USA > South Dakota > A brief history of South Dakota > Part 3
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Sergeant Pryor at once ordered Big White to barricade himself in his cabin, and prepared his men for action. After a good deal of parleying and speechmaking, Pryor explained the purpose of his journey, and after making some presents he was allowed to go on to the upper village.
The two interpreters, Dorion and Jesseaume, went by land through the villages, and they learned that the Indians clearly had evil intentions. The Indians ordered the boats to proceed up a narrow channel near the shore, but the whites discovered the trap in time and refused to comply. The Rees now openly declared that they intended to detain the boats, saying that Lisa had promised them that
Pryor's party would remain and trade with them. They seized the cable of Chouteau's boat and ordered Pryor to go on. This Pryor refused to do, but seeing the des- perate state of affairs, he urged Chouteau to make some concessions to them. Chouteau offered to leave a trader and half of the goods with them, but the Indians, feeling sure that they could capture the whole of the outfit, re- fused the offer.
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THE FIRST BLOODSHED
The chief of the upper village now came on Pryor's boat and demanded that Big White go on shore with him. With great insolence he demanded a surrender of all arms and ammunition. The chief, to whom a medal had been given, threw it on the ground, and one of Chouteau's men was struck down with a gun. Raising a general war whoop, the Rees fired on the boats and on Chouteau and a few of his men who were on shore, and then with- drew to a fringe of willows along the bank, some fifty yards back. The willows were more of a concealment than a protection, and Pryor replied with the fire of his entire force. The contest was maintained for fifteen minutes, but the number of Indians was so great that Pryor ordered a retreat.
To retreat was a very hard thing to do, for Chouteau's barge had stuck fast on a bar and the men were compelled to wade in the water and drag it for some distance, all the while under the fire of the Indians. At length the boats were gotten off and floated down the current, the Indians following along the bank. It was not until sunset that the pursuit was abandoned by the Indians, and then only on account of the serious wounding of Black Buffalo, the Teton Sioux who had entertained and quarreled with Lewis and Clark at the site of Fort Pierre three years before.
This was the first engagement between troops of the United States and Indians upon Dakota soil. Three of Chouteau's men were killed, and seven wounded, one mortally. Three of Pryor's men were wounded, among them the boy, George Shannon, who was lost for a. time
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while hunting Lewis and Clark's horses in August, 1804. He was so severely wounded that his right leg had to be amputated by Dr. Sauguin, the man who made the ther- mometer, when he returned to St. Louis. Shannon later studied law and became a successful lawyer of Lexington, Missouri, and a judge of his district.
The party with Big White returned to St. Louis, and it was not until 1809 that the government succeeded, at great expense, in getting him back safely to his people.
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CHAPTER IX
A NOTABLE BOAT RACE
THE information brought back by Lewis and Clark regarding the vast extent of the fur-bearing country through which they had traveled, caused great activity among the fur merchants of St. Louis, and they immediately organ- ized for the purpose of trade with the Indian tribes upon the head waters of the Missouri River and in the Rocky Mountains. The most prominent of these traders were Pierre Chouteau and Manuel Lisa, the men of whom we learned in the story of the return of Big White. They were prompt in entering the country and claiming prior rights in its occupancy.
The great king of all the American fur trade was John Jacob Astor of New York city. When the reports of Lewis and Clark's successful trip came to Astor, he im- mediately determined to establish a great fur depot on the Pacific coast at the mouth of the Columbia River, and to dispatch two expeditions to that point, one to go by sea around South America, the other to go overland. The overland expedition was placed in charge of a famous fur merchant of that time, Walter Price Hunt of Jersey City.
Hunt began to recruit his men for the enterprise at
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Montreal, securing there many of the best-trained fur men from the Hudson Bay and Northwestern employment. He went on to Mackinaw, where he secured other trained wilderness rangers, and thence went to St. Louis, where he purposed to lay in his supplies and employ additional men. He reached St. Louis in the autumn of 1810. There he met with the most violent opposition from the St. Louis merchants, who were very jealous of Astor. They refused to sell Hunt any goods and used every means to prevent men from going upon his errand.
In this opposition no one was more active than the Spaniard, Manuel Lisa. It was important to Hunt to secure a guide and interpreter who was thoroughly fa- miliar with the upper Missouri, and he found such a man in Pierre Dorion, Jr., son of the old guide to Lewis and Clark. Dorion was a half Sioux, born at Yankton and familiar with all of the Indians residing on the Missouri River. However, he was in the employment of Lisa, and that made it particularly hard for Hunt to secure his services. It was the policy of all of the fur merchants to keep their employés in debt to them, and Dorion was deeply indebted to Lisa for whisky he had purchased and consumed. Lisa was not slow to see that Hunt was tampering with his man, and he coaxed, scolded, and finally threatened Dorion's arrest for the whisky debt. This had the desired effect, and Dorion refused to accom- pany Hunt.
To keep his men away from the influence of the St. Louis merchants, Hunt moved his expedition some 400 miles up the Missouri late in the autumn, and there
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A NOTABLE BOAT RACE
made a winter camp. Toward spring he returned to St. Louis to recruit more men, and again entered into nego- tiations with Dorion, who agreed to accompany him into the wilderness. . Learning of this, Lisa got out a war- rant for Dorion's arrest on the whisky debt, but Dorion escaped into the brush and, after traveling a long and circuitous route, joined Hunt far up the river. Hunt went with all haste to his camp, quickly made ready for the voyage, and finally, on the 27th of April, 1811, set off up the river in four boats, one of which was of large size and mounted two swivels and a howitzer. He was aware when he left St. Louis that Lisa was about ready to embark for the head waters of the Missouri, and he had every reason to believe that Lisa was now in close pursuit.
Hunt's party got along prosperously and reached the mouth of the Big Sioux River on the 15th of May. On the 23d they had reached the sharp bend in the Missouri between the site of Springfield and Bon Homme Island, when they were overtaken by a messenger from Lisa, who informed them that Lisa had passed their winter encamp- ment nineteen days after they had left, and that he was then at the Omaha village opposite the mouth of the Big Sioux; that he had a large boat manned with twenty oars- men, and that he had set out to overtake the Astorians at any cost. The messenger said that the Teton Sioux were hostile, being excited by the religious craze inspired by the teaching of the Shawnee Prophet, which had reached all of the tribes in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys, and that Lisa wished to join his expedition with the Astorians for mutual protection while passing through the
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hostile country. Hunt sent back word to Lisa that he would await Lisa's arrival at the Ponca village at the mouth of the Niobrara; but no sooner had the messen- ger disappeared downstream, than Hunt redoubled his energy to pass through the Sioux country in advance of Lisa, for he feared that Lisa would use his well-known influence with the Indians to excite hostilities against the Astorians. Hunt was in a state of terror, and it is hard to tell which he feared most, Lisa or the Indians he was pretty certain to meet in the Dakota country.
By the morning of the 31st of May Hunt had arrived in the neighborhood of the Big Bend, when the whole party were almost scared out of their wits by the approach of a large body of Sioux, who came racing down the river bank as if to intercept their passage. They were under the lead of our old friend Black Buffalo. They informed the white men that they were at war with the Rees and Mandans, and would not permit ammunition and guns to be taken to their enemies. Hunt explained to them that he was not looking for trade on the Missouri, but was going to cross the mountains to the Pacific coast; this sat- isfied Black Buffalo, who allowed the white men to pass on. They, however, met several other bands of Sioux in the next day or two, and were kept in a constant state of alarm. Just as they rounded the Big Bend they met a party of Rees, who greeted them most cordially. After spending a night with the whites, the Rees set off hot foot for their home on Grand River, to inform their people of the approach of the boats.
At the very moment when the Rees disappeared up
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A NOTABLE BOAT RACE
river, Manuel Lisa and his party were seen coming around the bend. This threw Hunt and his party into a new ter- ror, but Manuel greeted them civilly and for two days con- tinued to travel in their company, showing no disposition to pass them, though they feared that he would go on and excite the Rees against them.
On the 5th of June both parties were encamped on the site of the present city of Pierre. It was a wet, dis- agreeable day, and they had decided to lie over for rest until the weather cleared up. From the moment of Lisa's arrival Pierre Dorion had kept aloof and regarded him most sullenly. During this day in camp the wily Spaniard decided to make up with Dorion, and invited him on his boat. After regaling him with whisky Lisa asked him to quit the service of Hunt and return to him. This Pierre refused to do. Finding that Pierre could not be moved by soft words, Lisa called to his mind the old whisky debt and threatened to carry him off by force in payment of it. A violent quarrel occurred between him and Lisa, and he left the boat in great anger and went directly to the tent of Mr. Hunt and told him of Lisa's threat.
While Dorion was telling Hunt his story, Lisa entered the tent, pretending that he had come to borrow a towing line. High words followed between him and Dorion, and the half-breed struck him a hard blow. Lisa imme- diately rushed to his boat for a weapon; Dorion snatched up a pair of pistols belonging to Mr. Hunt and placed himself in battle array. The loud voices aroused the camp, and every one pressed up to know the cause. Lisa reappeared with a knife stuck in his girdle. Dorion's
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pistols gave him the advantage, and he kept up a most warlike attitude. A scene of uproar and hubbub ensued, which defies description; the men of each party sided with their employer, and every one seemed anxious for blood except Hunt, who used every effort to prevent a gen- eral mêlée. In the midst of the brawl Lisa called Hunt a bad name and in an instant Hunt's quiet spirit was inflamed. He wanted to fight Lisa and his whole com- pany, and challenged the Spaniard to settle the matter on the spot with pistols. Lisa, nothing loath, went to his boat to arm himself for the duel.
Two eminent scientists, Bradbury and Brakenridge, who accompanied the expeditions, now returned from a search for specimens just in time to interfere and un- doubtedly to prevent bloodshed. But while they did prevent a fight, they could not bring the two parties to a friendly understanding, and all intercourse between them ceased. They started on, keeping on opposite sides of the river, each party determined, if the other showed bad faith by attempting to go ahead to the Ree camp, to resort to arms to prevent it. Thus they skirted along until they were close to the Ree towns on Grand River. Lisa then sent Mr. Brakenridge over to the Astorians to arrange a joint meeting with the Rees with due ceremony. Hunt, still suspicious, refused to have anything to do in common with the Spaniard, but upon the representations of Mr. Brakenridge finally consented, and it was arranged that both parties should go to the village at the same time.
Here Hunt decided to leave the river and start across country to the Pacific by way of the Grand River route.
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A NOTABLE BOAT RACE
To enable him to do this it was necessary to buy a large number of horses of the Rees. He told his purpose in the first council held, but the chief Left Hand said it would be impossible for them to supply so many horses as were needed. Here Gray Eyes, another chief, interrupted to say that the matter could be easily arranged, for if they had not enough horses to supply the requirements of the white men, they could easily steal more, and putting this honest expedient into practice they soon had all the horses Hunt needed. Hunt remained with the Rees until the 18th of July, when, being fully equipped, he set out for the Pa- cific. Going up Grand River, he crossed through the northern part of the Black Hills, being the first to explore that region, and after great hardship and suffering reached the mouth of the Columbia. Lisa, having traded out his wares to the Rees for furs, set out for St. Louis about the same time that Hunt departed.
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A SIOUX WAR PARTY
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CHAPTER X
A PATRIOTIC CELEBRATION
WHILE the parties of Hunt and Lisa were staying at the Ree towns, a great patriotic celebration occurred there, which is described in detail by Washington Irving. No one of the pretentious towns or cities of to-day could welcome her sons home from the wars with more pomp and circumstance, more of feasting and rejoicings, than did these primitive South Dakotans.
"On the 9th of July, just before daybreak, a great noise and vociferation was heard in the village. This being the usual Indian hour of attack and surprise, and the Sioux being known to be in the neighborhood, the camp was instantly on the alert. As the day broke Indians were descried in considerable number on the bluffs three or four miles down the river. The noise and agitation in the village continued. The tops of the lodges were crowded with the inhabitants, all carnestly looking toward the hills and keeping up a vehement chattering. Presently an Indian warrior galloped past the camp [of Mr. Hunt] toward the village, and in a little while the legions began to pour forth.
"The truth of the matter was now ascertained. The Indians upon the distant hills were three hundred Arick-
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ara [Ree] braves returning from a foray. They had met the war party of Sioux who had been so long hovering about the neighborhood, had fought them the day be- fore [that is, July 8, 1811], killed several, and defeated the rest, with the loss of but two or three of their own men and about a dozen wounded; and they were now halting at a distance until their comrades in the village should come forth to meet them and swell the parade of their triumphal entry. The warrior who had galloped past the camp was the leader of the party hastening home to give tidings of his victory.
"Preparations were now made for this great martial ceremony. All the finery and equipments of the warriors were sent forth to them, that they might appear to the greatest advantage. Those, too, who had remained at home tasked their wardrobes and toilets to do honor to the procession.
"The Arickaras generally go naked, but, like all sav- ages, they have their gala dress, of which they are not a little vain. This usually consists of a gray surcoat and leggings of the dressed skin of the antelope, resembling chamois leather, and embroidered with porcupine quills brilliantly dyed. A buffalo robe is thrown over the right shoulder, and across the left is slung a quiver of arrows. They wear gay coronets of plumes, particularly those of the swan; but the feathers of the black eagle are con- sidered the most worthy, being a sacred bird among the Indian warriors. He who has killed an enemy in his own land is entitled to drag at his heels a fox skin attached to each moccasin, and he who has slain a grizzly bear
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A PATRIOTIC CELEBRATION
wears a necklace of his claws, the most glorious trophy that a hunter can exhibit.
"An Indian toilet is an operation of some toil and trouble; the warrior often has to paint himself from head to foot, and is extremely capricious and difficult to please as to the hideous distribution of streaks and colors. A great part of the morning, therefore, passed away before there were any signs of the distant pageant. In the mean- time a profound stillness reigned over the village. Most of the inhabitants had gone forth ; others remained in mute expectation. All sports and occupations were suspended, excepting that in the lodges the painstaking squaws were silently busied in preparing the repasts for the warriors.
"It was near noon that a mingled sound of voices and rude music, faintly heard from the distance, gave notice that the procession was on the march. The old men, and such of the squaws as could leave their employments, hastened forth to meet it. In a little while it emerged from behind a hill, and had a wild and picturesque appearance as it came moving over the summit in measured step and to the cadence of songs and savage instruments; the war- like standards and trophies flaunting aloft, and the feathers and paint and silver ornaments of the warriors glaring and glittering in the sunshine.
"The pageant had really something chivalrous in its arrangement. The Arickaras are divided into several bands, each bearing the name of some animal or bird, as the buffalo, the bear, the dog, the pheasant. The present party consisted of four of these bands, one of which was the dog, the most esteemed in war, being com-
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posed of young men under thirty and noted for their prowess. It is engaged on the most desperate occasions. The bands marched in separate bodies under their several leaders. The warriors on foot came first, in platoons of ten or twelve abreast; then the horsemen. Each band bore as an ensign a spear or bow decorated with beads, porcupine quills, and painted feathers. Each bore its trophies of scalps, elevated on poles, their long black locks streaming in the wind. Each was accompanied by its rude music and minstrelsy. In this way the pro- cession extended nearly a quarter of a mile. The warriors were variously armed, some few with guns, others with bows and arrows and war clubs; all had shields of buffalo hide, a kind of defense generally used by the Indians of the open prairie, who have not the covert of trees and for- ests to protect them. They were painted in the most sav- age style. Some had the stamp of a red hand across their mouths, a sign that they had drunk the life blood of a foe.
"As they drew near to the village the old men and the women began to meet them, and now a scene ensued that proved the fallacy of the old fable of Indian apathy and stoicism. Parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, met with the most rapturous ex- pressions of joy; while wailings and lamentations were heard from the relatives of the killed and wounded. The procession, however, continued on with slow and measured step, in cadence to the solemn chant, and the warriors maintained their fixed and stern demeanor.
"Between two of the principal chiefs rode a young war-
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rior who had distinguished himself in the battle. He was severely wounded, so as with difficulty to keep on his horse, but he preserved a serene and steadfast countenance, as if perfectly unharmed. His mother had heard of his condition. She broke through the throng and, rushing up, threw her arms around him and wept aloud. He kept up the spirit and demeanor of a warrior to the last, but ex- pired shortly after he had reached his home.
"The village was now a scene of the utmost festivity and triumph. The banners and trophies and scalps and painted shields were elevated on poles near the lodges. There were war feasts and scalp dances, with warlike songs and savage music; all the inhabitants were arrayed in their festal dresses ; while the old heralds went round from lodge to lodge, promulgating with loud voices the events of the battle and the exploits of the various warriors.
"Such was the boisterous revelry of the village," Irving continues ; "but sounds of another kind were heard on the surrounding hills: pitcous wailings of the women who had retired thither to mourn in darkness and solitude for those who had fallen in battle. There the poor mother of the youthful warrior who had returned home in triumph but to die gave full vent to the anguish of a mother's heart. How much does this custom among the Indian women, of repairing to the hilltops in the night and pouring forth their wailings for the dead, call to mind the beautiful and affecting passage of Scripture, 'In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they are not.'"
SO. DAK. - 5
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Those of the readers of this history who recall the great festival throughout South Dakota upon the return of the First Regiment from the Philippine war will appreciate the fact that it was entirely in line with a time-honored precedent among the people of the South Dakota land.
CHAPTER XI
AN ENGLISH CAPTAIN FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
WHEN the second war with England began in 1812, British interests in the Northwest were placed under the general control of Major Robert Dickson, a bluff old Scotch fur trader, who was married to a Flathead Sioux woman whose home was on Elm River in what is now Brown County, South Dakota. It was the British purpose to enlist the Sioux and other western tribes in their behalf to make war on the Americans. Dickson's wife was the sister of Red Thunder, chief of the Flatheads, and this chief and his seventeen-year-old son, together with twenty- two Sissetons from South Dakota, at once entered the British service. In the early spring of 1813 they went down, with many other Indians, to Mackinaw, which was the headquarters of the British in the West, and thence proceeded against the American post, Fort Meigs, on the Maumee River in northern Ohio.
The siege of Fort Meigs was maintained for some time, when a party of volunteer Americans from Kentucky appeared on the ground and the British were compelled to give up their intentions upon the post. Dickson held a council with the Indians and proposed that they should proceed at once against Fort Stephenson, an American
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post on the Sandusky River. This was agreed to and they embarked in their canoes down the Maumee, but when they arrived at the mouth of the river, Itasapa, the head chief of all of the Sioux Indian expedition, turned the prow of his canoe up the lake toward Detroit, instead of turning south toward the Sandusky.
Dickson and other officers hurried to the front and demanded to know the chief's intentions. Itasapa said he was going to take his warriors back to the Mississippi, and nothing that Dickson or the English could do could persuade him to change his mind. He resolutely kept on toward Detroit, and the other tribes, seeing the Sioux deserting, followed their example; only Red Thunder, his young son, and-sixteen of the Sissetons remained to support the English in their attempt on Fort Stephenson.
It seemed as if thèse warriors who remained loyal to the English attempted, at Fort Stephenson, to make up for the desertion of their countrymen; they fought with extraordinary bravery, but no one of them so distinguished himself as did Dickson's nephew, the Flathead young boy from South Dakota. He fought like a tiger, and, forget- ting the Indian cunning and custom of concealing one's
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Juf, self from the enemy, he charged again and again in the open, and his relatives at once named him Waneta, which means " the charger." It does not seem that up to this time he had any name, but his new name he held during the rest of his long life. . At the charge upon Fort Stephen- son Waneta received nine gunshot wounds, but survived them all and as long as he lived he wore in his hair nine small sticks painted red, as tokens of the wounds he
prend
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AN ENGLISH CAPTAIN FROM SOUTH DAKOTA
had received. Waneta continued to serve the English interests until the close of the war, when he was called to the English headquarters, which had been transferred to Drummond Island in Lake Huron, and given a cap- tain's commission and a fine uniform. There is a tradition among the Sissetons and Flatheads that he was taken to England and presented to the king, but this is probably not true. At any rate he came back to his home in Dakota, where he remained for many years entirely loyal to the British government. Most of the other Indians had very promptly turned over to the American side.
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