USA > Minnesota > Redwood County > The history of Redwood County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 13
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It was believed by the whites that the soldiers' lodges on the Sioux reservation had determined on armed resistance to the presence of troops at the pay tables. Agent Galbraith and other white people about the agencies became greatly alarmed, and June 25 the agent called on Fort Ridgely for troops to come at once to Redwood. The St. Peter Guards were promptly sent and remained at the Lower Agency until after the payment, which
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passed off quietly. July 3 Major Galbraith again became alarmed at the Indian signs and called for a strong force to come to Yellow Medicine. McKune's company of the First Regiment and Skaro's of the Second Regiment were at once started from Fort Ridgely, but ten miles out were turned back. The next day Captain Western's company started for the Upper Agency, and on the sixth was overtaken by Captain Skaro's and the two companies reached the Yellow Medicine on the seventh, to the great relief of the agent and the other government employes and traders and their families, who were in great fear of the rebellious and menac- ing Indians, chiefly young men and reckless characters. The pay- ment at the Upper Agency was without disorder; the Indians paid their debts, but some of them were reported as saying that "this is the last time" they would do so.
July 23 the two companies of the Second Regiment marched back to Fort Ridgely. August 13 detachments of both companies, under Captain Western and Lieutenant Cox, were sent by Lieu- tenant Colonel George, commanding the post at Fort Ridgely, to the Spirit lake district, in Iowa, to protect the settlers in that region from the depredations of certain Indians, who, it was feared, contemplated another raid of the Inkpadoota character. The command was absent for two weeks.
About September 1 the Indians at and above Yellow Medi- cine became turbulent and frightened. On the eighth Company E, Captain Skaro, was dispatched from Fort Ridgely and reached the Yellow Medicine on the tenth. On the fifteenth Lieutenant J. C. Donahower, with twelve men of Company E, was sent to Big Stone lake as an escort to the government farmer, who was directed to secure from the Sissetons about the lake some horses which had been stolen by them and the Yanktonnais from white settlers on the Missouri in southeastern Dakota. The lieutenant returned to Yellow Medicine with three of the recovered horses. The Sissetons and Yanktons stole about thirty horses that sum- mer from Minnesota and Iowa settlers. September 23 Captain Skaro left Yellow Medicine for Fort Snelling, where he joined his regiment, which, in a few days, was sent to the South.
On the tenth of October, 1861, Companies A and B, of the Fourth Regiment, became the garrison at Fort Ridgely. Captain L. L. Baxter, of Company A, was commander of the post until in March, 1862, when the companies with the remainder of the regiment were sent to the Union army in front of Corinth, Mis- sissippi.
Upon the organization of the Fifth Minnesota Infantry, March 29, 1862, three of the companies of that regiment were assigned to garrison duty at the Minnesota forts. To Fort Abercrombie was sent Company D, Captain John Vander Horck ; to Fort Rip- ley, Company C, Captain Hall; to Fort Ridgely, Company B,
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Captain John S. Marsh. As Captain Marsh had not yet joined the company, and as Lieutenant Norman K. Culver was on detail as quartermaster, Sergeant Thomas P. Gere led the company on its march, in zero weather, through a deep snow, from Fort Snell- ing to Fort Ridgely, arriving at the latter post March 25. April 10 Gere became second lieutenant, and on the sixteenth Captain Marsh arrived and assumed command of the post. There were then at the fort, in addition to the officers and men of Company B, Post Surgeon Dr. Alfred Muller, Sutler Ben H. Randall, Inter- preter Peter Quinn and Ordnance Sergeant John Jones, and a few soldiers' families living in cabins nearby. Sergeant Jones was in charge of the government stores and of six pieces of artillery of different calibers, the relics of the old artillery school at the post, which had been left by Major Pemberton when he departed for Washington with the last battery organization, in February, 1861.
The Minnesota Indian payments for 1862 were greatly delayed. They should have been made by the last of June, but the govern- ment agents were not prepared to make them until the middle of August. The authorities at Washington were to blame. For some weeks they dallied with the question whether or not a part at least of the payment should be made in greenbacks. Com- missioner Dole, Superintendent Thompson and Agent Galbraith protested that the payment should be in specie. Not until August 8 did Secretary Chase, of the Treasury, order Assistant Treasurer Cisco, of New York, to send the Indians' money in gold coin to Superintendent Thompson at St. Paul. The money-$71,000, in kegs, all in gold coin-left New York August 11 and arrived at St. Paul on the sixteenth. Superintendent Thompson started it the next day for the Indian country in charge of C. W. Wykoff, E. C. Hatch, Justus C. Ramsey, A. J. Van Vorhees and C. M. Daily, and they, with the wagons containing the precious kegs, reached Fort Ridgely, August 18, the first day of the great out- break. The money and its custodians remained within the fort until Sibley's army came, and then the money, in the original package as stated, was taken back to St. Paul by the parties named who had brought it up.
Meanwhile there was a most unhappy condition of affairs on the reservation. The Indians had been eagerly awaiting the pay- ment since the tenth of June. On the twenty-fifth a large delega- tion of the chiefs and head men of the Sissetons and Wahpetons visited Yellow Medicine and demanded of Agent Galbraith to be informed whether they and their people were to get any money that year; they alleged they had been told by certain white men that they would not be paid because of the great war then in progress between the North and South. The agent said the pay- ment would certainly be made by July 20. He then gave them
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some provisions, ammunition, and tobacco, and sent them back to their villages, promising to notify them when the money came of the exact time of the payment. He then went to the Lower Agency and counseled the people there as he had the people at Yellow Medicine, adding that they should busy themselves in cutting hay for the winter and in keeping the birds from the corn. These Lower Indians had worked hard during the summer but their crops had not turned out well, owing to the numerous birds and insect pests, and their stock of provisions was nearly exhausted. Major Galbraith therefore issued them a supply of mess pork, flour, salt, tobacco and ammunition.
Efforts have been made by many writers to show that the condition of the Indians was no worse than that of the white set- tler-that the Indian had a better chance to prosper than did the white pioneer.
But the circumstances were much different. The pioneer had come prepared for the rigors of pioneer life. He had come hop- ing to better himself. It is true that in coming the pioneer brought civilization. But he did not come for that purpose. Much as we admire the pioneer, much as we appreciate the great good that he has done, deep though the debt we owe him may be, many though his hardships were, nevertheless there can be no disguising the motive that brought him. He came because he expected to be more prosperous here than he had been in the place from whence he came.
The Indian had no such hope. He was not equipped for the mode of life that was thrust upon him. He had owned these stretches of land. He had lived in contentment. Through the chase he had obtained a good living. When he gave up the op- portunity of securing his accustomed daily livelihood he was accepting the promise of a great nation that in exchange for his land he would be paid certain sums for his support. He had given up his land, he had given up his mode of making a living, he had moved to the reservation, he had kept his part of the bargain; yet the great government was breaking its part of the bargain by every quibble and pretense possible.
The sudden change of life had brought ructions among the Indians themselves. Some seeing that the white man by trickery and superior strength, was bound to rule, urged that the Indians make the best of a bad situation and take up the white man's ways. These Indians were called the farmer Indians.
There were others, however, who saw that the Indian was not adapted to the ways of the whites, and saw only slavery and deg- radation in the ways of the farmer Indians, many of whom were already dying of tubercular troubles as the result of their unac- customed mode of life. These blanket Indians, as they were called, believed in the old ways. They wanted the government
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to keep its promise and make its payments according to agree- ment, after which they wanted the government to leave them to lead their own lives in their own way.
So these were arguments among the Indians, such matters as adopting the white man's habits, clothing, and customs, obeying instructions about not fighting the Chippewas, the election of chief speaker of the Medawakanton band.
In the spring Little Crow, Big Eagle, and Traveling Hail were candidates for speaker of the band. There was a heated contest, resulting in the defeat of Little Crow to his great mortification and chagrin and that of his followers, who constituted the greater part of the blanket Indian party. His successful opponent, Traveling Hail, was a civilization Indian and a firm friend of the whites.
In June, as the time for the payment approached, a number of the young Medawakantons and Wahpakootas formed a sol- diers' lodge, to consider the question of allowing the traders to approach the pay table. The chiefs and head men, according to custom, were not allowed to participate in the deliberations of this peculiar council, although they were expected to enforce its decisions and decrees. After a few days of secret consultation the council sent a delegation to Fort Ridgely, which, through Post Interpreter Quinn, asked Captain Marsh, the commandant, not to send any soldiers to the payment to help the traders collect their debts. Captain Marsh replied that he was obliged to have some of his soldiers present at the payment, but they would not be used unless there was a serious disturbance of the peace, and on no account would he allow them to be employed to collect the debts owing to the traders by the Indians. This reply greatly gratified the Indians and they returned to their villages in high glee boasting of what they had accomplished.
The traders were indignant at the action of the Indian soldiers. They vowed not to sell the Indians any more supplies on credit. "You will be sorry for what you have done," said Andrew J. Myrick, who was in charge of his brother's trading house at Red- wood, "you will be sorry. After a while you will come to me and beg for meat and flour to keep you and your wives and chil- dren from starving and I will not let you have a thing. You and your wives and children may starve, or eat grass, or your own filth." The traders tried to induce Captain Marsh to revoke his decision in their favor, but he would make them no promises.
In July the Lower warriors convened another soldiers' lodge. This time the subject of discussion was whether or not they should go on the war-path against the Chippewas, who had recently given a lot of trouble. Incidentally the trouble about their debts came up, and it was finally decided that if the soldiers guarded
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the pay tables, and their bayonets were employed as instruments for the collection of debts, the Indians would be forced to submit. This was the soldiers' lodge about whose purpose and plans so many startling and alarming statements were afterwards made by the whites. At the time too, the whites were afraid. On one occasion the Indians went down to Fort Ridgely and asked to be allowed to play ball (or la crosse) on the parade grounds. Captain Marsh refused to allow this, and it was afterwards printed that on the occasion mentioned the Indians had planned and schemed to get into the fort by stratagem, and then massacre the garrison and every white person in the neighborhood.
The Upper Indians were in far worse moods than their breth- ren at Redwood. In addition to their dissatisfaction in regard to the delay in the payment-for they needed assistance most sorely -they were incensed against the white authorities who had for- bidden them to make war on the Chippewas. The latter made frequent forays upon the Sioux of the upper country. In May a hunting party of Red Iron's band was attacked on the Upper Pomme de Terre by a band of Chippewas and chased from the country, losing two men killed. About the twentieth of July the Chippewas slipped down and killed two Sioux within eighteen miles of Yellow Medicine.
These instances stirred the blood of the Upper bands and four days later several hundred of them formed a war party and, stripped and painted, and yelling and shouting, marched by the Agency buildings and the camp of the soldiers and down the Minnesota in the direction of Major Brown's stone mansion and big farm, near where the Chippewas were supposed to be. The majority of the Indians were mounted, but those who were on foot went galloping along by the side of the cantering ponies and kept up with them easily. The Chippewas had retreated and could not be overtaken.
About the fifteenth of August, only a few days before the outbreak, a man and his son of Red Iron's band were killed by the Chippewas, while hunting, a few miles north of the river. Their bodies were taken back to their village and exposed in public for a whole day. Hundreds of Sioux came to see them. A war party of a dozen or more set out after the murderers, fol- lowed them up into the Otter Tail lake country, and did not re- turn to the reservation until nearly two weeks after the outbreak.
Certain writers have frequently declared that the outbreak was a long meditated and carefully planned movement of the Sioux and Chippewas in combination; that Little Crow and Hole- in-the-Day were in constant communication and engaged in pre- paring for the uprising for weeks before it occurred. The inci- dents given of the tragic events, the homicides, and the fights between the two tribes up to the very date of the Sioux outbreak
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prove the absurd falsity of the claim that they were engaged as allies in plotting against the whites.
In the first part of July in this memorable year a brief period of excitement and danger began at the Yellow Medicine Agency. The Upper Indians became turbulent and menacing, and serious results were avoided only by the greatest care and the intelli- gent exercise of sound judgment.
As early as June 18, Captain Marsh, in command at Fort Ridgely, deemed it best, in anticipation of trouble among the Indians at the payment, to strengthen his forces. On the eighteenth Captain Hall ordered Lieutenant T. J. Sheehan, with fifty men of Company B of the Fifth Regiment, from Fort Ripley to re-enforce the garrison at Fort Ridgely. The Lieutenant and his men arrived on the twenty-eighth, and the next day Captain Marsh started them and fifty men of Company B, under Lieuten- ant T. P. Gere for the Yellow Medicine, which post they reached July 2. They carried with them a piece of artillery, a twelve- pound mountain howitzer, and plenty of ammunition. Lieu- tenants Sheehan and Gere were directed to obey the orders of Agent Galbraith and to preserve peace and protect United States property, "during the time of the annuity payment for the pres- ent year." Sheehan ranked Gere, and was given command of the detachment.
When the soldiers reached the Yellow Medicine, they found the Upper Indians already arriving in large numbers in antici- pation of the annuity payment, which was the prevailing and absorbing topic. On the eighth a detachment of warriors, through Interpreter Quinn, had a lengthy interview with the young of- ficers. The Indians said: "We are the braves who do the fight- ing for our people. We sold our land to the Great Father, but we don't get the pay for it. The traders are allowed to sit at the pay table, and they take all our money. We wish you to keep the traders away from the pay table, and as we are now hungry we want you to make us a present of a beef." The lieutenant answered that the payment regulations were in charge of Agent Galbraith, whose orders they must obey; that they had no beeves or other provisions, save their own army rations, which they needed for themselves, but that they would tell the agent what the warriors had said.
Every day brought accessions to the number of Indians about the Agency. On July 14, when Agent Galbraith arrived, he was astonished and alarmed to find that nearly all of the Upper Indians had arrived, that they were greatly destitute, and that they were clamoring for "Wo-kay-zhu-zhu ! Wo-kay-zhu-zhu," the payment! the payment! The agent asked them reproachfully : "Why have you come? I sent you away and told you not to come back until I sent for you again. I have not sent for you-
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why have you come?" The Indians replied: "It was such a long time that we did not hear from you, that we feared some- thing was wrong. Then, because of the war in the south, some white men say that we will not get our money at all. We want to find out about all this. We are destitute and hungry. You may not have money, but you have provisions in that big house, and this is the time of the year that we should receive both our money and supplies; we want some of the supplies now. We will not leave our camps until we get our money and all."
Major Galbraith sent word of his predicament to Superin- tendent Thompson and asked for instructions. The superintend- ent answered that the agent was on the ground and must do as he thought best. The agent then issued, in scanty quantities, some rations of pork and flour and some cloth and other sup- plies to the most destitute and deserving. The Indians were grateful, and gave numerous dances and other entertainments as returns for the favors.
To add to Major Galbraith's perplexities, the presence of a large number of Yanktonnais and other non-annuity Indians was reported. On the day after his arrival he inspected the various camps and found, to his disgust and dismay, that there were 659 lodges of annuity Indians, 78 lodges of Yanktonnais, 37 of Cut Heads, and five of unidentified people, said to be Winnebagoes. There were more than 4,000 annuity Sioux and about 1,000 Yank- tonians and Cut Heads. Even a portion of Inkpadoota's band was reported to be out on the prairies.
By July 18, the Indians had eaten nearly all of their dogs and everything else of an edible character in their camps, and there was actual starvation among them. Still there was no payment and no issue of supplies. Down in the Minnesota bottoms, almost hidden in the high and succulent grass, were hundreds of fat cattle belonging to the settlers and to be had for the killing, and less than a day's march away were provisions of other kinds, enough to feed an army, and to be had for the taking. Lieutenant Sheehan feared that the strain would not endure much longer, and sent down to Ridgely and brought up another howitzer. Gal- braith, however, did not believe there was any danger, as the Indians were apparently quiet and peaceable. On the twenty- first the lieutenants interviewed Galbraith and plainly told him that did he not at once relieve the most pressing necessities of the Indians, he would be responsible for any casualty that might ensue. The agent agreed that he would at once take a census of the annuity people, issue an abundant supply of provisions, and then send them back to their villages to await the arrival of their money.
On the twenty-sixth the counting took place. The enumera- tion was confined to the annuity Indians; the Yanktonnais and
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Cut Heads were ignored. All of the people eligible to payment were assembled near the Government buildings, and a cordon of soldiers thrown about the entire concourse. Each sub-chief called upon the heads of families in his band to give the number of per- sons in their respective families and when the number was an- nounced those composing it were sent out of the lines to their camps. The enumeration occupied twelve and a half hours.
The Indian census had been taken, but still Agent Galbraith made no issue of provisions, as he had promised. The man seemed beside himself, in the perplexities of his situation. He was a drinking man, and it is said that he was intoxicated a great por- tion of the time in an effort to meet the dangers which confronted him with a "Dutch courage."
The next day after the census was taken, or July 27, Major Galbraith sent Lieutenant Sheehan, with fourteen soldiers, four citizens and the ever faithful Good Voiced Hail, as a guide, on a futile and foolish chase after the half dozen of Inkpadoota's band reported to be hovering about the Dakota boundary, south and west of Lake Benton. The men were all mounted and had two baggage wagons. After scouring the country in a vain search for trails or even signs, the detachment set out on the return trip and reached Yellow Medicine August 3. The failure to over- take the outlaws had a bad effect upon the Agency Indians, who derided the work of the soldiers and were confirmed in their be- lief that in matters pertaining to warfare of any sort, Indians could easily outwit white men.
The fourth of August came but no paymaster was in sight, and there had been no issue of provisions, save a few pieces of hard tack, for two weeks. Early in the morning of the fourth the Indians sent two messengers to Lieutenant Sheehan and informed him that later in the day, they were coming to the Agency to fire a salute and make a great demonstration for the entertain- ment of the white people, and especially the soldiers. "Don't be afraid," they said, "for although we will do a lot of shooting we won't hurt anybody."
About 9 o'clock the soldiers were startled to see that, sud- denly and without having previously been seen, the Indians had surrounded the camp and were pointing guns at them. The sentinels or camp guards were pushed from their beats and told to go to their tents and stay there, and Private James Foster, of Company B, had his gun wrested from him. At the same time several hundred mounted and armed warriors galloped up, yell- ing and shooting, and began riding wildly about. The real ob- ject of this startling and thrilling demonstration was not appar- ent until the Indian leader dashed up to the west end of the Gov- ernment warehouse and struck its big door a resounding blow with him tomahawk. Very soon the door was broken down and
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the Indians rushed in and began carrying away the big fat sacks of flour and the fatter slices of pork.
According to Lieutenant Gere's account, the situation was now perilous in the extreme. The soldiers were outnumbered seven to one by the excited warriors, who were priming, cocking, and aiming their guns only a hundred feet away. Private Josiah Weakley, of Company C, precipitated a crisis. An Indian had pointed a gun at him, and the soldier swore a big mouth-filling oath and hastily capped and aimed his gun at the savage to re- sent the insult. He was about to the pull the trigger, when Jim Ybright struck down the gun, and thus prevented the destruc- tion of the entire command and of every other white person at or about the Agency. For at that critical moment had a single hostile shot been fired, by either white man or Indian, the great savage outbreak of a fortnight later would have begun and its first victims would have been the people of Yellow Medicine.
Lieutenant Sheehan ordered his little command to "fall in," and promptly every man, gun in hand, sprang into line. There was no shrinking and apparently no fear. It was soon realized that the object of the Indian attack was to secure the provisions in the warehouse wherewith to feed themselves and their famish- ing women and children. Had the murder of the whites been in- tended, the bloody work would have been begun at once. It seemed certain that the Indians would not fire the first shot.
But the peace must be preserved, even if it had to be fought for, and the Government property must be protected at all haz- ards. Lieutenant Gere had direct charge of the two cannon, and the men of his company had been trained by old Sergeant Jones, at Ridgely, to handle them. Taking the tarpaulin cover from one of the guns, which was loaded with canister, Lieutenant Gere aimed it at the warehouse door, through which the Indians were crowding, going for and returning with sacks of flour. From the cannon to the warehouse the distance was not more than 150 yards; the ground was level, and the range point blank.
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