Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 8

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432

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Isantanka, the name by which the people of the United States are designated on the Mississippi and Minnesota, becomes Minnahanksa or Millahanska, on the Missouri. In the arrangement of words in a sentence, the Dakota language may be regarded as eminently primeval and natural. The sentence, give me bread, a Dakota transposes to agnyapi- makee-ye, bread me give. Such is the genius of the language that in translating a sentence or verse from the Bible, it is generally necessary to com- mence, not at the beginning, but at the end; and such, too, is the common practice of their best in- terpreters. When the person who is speaking leaves off, there they commence and proceed back- ward to the beginning. In this way the connection of the sentence is more easily retained in the mind, and more naturally evolved. There are, however, some cases in which this method can not be fol- lowed. In a logical argument, if the conclusion is first translated, it will in some cases need to be repeated after the premises, but the therefore whichi connects the conclusions to the premises, very fre- quently in Mr. Renville's translations, comes after the conclusion."

Mr. Riggs further says that the Dakotas have a sacred language known only to their war prophets, conjurers and medicine men. It is unintelligible to the common people, who imagine that those who use it are a very superior class of beings. It is not a very extensive vocabulary, the mixture of a few strange words with mispronounced common words, answers for the effect. Like the school boy's "hog latin," it is good only among the un- sophisticated and unlearned.

Although the Dakotah has but little idea of

poetry or song, he has a species of dismal chant, which he calls singing. A few words make a long song, for the interjection hi-hi-hi, often repeated, is only now and then broken in upon by intelligible words. They have what are war songs. They are highly figurative, ambiguous in meaning, and it is doubtful as to their being understood even by those who inflict them upon the ear.

The religion of the Sioux is exceedingly indis- tinct, and they are quite reluctant to converse about it. They are decidedly polytheistic in their belief. The hunter roaming over the plain finds a granite boulder; he stops and prays to it, for it is Wat- kawn, or mystery. At another time he will pray to his dog, or to the sun, moon or stars. In every leaf, in every stone, in every shrub he sees a god, he finds a spirit. He is the same in this as the Indians of the coast of whom Cotton Mather once wrote, in his life of the preacher Eliot: "All the religion they have amounts to this much: they believe that there are many gods, who made and own the several nations of the earth. They believe that every remarkable creature has a peculiar god within or about him; there is with them a sun god or a moon god or the. like; and they cannot con- ceive but that the fire must be a kind of god, in- asmuch as a spark of it will soon produce very strange effects. They believe that when any good or ill happens to them, there is the favor or anger of a god expressed in it."

It is said that among the traditions of the Da- cotah tribes are many that are readily recognized by the student of the United States history as real events of the Revolutionary war. The remnants of the warlike tribes of the native Indians of New England and the middle states, who fled westward before the advancing tide of civilization, crossed the Mississippi and found refuge on the soil of the Isantee. Here was told the story of their wrongs. Around the campfires of the Sioux were related their tale of wrong and outrage, of the murder of their people and the robbery of their lands by the cruel white men. These refugees intermarried with the Sioux. The desire for vengeance rankled in the breasts of their descendants and found its last expression in the massacre in Minnesota in 1862.

"The government of these ancient people seems to have been a republic similar to that of the United States. The Oceti Sakowin made laws for the whole nation, defined the boundary lines of each settled division, and inter-tribal difficulties dealing

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

only with national questions and those affecting the general welfare of the whole people, thus corre- sponding to our national congress. Each division was divided into several tribes, each having a separate chief and local council who regulated the affairs of each tribe. These held an annual council to make laws and settle difficulties between the various tribes, and decide disputes as to hunting and fishing privileges.

"This council corresponded to our state gov- ernments. Each tribe was subdivided into a nunt- ber of bands or families each, under its head chief, and having its own prophet. The government of these bands was patriarchal and the offices of chief and prophet were hereditary.

"In the state and national councils the chief officer was elective, but was usually held for life, as the incumbent was nearly always re-elected.

"As time passed on and the white men en- croached upon their lands from the east, the divis- ions on the east were forced westward and into the lands of the other divisions. Previous to this time they had not trespassed upon each other's lands, and their migrations were from north to south and return, according to the seasons, for fur, fish, game and wild fruits, each division traversing its own land, and they never journeyed east or west except on their own division of country. The refugees of the other divisions did not always receive a warm welcome from their brothers of the other divisions. When the Sissitonwans were driven out of Minnesota in 1862 they sought refuge with the Tetonwans. But dissensions in regard to their hunting grounds arose, and the Tetonwans attacked and nearly decimated the Sissitonwans, who were driven back east of the Missouri and to the lands of the Wahpetonwans, where a remnant of this once powerful division still exists under the name of the Sisseton Sioux."

The Sioux counts years by winters, and com- putes distance by the number of sleeps or nights passed upon a journey. Their months are con- puted by moons, and bear the following names : Witeri, Jannary, the hard moon; Wicatowi, Feb- ruary, the raccoon moon; Istawicayazanwi, March, the sore eye moon; Magaokadiwi, April, moon when geese lay eggs, sometimes called Wokadiwi, and also Watopapiwi, or the moon when the streams are navigable; Wojupiwi, May, planting moon ; Wajustecasawi, June, the moon when strawberries are red ; Canpasapawi and Wasunpawi, July, moon when choke cherries are ripe and moon when geese

shed their feathers; Wasutonwi, August, harvest mioon; Psinhnaketuwi, September, the moon when rice is laid up to dry ; Wiwajupi, October, drying rice moon; Takiyurawi, November, deer rutting month; and Tahecapsunwi, December, the moon when the deer sheds his horns.

The legends of the Dacotahs are numerous. While some are puerile, a few are beautiful. One of them tells of Eagle Eye, the son of a great war prophet, who lived more than a hundred years ago, and who was distinguished for bravery. Fleet, athletic, symmetrical, a bitter foe and a warm friend, he was a model Dakotah. In the ardor of his youth his affections were given to one who was, also, attractive, whose name was Scarlet Dove. A few moons after she had become an inmate of his lodge, they descended the Mississippi with a hunting party and proceeded east of Lake Pepin. One day while Eagle Eye lay hidden be- hind some shrubbery, waiting for a deer, a com- rade's arrow pierced the leafy covert and struck him to the heart. With only time to lisp the loved name, Scarlet Dove, he expired.

For a few days the widow mourned and gashed hier flesh, as was the custom upon such occasions, then, with the silence of woe, wrapped hier be- loved in skins and placed him on a temporary scaffold. The Sioux do not bury their dead, but place them on a scaffold above the earth or in the tree tops. Underneath the resting place of Eagle Eye sat Scarlet Dove until the party was ready to return to their own place. Then, taking down all that was left of the husband of her heart, she patiently carried it back to their home. On her shoulders she carried her burden, and each night when the party camped she built a temporary rest- ing place above the earth for his beloved remains. When she reached the Minnesota river, a hundred miles from where he lost his life, the patient woman rested. Going into the forest, she brought poles forked and poles straight, and forthwith she built a permanent burial scaffold on a beautiful hill, opposite Fort Snelling. Having placed the body upon this elevation, according to the customs of her race, with the strap with which she had carried her precious burden hanged herself to the scaffold and died.

Another legend tells how that, previous to the creation of man, the great spirit, Onaktayhee, used to slay the buffalo and eat them on the ledge of the red rocks on the top of the Cotean des Prairie, and their blood, running on the rocks, turned them

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

red. One day when a large snake had crawled into the nest of the bird to eat his eggs, one of the eggs hatched out in a clap of thunder, and the Great Spirit, catching hold of a piece of the pipe- stone to throw it at the snake, moulded it into a man. This man's feet grew fast to the ground, where he stood for many ages like a great tree, and therefore he grew very old; he was older than an hundred men at the present day, and at last an- other tree grew up by the side of him, when a large snake ate them both off at the roots, and they both wandered off together. From these have sprung all the people that now inhabit the earth."

Another of their legends tells how in the time of the great freshet, which took place many cen- turies ago, and destroyed all the nations of the earth, all the tribes of the red men assembled on the Coteau des Prairies, to get out of the way of the waters. After they had all assembled there from all parts, the water continued to rise, until at length it covered them all in a mass, and their flesh was converted into red pipe-stone. Therefore, it has always been considered neutral ground-it belonged to all tribes alike, and all were allowed to get it and smoke together. "While they were drowning in a mass, a young woman, Ke-wap-talı- wa (the virgin), caught hold of the foot of a very large bird that was flying over, and was carried to the top of a high cliff, not far off, that was above the water. Here she had twins, and their father was the war-eagle, and her children have since peopled the earth. The pipe-stone, which is the flesh of their ancestors, is smoked by them as a symbol of peace, and the eagle's quill decorates the head of the brave."

From an article written by Hon. M. K. Arm- :strong, and published some years ago, we quote the following legends. The first is that of some of the tribes of the Upper Mississippi :

"Many ages after the red men were made, when all the different tribes were at war, the Great Spirit sent runners, and called them all together at the red pipe. He stood on the top of the rocks, and the red people were assembled in infinite num- bers on the plains below. He took out of the rock a piece of the red stone, and made a large pipe, and smoked it over them all; told them it was part of their flesh; that though they were at war, they must meet at this place as friends ; that it belonged to them all; that they must make their calumets from it, and smoke them to him whenever they wished to appease him or get his good will. The

smoke from his big pipe rolled over them all, and he disappeared in its cloud. At the last whiff of his pipe a blaze of fire rolled from the rocks and melted their surface, and at the same moment two squaws went up in a blaze of fire under the two medi- cine rocks, where they remain to this day, and must be consulted and propitiated whenever the pipe- stone is to be taken away."

Another from the same source is one told by the Indians of the Missouri:

"The Great Spirit, at an ancient period, here called the Indian nations together, and, standing on the precipice of the red pipe-stone rocks, broke from its wall a piece, and made a huge pipe by turning it in his hand, which he smoked over them to the north, the south, the east and the west, and told them that this stone was red-that it was their flesh-that they must use it for their pipes of peace-that it belonged to them all, and that the war-club must not be raised on its ground. At the last whiff of his pipe his head went into a great cloud, and the whole surface of the rock for several miles was heated and glazed ; two great ovens were opened beneath, and two women (guardian- spirits of the place) entered them in a blaze of fire, and they are heard there yet ( Tso-me-cos-too and Tso- me-cos-to-wan-dee), answering to the invocations of the high priests, who consult them when they visit the sacred place."

The character of the Sioux, who is now noted for his ruthlessness, cruelty, subtlety and general lawlessness, is claimed by many to have undergone a great change since his first contact with the white race. Says one of his apologists :

"Evidences are not wanting that many of the early traders among them were a low and unscru- pulous class of men, and presented to their inex- perienced associates the worst phases of civilized life. Their advent upon the frontiers was almost always signalized by the introduction of whisky, or some kind of spirituous liquors, which made the Indians crazy, and incited them to the perpetration of crimes and atrocities for which the traders have been more responsible than their victims. They taught the Indians to use deception, duplicity and bad faith, by going among them to practice deceit and falsehood in their dealings. Of course there have been among the traders many noble excep- tions to this. charge, men who for integrity and purity of character have been unsurpassed in any of the walks of life-men who have treated the In- dians with kindness and justice; and such have

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

never failed to awaken a reciprocal response in the savage bosom. As a general rule the Indians have been peaceable and confiding, where the white peo- ple have not been the aggressors, and where their confidence has not been betrayed or their rights trespassed upon in some form."

"In estimating their character, we must make allowance for the fact-too often overlooked-that their ill-treatment has been of long standing, and that revenge for the 'old grudge' has often broken out with desolating fury. The Indian is not so easy to forgive as the white man; he has more stern justice-less of that mercy which is the result of culture-in his composition; therefore he is the proud and indomitable avenger upon all who cheat him or shed the blood of his kindred. This is a noble trait, when properly restrained, but when fired by outrage and wrong, and unrestrained, it becomes capable of deeds of fiendish atrocity and retaliation."

From another source we quote:

"It has been common to write them down as destitute of almost every good quality, as treach- erous, merciless, impure and improvident-taking the worst phases of their character when exasper- ated by some provocation or excited by strong drink. Those the best acquainted with them are the most charitable in their judgment, and see in them many good traits, and among their best men many noble and exemplary characters. The In- dian is capable of kindness, courtesy and lasting friendship., Rarely has he violated these qualities towards those who have treated him well. Illus- trations of this fact almost without number could be gathered from the experience of the early pio- neers in every country. Says Major Forsyth, the first Indian agent at Fort Snelling: "The Sioux Indians were celebrated for their hospitality and goodness towards strangers, and more particularly towards the whites. Anything the white man would ask them was granted, if it were possible to do so. They knew nothing about intrigue, and supposed that every person who came to the country was a friend." Hennepin, Dr. Pond, Gen. Sibley and others bear the same testimony. Farther on Major Forsyth says: "I am sorry to say that at the pres- ent day (1819) they are very much altered." The cause of this alteration he attributes to "too great intercourse with those whom we call civilized peo- ple."

On the other hand, a number of authorities see the Sioux in an entirely different light. Says the

Rev: Edward Duffield Neill, in his history of Min- nesota :

"The Dacotahis, like all ignorant and barbarous people, have but little reflection beyond that neces- sary to gratify the pleasure of revenge and of the appetite. It would be strange to find them heroes.

% * While there are exceptions, the general characteristics are indolence, impurity and indiffer- ence to the future." He also gives an account of them diametrically opposed in almost every par- ticular to those quoted above

The restless nature of these particular wards of the nation can readily be called to mind, the massacre of 1862, the troubles under Sitting Bull and the death of Custer and his men and the troubles at Broken Knee, being instances in the long catalogue of strife with these barbarian tribes.

Other races of Indians once peopled the ter- ritory now embraced within the state of North Dakota. Among these were the once powerful and numerous people called the Mandan, whose place of residence was west of the Missouri, and about whom so many interesting tales are told by George Catlin, the artist explorer, who spent years in their villages. These singular people, of whom there is scarcely a trace left, were of a different race, evi- dently, from those who surrounded them. They were of a much lighter color and more agreeable features than Sioux, Pawnee or Omaha, and had a rude civilization. In the making of pottery, the weaving of blankets and other mechanical employ- ments they developed considerable skill. Many of their singular customs were peculiar to them, and conjecture has run rife in trying to account for their being. Many theories have been advanced, as is usual in all these cases, some believing them to be a degenerate remnant of the prehistoric races of this continent ; others that they are the descend- ants of some white people wrecked on either coast and who had drifted inland. One of the accounts on this head, states that they are descendants of the female captives of a former race, who were spared from the wholesale destruction meted out to the rest of their people. The Indians of the plains say that the Mandans were orininally white, the women having long, fair hair, and the men long blonde whiskers. They were numerous and pos- sessed all the land, having cities, towns and vil- lages. They had farms and herds of buffalo or bison. The story is that they were all cut off by the Abenaznis, the forefathers or forerunners of the Indians. Only a few women out of the race were

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY. 'AND BIOGRAPHY.

spared to become the wives of their captors. But and kept aloof, and when their children were grown lived with them apart, and thus grew up a separate race. If this account is reported cor- rectly, and probably it is, may not the white people of this Indian legend have some connection with the wanderings of that semi-civilized race, the Aztec, who finally settled in Mexico about the year 1200? They, too, were of a higher color than the other Indians and had considerable civili- zation.

Arickaree and Minneteeres, of Gros Ventre Indians, had many branches of their tribes in North Dakota, the former in considerable num- bers. Villages of both these tribes were met with by the Lewis and Clarke expeditions in 1804-5, and by other expeditions which went up or down the Missouri.

The Cheyennes, another of the tribes who had

their homes in this part of the country, were at one time one of the powerful tribes of the north- west, who bore at that period the name of Sha- ways, and dwelt on a branch of the Red river. They were at deadly enmity with the Sioux who, in the end, proved too strong for them and after a long course of warfare they were driven across the Missouri. They, again, took root near the War- ricane creek and established themselves in forti- fied villages. Still pursued with deadly animosity by the Sioux, they retreated to the Black Hills, near the upper waters of the Cheyenne river. There they lost even their name and became known to the trapper and nomadic inhabitants of the northwest by the name of the river they frequented.

Other tribes had representatives on the excel- lent hunting grounds of North Dakota, but the great bulk of the savages that peopled this part of our country were of the Sioux or Dakota tribes.

CHAPTER V.

rar

FUR TRADE; COUREURS DES BOIS; TRADERS; EARLY SETTLEMENT; THE SELKIRK SETTLEMENT; THE FUR COMPANIES; THE ROLETTES; DERIVATION OF NAME PEMBINA; MISSION OF ST. JOSEPH.

For many years before any permanent settlers came to what is now North Dakota, with the idea of tilling the soil, the country along the Red river of the North, westward toward Devil's lake and Turtle mountains and on down to the Missouri was well known to the fur trader or his agent. It was the fur trade, in fact, which gave early sus- tenance and vitality to the Canadian provinces. Be- ing destitute of the precious metals, at that time the leading object of American enterprise, they were long neglected by the parent country. The French adventurers who had settled on the banks of the St. Lawrence soon found that in the rich peltries of the interior they had sources of wealth that might almost rival the mines of Mexico or Peru. The Indians, as yet unacquainted with the arti- ficial value given to some description of furs, in civilized life, brought quantities of the most prec- ious kinds and bartered them away for European trinkets and cheap commodities. Immense profits were thus made by the carly trader, and the traf- fic was pursued with avidity.

As the more valuable furs soon became scarce in the neighborhood of the settlements, the In- dians of the vicinity were stimulated to take a wider range in their hunting expeditions. They were often accompanied on these expeditions by

some of the traders or their employes, who shared in the toils and perils of the chase, and, at the same time made themselves acquainted with the best hunting grounds and with the more remote tribes with whom they came in contact.

COUREURS DES BOIS.

A new and anomalous class of men sprang up through this trade. They were called coureurs des bois, rangers of the woods. Originally men who had thus accompanied the Indians on their hunting expeditions, they now became, as it were, peddlers of the wilderness. These men would set out from Montréal with canoes well stocked with goods and with arms and ammunition, and would make their way up the many and wandering riv- ers, creating new wants and habitudes among the Indians, which they could supply. Sometimes they sojourned for months among the savages, assimi- lating to their tastes and habits with the happy facil- ity of Frenchmen. They adopted to a certain de- gree, the Indian dress, and often took to themselves Indian wives.

Many of these men became so accustomed to the Indian mode of living and the perfect freedom of the wilderness, for their trips often lasted a year,

COMPENDIUM OF HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

before their canoe full of furs was brought to the mart, that they lost all relish for civilization and identified themselves with those with whom they dwelt, or could only be distinguished from them by their superior licentiousness. Their conduct and ex- ample, by corrupting the natives, impeded the work of the good Catholic father missionaries. To check these abuses and to protect the fur trade from various irregularities practiced by these loose adventurers, an order was issued by the French government prohibiting all persons from trading in the interior of the country, under pain of death, unless they had procured a license from the gov- ernor-general. At first these licenses were only granted to persons of respectability ; to gentlemen of broken fortunes ; to old officers of the army who had families to provide for; or to their widows. By degrees private licenses were, also, granted and the number which could be issued in a year first limited to twenty-five, largely increased.

Those who did not choose to fit out the expe- dition themselves, were permitted to sell their li- censes to the merchants. These latter employed the coureurs des bois to undertake the long voy- ages on shares, and thus the abuses of the old sys- tem were revived.

At length it was found necessary to establish fortified posts at the confluence of various rivers and on the lakes, for the protection of the trade and for the restraint of these profligates of the wilderness. One of these posts became a great center and mart for the fur trade, that at Michili- mackinac or Mackinaw.

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Compendium history and biography of North Dakota; a history of early settlement, political history, and biography; reminiscences of pioneer life, Part 8

Author: Publication date: 1900 Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle Number of Pages: 1432

Author:
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: Chicago, G.A.Ogle
Number of Pages: 1432