USA > North Dakota > Early history of North Dakota: essential outlines of American history > Part 29
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OTHERS IDENTIFIED WITH DAKOTA PRIOR TO 1861
Francois Jeanotte was born on the Mouse River in North Dakota in 1806, his father a French-Canadian, his mother a Chippewa. His father, Jutras Jean- notte, was engaged in trade on the Mouse River at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Previously, when on the Qui-Appelle his party was attacked by Gros Ventres, his son killed, and his first wife scalped and left for dead, and he was badly wounded. Again attacked by an Indian, he wrenched the gun from him and killed him. At seven years of age, his twin sister was found still alive, scalped, and with fourteen wounds on her body. This was on Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Assiniboine. Francois, at twelve years of age (1818), went to Pembina with his mother, and stayed two years at the Big Salt and Little Salt rivers. where the Hudson's Bay Company had a trading post. In 1820 he states a Chippewa war party found a trading post near Minot.
Basil Clement arrived at Fort Pierre in 1840, at the age of sixteen, and was employed by the American Fur Company ; spending that winter at the mouth of the Grand River. Bruce Osborn was also a clerk there at that time. Clement
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spent the winter of 1841-42 on the Cheyenne. In 1843 he returned to St. Louis on the steamer Prairie Bird with Honore Picotte and Michael McGillivray, coming back Christmas Day. He spent the winter as Camp Trader at Swan Lake (South Dakota). The next winter he was on the Wind River (Wyoming) with James Bridger, a hunter, trapper and explorer at Fort Union in 1844-45, who gave some of the earliest information regarding the discovery of gold in the Black Hills. John Robinson, uncle of Jesse and Frank James, of Missouri, was with Bridger in 1844. The next winter Clement was on the Cheyenne River with Joseph Jewett, trader; the next at the mouth of Thunder Creek on the Moreau, the next with Frederic LeBeau, and on the death of LeBeau he had charge of his post. It 1848 he went to the Black Hills with Paul Narcelle, trap- ping and hunting. The winter of 1849-50 he was again at the Moreau.
In 1863 he was interpreter for Gen. Alfred Sully on his expedition, later interpreter at Fort Randall, and was intimately associated with Dakota history for over sixty years.
Paul Narcelle was a clerk at Fort Pierre, and after his trip to the Black Hills with Clement he moved to a ranch at the mouth of the Cheyenne River, in 1887, and died in 1889.
John F. A. Sanford, son-in-law of Pierre Chouteau, Jr., member of the Amer- ican Fur Company, was a sub-agent of the Indians at Fort Clark in 1833.
Charles P. Chouteau was a son of Charles P. Chouteau, Sr., member of the American Fur Company, changed to Charles P. Chouteau, Jr., in 1842, and in 1854 to Charles P. Chouteau Company. His wealth was rated at $18,000,000.
Louis Archambault was at Fort Clark in 1843, with the American Fur Con- pany, and in 1873 a rancher near Fort Rice.
Louis Aagard came to Fort Pierre in 1844 and was at Fort Clark under Joseph des Autel, with the American Fur Company, in 1846-47, an interpreter for the Peace Commission at Fort Rice in 1868, and a rancher in 1873 at Aagard Bottoms, near Bismarck.
Chas. C. Patineaud, interpreter at Fort Berthold, was one of the seventeen defenders of the post in 1863, when attacked by Indians. He came to the Mis- souri River some years previous to 1855, when he was in charge of a winter trad- ing camp on the Little Missouri.
Simon Bellehumeur, trapper and hunter on Red River in 1804.
Forrest Hancock, trapper on the Yellowstone in 1804, met by Lewis and Clark on their return in 1806.
William D. Hodgkiss, in charge of Fort Clark 1856-59, came to the Missouri River prior to 1840.
Antoine Garreau was met by Lewis and Clark at the Arikara villages in 1805, and by Maximillian at the Mandan villages in 1833. His daughter, Maggie, mar- ried Andrew Dawson, who was in charge of the American Fur Company's trade at Fort Clark in 1849, and Fort Benton, 1856 to 1870, when he returned to Scot- land, leaving a daughter at Fort Berthold.
Pierre Garreau, son of Antoine Garreau, trader at Fort Clark and Fort Berthold, interpreter for the Pierre Chouteau Company, died at Fort Berthold, 1870.
Charles Bottineau, a brother of Pierre Bottineau, who was born in North Dakota and died at eighty-seven years of age, in 1895.
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Charles Bottineau was a son of Pierre Bottineau and partner with Charles Grant, trader at St. Joseph.
Charles Grant was a trader at Pembina, in 1850, and partner of Charles Bottineau at St. Joseph.
John B. Bottineau of this family practiced law in Minneapolis many years and his daughter, Marie M. Baldwin, is a graduate of Georgetown College and in 1916 was employed in the Indian office at Washington. She was born in North Dakota and as a child roamed the prairies with her tribe.
Antoine Gingras was an Indian trader at Pembina in 1850. He engaged later in farming and had sixty acres under cultivation when the Pembina Com- pany was organized, and was then the largest taxpayer in North Dakota.
Reuben Lewis, brother of Meriwether Lewis, was a partner of the Missouri River Fur Company, 1809; in charge in 1811 of the Manuel Lisa Trading Post above the Gros Ventres villages.
Peter Wilson came up the Missouri River in 1825, and later became the agent of the Mandan Indians.
Francois Renville was employed by Norman W. Kittson at Pembina as mail carrier in 1832.
Jean Pierre Sarpee was a member of the American Fur Company. His brother was an independent trader in 1832, at Fort Sarpee above Omaha.
Peter Beauchamp, 1840, was a trader and Arikara interpreter at Fort Berthold for the American Fur Company at the Arikara villages and Fort Clark, trapping and hunting.
Joseph Buckman was a trader and postmaster at Pembina in 1861. He was a member of the Dakota Legislature, and died in 1862.
Joseph Guigon at Fort Berthold, in the employ of the American Fur Company.
Joseph Gondreau, blacksmith at Fort Pierre, was in the employ of the Amer- ican Fur Company at Fort Clark.
Charles Primeau, who was a clerk for the American Fur Company at Fort Union in 1831, had a brother who was killed by Indians at Apple Creek in 1832. He established a trading post above Fort Clark, which he sold to Hawley & Hubbell. Two years later that firm abandoned Fort Primeau and it was occu- pied by the American Fur Company, Gerard having charge of the post from 1857 to 1859. He was at Fort Berthold December 25, 1863, when that post was attacked by Two Bears' band of Sioux, as was also Charles Malnouri, who came there in 1860.
In 1869 Gerard became an independent fur trader, and in 1872 a government interpreter, and was with Reno's command at the time of the Custer massacre, June 25, 1876. Later he was engaged in trade at Mandan.
David Pease was a partner with Hawley & Hubbell at Fort Berthold, and agent at the Crow Indian Agency. A. C. Hawley, of the Hawley & Hubbell Company, was deputy United States marshal in Northern Dakota in 1873.
Charles Primeau was interpreter at Fort Yates and died in 1897.
Jean B. Wilke was at St. Joseph in 1847. An affray occurred at his place in 1861 between Sioux and Chippewa Indians, in which several were killed.
Joseph Fisher was a teacher in the Pembina district of Minnesota Territory in 1850.
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Father Andre Lacombe, Roman Catholic clergyman, was in the Pembina dis- trict, census of 1850.
Maj .- Gen. William P. Carlin, a lieutenant in General Harney's Punitive Expe- dition of 1855, was for several years identified with North Dakota as commander of the military post at Fort Yates.
Lucien Gerou came from St. Paul to Pembina in 1856, and was in the hotel business at Pembina.
Joseph Mountraille, a half-breed mail carrier, was employed by Norman W. Kittson at Pembina in 1856.
John Cameron was a farmer, ten miles south of Pembina, in 1856.
Antoine Gerard was at Pembina in 1856, employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. He kept the stage station and ferry at Acton.
Joseph Lemae was a custom house officer at Pembina in 1860.
Robert Lemon was a partner, in 1860, of Charles Larpenteur, an independent trader, to whom allusion is made in Part One, and was succeeded in 1862 by La Barge, Harkness & Co.
Andre Gonzziou, in the employ of the North-West Company. Killed by Sioux when buffalo hunting with the Mandans.
THE PICOTTES, GALPIN, PARKIN, AND GERARD
A tribute was paid in Chapter XIV to Charles F. Picotte, son of Honore Picotte, and the daughter of Two Lance, and a brief sketch given of his early life and superior educational advantages.
Charles E. Galpin was an employee of the American Fur Company and super- intended, as noted in the reference to that period in behalf of that company, the transfer of Fort Pierre to the military authorities of the Harney Punitive Expe- dition of 1855. Later he was engaged in trade at various points on the Missouri, in competition with the Pierre Chouteau Company. He was in opposition to Hawley & Hubbell-the firm consisting of A. C. Hawley, James B. Hubbell and Frank Bates of St. Paul-at Fort Berthold. His title of "major" was acquired from the fact that army officers assigned to take charge of Indian agencies were usually of the rank of major, and the Indian traders and military post-traders became majors by courtesy. Major Galpin was distinguished for his courteous manners, and for his efficiency as a trader. He married the widow of Honore Picotte, who engaged in the Indian trade on her own account after the death of her husband, and continued it after the death of Major Galpin on the Cannon Ball River. Her daughter, Amy, now ( 1916) a widow, who married Henry S. Parkin, still manages their large interests at the Cannon Ball.
Hon. Henry S. Parkin was associated with Jack Morrow of Omaha, Col. Robert Wilson and Maj. Samuel A. Dickey, post trader at Fort A. Lincoln and first postmaster at Bismarck, then known as Edwinton. Parkin was a member of the North Dakota State Senate in 1895.
Major Galpin took an active part with his stepson, Charles F. Picotte, not only in securing the assent of the Indians to the Treaty of 1858, but also in the ransom of whites made captive during the Sioux uprising. Major Galpin died at Grand River in 1870.
Charles F. Picotte was a devoted son, and his devotion, not only to his
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mother, but to his tribe, was appreciated by the Government. He received a section of land, as stated, which he selected at Yankton, and also an annuity of $3,000 for ten years from the United States in recognition of his valuable aid in negotiating the treaty. Mention has been made of the building erected by him associated with Moses K. Armstrong, iu Yankton, used for the first terri- torial government building in the territory, and he was the sergeant-at-arms of the House of Representatives at the first session of the Dakota Legislature. It was due largely to his influence and that of Major and Mrs. Galpin, that the captives taken by the Sioux in the uprising of 1862, were returned to their homes unharmed. He used his fortune in the entertainment of his Indian friends, became dependent on his salary as an interpreter, and died at the Greenwood Agency.
Joseph Picotte, nephew of Honore Picotte, was a member of the firm of Primeau, Picotte & Boosie, independent traders, supplied by Robert Campbell of St. Louis.
Frederic F. Gerard came from St. Louis to the Missouri with Honore Picotte in September, 1848, then nineteen years of age, was employed at Fort Pierre, and went to Fort Clark in the spring of 1849. He learned to speak the Arikara language and for many years was a reliable Arikara interpreter. In 1855 he accompanied Basil Clement on a hunting trip to the headwaters of the Platte River, bringing back a winter's supply of buffalo meat. There were five Red River carts and seven men on the expedition. They found cholera prevailing on the Platte. After his return he went to Fort Berthold with Honore Picotte.
IRON HEART-A TRAPPER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE-THE MAGIC STICK
Iron Heart was a prominent Sioux chief taking part in the battle of New Ulm, an incident of the Sioux massacre of 1862, described in Chapter XIII. Francis de Molin, one of the earliest settlers on the Indian Trail and mail route from Grand Forks to Fort Totten (on which two years later William N. Roach, afterwards United States senator from North Dakota, carried the mail), married a daughter of Francis Longie, an old time Indian trader, who was at New Ulni at the time of the Sioux massacre of 1862. He had a narrow escape then as he had many other times, but in each case was saved by the Indian relatives of his wife. At one time he was ordered to leave the country, but his wife's friends formed a bodyguard around him and so marched him to safety. An old Indian asked him when a prisoner, what he thought about their whipping the whites in the war of 1862, and pointing to a rock, he replied that when he could split that with his head they could whip the whites. After the war was over the old chief told him that what he said then was true: they could not whip the whites any more than they could split the rock with their heads. The life of one of Longie's men captured by the Indians was spared on condition that he paint himself and wear breech clouts, but after the first day lie rejected the Indian apparel and told them they could kill him if they liked, but he refused to wear that kind of clothing. If he must die, he would die like a white man, and the Indians, respecting him for his bravery, adopted hin after that, and defended him against hostile tribes. He appears to have had the benefit of "second sight" and feeling, having for warning an involuntary rising of the hair on his scalp to meet the
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attack of the Indians when in the vicinity, although not the stirring of a leaf in an unusual manner betrayed their presence. It is recorded of him that while trapping for beaver on the Sheyenne River he became seriously alarmed by this phenomenon, and when he started to make his exit after a night spent in hiding, he found himself completely surrounded by Indians. He was taken prisoner-they had killed his horse-and they then held a council as to who should kill him, but his wife's relatives again prevailed upon them to give him a show, and they consented that he should be allowed to reach a hill near by and then get away if he could. Backwards he proceeded towards the hill, with his guu ready, expecting treachery, but they did not follow him. Iron Heart was in charge of the party.
Iron Heart was a preacher in 1895 down on the Sisseton agency, but he used to tell a story of his "brave" deeds which he thought a great joke. His heart was bad, and in order to gain peace of mind it was necessary that somebody should be killed. Accordingly he got a party of young men together, and started out to war, but he traveled a long way before he found any white settler with surroundings of a character to justify demonstrations. At length perceiving a woman and a child alone in a tent, they went in and demanded something to eat, and having received it, determined to await her husband's return and demand a double sacrifice, to which she retorted that he would kill them with "a stick," that weapon being plainly visible in his hand, as he came whistling home with a deer on his shoulder. Meantime one of the Indians, while they were holding a caucus-with the deer in anticipation-to decide who should have the coveted honor of doing the killing, one Indian, never having taken a scalp, being on the verge of tears in his anxiety, a treacherous hand pulled a trigger without consent, the gun snapped and he was killed by the man "with the stick," who put the entire party to rout. It is understood that Iron Heart did not claim that his name resulted from this incident. He declares he was never so badly frightened before, and that he was sure the man had nothing but a stick.
The first winter de Molin was on his ranch, which is thirty-five miles from Fort Totten on the one side, and 100 miles from Grand Forks on the other; these being the nearest settlements, winter set in in November and the snow drifted even to the top of his house. Not having heard from him for three months, Maj. James McLaughlin, who was Indian agent at Fort Totten, sent an Indian out to find him and report. He had lost his first wife and having married a part-blood, he became, under the laws of the Indians and the then rulings of the department, one of the tribe, and entitled to draw rations from the Indian Department. There was a Chippewa half-blood living on the lake five miles from de Molin and they were short of supplies, but managed to live by borrowing from one another. The messenger came on snow-shoes and found them, and they rigged up a dog sledge and went into Fort Totten with him for supplies. The snow was waist deep, and dog and men were completely exhausted when they reached an Indian camp near the agency. After resting they went into headquarters, leaving their dog and sledge at the Indian camp, but when they returned, the next day, with their provisions, they found the Indians had killed their dog and had a feast on his remains the night before : so they had to "pack" their provisions thirty-five miles through the deep snow on their return home.
Senator Roach's mail carriers sometimes had to rely upon the dog sledge to
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get the mail through. On one occasion a son of Colonel Smith, a half-blood and a white man were coming through with the mail by dog train, and got lost in a blizzard. They had three dogs in their train. They had killed one for food and one had frozen to death. They lay in a snow bank two days and nights but finally reached de Molin's, staggering from exhaustion, and fell at his door. Their lives were saved by the provision he was able to make for them. The Indians were very troublesome at times and even his Indian wife feared to remain with hin1.
In 1873, two Indians from Fort Totten killed the de Lorme family, near Pembina, and returned to the agency, where Major Mclaughlin ordered them captured dead or alive. After their arrest one of them got away, and after being shot through the legs raised himself and defied them, but the soldiers killed him. The other went to Standing Rock, where he raised a war party of 400. They killed a stage driver, and it became very threatening for a time.
MAJ. JOHN CARLAND
Maj. John Carland was identified with the history of Dakota as a captain in the Sixth United States Infantry. He was major in the Twenty-third Michigan Regiment at the close of the Civil war, 1865, and had charge of the Indian ponies surrendered by the Sioux after the Custer massacre in 1876, which were taken overland to St. Paul, and sold for the benefit of the Indians. His son, John E. Carland, has filled the offices of United States district attorney and district judge of South Dakota, and later United States circuit judge.
Photos by D. F. Barry, Superior, Wis.
Sioux Warrior
Crow King John Grass Rimming Antelope
NOTED SIOUX
CHAPTER XVI
THE CONQUEST OF THE SIOUX
CHRISTIANIZING THE DAKOTAS-AMERICAN MISSIONARY BOARD STATIONS AT LAKE CALHOUN-LAC QUI PARLE-TRAVERSE DES SIOUX-THE INITIATIVE OF CUL- TURE-TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE INTO THE SIOUX-EAGLE HELP'S VISION- SIMON'S CONVERSION-EARLY SETTLERS OF SPIRIT LAKE-AFTER THE SIOUX MASSACRE OF 1862-CHURCH OF THE SCOUTS-SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT IN PRISON-REMOVAL OF THE SURVIVORS AND PARDONED TO DAKOTA-JOSEPH RENVILI.E, DOCTOR RIGGS AND ASSOCIATES-THE PILGRIMS OF SANTEE-FOUNDING OF THE RELIGIOUS PRESS-THE FIRST GENERAL CONFERENCE-THE SABBATH- MEN OF MARK AMONG THE MISSIONARIES-PROPHETS AND BLACK GOWNS.
Fling out the banner ! let it float Skyward and seaward, high and wide; The sun, that lights its shining folds, The cross, on which the Saviour died.
Fling out the banner ! angels bend In anxious silence o'er the sign ; And vainly seek to comprehend The wonder of the love divine.
-Bishop G. WV. Doane.
CHRISTIANIZING THE DAKOTAS-THE INITIATIVE OF CULTURE
In 1834, a Dakota village of about four hundred people existed on Lake Calhoun, extending to Lake Harriet, now embraced within the city limits of Minneapolis, Minn. Here that year the Rev. Samuel W. Pond and his brother, Gideon H. Pond, commenced the spiritual conquest of the Dakotas. In 1835, they were joined by the Rev. Jedediah D. Stevens and Dr. Thomas S. William- son, also a medical practitioner, and Lake Calhoun became a station of the American Missionary Board. They immediately began a systematic study of the Sioux language in order to better reach the understanding of the natives, and by 1837, they had gathered a vocabulary of five or six hundred words, this, Dr. Stephen R. Riggs declared, forming the basis of the Dakota (Sioux) grammar. Two houses were built of tamarac logs, in one of which a school was established with half a dozen pupils, principally mixed-blood girls. In 1836, at the request of the Indian trader, Joseph Renville, a three-fourths blood Sioux (first mentioned on the Minnesota River in Part One), a congregation of seven members was organized, principally of the household of Mr. Renville, who rendered invaluable aid in the translation of the Bible into the Dakota language, until then a rude Vol. 1-16
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spoken dialect. The Bible was translated and hymns composed or translated, and reduced to written form in the Dakota tongue. It was the beginning of the creation of the literature of a nation.
In an upper room-10 by 12 feet-of a log house, Doctor Riggs lived and worked for five years. Here his first three children were born, and here his granmar of the Dakota language was prepared, and the greater part of the New Testament translated.
Mr. Renville had great influence over the Sioux. The members of his own family learned to read, and some of the "Soldiers' Lodge" (council of warriors) were next to learn.
In the lower room of the Williamson building, twenty-five or thirty men and women gathered every Sunday, to whom Doctor Williamson preached and being a physician he was often able to contribute to their temporal welfare. They sang Dakota hymns composed by Mrs. Renville, and Mr. Pond prayed in. their language.
Mr. Renville's home at Lac qui Parle was known as Fort Renville, having been built for defense as well as trade with the Ojibways (Chippewas). It con- sisted of a store building, a reception room with a large fireplace, and a bench running almost around the room, on which the men sat or reclined. Mr. Ren- ville sat in a chair in the middle of the room, with his feet crossed under him like a tailor. Verse by verse the Bible was read, Renville translating into the Dakota language, written by Doctor Riggs or Mr. Pond, and again read from the Indian language.
Thus from week to week the work went on until the missionaries became entirely competent to make their own translation, which was finally completed in 1879. Renville died in March, 1846, at Lac qui Parle.
In the prosecution of their work they encountered the most bitter opposition, which was engendered in savage breasts by ignorance and superstition, and in- tensified by the malice, jealousy, avarice and licentiousness of white frontier traders.
Eagle Help is claimed by Doctor Riggs-from whose book, "Mary and I," these facts are principally obtained-to have been the first Sioux to read and write the Dakota language, and to have been of great help in the work of trans- lating the Bible. Eagle Help was not only a warrior but a prophet. After fasting and praying and dancing the circle dance, a vision of the enemies he sought to kill would come to him. In his trance or dream, the whole panorama -the river, lake or forest, and the Ojibways in canoes, or on the land, would appear before him, and the spirit he saw in his vision would say, "Up, Eagle Help, and kill."
On one occasion having had a vision, Eagle Help got up a war party of a score of young warriors, who fasted and feasted, decked themselves in hostile array, danced the "No Flight Dance," listened to real war stories by the old men, and went off to war, first killing two Mission cows. When they returned, after many days, without having seen an enemy they blamed the missionaries for Eagle Help's false vision.
Jean N. Nicollet and Lieut. John C. Fremont visited the camp soon afterward (1839), and induced the Indians to pay for the cows. Eagle Help accounted for
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his failure as a war prophet by the claim that his knowledge of the Christian religion had destroyed his powers.
The treaty of 1837, providing for the education of the Sioux, Doctor Riggs held, had proved to be a handicap rather than a help, because the traders induced the Indians to oppose the use of the money for that purpose and to insist upon its being turned over to them for general purposes; and lest there might be a treaty some time that would permit the missionaries to get the money, they ordered the Soldiers' Lodge (Council of Warriors) to prevent the children from going to school.
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