History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 29

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198

USA > South Dakota > History of Dakota Territory, volume I > Part 29

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Greenwood. S. D. March II. 1905.

My Dear Sir-Your letter of March 7th is received, and I take pleasure in giving you such knowledge as I have on the points you mention in regard to the Dakota Indians.

Dakota is a Dakota Indian word, and the name by which they call themselves. Like all proper names in common use, those who use it seldom think of its meaning. It means "Friends," or "Those who are friends to each other." The root is koda, which is still the word commonly used for friend. The prefix "da", which limits the meaning to those spoken of, is the cause of its sometimes being translated "Allies " But it is clear that the name was not given because of any alliance having been made by different bodies of Indians. for we find that they are one people. They have one language, one religion, and no legend that intimates that they were ever brought together from different sources. The feeling among the Dakotas that all who speak the Dakota language are Dakotans, which is very strong, is proof that the language and the nation have been co-extensive for centuries.

The word "Sionx," by which the first white men who wrote of them designated them. is certainly not a Dakota word A number of explanations have been given as to its derivation. The most plausible 1 have seen is that of Charlevoix, who wrote in 1720: "The name Sioux that we give to these Indians is entirely of our own making, or rather it is the last two syllables of the 'Nadowessioux,' as many nations call them." As this was only about forty years after the first white man ( Hennepin) looked wondrously upon the people and the land of the Dakotas, it would seem to be correct.

As to the divisions of the Dakota nation, it is clear that at some prehistoric period, sav a thousand years ago, they became divided into three parts: the Santee, the Yankton and the Teton. These are now the leading divisions and it was so long ago that their old men make no effort to designate the time when it was made. Each division, though the language

158

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

is one, has a clearly defined dialect, so distinct that an Indian can hardly speak a sentence without making known from which division he comes. Each of these divisions was sulxli- vided before the white people came among them. The Santees had four divisions : the Mdewa- kantonwan, Wahpekutas, Wahpetonwan and Sissetonwan. The Yanktons had three divi- sions : the Yankton. Yanktonais and Assinnaboine. The Teton divisions seem to have been later, some of them after the advent of the white man, but at the time the United States took charge of them there were seven divisions: Sichangu, Oohenonpa. Sihasapa, Min- nekanjou, Oglala, Hazipco and Hunkpapa.

These secondary subdivisions have some dialectic differences, but so small they would only be noticed by experts. These secondary divisions have been subdivided more or less at different times. For instance, the Mdewakantonna at the time of the Minnesota treaty of 1851 were divided into seven bands : the Kiynksa, Ilemnican, Kapoje, Oyatesica, Magayutesni, lleyatatonuc, and Tintatonuc. And the Yanktons also at the time of the treaty of 1858 were divided into seven bands, namely : Cankute, Cagu. Wakmuhaoin, Thaisdiye, Waceonpa, 1kmer, and Oyatesica. Owing to changed circumstances this third class of subdivisions is now almost obsolete. And the lines of the second class are in many cases quite indistinct. The primary divisions however will remain clear as long as the Dakota language is spoken.

.As to the original location of the Dakotas when the white man first heard of them, about two hundred and fifty years ago, they occupied nearly the whole of what is now the State of Minnesota, stretching over a little into each of the three continguous states of Wisconsin, Iowa and the two Dakotas. The Santees occupied both sides of the head waters of the Mississippi River from about Prairie la Crosse to its source. The Yanktons occupied the central part of Minnesota, living in the woods as the old men still say. The Tetons, as the name seems to indicate, lived on the prairies in Western Minnesota and Eastern North and South Dakota. Their headquarters were about Bigstone Lake and the head of the Minnesota River, and they probably seldom hunted west of the James River. From this original location, for reasons which had little connection with the coming of the whites, they gradually drifted several hundred miles to the southwest, so that before they ceded any of their landed rights to the United States the Tetons were all west of the Missouri River. the Yanktons were all in the Dakotas, but east of the Missouri River; and the Santees had reached the western boundary of Minnesota, and in places beyond.

The Yanktons claimed a large portion of the country north of the Minnesota River and were estimated to be the most numerous and intelligent of all the divisions of the original tribe of the Sioux or Dakotah nation. They numbered nearly as many individuals as all the others combined. The Dahkotahs subse- quently claimed all of the country west of the Mississippi and north of the Missouri, and their claim was recognized by our Government to the greater part of it, as is abundantly attested by subsequent treaties of cession. They also claimed a large estate in the country cast of the Mississippi, between the great Father of Waters and Lake Michigan, where their forefathers had their homes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and our Government being unable justly to resist their claims, paid the various bands of Dakotahs about three hun- dred thousand dollars some seventy years ago and obtained from them such a relinquishment of their claims as effectually quieted the question of the Govern- ment title for all time. Later, in 1851, came the Travers des Sioux and Mendota treaty, when the Sissetons, Mdewakantons, Wahpetons and Wahpedutes sold their Minnesota heritage, embracing 35,000,000 acres in Minnesota Territory, and following this was the treaty of 1859, by which the greater portion of Southern Dakota east of the Missouri River was ceded by the Yanktons, embracing a tract of 14.000,000 acres of the most valuable agricultural lands in North America.

This sketch traces the genealogy of the Dakotahs back to about the year A. D. 1640, which is sufficient to give them standing as one of the oldest of our Indian families, and shows their record to be in the main free from treachery, perfidy or acts of extreme cruelty, in their almost constant struggles and warfare ; and with rare though notable exceptions they have faithfully observed their treaty obligations since the time they became treaty Indians. This record is now a part of the written history of our country, chronicled by a long line of illustrious men who lived and worked among them for scores of years before this Govern- ment of ours came into existence, and by historians of this later period since the Government was instituted. It is worthy of note that this record, in all its im- portant features, substantially coincides with the traditions of the Indians of the present generation, who can recite the substance of it as it has been handed down

159

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

to them from the preceding generations who likewise received it from their fath- ers, and on back for hundreds of years, interspersed more or less with the super- natural and marvelous tales invented from time to time to account for some great event, and give a lively coloring to the narrative.

During the summer of 1859 the Indians along the upper river were at war . among themselves, and this seemed to be a chironie condition between the Dako- tahs or Sioux on the one side and the Arickarees, Mandans and Crows on the other, who were all targets for the Sioux whenever and wherever they met. The steamer Spread Eagle made a trip to the Yellowstone and Fort Union, returning in July, 1859, with a number of white passengers, traders and explorers, who reported that they passed war parties nearly every day along the upper river, and they frequently saw the scalps of Indian braves dangling at the entrance to the lodge of some successful leader. The scalps, however, were in every instance those of Indians, and no act of personal hostility toward the whites had been committed; but it was surmised that the Indians were growing unfriendly and that it would be necessary to construct two or three forts and keep them gar- risoned by a force of troops as the most effective means of restraining the war- like disposition of the savages and prevent them from breaking out into open hostility. Steamboat transportation was increasing and wood camps were being established by white men in the Indian country, a procedure that was angrily complained of by the red men.

It is not improbable that there would have been a serious family quarrel in the fall of 1859 had the Dakotah Indians of the upper river been able to meet the Yanktons. Major Schoonover, who was the Government agent for the upper tribes, made a trip down the river in the fall and he brought the report that some small parties of Poncas had been exasperated at the treaty effected by the Yank- tons and Poneas for the sale of the land in the southern portion of the territory. Nearly all the upper Sioux, not Yankions, but classed as the northern tribes, shared in the disaffection over the treaty, basing their opposition on the general principle that the Indians had already ceded away much more of their domain than their welfare demanded and they were all beginning to feel the hurtful effects of the restrictions put upon them as these cessions continued, by narrow- ing their hunting and trapping grounds and destroying their resources for obtain- ing subsistence. The Sioux in many cases claimed that the Yanktons had no right to make the treaty because the land ceded was the common property of the Dakotah nation and not the Yanktons alone.

Another report substantially confirming that of Major Schoonover was brought by Mr. Avery, a clerk of the steamer Chippewa on its return trip from Benton, who represented that the upper Sioux were not only "fighting mad" toward the Yanktons for their assumption in ceding lands that were common property, but that they were eager to show their resentment, and would contest the right of the Government to the ceded tract unless a further treaty was made that would include all the Indians interested.

From the numerous complaints made by individual members of Indian tribes who had ceded land to the Government, in which a comparatively small number of the chiefs and head men had taken upon themselves authority to dispose of domain, there was awakened a disposition to treat the individual Indian as pos- sessing the right to a voice in the making of treaties of cession, and it is surpris- ing that such awakening had not occurred to the Government authorities much earlier, for it was no trivial matter to take from the Indian his recognized prop- erty without even consulting him in regard to the transaction. This more honest method, founded in immutable justice, appears to have been adopted, in great measure, in the making of treaties subsequent to the Yankton treaty of 1858, and furnished the treaty commissions an excellent pretext for tying up the country north of the Union Pacific Railroad in such a manner that no competing routes to the gold fields of Montana and Idaho could be opened through Dakota for a number of years. In these later treaties it was usually provided that the con-

160

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

sent of two-thirds of the Indians interested should be obtained before treaties of cession should be concluded.

THE RED PIPESTONE QUARRY

One of the provisions of the treaty between the Government and the Yankton Indians required the United States to make a survey and define the Red Pipe- stone Reservation, in Minnesota, a spot sacred to the Indians of the Northwest for centuries, and still treasured in their hearts as the scene of mighty conflict between the giants of their race at a period long anterior to the coming of the whites among them. As the Yankton Indians regarded the place with peculiar reverence and had charged themselves with the duty of caring for it, the pages of this work seem a fitting place for a brief description of the quarry and its en- vironment.

The Red Pipestone quarry is situated in Minnesota about thirty-five miles north by cast of Sioux Falls. It is the quarry from which the Indians of the Northwest have obtained the reddish mottled stone from which they have made their pipes, hatchets and various ornaments ever since they inhabited this coun- try. Lewis and Clark knew of it as a revered place in the estimation of the Indians and neutral ground, where members of all tribes had access. On its charmed soil they could meet in peace, though ready to slay one another if found beyond its boundaries.

The quarry lies in an elliptical valley about three miles in length with a maximum breadth of half a mile. From a distance the region of the quarry has the appearance of ridges or palisades and fancy might arrange its novel archi- tecture into ruined structures of an ancient city. On a nearer approach one finds that there are three ridges or palisades paralleling one another, the central one being the largest. At intervals these ridges stand above the surface ten or twelve feet, and then slope to nothing, disappearing in the earth. The material of these ridges is an indurated metaphoric sandstone or quartz, varying in hue from a purple to a light dull scarlet, sometimes a bright red. The upper surface is split into innumerable cubical pieces, and from a large fissure in the principal ridge issues a stream that drains the Pipestone Valley and is called the Red Pipestone River. AAbout a quarter of a mile from its source it falls over the lower ridge, forming a beautiful cascade about twenty feet in height.

The quarry itself is an ordinary trench about six hundred feet in length and twelve feet deep, with a varying breadth from eight to fifteen feet, which has been excavated by the Indians during the last two centuries, possibly more. As this quarrying has been done without the aid of drills or powder, and as there has been great quantities of quartz to loosen and remove that covers the pipestone and interlies between its several strata, it will occur to the observer that great labor has been expended here covering a long period of time.

The quarry was included within the land belonging to the Sisseton Sioux In- dians, but has been utilized by all Indians, and has been visited by them annually for the purpose of procuring the peculiar stone which is now quite common in pipes and ornamental hatchets and various devices and trinkets, frequently rings and watch charms, which are seen in every western community. The pipestone is used very generally by the Indians for the manufacture of their pipes, upon which a great deal of labor is bestowed, some of them being rudely carved and decorated where designed for the use of a grand peace council or other important ceremony. The Indians possess a tradition explaining the origin of nearly every- thing under the sun, and there has never been any difference of opinion among their scientific men as to the cause of this peculiar formation. Their tradition is that the quarry was one of the great battlefields of their ancestors and was the place where tribe fought against tribe through countless moons, and the rocks drank in the torrents of blood that were spilled upon the surface until they took the permanent hue they now have. That the Great Spirit has since presided

161

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

over the battlefield and has banished forever all war or contest of any kind within the area of the quarry, and for this reason all red men meet here on an equal plane, with an equal right to take of the rock which bears within it the crimson life fluid of their renowned ancestors. All enmities are forgotten here. The Dakotas cherished it as a sacred and charmed spot and observe some peculiar ceremonies and incantations whenever they visit it. They bathe themselves for several days, are very abstemious as to food and drink, and wives and husbands remain separated. These ceremonies would remind the Bible student of some of the more rigid observances of the Mosaic code. At the quarry all excavations are preceded by supplication to the Great Spirit, and one Indian is set apart to do the digging. If he fails to strike a stratum that will make good pipes it is because he has neglected to purify himself, and he is temporarily disgraced, while another one is chosen to pursue the work, which is continued until the desired quality of rock is found, when there is a further ceremony expressive of gratitude over their good fortune and the Indian who made the fortunate strike is rewarded by receiving the choicest pieces. Several weeks are spent by the Indians who visit the quarry in making their excavations and securing this treasure. The place is barren-not a tree near it, and the earth is covered partially by scanty vegetation, it having been all destroyed by the blood of their ancestors which saturated the soil.

Professor Nicolet, the famous geologist and explorer, who came up the Mis- souri with Fremont in 1839, spent some time at this quarry the year previous, and made an exhaustive investigation. He reported :

In the quarry that I had opened, the thickness of the bed is eighteen inches, the upper portion of which separates in thin slabs and may be thus described: compact structure, slaty, receiving a dull polish, having a red streak, color blood red, with dots of a fainter shade of the same color, fracture rough, sextile, feel somewhat greasy, hardness, not yielding to the nail, not scratched by silatine but easily by calcareous spar ; specific quantity, 290. The acids have no action upon it; before the blow pipe it is infusible per se but with borax gives a green glass.

According to Professor Jackson, of Boston, who has analyzed it and applied to it the name of "Catlinite," after Mr. Catlin, the Upper Missouri artist, it is com- posed of water, 8.4; silica, 48.2 ; alumnia, 28.1 ; magnesia, 6.2 ; peroxide of iron, 5.0; oxide of magnesia, 0.9: carbonate of lime, 2.6, less probably ; magnesia, 1.0. Total, 100.4.

101. 1 -11

CHAPTER XVII THE ORGANIC ACT

1858-61

DAKOTA A PART OF MINNESOTA-DAKOTA'S SITUATION ; DIMENSIONS; BOUNDARIES ; AND TOPOGRAPIIICAL FEATURES-HEALTHFUL WATERS; SALUBRIOUS CLIMATE -GOLD DISCOVERIES IN THE FAR NORTHWEST-WINTER OF 1859-60-PIONEERS ANXIOUSLY AWAIT ORGANIZATION-FIRST SCANDINAVIAN IMMIGRATION-SET- TLEMENTS WITHOUT A LEGAL GOVERNMENT-EFFORTS TO SECURE A TERRITO- RIAL ORGANIZATION-MASS MEETINGS AT YANKTON AND VERMILLION-COL. D. M. FROST-GOLD IN MONTANA-QUIET WINTER-CATFISH-GOLD FROM THE IIEADWATERS OF THE MISSOURI-ORGANIC ACT FOR DAKOTA TERRITORY-TIIE NAME "DAKOTA."

Dakota Territory, east of the Missouri River, was a part of Minnesota from 1849 to 1858. The Territory of Minnesota was organized March 3, 1849, with the following boundaries :

Beginning in the Mississippi River at the point where the line of 43 degrees and 30 minutes of north latitude crosses the same; thence running due west on said line, which is the northern boundary of the State of Iowa, to the northwest corner of the State of Iowa ; thence southerly along the western boundary of said state to the point where said boundary strikes the Missouri River; thence up the middle of the main channel of the Missouri River to the mouth of the White Earth River: thence up the middle of the main channel of the White Earth River to the boundary line between the possessions of the United States and Great Britain ; thence east and south of east along the boundary line be- tween the possessions of the United States and Great Britain to Lake Superior; thence in a straight line to the northwestern point of the State of Wisconsin in Lake Superior ; thence along the western boundary line of the State of Wisconsin to the Mississippi River; thence down the main channel of said river to the place of beginning.

The White Earth River referred to as forming a small part of the western boundary of the Territory of Minnesota is a small stream emptying into the Mis- souri from the north, about midway between Fort Berthold and Fort Buford, now in Mountraille County, North Dakota. As laid down on the old maps, it rises about thirty miles south of the international boundary. It was also called the Whitewater River. On some of the earlier maps the White River, which runs south of the Black Hills and courses east, falling into the Missouri River a few miles south of Chamberlain, is erroneously called White Earth.

South Dakota was largely in Blue Earth County, Minnesota. This county comprised about one-fifth of the entire Territory of Minnesota. Starting from Big Stone Lake, it followed the Minnesota River to Mankato, which was also in Blue Earth County. From Mankato it followed the Minnesota River up to Heel and Toe Bend, Le Seuer County : thence southeast along the western boundary of Le Scuer to Rice County ; thence south along the western boundary of Rice to the northern boundary of Iowa ; thence west along the said northern boundary to the Big Sioux River : thence down the Big Sioux to its mouth; thence up the Missouri River to a point directly west of the starting point on Big Stone Lake, nearly opposite the mouth of the Moreau River ; thence cutting across the present counties of Roberts, Day, Brown, Edmunds and Walworth, in South Dakota; in

162

163

HISTORY OF DAKOTA TERRITORY

arca embracing about one-fifth of Minnesota Territory and including its choicest agricultural section.

Pembina County was directly north of Blue Earth, taking in the upper por- tion of the counties in South Dakota above named and all of North Dakota east of the Missouri River. It also embraced the country east of the Red River of the North, having a somewhat irregular boundary on the east; beginning on the Magia Wakan River, about forty miles cast of Big Stone Lake, running thence north and northeast to Winnebigoshish Lake, thence northwest to Rainy Lake River, and up that river to the Lake of the Woods; thence west along the inter- national boundary. Pembina County comprised about one-third of the Territory of Minnesota.

Blue Earth County was in the Tenth Council and Representative District in the Territory of Minnesota, and in the same district with Le Seuer, State, Fari- bault, Brown, Nicollet, Sibley, Pierce and Renville counties, Minnesota. These counties do not now all appear on the maps of Minnesota; that is, names and boundaries have been changed. In 1856 the councilman representing the Tenth district was C. E. Flandreau, and the representatives were Parsons K. Johnson, Aurelius F. de la Vergne and George A. McLeod. In 1857 P. P. Humphrey was the councilman, and Joseph R. Brown, Francis Basaen and O. A. Thomas, rep- resentatives.

Pembina County formed the Seventh Council and Representative District by itself. Its councilman in 1856 was Joseph Rolette, the famous Red River vote getter in the olden time. Its representatives the same year were R. Carlisle Bur- dick and Charles Grant. In 1857 Rolette was again returned to the Council, and Charles Grant and John B. Wilkie were the House members. The Legislature of 1857 closed the legislative career of Minnesota Territory. It was admitted into the Union as a state in May, 1858.

In the constitutional convention held at St. Paul, Minnesota, in July, 1857, to form a constitution for the state, the Seventh Council and Representative Dis- triet was represented by James McFetridge, J. P. Wilson, J. Jerome, Xavier Cantell, Joseph Rolette and Louis Vasseur. The Tenth district was represented by Joseph R. Brown, C. E. Flandreau, Francis Baasen, William B. McMahan and J. H. Swan. These carly lawmakers and constitution framers all resided east of the Big Sioux River in the Tenth district, but in the Seventh district the names of Rolette, McFetridge and Grant are familiar to the early settlement of Pen- bina on the Dakota side of the Red River of the North, both McFetridge and Rolette subsequently being identified with Dakota Territory, MeFetridge as a member of the carly Legislatures from the Red River region, and Rolette as a deputy United States marshal.

In 1851 the Indian title to all the land claimed by the Sioux Indians cast of the Red River of the North, Lake Traverse and the Big Sioux River was extin- guished by the treaties of Lake Traverse and Mendota, by which treaties certain bands of the Northern Dakota or Sioux Indians, notably the Sissetons and Wah- petons, ceded about thirty million acres of the most fertile agricultural land in the United States to the general Government for the sum of $1,665.000.

The Territory of Dakota was situated about midway between the two great oceans, and between the parallels of latitude 42° 30' and 49° of north latitude, which latter parallel forms the northern boundary of the United States from near the Pacific Ocean to the 95th degree of longitude west from Greenwich. It em- braced an area of 149,000 square miles, according to the estimate of the United States census bureau. Its longest dimensions were about four hundred and thirty miles from south to north, and approximately three hundred and eighty- five miles east and west, but its average length was placed at 400 miles and its breadth 380. The Missouri River divided the territory into two great sections entering it near the northwestern boundaries and leaving it at the southeast corner -that portion, however, lying east of the river being much the larger in area. owing to the course of the stream.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Dakota Territory, volume I, Part 29

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920 Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1198

Author: Kingsbury, George Washington, 1837-; Smith, George Martin, 1847-1920
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1198