The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 3

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246

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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 Menominces, 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 had apprised of their coming. They were in canoes on the Missis- sippi, and as they reached the lower end of Prairie du Pierreaux, they paddled up a narrow channel which ran near the eastern

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

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 daneed over their victory. A few weeks previous the Foxes had killed some of Wabasha's band on the Red Cedar river in Iowa, a few miles south of Austin, and the Sioux claimed that their part in the Prairie dn Pierreaux was taken in retalliation 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 intox- ieated-men, women and children-when two hours before day- light the Dubuque Foxes took dreadful reprisal for the killing of their brethren at Prairie du Pierreaux. Though but a small band, they crept into the Menominee encampment, fell upon the in- mates, and in a few minutes put numbers of them to the gun, tomahawk and the sealping 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 exaltation that the cowardly killing of their comrades at Prairie du Pierreaux had been revenged.

Because of the Prairie du Pierreanx affair, the Foxes at first refused to be present at the second treaty of Prairie du Chien, but finally . eame.

Delegates were present from four bands of the Sioux, the Medawakantons, the Wapakootas, the Wahpatons and the Sisse- tons, and also from the Sacs, 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 their claims to the land in western fowa, northwestern Missouri, and especially the country 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 traet of land within the following limits, to-wit: Be- ginning at a place called the Barn, below and near the village of the Red Wing chief, and running baek 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 Eneampment, 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."

Certificates, or "scrip" were issued to many half-breeds, and there was much speculation in them, and litigation over them, in subsequent years, a matter of which will be treated later in

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

this history. The Sioux also ceded a tract of land twenty miles wide along the northern boundary of Iowa from the Mississippi to the Des Moines, the consideration for which was $2,000 in cash and $12,000 in merchandise. Thus it will be seen that as early as 1830 the Indians relinquished their title to the land just south of Mower county. The strip in question was for many years known as the "Neutral Land."

The Doty Treaty. The Doty treaty, made at Traverse des Sioux, in July, 1841, failed to be ratified by the United States senate. This treaty embodied a Utopian dream that a territory 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 nlong the plan still followed with the Cherokees in the Indian ter- vitory, except that it embodied for the Indians a much higher type of citizenship than is found in the Indian territory. The 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 con- ferred upon the Indians, the United States was to receive all the lands in what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas and northwestern Towa, except small portions, which were to be reserved for the Redmen. This eeded land was not to be opened to the settlement 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 ean tell what would have been the result of this experiment, for the senate, for politi- cal reasons, refused to ratify the treaty, and it failed of going into effect. This treaty was signed by the Sisseton, Wahpaton und Wahpakoota bands at Traverse des Sioux, July 31, 1841, and by the Medawakanton 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, be- fwveen 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 prom- inent pioneers were also present. The meeting was held under a brush arbor erected by Alexis Bailly, and one of the incidents

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

of the proceedings was the marriage of two mixed blood people, David Faribault and Nancy Winona MeClure, the former the son of Jean Baptist Faribault and the latter of Lieut. James McCIure. 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 thenee 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 Mower, Steele 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 arbor, ereeted by Alexis Bailly, on an elevated plain near the high prominenee 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. Henderson, 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. Wheeloek. 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 coneluded, each Indian signer stepped to another table where lay another paper which he signed. This was called the trader's' paper, and was an agreement to pay the "just debts," so ealled. 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 eeded 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

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

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 western bank of said river to its point of intersection with the northern 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 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 was to be expended annually, under the president's direc- tion, as follows: To a civilization fund, $12,000; to an educa- tional 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 an- nnally. 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 ten cents an aere 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

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

was also strieken out. The treaties, with the changes, eame back to the Indians for final ratification and agreement to the altera- tions. The chiefs of the lower bands at first objeeted very stren- uously, but finally, on Saturday, September 4, 1852, at Governor Ramsey's residenee 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- elaimed by President Fillmore February 24, 1853. The Indians were allowed to remain in their old villages, or, if they preferred, to oeeupy 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 detaeh- 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- vation and ageney only at the time of the payment of their an- nuities. Finally, by the offer of cabins to live in, or other sub- stantial inducements, nearly all of them were indueed 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 Mower county and the surrounding territory eame into the possession of the whites and was thus opened for settlement and development.

CHAPTER IV.

GOVERNMENTAL HISTORY.

Early Claims of Title-Spain, France and England-Treaties and Agreements-The 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-Com- piled from Manuscripts of Hon. F. M. Crosby.

The history of the early government of what is now southern Minnesota, is formulated with some difficulty, as, prior to the nine- teenth century, the interior of the county was so little known,

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

and the maps upon which claims and grants were founded were so meagre, 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.

The Hon. J. V. Brower, a scholarly authority upon this sub- ject, says-("The Mississippi River and Its Sources") : "Spain, by virtue of the discoveries of Columbus and others, confirmed to her by papal grant (that of Alexander VI, May 4, 1493), may be said to have been the first European owner of the entire valley of the Mississippi, but she never used this claim as a ground for taking formal possession of this part of her domains other than in- cidentally involved in De Soto's doings. The feeble objections which she made in the next two centuries after the discovery, to other nations exploring and settling North America, were success- fully overcome by the force of accomplished facts. The name of Florida, now so limited in its application, was first applied by the Spaniards to the greater part of the eastern half of North Amer- ica, commencing at the Gulf of Mexico and proceeding northward indefinitely. This expansiveness of geographieal view was par- alleled later by the definition of a New France of still greater extent, which practically included all the continent.

"L'Escarbot, in his history of New France, written in 1617, says, in reference to this: 'Thus our Canada has for its limits on the west side all the lands as far as the sea called the Pacific, on this side of the Tropic of Cancer; on the south the islands of the Atlantic sea in the direction of Cuba and the Spanish land; on the east the northern sea which bathes New France; and on the north the land said to be unknown, toward the iey sea as far as the arctic pole.'

"Judging also by the various grants to individuals, noble and otherwise, and 'companies,' which gave away the country in lati- tudinal strips extending from the Atlantic westward, the English were not far behind the Spaniards and French in this kind of effrontery. As English colonists never settled on the Mississippi in pursuance of such grants, and never performed any acts of authority there, such shadowy sovereignties may be disregarded here, in spite of the fact that it was considered necessary, many years later, for various states concerned to convey to the United States their rights to territory which they never actually ruled over.

"Thus, in the most arbitrary manner, did the Mississippi river, though yet unknown, become the property, successively, of the Iberian, Gaulish and Anglo-Saxon raees-of three peoples who, in later times, by diplomacy and force of arms, struggled for an actual occupaney. Practically, however, the upper Mississippi

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

valley may be considered as having been in the first place Canadian soil, for it was Frenchmen from Canada who first vis- ited it and traded with its various native inhabitants. The further prosecution of his discoveries by La Salle, in 1682, extended Canada as a French possession to the Gulf of Mexico, though he did not use the name of Canada nor yet that of New France. He preferred to call the entire country watered by the Missis- sippi river and its tributaries, from its uttermost source to its mouth, by the new name he had already invented for the pur- pose-Louisiana. The name of Canada and New France had been indifferently used to express about the same extent of territory, but the name of Louisiana now came to supersede them in being applied to the conjectural regions of the West. Although La Salle has applied the latter expression to the entire valley of the Mississippi, it was not generally used in that sense after his time, the upper part of the region was called Canada, and the lower Louisiana; but the actual dividing line between the two provinces was not absolutely established, and their names and boundaries were variously indicated on published maps. Speaking generally, the Canada of the eighteenth century included the Great Lakes and the country drained by their tribu- taries; the northern one-fourth of the present state of Illinois, that is, as much as lies north of the mouth of the Rock river; all the regions lying north of the northern watershed of the Mis- souri, and finally the valley of the upper Missouri itself." This would include Mower county.

But it is now necessary to go back two centuries previous and consider the various explorations of the Mississippi upon which were based the claims of the European monarchs. Pos- sibly the mouth of the Mississippi had been reached by Span- iards previous to 1541, possibly Hibernian missionaries as early as the middle of the sixth century, or Welch emigrants (Madoc), about 1170, discovered North America by way of the Gulf of Mexico, but historians give to Hernando de Soto and his band of adventurers the credit of having been the first white men to actually view the Mississippi on its course through the interior of the continent and of being the first ones to actually traverse its waters. De Soto sighted the Mississippi in May, 1541, at the head of an expedition in search of gold and precious stones. In the following spring, weary with hope long deferred, and worn out with his adventures, De Soto fell a victim to disease, and died May 21, 1541. His followers, greatly reduced in number by sickness, after wandering about in a vain searching, built three small vessels and descended to the mouth of the Mississippi, being the first white men to reach the outlet of that great river from the interior. However, they were too weary and discour-

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

aged to lay claim to the country, and took no notes of the region through which they passed.

In 1554, James Cartier, a Frenchman, discovered the St. Lawrenee, and explored it as far as the present site of Quebec. The next year he ascended the river to Mont Real, the lofty hill for which Montreal was named. Thereafter all the country drained by the St. Lawrence was elaimed by the French. Many years later the King of France granted the "basin of the St. Lawrenee and all the rivers flowing through it to the sea," to a company, whose leader was Champlain, the founder of Quebec, which became the capital of New France, whose then unex- plored territory stretehed westward to well within the bounda- ries of what is now Minnesota. In 1613-15 Champlain explored the Ottawa river, and the Georgian bay to Lake Huron, and missions were established in the Huron country. Missionaries and fur traders were the most active explorers of the new pos- sessions. They followed the shores of the Great Lakes and then penetrated further and further into the wilderness. As they went they tried to make friends of the red men, established trading posts and raised the Christian cross. In 1641 Jogues and Raymbault, Jesuits, after a long and perilous voyage in frail canoes and bateaux, reached the Sault Ste. Marie, where they heard of a large river, the Mich-is-ip-e, flowing southward to the sea, and of a powerful Indian tribe dwelling near its head- quarters. Stories of vast fertile plains, of numberless streams, of herds of buffalo, and of many peoples, in regions far to the west and south, roused missionaries and traders anew, and the voyages and trips of the explorers became more frequent.

In 1659-60 Radisson and Groselliers, proceeding westward from Lake Superior, entered what is now Minnesota. They spent some time in the "forty villages of the Dakotas," in the vieinity of Mille Laes, and probably were the first white men to set foot on the soil of this state. The contention that these adventurers spent a part of the years 1655-56 on Prairie Island, in the Mis- sissippi just above Red Wing, is disputed by most historians, but still forms an interesting subjeet for study and conjecture.

Some writers also elaim that the Frenchman, Sieur Nieoliet, who should not be confused with the Nicollet of a later date, reached the Mississippi in 1639.

Rene Menard, a Jesuit missionary, reached the Mississippi in 1661 by way of Wiseonsin. This was twelve years prior to its discovery by Marquette and Joliet, and to Menard historians in general give the honor of the discovery of the upper waters of the great river. Menard ascended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Black river, Wis., and was lost in a forest near the source of that stream while attempting to carry the gospel to the

HISTORY OF MOWER COUNTY

Hurons. His sole companion "called him and sought him, but he made no reply and could not be found." Some years later his camp kettle, robe and prayer book were seen in the possession of the Indians.

In the summer of 1663 the intelligence of the fate of Menard reached Quebee, and on August 8, 1665, Father Claude Allouez, who had anxiously waited two years for the means of convey- ance, embarked for Lake Superior with a party of French traders and Indians. He visited the Minnesota shores of Lake Superior in the fall of 1665, established the Mission of the Holy Spirit at La Pointe, now in Wisconsin, and we are told "was the first to write 'Messipi' the name of the great river of the Sioux country," as he heard it pronounced by the Chippewas, or rather as it sounded to his ears.

May 13, 1673, Jaques Marquette and Louis Joliet, the former a priest and the latter the commander of the expedition, set out with five assistants, and on June 17 of the same year reached the Mississippi at the present site of Prairie du Chien, thence continuing down the river as far as the mouth of the Illinois, which they ascended, subsequently reaching the lakes.

In 1678, the Sieur Duluth, Daniel Graysolon, under commis- sion from the governor of Canada, set out from Quebec, to ex- plore the country west of the Lake Superior region. He was to take possession of it in the name of the king of France, and secure the trade of the native tribes. Duluth entered Minnesota in 1679, reaching the great Sioux village of Kathio at Mille Laes, on July 2. "On that day," he says, "I had the honor to plant His Majesty's arms, where a Frenchman never before had been."

La Salle, however, was the first to lay claim to the entire valley in the name of his sovereign. After achieving perpetual fame by the discovery of the Ohio river (1670-71), he conceived the plan of reaching the Pacific by way of the northern Missis- sippi, at that time unexplored and supposed to be a waterway connecting the two oceans. Frontenae, then governor-general of Canada, favored the plan, as did the King of France. Ac- cordingly, gathering a company of Frenchmen, he pursued his way through the lakes, made a portage to the Illinois river, and January 4, 1680, reached what is now Lake Peoria, in Illinois. From there, in February, he sent Hennepin and two companions to explore the upper Mississippi. During this voyage Hennepin, and the men accompanying him, were taken by the Indians as far north as Mille Lacs. He also discovered St. Anthony Falls. Needing reinforcements, La Salle again returned to Canada. In January, 1682, with a band of followers, he started on his third and greatest expedition. February 6, they reached the Missis- sippi by way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river, and March

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The history of Mower County, Minnesota : illustrated, Part 3

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co. Number of Pages: 1246

Author: Curtiss-Wedge, Franklyn
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago : H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co.
Number of Pages: 1246