable that some years, perhaps often, they lost more by murder and suicide than by war." Mr. Pond gives a report made up from his diary, showing the number of Indians killed during the ten years following 1835, to be only 214 men, women and children, and the greatest mas- sacre numbered seventy, mostly women and children caught unprotected.
The Indian method of warfare was a cowardly one, creeping undiscovered to attack their enemy unprepared. If their approach was discovered be- fore the attack was made, the attacking party would withdraw, if possible, without striking a blow. If driven to bay, they would exhibit the desperate fighting qualities of animals onder like circumstances, but their courage was of a kind showing itself more in fuss and feathers and washed off as easily as the war paint.
The following is a letter from Rev. Mr. Bout- well, descriptive of an attack the Sionx made upon the Ojibway settlement, on Snake river, in consequence of which the Ojibwas were com- pelled to abandon the settlement. The letter bears date, September 28th, 1841, and is as fol- lows:
"Here on the upper Lake St. Croix, several families came to pass the summer. They came
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HISTORY OF THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY.
forward and showed me the wounds they had re- ceived in the battle. The circumstances were briefly these: While our people were all quiet at home and busily engaged in planting and build- ing, one hundred and eleven Sioux came upon them, and one would have naturally supposed that they would have cut off the whole settle- ment. But no, the Lord wrought for the Ojib- was a most signal deliverance. Not one of our praying Indians or a member of their families was cut off. The Sioux had divided their num- ber into tens and secretly posted them so as to strike upon the different parts of the village at the moment a preconcerted signal should be given. The Lord frustrated their council and prevented a general slaughter.
"Three Ojibwa young men had embarked in a canoe to cross over the lake, just opposite our house, taking with them two young girls to bring the canoe back. At the point where they landed lay a party of Sioux in ambush. Though the sig- nal had not been given, yet the Sioux could not resist the temptation, and the whole party fired into the canoe. The three young men jumped into the water and gained the shore and escaped, with only one wounded in the thumb. The little girls waded into the lake and were pursued by the Sioux and dispatched with spears and war clubs. Their screams were distinctly heard by their parents and their dying agonies in the hands of their enemies were all witnessed and within half a mile of the mission door. This gave the alarm to the whole village. The women and children betook themselves to their canoes and fled for a small island in the lake. The attack soon began upon every part of the settlement. The men and the boys who could bear arms, about fifteen in all, gathered themselves in three houses, and defended themselves as well as they were able. Only a few days previous to the at- tack Mr. Ayer sent Mr. Coe to assist the Indians in fortifying one of the houses. Here they did some execution and damped the courage of their enemies.
"The fathers of the two little girls who were killed, after seeing their children murdered be- fore their eyes, embarked in a canoe and came over from the island and killed one Sioux. They were so hard pushed they were obliged to return to their canoe. One of them plunged into the
water, and swam with one hand and towed his friends in the canoe with the other, while the Sioux were on the shore with their rifles taking . aim at his head. The man literally swam and towed away his friend in a bark canoe, dodging the balls of his enemies falling on every side. This is no fiction, but a fact witnessed by Mr. Ely and others, who stood and saw the whole affair. The result of the whole affair was, the Sioux lost two warriors, and killed two little girls, besides having some six or eight wounded in all. After the engagement subsided, Messrs. Ely and Coe went for the bodies of the two children. They found the heads severed, and a tomahawk stick- ing in each, one of which Mr. Ely has and designs to send you, still besmeared with the blood of one of his scholars.
"The third day after the Sioux retreated, the Ojihways followed their trail and found the bodies of the two men. They scalped them, cut off their heads, and brought home the flesh and a part of the limbs of one. The flesh they boiled and made a feast of it. Not many days after this affair, they fled and hardly an Indian has been seen at Pokegama since. After my arrival in June a party of six men from Mille Lac came and gave us a formal invitation to remove there with our people. In July I went to visit our people on the upper St. Croix and at La Pointe, whither they had fled. I informed them of the visit of the Mille Lac Indians, and that the Sioux are determined to prosecute the war. They were unanimous in saying we will return to Pokegama, and you must not leave us. A few days since I received a letter from one of the Mille Lac men, now at La Pointe, saying that he is coming to see us again, and that there will be three hundred Indians this winter at Mille Lac, and one of us must go and open school there. Our families
have all been visited with sickness. *
*
*
It is still a matter of doubt with us whether our Indians will venture back to winter by us, though they talk so strongly and are so unwilling to let us go to Mille Lac. The Lord I trust will direct; to Him we constantly look, and on Him we will wait."
While missionaries were thus engaged in mor- al, humane and religious measures for the im- provement of the savage, the general government was not idle in formulating and enforcing expe-
1
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TREATY WITH CHIPPEWAS.
dients looking toward peaceful relations between the hostile tribes, and its decisive measures were productive of more permanent good than the sim- ple persuasions of the kindly-meaning mission- aries.
Further, in view of the wants of the settler, it was determined by the government to open up the lumber district of the North-west by the purchase from the Indians of these lands. Game, upon which they had relied for subsist- ence, had become scarce on the east side of the Mississippi, and white men were beginning their encroachments. In view of these facts the treat- ies in contemplation were pressed to consuma- tion.
The year 1837 was a memorable one in the his- tory of the St. Croix Valley, for during that year occurred the two Indian treaties which threw open to settlers the whole of the valley with its almost inexhaustible pineries, and the fine strip of agricultural land lying between the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers.
The first of these treaties was made with the Chippewas July 29th, 1837, at St. Peters, now Mendota, by Gov. Dodge of Wisconsin, acting as commissioner of the United States government. We give the full text of the treaty.
TREATY.
"Article 1. The said Chippewa nation cede to the United States all that tract of country in- cluded within the following boundaries:
Beginning at the junction of the Crow Wing and Mississippi rivers, between twenty and thirty miles above where the Mississippi is crossed by the forty-sixth parrallel of north latitude, and running thence to the north point of Lake St. Croix, one of the sources of the St. Croix river; thence to and along the dividing ridge between the waters of Lake Superior and those of the Missis- sippi, to the sources of the Ocha-sua-sepe, a tribu- ary of the Chippewa river; thence to a point on the Chippewa river, twenty miles below the out- let of Lake De Flambeau: thence to the junction of the Wisconsin and Pelican rivers; thence on an east course twenty-five miles; thence southerly on a course parallel with that of the Wisconsin river, to the line dividing the territories of the Chippewas and Menomonees; thence to the Plo- ver portage; thence along the southern boundary
of the Chippewa country, to the commencement of the boundary line dividing it from that of the Sioux, half a day's march below the falls on the Chippewa river: thence with said boundary line to the mouth of the Wah-tap river at its junction with the Mississippi river, to the place of begin- ning.
Article 2. In consideration of the cession aforesaid, the United States agree to make to the Chippewa nation, annually, for the term of twenty years from the date of the ratification of this treaty, the following payment:
1. Nine thousand five hundred dollars to be paid in money.
2. Nineteen thousand dollars to be delivered in goods.
3. Three thousand dollars for establishing blacksmith shops, supporting the blacksmiths and furnishing them with iron and steel.
4. One thousand dollars for farmers, and for supplying them and the Indians with implements of labor, with grain or seed, and whatever else may be necessary to enable them to carry on their agricultural pursuits.
5. Two thousand dollars in provisions.
6. Five hundred dollars in tobacco. The pro- visions and tobacco to be delivered at the same time with the goods, and the money to be paid ; which time or times, as well as the place or places where they are to be delivered, shall be fixed upon, under the direction of the President of the United States.
The blacksmith-shops to be placed at such points in the Chippewa country as shall be desig- nated by the superintendent of Indian affairs, or under his direction.
If at the expiration of one or more years, the Indians should prefer to receive goods, instead of nine thousand dollars to be paid to them in money, they shall be at liberty to do so, or, should they conclude to appropriate a portion of that annuity to the establishment and support of a school, or schools, among them, this shall be granted.
Article 3. The sum of one hundred thousand dollars shall be paid by the United States to the half-breeds of the Chippewa nation, under the di- rection of the president. It is the wish of the In- dians that their two sub-agents, Daniel P. Bush- nell and Miles M. Vineyard, superintend the dis-
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HISTORY OF THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY.
tribution of this money among their half-breed relations.
Article 4. The sum of seventy thousand dol- lars shall be applied to the payment, by the United States, of certain claims against the In- dians, of which amount, twenty-eight thousand dollars shall, at their request, be paid to William A. Aitkin, twenty-five thousand dollars to Lyman M. Warren, and the balance applied to the liqui- dation of other just demands against them- which they acknowledge to be the case with re- gard to that presented by Hercules L. Dousman, for the sum of five thousand dollars; and they request that it be paid.
Article 5. The privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering the wild rice upon the lands, the rivers and the lakes included in the territory ceded, is guaranteed to the Indians, during the pleasure of the president of the United States.
Article 6. This treaty shall be obligatory from and after its ratification by the president and sen- ate of the United States.
Done at St. Peter, in the territory of Wiscon- sin, the 29th day of July, 1837.
(Signed) HENRY DODGE, Commissioner.
From Leach Lake-Chiefs: Aish-ke-bo-ge- koshe, or Flat Mouth; R-che-o-san-ya, or the El- der Brother. Warriors : Pe-che-kins, the Young Buffalo; Ma-ghe-ga-bo, or La Trappe; O-he-gua- daus, the Chief of the Earth; Wa-bose, or the Rabbit; Che-a-na-quod, or the Big Cloud.
From Gull Lake and Swan River-Chiefs: Pa- goo-na-kee-zhig, or the Hole in the Day; Songa- ko-mig, or the Strong Ground. Warriors: Wa- boo-jig, or the White Fisher; Ma-wu-da, or the Bears Heart.
From St. Croix River-Chiefs: Pe-zhe-ke, or the Buffalo; Ka-be-ma-be, or the Wet Mouth. Warriors: Pa-ga-we-we-weting, Coming Home Hollering; Ya-banse, or the Young Buck; Kis- ke-ta-wak, or the Cut Ear.
From Lake Courteoville-Chiefs: Pa-qua-a-mo, or the Wood Pecker.
From Lac De Flambeau-Chiefs: Pish-ka-ga- ghe, or the White Crow; Na-wa-ge-wa, or the Knees; O-ge-ma-ga, or the Dandy; Pa-se-quam-jis, or the Commissioner; Wa-he-ne-me, or the White Thunder.
From La Pointe (on Lake Superior)-Chiefs:
Pe-zhe-ke, or the Buffalo; Ta-qua-ga-na, or Two Lodges Meeting; Cha-che-que-o.
From Mille Lac-Chiefs: Wa-shask-ko-kone, . or Rat's Liver; Wen-ghe-ge-she-guk, or the First Day. Warriors: Ada-we-ge-shik, or Both Ends of the Sky; Ka-ka-quap, or the Sparrow.
From Sandy Lake-Chiefs: Ka-nan-da-wa-win- zo, or Le Brocheux; We-we-shau-shis, the Bad Boy or Big Mouth; Ke-che-wa-me-te-go, or the Big Frenchman. Warriors: Na-ta-me-ga-bo, or the Man that Stands First; Sa-ga-ta-gun, or Skunk.
From Snake River-Chiefs: Nandin, or the Wind; Sha-go-bai, or the Little Six; Pay-a-jik, or the Lone Man; Na-qua-na-bie, or the Feather. Warriors: Ha-tan-wa; Wa-me-te-go-zhins, the Little Frenchman; Sho-ne-a, or Silver.
From Fond du Lac (on Lake Superior)- Chiefs; Mang-zo-sit, or the Loon's Foot; Shing-go-be, or the Spruce.
From Red Cedar Lake-Mont-so-mo, or the Murdering Yell.
From Red Lake-Francois Goumeau (a half- breed.)
From Leech Lake-Warriors; Sha-wa-ghe-zhig, or the Sounding Sky; Wa-saw-ko-ni-a, or Yellow Robe.
Signed in presence of Verplanck Van Ant- werp, secretary to the commissioner; M. M. Vine- yard, United States Sub-Indian agent; Daniel P. Bushnell; Law. Taliafero, Indian agent at St. Peters; Martin Scott, Captain Fifth Regiment In- fantry, J. Emerson, assistant surgeon, United States Army; H. H. Sibley, H. L. Dousman, S. C. Stambaugh, E. Lockwood, Lyman M. War- ren, J. W. Nicollet, Harmen Van Antwerp, Wm. H. Forbes, Jean Baptiste Dubay, Interpreter; Peter Quinn, Interpreter; S. Campbell, United States Interpreter; Stephen Bonga, Interpreter; Wm. W. Coriell.
To the Indian names were subjoined a mark and seal.
The other treaty was concluded at Washington in the fall of 1837, (September 29) with the Da- kotas. By the terms of this treaty all their lands were ceded, lying east of the Mississippi, includ- ing all the islands therein. They received there- for, three hundred thousand dollars, to be in- vested in five per cent. stocks, the income of which shall be paid to them annually; one hundred and
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DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY.
ten thousand dollars to be divided among the mixed bloods; and ninety thousand dollars to payment of debts owed by the tribe, etc.
The ratification of these treaties was a very important event for Minnesota, sounding, as it were, the key note for the settlement of the state, and from this time on, settlers began to arrive and people the St. Croix Valley.
The first attempt at settlement on the St. Croix was the claim made by military officers stationed at Fort Snelling. This took place in 1827, and their occupancy continued under a color of title until about 1840, covering a large tract of land at the intersection of the St. Croix and the Missis- sippi rivers. Although this claim proved abortive in consequence of an act of congress prohibiting military officers from usurping the rights of citi- zens while in the employment of and enjoying com- pensation from the United States government, the result of this attempt was the establishment of Philander Prescott in the enjoyment of 160 acres of land, forming a part of the original claim. Mr. Prescott had been an Indian interpreter and farmer under the government and was at the time of the passage of the act referred to, residing on the land attempting to hold the whole exten- sive claim in trust for the officers interested therein. The awe-inspiring frown of the officers of the fort, whose power was respected and whose rights were not fully understood by pioneers for a long time, prevented settlement and progress at this point. Settlement was, therefore, pushed fur- ther up the river and for a long time assumed the character of lumbering camps without permanent improvements. The settlement at the falls of St. Croix in 1837 was the most important of the these, and the next made.
The pioneers of every western state are by na- ture, fortune-seekers. The love of nature and romantic scenery does not determine settlement, and further, as the love for his new home is yet to be developed, the settler is still looking west- ward and cannot be called a fixture until children have grown up around his hearth and the heart strings have become entangled among the new associations. Too often before these ties are ce- mented he acts the part of a vandal, by cutting trees and recklessly wasting the store of wealth laid up by the generous hand of nature in the soil and foliage.
Many of the pioneers of the St. Croix valley long felt that it was not their future home. They came with ax on shoulder, purposing to do the' work of hardy lumbermen, make what could be made here in dollars and cents, and then move on to new fields of couquest. To locate sixty miles from a post-office, and receive mail and supplies by semi-annual communication with the outside world, with a purpose of waiting for the world to open communication with them during their life would have been presumption, to say the least, on the part of our pioneers.
The development of the country surpassed their fondest predictions, and what would have seemed altogether improbable at first, has become true, viz: this has become the home of their choice. ) The word home covers it all, implying in itself the institutions that follow the settlement of en- lightened people, the church, the school, and the associations of agreeable people in ties of warm friendship. The feature which attracted settle- ment to the St. Croix Valley was the pine forests on its tributaries, taken with the facilities for its manufacture into lumber and convenience of transportation to good markets. The pine for- ests of Minnesota extend in a broad belt from the upper St. Croix Valley northwesterly across the tributaries of the St. Croix and the Mississippi to Red Lake. The numerous streams by which this extensive tract is interlaced, enables the compa- nies that cut logs during the winter to drive them during the spring freshets to the seats of lumber manufactories, of which the principal ones now are Minneapolis on the Mississippi, and Stillwater and other points on the St. Croix. The largest amount of logs at any part of the St. Croix Valley are cut and rafted down the Kettle and Snake rivers and the Wisconsin tributaries from sixty to one hundred miles above Taylor's Falls.
The valuable water-power at the Falls of St. Croix had long tantalized speculative explorers, and was remarked as an attractive and romantic spot for settlement, in addition to the wealth seen in the power of the falls, should it be developed. In 1837, Franklin Steele, who had acted as pri- vate secretary for General Jackson, and at the close of his administration had taken the advice of the general to embark in western enterprise on the upper Mississippi, started from Fort Snelling in a birch bark canoe, propelled by eight men,
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HISTORY OF THE SAINT CROIX VALLEY.
and descending the Mississippi river to the mouth of the St. Croix, ascended that river and made a claim at the falls, which included the water- power, building a log claim cabin in which to place a tenant to protect his rights according to the code of squatter sovereignty.
This claim was made on the Wisconsin side of the river. Franklin Steele was a native of Ches- ter county, Pennsylvania, and brought with him, in addition to a large amount of natural talent and energy, some capital and much political in- fiuence.
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