USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume I > Part 18
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vengeance. The Indians. wholly unaware of the real situation, and believing that their four comrades had been murdered and that they themselves were in deadly peril, turned and fed in terror and were chased well into Kandiyohi county. Both whites and Indians in the vicinity of Acton were at this time wholly unaware and altogether unsuspicious of what a great conflagra- tion was then raging the Minnesota valley and which had been kindled by the little fire at Howard Baker's cabin.
All of the attendant circumstances prove that the murder was solely the work of the five persons that did the deed, and that they had no accessories before or after the fact. It was not perpetrated because of dissatisfaction at the delay in the payment, nor because there were to be soldiers at the pay table: it was not occasioned by the sale of the north ten-mile strip of the reservation, nor be- cause so many white men had left Minnesota and gone into the Union army. It was not the result of the councils of the sol- diers' lodge, nor of any other Indian plot. The twenty or more Indians who left Riep Creek August 12 for the hunt did not in- tend to kill white people: if they had so intended, Island Cloud and all the rest would have been present at and have participated in the murders at Baker's and Jones' and carried off much port- able property, including horses. The trouble started as has been stated-from finding a few eggs in a white man's fence-corner.
After the murder of Clara Wilson-who, the Indians said, was shot from the roadway as she was standing in the doorway looking at them-the four murderers, possibly without entering the Jones house, went directly to the house of Peter Wicklund, near Lake Elizabeth, which they reached about one o'clock, when the family were at dimmer. Wieklund's son-in-law, A. M. Eckund, who had a team of good young horses, had arrived with his wife. a short time before, for a Sunday visit at her father's. One of the Indians came to the door of the house, cocked his gun, and pointed it at the people seated around the dinner table. Mrs. Wieklund rose and motioned to the savage to point his gun in another direction. He continued, however, to menace the party and thus distract their attention while his companions seenred and slipped away with Eeklund's horses. Then, mounted, two on a horse, the four rode rapidly sonthward. Some distance from Wicklund's they seeured two other horses, and then they pro- ceeded as fast as possible to their village at the mouth of Rice Creek, forty miles from Aeton.
They reached their village in the twilight after a swift, hard ride, which, according to lere Campbell, who was present, had well nigh exhausted the horses. Leaping from their panting and dripping studs they called out: "Get your guns! There is war with the whites and we have begun it!"' Then they related the events of the morning. They seemed like criminals that had
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perpetrated some foul deed and then. affrighted, apprehensive and remorseful, had fled to their kinsmen for shelter and protec- tion. Their story at once created great excitement and at the same time much sympathy for them. Some of their fellow vil- lagers began at onee to get ready for war, by putting their guns in order and looking after their ammunition supplies. Ho-choke- pe-doota, the chief of the Rice Creek bank-if he really held that position-was beside himself with excitement. At last he concluded to take the four adventurers and go and see Chief Shakopee about the matter. Repairing as speedily as possible to the chief's village, on the south side of the river, near the mouth of the Redwood. they electrified all of its people by their startling story, which, however, many of them had already heard.
Shakopee (or Little Six) was a non-progressive Indian. who lived in a tepee and generally as an Indian-scorning the ad- junets of the white man. The story of the killing stirred him, and the excitement among his band, some members of which were already shouting the war-whoop and preparing to fight. affected him so that, while he declared that he was for war, he did not know what to do. "Let us go down and see Little Crow and the others at the Agency." he said at last. Accordingly Shakopee, . the Rice Creek chief, two of the four young men who still smelled of the white people's blood they had spilled, and a considerable number of other Rice Creekers, and members of Shakopee's band, although it was midnight, went down to consult with the greatest of the Sioux, Tah O Yahte Doofah, or Little Crow. Messengers were also sent to the other sub-chiefs inviting them to a war vouneil at Little Crow's house. The chief was startled by the ap- pearance of Shakopee and the others, and at first seemed non- plussed and at a loss to decide. Finally he agreed to the war, said the whites of the Upper Minnesota must all be killed. and he commended the young murderers for shedding the first blood. saying they had "done well." Big Eagle thus relates the incident : "Shakopee took the young men to Little Crow's frame house, two miles above the Agency, and he sat up in bed and listened to their story. He said war was now declared. Blood had been shed, the annuities would be stopped. and the whites would take a dreadful vengeance because women had been killed. Wabasha, Waconta, myself, and some others talked for peace. but nobody would listen to us. and soon the general ery was: 'Kill the whites, and kill all these ent-hairs (Indians and half-bloods who had out their hair and put on white men's clothes) that will not join us.' Then a conneil was held and war was declared. The women began to run bullets and the men to clean their guns. Parties formed and dashed away in the darkness to kill the set- tlers. Little Crow gave orders to attack the agency early next morning and to kill the traders and other whites there.
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" When the Indians first came to Little Crow for counsel and advice he said to them, tauntingly, 'Why do you come to me for advice? Go to the man you elected speaker (Traveling Hail) and let him tell you what to do.' But he soon came around all right."
Between 6 and 7 o'clock on the morning of August 18, the first shot was fired and the first white man was killed at the Lower Agency and the dreadful massaere began. James W. Lynd, ex-state senator from Sibley county, was a clerk in My- rick's trading house at the Ageney. He was standing upon a door step watching the movements of some Indians who were coming along with guns in their hands and acting strangely. Sud- denly one of them named Much Hail, or Plenty of Hail (Tan- Wah-su Ota), (until a few years since it was generally understood from the best authorities that the fatal shot was fired by Walks Like a Preacher, who died in prison at Davenport, but in 1901 Much Hail, living in Canada, confessed that he was the one that killed Mr. Lynd.) drew up his gun and pointing it at Mr. Lynd, said : "Now, I will kill the dog that would not give me credit." Ile fired and Mr. Lynd fell forward and died instantly.
The massacre then became general. The whites were taken quite unawares and were easy victims. No women were killed. but some were taken prisoners: others were allowed to escape. The stores presented such enticing opportunities for securing phuinder of a greatly coveted sort that the Indians swarmed into and about them, pillaging and looting, and this gave many whites opportunity to escape and make their way to Fort Ridgely, four- teen miles. The ferryman, Hubert Miller (whose name was com- monly pronounced Mauley, and whose name was printed in some histories as Jacob Mayley) stuck to his post and ferried people across to the north side until all had passed; then the Indians killed him.
The Indians in large numbers crossed the Minnesota and be- gan their bloody work among the settlers along Beaver and Sacred Ileart creeks and in the Minnesota bottoms. A few set- tlers-and only a few-were warned in time to escape.
Shakopee's band operated chiefly in this quarter and the chief that night said he had killed so many white people during the day that his arm was quite lame. The other Lower bands went down into Brown county and directly across the river.
The dreadful seenes that were enacted in the Upper Mime- sota valley on that dreadful eighteenth of August can neither be described nor imagined. Hundreds of Indians visited the white settlements to the north and east and perpetrated innumerable murders and countless other outrages. Scores of women and children were brought in as prisoners and many wagon loads of plunder were driven into the Indian eamps. White men, women,
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and children of all ages were murdered indiscriminately, and under the most terrible circumstances. The bodies were commonly mutilated-sometimes shockingly-but very few were scalped. Only one mixed blood Indian, Francois La Bathe (pro- nouneed La Bat) a trader at the Lower Agency, was killed. About twenty mixed bloods joined the hostile Indians; the others who would not join were made prisoners. Many mixed blood women were violated and otherwise misused. That night a large member of the settlers' houses and other buildings were burned, but many houses were spared. Some of the Indians declared that they needed them to live in, the coming autumn and winter.
There was no resistance worthy of the name. Very few set- tlers had fire-arms or were accustomed to them. There were many Germans that had never fired a gun in all of their lives. Then, too, the Indian attacks were wholly unexpected. The savages approached their vietims in a most friendly and pleasant manner and slew them without warning. Very often, however, the white man knew that he was to be murdered, but he made no attempt to defend himself. Some who were being chased by the Indians, turned and fired a few shots at their pur- sners, but without effect. Though hundreds of white people were murdered by the Indians that day, not a single Indian was killed or severely injured.
Down the Minnesota river on both sides below Fort Ridgley as far as New Ulm, and up the river to Yellow Medicine, the bloody slaughter extended that day. The fiendish butcheries and horrible killings beggar description. Here is one of many like in- stanees: Cut Nose, a savage of savages, with half a dozen other Sionx, overtook a number of whites in wagons. He sprang into one of the vehicles in which were eleven women and children and tomahawked every one of them, yelling in fiendish delight as his weapons went crashing through the skulls of the helpless vietims. Twenty-five whites were killed at this point. Settlers were slain from near the Iowa line in Jackson county, as far north as Breek- enridge, including Gleneoe, Hutchinson, Forest City, Manannah and other places. Fourteen were killed at White Lake, Kandi- yohi county. The much greater number of whites were slaugh- tered, however, within the reservations, and in Renville and Brown counties. During the first week, it is estimated that over 600 whites were killed and nearly 200 women and children taken eaptive.
The Whites at the Yellow Medicine Ageney above the Lower Ageney, to the number of sixty-two, among them the family of Indian Agent Galbraith, escaped by the aid of John Otherday, a friendly Indian.
When the news of the outbreak reached Fort Ridgley, Captain John S. Marsh, with forty-six of his men of Company B, Fifth
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Minnesota, started for the Lower Agency. He was ambushed at Redwood Ferry, twenty-four of his men were killed and he him- self was drowned in attempting to cross the river. The survivors of his command hid in the thickets and worked their way back to the fort at night.
The Indians attacked Fort Ridgley on the twentieth and again on the twenty-second of Angust, the latter day with 800 warriors. The force in the fort numbered 180 men, commanded by Lieuten- ant T. J. Shechan. A small battery under Sergeant John Jones, of the regular army, did effective service. There were 300 refu- gees in the fort. After many hours' fighting, the Indians retired. Hlad they charged they could have captured the fort. but Indians do not fight in that manner. The saving of Ridgley was the sal- vation of the country below, as its capture would have enabled the Indians to sweep the valley. The loss of the garrison was three killed and twelve wounded.
The most momentous engagements of the Indian war were the attacks upon New Uhn, as the fate of more than 1,500 people was at stake. The Sioux first assaulted it on the day following the outbreak, but were driven off. That night Andge C. E. Flan- drau, of the Supreme Court, arrived with 125 men, and the next day 50 arrived from Mankato. Judge Flandran was chosen to command. On August 23 the Indians, some 500 strong, again attacked the little city and surrounded it, apparently determined to capture it. The battle lasted tive or six hours. The Indians set fire to the houses to the windward, and the flames swept towards the center of the city. where the inhabitants had barri- caded themselves, and complete destruction seemed inevitable. The whites, under Flandrau, charged the Indians and drove them half a mile. They then set fire to and burned all the houses on the outskirts in which the Indians were taking shelter. In all, 190 structures were destroyed. Towards evening the Indians re- tired. Thirty-six whites were killed, including ten slain in a reconnaissance on the nineteenth. Seventy to eighty were wounded.
Owing to a shortage of provisions and amunmition, the city was evacuated on August 25. The sick and wounded and women and children were loaded into 153 wagons and started for Man- kato. No more pathetic sight was ever witnessed on this conti- nent than this long procession of 1,500 people forced to leave their homes and fee from a relentless foe, unless it be the pathetic picture, seen so many times on this continent of the Indians being driven from the lands of their ancestors by the no less relentless whites.
Heard's history thus vividly portrays conditions in the Minne- sota valley at this period.
"Shakopee, Belle Plaine and Henderson wore filled with fugi-
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tives . Guards patrolled the outskirts, and attacks were con- stantly apprehended. Oxen were killed in the streets, and the meat, hastily prepared, was cooked over fires on the ground. The grist mills were surrendered by their owners to the public and kept in constant motion to allay the demand for food. All thought of property was abandoned. Safety of life prevailed over every other consideration. Poverty stared in the face those who had been affluent, but they thought little of that. Women were to be seen in the street hanging on each other's necks, telling of their mutual losses, and the little terror-stricken chil- dren, surviving remnants of onee happy homes, erying piteously around their knees. The houses and stables were all occupied by people, and hundreds of fugitives had no covering or shelter but the canopy of heaven."
August 26, Lieut .- Gov. Ignatius Donnelly, writing to Gov. Alexander Ramsey, From St. Peter, said :
"You can hardly conceive the panic existing along the valley. In Belle Plaine I found sixty people crowded. In this place lead- ing citizens assure me that there are between 3,000 and 4,000 refugees. On the road between New Ulm and Mankato are over 2,000; Mankato is also crowded. The people here are in a state of panie. They fear to see our forces leave. Although we may agree that much of this dread is without foundation, nevertheless it is producing disastrous consequences to the state. The people will continue to pour down the valley, carrying consternation wherever they go, their property in the meantime abandoned and going to ruin."
When William JJ. Sturgis, bearer of dispatches from Fort Ridgley to Governor Ramsey, reached him at Fort Snelling on the afternoon of August 19, the government at once placed ex-Gov- ernor Henry 11. Sibley, with the rank of colonel, in command of the forces to operate against the Indians. Just at this time, in response to President Lincoln's call for 600,000 volunteers, there was a great rush of Minnesotans to Fort Snelling, so that there was no lack of men, but there was an almost entire want of arms and equipment. This caused some delay. but Colonel Sibley reached St. Peter on the twenty-second. Here he was delayed until the twenty-sixth and reached Fort Ridgley August 28. A company of his cavalry arrived at the fort the day previous, to the great joy of garrison and refugee settlers.
August 31 General Sibley, then eneamped at Fort Ridgley with his entire command, dispatched a foree of some 150 men, under the command of Maj. Joseph R. Brown, to the Lower Ageney, with instructions to bury the dead of Captain Marsh's command and the remains of all settlers found. No signs of Indians were seen at the agency. which they visited on September 1. That evening they encamped near Birch Coulie, about 200
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yards from the timber. This was a fatal mistake, as subsequent events proved. At early dawn the Sioux, who had surrounded the eamp, were discovered by a sentinel, who fired. Instantly there came a deadly roar from hundreds of Indian guns all around the camp. The soldiers sprang to their feet, and in a few minutes thirty were shot down. Thereafter all hugged the ground. The horses to the number of 87 were soon killed, and furnished a slight protection to the men, who dug pits with spades and bayonets. General Sibley sent a foree of 240 men to their relief, and on the same day followed with his entire command. On the forenoon of September 3 they reached the Coulie and the Indians retreated. Twenty-eight whites were killed and sixty wounded. The condition of the wounded and indeed the entire force was terrible. They had been some forty hours without water. under a hot sun, surrounded by bloodthirsty, howling savages. The dead were buried and the wounded taken to Fort Ridgley.
After the battle of Birch Coulie many small war parties of Indians started for the settlements to the Northwest, burning houses, killing settlers and spreading terror throughout that region. There were minor battles at Forest City, Acton, Hutch- inson and other places. Stockades were built at various points. The wife and two children of a settler, a mile from Richmond, were killed on September 22. Paynesville was abandoned and all but two houses burned. The most severe fighting with the Indians in the northwestern settlements was at Forest City, Acton and Hutchinson, on September 3 and 4. Prior to the battle at Birch Coulie, Little Crow, with 110 warriors, started on a raid to the Big Woods country. They encountered a company of some sixty whites under Captain Stront, between Glencoe and Acton, and a furious fight ensued, Strout's force finally reaching Hutchinson, with a loss of five killed and seventeen wounded. Next day Hutchinson and Forest City, where stockades had been erected, were attacked, but the Indians finally retired without mueh loss on either side, the Indians. however, burning many houses, driving off horses and cattle, and carrying away a great deal of personal property.
Twenty-two whites were killed in Kandiyohi and Swift eoun- ties by war parties of Sioux. Unimportant attaeks were made upon Fort Abercrombie on September 3, 6, 26 and 29, in which a few whites were killed.
There was great anxiety as to the Chippewas. Rumors were rife that Hole-in-the-Day, the head chief, had smoked the pipe of peace with his hereditary enemies, the Sioux, and would join them in a war against the whites. There was good ground for these apprehensions, but by wise counsel and advice. Hole-in-the- Day and his Chippewas remained passive.
General Sibley was greatly delayed in his movements against
.
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the Indians by insuffieieney of supplies, want of cavalry and proper supply trains. Early in September he moved forward and on September 23, at Wood Lake, engaged in a spirited battle with 500 Indians, defeating them with considerable loss. On the twenty-sixth, General Sibley moved forward to the Indian camps. Little Crow and his followers had hastily retreated after the battle at Wood Lake and left the state. Several bands of friendly Indians remained, and through their action in guarding the eap- tives they were saved and released, in all ninety-one whites and 150 half-breeds. The women of the latter had been subjected to the same indignities as the white women.
General Sibley proceeded to arrest all Indians suspected of murder, abuse of women and other outrages. Eventually 425 were tried by a military commission, 303 being sentenced to death and eighteen to imprisonment. President Lincoln commuted the sentence of all but forty. He was greatly censured for doing this, and much resentment was felt against him by those whose relatives had suffered. Of the forty, one died before the day fixed for execution, and one, Henry Milord. a half-breed, had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary ; so that thirty-eight only were hung. The execution took place at Mankato, December 26, 1862.
The Battle of Wood Lake ended the campaign against the Sioux for that year. Small war parties occasionally raided the settlements, ereating "seares" and excitement, but the main body of Indians left the state for Dakota. Little Crow and a son returned in 1863, and on July 3 was killed near Hutchinson by a farmer named Nathan Lamson. In 1863 and 1864 expeditions against the Indians drove them across the Missouri river, defeat- ing them in several battles. Thus Minnesota was forever freed from danger from the Sioux.
In November, 1862, three months after the outbreak, Indian Agent Thomas J. Galbraith prepared a statement giving the num- ber of whites killed as 738. Historians Heard and Flandrau placed the killed at over 1,000.
On February 16, 1863, the treaties before that time existing between the United States and the Sioux Indians were abrogated and annulled, and all lands and rights of ocenpancy within the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims then existing in favor of said Indians were declared forfeited to the United States.
These Indians, in the language of the act. had. in the year 1862, "made unprovoked aggression and most savage war upon the United States, and massaered a large number of men, women and children within the State of Minnesota ;" and as in this war and massacre they had "destroyed and damaged a large amount of property, and thereby forfeited all just claims" to their
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"monies and annuities to the United States," the aet provides that "two-thirds of the balance remaining unexpended" of their annuities for the fiscal year, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, and the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars. being two-thirds of the annuities becoming dne, and payable dur- ing the next fiscal year. should be appropriated and paid over to three commissioners appointed by the President. to be by them apportioned among the heads of families, or their survivors, who suffered damage by the depredations of said Indians, or the troops of the United States in the war against them, not exceeding the sum of two hundred dollars to any one family. nor more than actual damage sustained. All claims for damages were required. by the act, to be presented at certain times, and according to the rnles prescribed by the commissioners, who should hold their first session at St. Peter, in the State of Minnesota, on or before the first Monday of April, and make and return their finding, and all the papers relating thereto. on or before the first Monday in December, 1863.
The President appointed for this duty, and with the advice and consent of the Senate. the Ions. Albert S. White, of the State of Indiana: Eli R. Chase, of Wisconsin. and Cyrus Aldrich, of Minnesota.
The duties of this board were so vigorously prosecuted. that, by November 1 following their appointment. some twenty thon- sand sheets of legal cap paper had been consumed in reducing to writing the testimony under the law requiring the commissioners to report the testimony in writing. and proper decisions made requisite to the payment of the two hundred dollars to that class of sufferers designated by the act of Congress.
On February 21 following the annulling of the treaty with the Sioux above named. Congress passed an act for the removal of the Winnebago Indians, and the sale of their reservation in Minnesota for their benefit "The money arising From the sale of their lands, after paying their indebtedness. is to be paid into the treasury of the United States, and expended, as the same is received, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior. in necessary improvements upon their new reservation. The lands in the new reservation are to be allotted in severalty, not exceed- ing eighty acres to each head of a family. except to the chiefs. to whom larger allotments may be made, to be vested by patent in the Indian and his heirs, without the right of alienation."
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