USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
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 eome 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
128
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
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. Ile had owned these stretches of land. Ile had lived in contentment. Through the chase he had obtained a good living. When he gave up the op- portumity 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 trick- ery 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 ealled, believed in the old ways. They wanted the government 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 morti- fication 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 eustom, 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 consulta- tion the council sent a delegation to Fort Ridgely, which, through
129
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
Post Interpreter Quinn, asked Captain Marsh, the commandant, not to send any soldiers to the payment to help the traders eol- lect 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 eredit. "You will be sorry for what you have done," said Andrew J. Myriek, who was in charge of his brother's trading house at Redwood, "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 ehil- 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 induee Captain Marsh to re- voke his deeision 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 re- eently given a lot of trouble. Incidentally the trouble about their debts came up, and it was finally decided that if the sol- diers guarded 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 pur- pose 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 erosse) on the parade grounds. Captain Marsh refused to allow this, and it was after- wards printed that on the occasion mentioned the Indians had planned and sehemed to get into the fort by strategem, and then massacre the garrison and every white person in the neighbor- hood. There was not the least ground for this false and unjust suspicion.
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 assistanee most sorely-they were ineensed against the white authorities who had forbidden them to make war on the Chippewas. The latter made frequent forays npon 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
130
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
the Chippewas slipped down and killed two Sionx 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 eantering 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 publie 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 Sionx and Chippewas in combination ; that Little Crow and Hole- in-the-Day were in constant communication and engaged in pre- paring for the nprising 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 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 serions results were avoided only by the greatest care and the intelli- gent exercise of sound judgment.
As early as hme 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 Ilall ordered Lieutenant T. J. Sheehan. with fifty men of Company B of the Fifth Regiment, from Fort Ripley to reinforce 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 Lieu- tenant 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. Lieutenants Sheehan and Gere were directed to obey the orders of Agent Galbraith and to preserve peace and protect United
131
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
States property, "during the time of the annuity payment for the present 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 officers. The Indians said: "We are the braves who do the lighting 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 reproach- fully : " Why have yon come? I sent you away and told you not to come back until I sent for you again. I have not sent for you-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 danees 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
.
132
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
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 unindentified people, said to be Winnebagoes. There were more than 4,000 annuity Sionx 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 eharaeter in their eamps, and there was actual starvation among them. Still there was no payment and no issue of supplies. Down in the Minnesota bot- toms, almost hidden in the high and succulent grass, were hun- dreds 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 tak- ing. Lientenant Sheehan feared that the strain would not en- dure much longer, and sent down to Ridgely and brought up another howitzer. Galbraith, however, did not believe there was any danger, as the Indians were apparently quiet and peace- able. On the twenty-first the lieutenants interviewed Galbraith and plainly told him that did he not at onee relieve the most pressing necessities of the Indians, he would be responsible for any casualty that might ensur. The agent agreed that he would at once take a eensus 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 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 coneourse. Each sub-chief called upon the heads of families in his band to give the number of persons in their respective families and when the number was announced those composing it were sent out of the lines to their camps. The enumeration ocenpied 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 "Duteh courage."
The next day after the eensus was taken. or July 27, Major Galbraith sent Lieutenant Sheehan, with fourteen soldiers, four citizens and the ever faithful Good Voieed Hail, as a guide, on a futile and foolish ehase 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
133
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
for trails or even signs, the detachment set out on the return trip and reached Yellow Medieine August 3. The failure to over- take the outlaws had a bad effeet upon the Ageney 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 Ageney 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 sokliers 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 np, 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 his tomahawk. Very soon the door was broken down and 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 anmning their guns only a hundred feet away. Private JJosiah 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 pull the trigger, when fim 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 vietims 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
134
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
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 Ridgley, 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 crowd- ing, going for and returning with sacks of flour. From the cannon to the warehouse the distance was not more than 150 vards; the ground was level. and the range point blank.
Instantly there were yells of surprise and shouts of warn- ing, and the Indians fell back on either side of the line of fire and the range of the gun, leaving a wide and distinet land or avenue between the cannon and the warehouse door. Lieutenant Sheehan now appeared with a detachment of sixteen men, and that brave soldier. Sergeant Solon A. Trescott, of Company B, at their head. Down the lane with its living walls marched Shee- han and his little band straight to the warehouse. Reaching the building the lieutenant went at once to the office of Major Gal- braith, too impotent through fear. drink and excitement for any good. Sergeant Trescott and his men sommarily drove every Indian from and away from the warehouse. Only about thirty sacks of flour had been taken.
Lieutenant Sheehan stontly demanded that Galbraith at once give to the Indians the provisions which really belonged to them, and thereby avert not only starvation but probably war. But the agent, now that the soldiers were in line and their leader in his presence, became, through his " Dutch courage, " very digni- fied and brave. He said that if he made any concessions to the Indians they would become bolder in the future, that the savages must be made to respect his position and authority as their agent, and not attempt to corree him into doing his duty. He then de- manded that Lieutenant Shechan should take his soldiers and make the Indians return the flour they had seized and which their women were already making into bread.
Sheehan had his Irish spirit thoroughly aroused, and at last forced the agent to agree to issue three days' rations of flour and pork to the Indians. if they wonkl return to their camps and send their chiel's for a conneil the next day. Meanwhile the Indians had assembled by bands about the warehouse and were addressed by their chiefs and head soldiers. all of whom said, in effect : "The provisions in that big house have been sent to us by our Great Father at Washington, but onr agent will not let us have
135
HISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
them, although our wives and children are starving. These sup- plies are ours and we have a right to take them. The soldiers sympathize with us and have already divided their rations with ns, and when it comes to the point they will not shoot at us, but if they do, we can soon wipe them off the earth."
The three days' rations were issued, but the Indians declined to return to their camps, unless they should first receive all that was due them. They again became turbulent and threatened to again attack and loot the warehouse. Lieutenant Sheehan moved up his entire command directly in front of the warehouse and went into fighting line with his two cannons "in battery." Then the Indians coneluded to forego any hostile movement and re- turned to their camps. Their three days' rations had been well nigh all devoured before midnight.
Agent Galbraith continued in his excited mood and eccentrie conduet. Months afterward, in writing his official report and de- seribing the events of the fourth of August, he declared that when the Indians assaulted the warehouse they "shot down the Amer- ican flag" waving over it. His statement was accepted by Heard, who, in his history, states that the flag was "cut down." Lieutenant Sheehan and the men who were under him at Yel- low Medicine all assert that the flag was neither shot down or ent down or injured in any way, but that when the trouble was over for the day the banner was "still there." August 5 the agent was still beside himself. He declared that the loyal old Peter Quinn-who had lived in Minnesota among his white breth- ren for nearly forty years and was always faithful to his trust, even to his death in the slaughter at Redwood Ferry-was not to be trusted to communicate with the Indians. He ordered Lieu- tenant Sheehan, who had brought Quinn from Ridgely, to send bim baek and he requested that the loyal old man be "put off the reservation."
Sheehan could bear with the agent no longer. He accommo- dated him by sending Quinn away, but he sent the old interpreter with Lieutenant Gere, whom he dirceted to hasten to Fort Ridge- ly. describe the situation to Captain Marsh. and urge that officer to come at once to Yellow Medicine and help manage Galbraith. The captain reached Yellow Medicine at 1:30 p. m. on the sixth, having come from Fort Ridgely, forty-five miles distant, by buggy in seven hours.
August 7, Galbraith having been forced to agree to a sensi- ble course of action, he, Captain Marsh and Missionary Riggs held a conneil with the Indians. The agent had sent to Hazelwood for Mr. Riggs and when the good preacher came, said to him appeal- ingly: "If there is anything between the lids of the Bible that will meet this case, I wish you would use it." The missionary assured the demoralized agent that the Bible has something in
136
IHISTORY OF RENVILLE COUNTY
it to meet every case and any emergency. Ile then repaired to Standing Buffalo's tepee and arranged for a general council that afternoon. The missionary gives this description of the pro- ceedings :
"The chiefs and braves gathered. The young men who had broken down the warehouse door were there. The Indians ar- gned that they were starving and that the flour and pork in the warehouse had been purchased with their money. It was wrong to break in the door, but now they would authorize the agent to take of their money and repair the door. The agent then agreed to give them some provisions and insisted on their going home which they promised to do."
Captain Marsh demanded that all of the annuity goods, which for so long had been wrongfully withheld, should be issued im- mediately, and Reverend Riggs endorsed the demand. Galbraith consented, and the Indians promised that if the issues were made they would return to their homes and there remain until the agent advised them that their money had come. The agreement was faithfully carried out by both parties to it. The issue of goods began immediately and was continued through the eighth and ninth. By the tenth all the Indians had disappeared and on the twelfth word was received that Standing Buffalo's and the Charger's band, with many others, had gone out into Dakota on buffalo hunts. On the eleventh the soldiers left Yellow Medicine for Fort Ridgely, arriving at that post in the evening of the following day.
All prospects of future trouble with the Indians seemed now to have disappeared. Only the Upper Indians had made mis- chief; the Lower Indians had taken no part nor manifested any sympathy with what their brethren had done, but had re- mained quietly in their villages engaged in their ordinary avo- eations. Many had been at work in the hay meadows and corn- fields. All the Indians had apparently decided to wait patiently for the annuity money. This agreeable condition of affairs might have been established six weeks earlier, but for the unwise, vet well meant work of Agent Galbraith, who should have done at first what he did at last.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.