History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 21

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998

USA > South Dakota > History of South Dakota, Vol. I > Part 21

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tenant Warren started overland to Sioux City. The river was very low and it was found neces- sary to go up river six miles to make a crossing. From that point he followed down the Missouri to Crow creek, whence he struck east by way of Wessington Springs and down the Firesteel to near its mouth, where he turned south, crossing the site of the city of Mitchell and forded the James at Rockport and the Vermillion just north of Centerville and reached Sioux City Novem- ber 9th.

Thus, in the short period of three months, forty-eight years ago, Lieutenant Warren traversed more of South Dakota and learned more of it than have many intelligent citizens who have resided here almost ever since that time. During all of these tedious trips Lieu- tenant Warren's pencil was constant in noting the topography. With an odemeter he measured the miles traveled. With a barometer he took the altitudes. He made celestial observations for the latitude and longitude. With a thermometer he took the temperature. He mapped the topog- raphy, studied the soil, the flora, the fauna and the native inhabitants. Nothing appears to have escaped his alert eye or failed of accurate ob- servation and record. Considering the short time involved, the distance traveled and the fact that he was single-handed in the work, his ac- complishment in 1855 is unparalleled.

In the spring of 1856 General Harney ordered Lieutenant Warren to make a reconnoissance of the Missouri river as far as the mouth of the Yellowstone, with a view to determining the most feasible sites for military posts. He was given an escort from Fort Pierre, consisting of two non-commissioned officers and fifteen men of the Second Regiment, and was assisted by Dr. F. V. Hayden, W. H. Hutton and J. H. Snowden. They left St. Louis the middle of April on Cap- tain Thockmorton's steamboat, "Genoa." During the passage up the river they' made a careful sketch of the Missouri by means of compass courses and distances estimated by the rate of travel of the steamboat and by astronomical cb- servations for latitude. Captain Thockmorton politely allowed them to take possession of the

pilot house as a coign of vantage. As far as the mouth of the Jim river the progress was quite rapid, but a short distance above that point they encountered a sudden and heavy freshet with a current so rapid that the boat could not stem it, but was compelled to tie up. The river fell as rapidly as it rose and a few days later, when at Cedar island (near Fort Randall), they found their progress completely blocked by a bar ex- tending clear across the river. Not desiring to wait the course of navigation, Lieutenant Warren and his assistants left the boat and, with two horses borrowed of army officers at the camp near where Fort Randall was built, to pack their equipment, walked to the point on the east shore opposite Fort Lookout, through a cold and dreary rain, and there failing in all their efforts to attract the attention of the soldiers at the cantonment, pushed on to Fort Pierre, where they arrived on the 20th of May, completely ex- hausted. General Harney was just then com- pleting the treaty with the Sioux which ended the war of 1855. By this treaty convenient agencies were to be established along the Mis- souri and the Indians were to receive certain goods annually. General Harney appointed Bear's Rib, an Uncpapa, head chief of all the Missouri Sioux, and a general good time was indulged in.

Captain Joseph LaBarge relates that upon this occasion (he places the date at 1855, but in this he is manifestly mistaken) General Har- ney was addressing the Sioux endeavoring to impress them with the power of the whites and the uselessness of the Sioux attempting to op- pose them. "Why," he said, "white men can kill a person and then bring him to life again," referring to the use of chloroform, which just then was being introduced into general use among doctors. "Here," he said, addressing the post surgeon, "kill that dog and then restore him to life." The surgeon obediently administered a dose of chloroform to the dog and when it had succumbed to the influence the body was passed around among the chiefs, who pronounced it "plenty dead." "Now restore it," commanded Harney. The surgeon applied all of the usual

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means of resuscitation, but without effect, the dog was plenty dead beyond mistake. "Ugh, medicine too strong," grunted the chiefs, who enjoyed the joke as fully as did the somewhat chagrined general.

They remained at Fort Pierre more than a month and on the 28th of June embarked for Fort Union on the "St. Mary's," Captain Joseph LaBarge. Being detained at Fort Union await- ing the construction of Mackinaw boats for the return trip, Lieutenant Warren, with character- istic industry, examined the Yellowstone as far as the mouth of Powder river. October 2d the party safely reached Fort Pierre, having fully carried out the purpose of the expedition and also having obtained an invaluable fund of in- formation and scientific specimens. Warren and Hayden proceeded to Washington, where they spent the winter in preparing maps and reports and mounting the rare specimens of minerals and birds in the Smithsonian Institution.

The work of Lieutenant Warren the next year .. 1857, was the most important he had yet undertaken and was under the direct control of John B. Floyd, Buchanan's secretary of war. The ostensible purpose was to find the most feasible extension of the road already surveyed from Fort Ridgely to Fort Lookout, westward from the Missouri river to the South Pass in the Rocky mountains and incidentally to examine the Black Hills. On this important mission J. H. Snowden and P. M. Engel were assigned as topographers ; Dr. Hayden as geologist, W. P. C. Carrington as meteorologist, Dr. S. Moffit, sur- geon, and Lieutenant James McMillan was de- tailed to command the escort of twenty-seven men and two non-commissioned officers of the Second Infantry. After endless vexation from loss of horses by theft, desertion of men and sickness of mules, the expedition got off from the cantonment at the mouth of the Sioux on July 6th and passing through the sandhill coun- try of northern Nebraska, reached Fort Laramie on August 27th.

There dividing into two parties, Mr. Snow- den, with ten men and Dr. Moffit, started down the Niobrara, making a careful topographical

survey as they proceeded. Lieutenant Warren, abandoning his wagons, and packing his outfit on mules, started directly into the Black Hills, in a course very nearly along the west line of South Dakota, making a careful and accurate map of the country as far north as Inyan Kara peak. Here they encountered a large force of Dakotans who so earnestly protested against the further advance of the expedition that they did not deem it prudent, as a scientific expedition, to proceed further in that direction. What ensued is told so lucidly and graphically by Lieutenant Warren that his story is given with only the modernizing of the names of the Indian tribes encountered :

"Some of them were for attacking us im- mediately, as their numbers would have insured success ; but the lesson taught them by General Harney in 1855 made them fear they would meet with retribution and this I endeavored to impress upon.

* The grounds of their objections to our traversing the region were very sensible and of sufficient weight, I think, to have justified them in their own minds in resisting us.

In the first place they were encamped near large herds of buffaloes whose hair was not sufficiently grown to make robes ; the Indians were, it may be said, actually herding the animals. No one was permitted to kill any in the large bands for fear of stampeding the others and only such were killed as straggled away from the main herds. Thus the whole range of buffaloes was stopped so they could not proceed south, which was the point to which they were traveling. The in- tention of the Indians was to retain the buffaloes in their neighborhood until their skin would answer for robes, then to kill the animals by sur- rounding one band at a time and completely de- stroying each member of it. In this way no alarm was communicated to the neighboring bands, which often remain quiet, almost in sight of the scene of slaughter.

"For us to have continued on then would have been an act for which certain death would have been inflicted upon a like number of their own tribe had they done it; for we might have deflected the whole range of the buffalo fifty or

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one hundred miles to the west and prevented the Indians from laying in their winter stock of provisions and skins, on which their comfort, if not their lives, depended. Their feelings toward us, under the circumstances, were not un- like what we should feel toward a person who should insist upon setting fire to our barns. The most violent of them were for immediate resist- ance, when I told them of my intentions and those who were most friendly and in greatest fear of the power of the United States begged that I would take pity on them and not proceed. I felt that aside from its being an unnecessary risk to subject my party and the interests of the expedi- tion to, it was almost cruelty to the Indians to drive them to commit any desperate act, which would call for chastisement from the government.

"But this was not the only reason they urged against our proceeding. They said that the treaty made with General Harney gave the whites the privilege of traveling on the Platte and along White river between Forts Pierre and Laramie, and to make roads there and to travel up and down the Missouri in boats; but it guaranteed to them that no white people should travel elsewhere in their country and thus drive away the buffalo by their careless manner of hunting them. And finally that my party was there to examine the country to ascertain if it was of value to the whites, and to discover roads through it and places for military posts ; and that having already given up all of the country to the whites that they could spare, these Black Hills must be left wholly to themselves. More- over if none of these things should occur, our passing through the country would give us a knowledge of its character and the proper way to traverse it in the event of another war between themselves and the troops. I was necessarily compelled to admit to myself the truth and force of these objections.

"The Indians whom I first met were of the Minneconjous, to the number of forty lodges, near whom, as they were friendly, we encamped. They were soon joined by the warriors of a large camp of Uncpapas and Blackfeet Sioux and our position, which was sufficiently unpleasant in the

presence of such a numerous party of half avowed enemies, was rendered doubly so by a storm of rain and sleet and snow, which lasted two days and against which he had little pro- tection. A young Indian who had accompanied us from Fort Laramie considered the danger to us so imminent that he forsook our camp and joined his friends, the Mineconjous. Under these embarrassing circumstances my associates evinced the most resolute bravery and deter- mination to abide the result like true men.

"I consented to wait three days without ad- vancing in order to meet their great warrior, Bear's Rib, appointed first chief by General Har- ney's treaty, merely changing our position to one offering better facilities for defense. At the ex- piration of the time Bear's Rib not making his appearance, we broke camp and, traveling back on our route about forty miles, struck off to the eastward through the southern part of these mountains. The point where we turned back is well marked by the Inyan Kara peak (in eastern Wyoming), whose position' was fixed by us.

"After we had traveled eastward two days we were overtaken by Bear's Rib and one other Indian who accompanied him. Hc reiterated all that had been said by the other chiefs and added that he could do nothing to prevent our being destroyed if we attempted to proceed further. I then told him that I believed that he was our friend but that if he could do nothing for us he had better return to his people and leave us to take care of ourselves, as I was determined to proceed as far as Bear Butte. After a whole day spent in deliberation he concluded to accompany us a part of the way and he said he would then return to his people and use influence to have us not molested. In return for this he wished me to say to the President and to the white people that they could not be allowed to come into that country ; that if these presents were to purchase such a right they did not want them. All they asked of the white people was to be left to them- selves and let alone : that if the presents were to induce them not to go to war with the Crows and their other enemies, they did not wish them.

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War with them was not only a necessity but a pastime. He said General Harney had told them not to go to war, yet he was all the time going to war himself. Bear's Rib knew that when Gen- eral Harney left the Sioux country he had gone to the war in Florida and was at that time in command of the army sent against the Mormons. He said moreover that the annuities scarcely paid for going after them, and if they were not dis- tributed while they were on their visits to the trading posts on the Missouri to dispose of their robes they did not want them.

"He said he had heard that the Yanktons were going to sell their land to the whites. If they did so he wanted them informed that they could not come on his people's lands. They must stay with the whites. Every day the Yanktons were coming there, but were always turned back.

"Whatever may have been Bear's Rib's actions after leaving us, it is certain that we saw no more Indians in the Black Hills. We com- pleted our reconnoissance along the eastern por- tion of these mountains as far as Bear Peak, which forms another convenient and accurate point with which any future reconnaissance may connect with ours. We also visited the north fork of the Cheyenne in this vicinity. On our return we took a southeast course, striking the south fork of the Cheyenne at the mouth of Sage creek. We then proceeded up the south fork to French creek ; thence southeast through the Bad Lands to White river, thence along the sources of White Clay creek and Porcupine creek ; thence to the Niobrara, striking it in longitude one hundred and two degrees.

"We found the party under Mr. Snowden about forty miles down below where we struck the stream. This distance had been carefully mapped by Mr. Snowden, who had also made some side excursions to examine and map the country."

On the first day of November the party reached Fort Randall, and thence surveyed a route to Sioux City, where they arrived on the 16th.

Considering the short time involved in this reconnoissance a wonderful fund of information and specimens were obtained. Surprise has been expressed that so acute an observer as Dr. Hay- den did not find gold in the hills, but the fact is that he did find traces of gold, but they did not enter the really auriferous territory at all. They skirted up the western side of the hills as far as Inyan Kara, some forty miles southwest of Deadwood, where they were turned back by the Indians to the southern hills which they crossed and skirted up the eastern foot-hills to Bear Butte and did not explore the interior of the hills at all, yet Dr. Hayden did get a very accurate idea of the structure of the hills and his stratig- raphy has been but little altered by all of the extensive geologizing done there in the past thirty years.

In this connection, though not in its strict chronological order, it may be well to mention the expedition of Captain W. F. Reynolds in 1859, although his explorations had little to do with South Dakota. Captain Reynolds was ac- companied by that indefatigable naturalist, Dr. F. V. Hayden. The party embarked from St. Louis May 28, 1859, on the "Spread Eagle," belonging to Chouteau & Company, and arrived at Fort Pierre June 18. They brought with them the annuity goods for the Tetons, provided by the Harney treaty of 1855, and spent some time in distributing the goods and counciling with the Indians. The speech of Bear's Rib, made at this time, is found in the chapter relating to the Yankton treaty, in this volume. On the 28th of June the party got off, going across country to the Cheyenne, which they reached at about the mouth of Cherry creek, where they proceeded up the river, visited Bear Butte and from there fol- lowed up the Red Water to the state line and on to the Yellowstone. They made interesting notes of their observations along the route, but de- veloped nothing of extraordinary moment. They returned by way of the Missouri late in the fall and Captain Reynolds notes the dilapitated con- dition of Fort Pierre, of which little then re- mained.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SPIRIT LAKE CAPTIVES IN DAKOTA.

On March 8, 1857, a horrible massacre of white settlers, by Sioux Indians, occurred at Spirit Lake, Iowa, committed by Inkpaduta, a Wakpekute, and a small band of eleven lodges, having about sixteen men. All of the whites in the settlement were killed except four women who were dragged away in captivity into the then wilds of Dakota.

Inkpaduta, whose name is translated the Scarlet Point, or Red End, which latter is the literal translation, but in his case meaning simply Red Head, from a red ornament worn in his hair, and his followers were considered, even by his Sioux people, as bad and dangerous men. They did not join in the treaty of 1851 and the Wakpekutes considered them outside the law and not entitled to share in the tribal annuities. They originally ranged on the Watonwan in western Minnesota, but long ago had retired to the plains of Dakota and made forays into Iowa and Min- nesota.

The real occasion of the break between Inkpaduta and the Wakpekutes was due to the old war between the Sioux and the Sacs and Foxes. The head men of the tribe had made peace, but Wamdisapa, the father of Inkpaduta, would not. bury the hatchet and, disregarding the treaty, kept on fighting the old enemies of his tribe. With his family, he was therefore driven out of the tribe and retired to the Vermillion valley in Dakota. Naturally the renegades and tough characters of his tribe gathered about him. Wamisapa's band had been thus ostracized for

about fifteen years when the Spirit Lake mas- sacre occurred. The old man at that time had been dead for several years and Inkpaduta had become established as the leader.

The four captives taken into South Dakota from Spirit Lake were three young married women, Mrs. Alvin Noble, Mrs. Joseph M. Thatcher, cousins, and Mrs. Margaret Marble. and a girl of fourteen years named Abigail Gardner. This winter of 1856-7 was the winter of the historic deep snow and the captives, with awful hardship, were dragged through it until the Pipestone quarry was reached where they camped under the ledge until the snows melted, when, fearing pursuit, they crossed the Sioux just below the present city of Flandreau and proceeded to Skunk lake, near Madison. The crossing of the Sioux was made upon a fallen tree which spanned the freshet and at this point Mrs. Thatcher was cruelly murdered in sight of her fellow captives. Mrs. Thatcher had been very ill from the date of her captivity and had been unable to bear the burdens which the savages tried to impose upon her. Mrs. Sharp (Abigail Gardner) thus describes the cruel death of Mrs. Thatcher :

"As we were about to cross one of these un- certain bridges where a single misstep might plunge us into the deep waters, an Indian not more than sixteen years old, who had always manifested deep contempt for the whites, approached us and taking the pack from Mrs. Thatcher's shoulders and placing it on his own.

HISTORY OF SOUTH DAKOTA.

ordered us forward. This seeming kindness at once aroused our suspicions, as no assistance had ever been offered to any of us under any circumstances whatever. Mrs. Thatcher being confident that her time had come to die, hastily. bade me goodbye and said: 'If you are so for- tunate as to escape, tell my dear husband and parents that I desired to live for their sakes.' When we reached the center of the swollen stream, as we anticipated, the young savage

STRIKE THE REE.

pushed Mrs. Thatcher from the bridge into the ice cold water, but by what seemed supernatural strength she breasted the dreadful torrent and, making a last struggle for life, reached the shore which had just been left and was clinging to the root of a tree at the bank. She was here met by some of the other Indians, who were just coming upon the scene; they commenced throw-

ing clubs at her and with long poles shoved her back again into the angry stream. As if nerved by fear or dread of such a death, she made another desperate effort for life and doubtless would have gained the opposite shore, but here again she was beaten off by her merciless tor- mentors. She was then carried down by the furious, boiling current of the Sioux, while the Indians on the other side of the stream were running along the bank whooping and yelling and throwing sticks and stones at her until she reached another bridge. Here she was finally shot by one of the Indians, in another division of the band, who was crossing with the other two captives some distance below."

After the death of Mrs. Thatcher the other captives were more than ever depressed and hopeless. They went on to Lake Herman and camped on the east side of that body not far from the outlet, where a fine grove of cultivated cottonwoods now stands, and remained quietly there for several weeks.

The massacre occurred on the 8th of March and the women had suffered almost two months of captivity, with its unspeakable abuses, when, on the 6th of May, two young Indians appeared at the camp and effected the rescue of Mrs. Marble, whom they restored to civilization. These Indian liberators were brothers, from Lacqui Parle, where they had been under the in- fluence of the missionaries, Drs. Riggs and Wil- liamson. Their names were Sehahota (Grey- foot) and Makpeyahahotan. Greyfoot still lives on the Sisseton reservation and this writer visited him, in the summer of 1900, when he told the following story of the rescue and of the motives which led to the hazardous under- taking :

"Early in the spring of 1857, with my brother Makpeyahahotan and Enoch, an educated Indian, with our families, I left Lacqui Parle, Minnesota, to hunt on the Sioux river. We pitched our camp at the big bend, where Flan- dreau now is. Before we left home we had heard of the massacre of white settlers, by Inkpaduta at Spirit Lake, Iowa. The Sioux on the Min- nesota were very much concerned for fear they

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would be blamed and held responsible by the government, for Inkpaduta had formerly lived among us and was a Wakpekute Sioux. Late in April my brother was hunting west of the Sioux river when he met one of Inkpaduta's hunters and learned from him that the outlaw was camp- ing at Skunk lake, and that he had three white women captives. My brother returned to camp and told me what he had learned and told me to consider the matter. That evening he came to me and asked if I had considered. I asked him what he meant? He answered, 'The rescue of the white women.' I told him that if he had been plain about his meaning when he first spoke we would have been by this time in Inkpaduta's camp. We started the next morning on foot and before sunset we were at Inkpaduta's. We went to his tepee and he was much displeased at our visit. (In the report which the boys made to Agent Flandreau upon their return to Lac- qui Parle, a few days later, they say : 'We were met at some distance from their lodges by four men armed with revolvers, who demanded of us our business; after satisfying them that we were not spies and had no evil intentions in re- gard to them, we were taken into Inkpaduta's lodge.) He demanded to know if we were guid- ing soldiers to him. We told him we were not ; that we had seen no soldiers ; but he did not be- lieve us and occasionally a cry would be raised outside that the soldiers were coming. This was done to test us, to see if we would make any sign that we were expecting soldiers. We told Inkpaduta that he had done a very bad thing and that the white people were very powerful and would make all of the Indians suffer for it. That we had come to get the white women and take them home, so that the Indians who were not guilty would not suffer for the bad things which he had done, but as for him he would have to die for it anyhow. He said: 'I know that a man who does a small wrong will have to suffer for it, but I cut off their heads. They can't punish me.' 'I then told him the white people care more for their women than any other thing. I begged him to let me take the captives back to protect him as well as all the other Indians who had

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History of South Dakota, Vol. I, Part 21

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen Number of Pages: 998

Author: Robinson, Doane, 1856-1946. cn
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 998