USA > Wisconsin > Vernon County > History of Vernon County, Wisconsin, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 62
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"When all was quiet and the fires burned down, I erept into the lodge of Cut-Thumb, the war chief, and became by choice a Sioux. Now, my friends, you know my history ; and I now tell you, I want to be your war chief. If you say 'no,' I will soon die, and travel to some other country ; but if you say 'yes,' I will lead you on the war-path until my legs get too old and frail to carry me." There was no opposition ;
he did not leave the lodge a common warrior, but head chief of the tribe.
The first time I saw him, in 1806, he ap- peared to be about fifty years of age. I think, in 1807,* Lieut. Pike, of the American army, afterwards Gen. Pike, of Little York fame, was on his way to discover the source of the Missis- sippi. He slept for the night on an island, immediately opposite the month of the St. Peter's. It was late in November. The Red Whale, with part of his band, was encamped on the island at the time. An awful storm of wind, snow, hail and rain came up, with thun- der and lightning. The storm had abated in the morning, and Lient. Pike missed his flag. After the usual military invitation, the man who was on sentry at the time was pinioned to be flogged. Red Whale, hearing a rumpus in the camp, went up to see what it was all about. He found the man tied to a tree, ready to be scored, and the chief was told by the American commander that the man had lost the flag, and must be flogged.
Red Whale said "No," and added: "I'll send my young men for it, as it must have caught in the brush." But Lieut. Pike persisted in his determination to punish the negligent soldier. Red Whale drew his knife, and said : "I will stick the first one that strips that soldier." The "stars and stripes" were brought forward, the man released, and Red Whale lectured the lieutenant for having been himself the cause of the flag's loss. "You knew," said he to Pike, "that it was a black night ; we could not see the length of my arrow. Any one might have taken it away. You knew the wind was strong enough to tear it to pieces, and you should have taken it into your tent."
With this cutting reproof Red Whale thought all was settled, and he went to his camp; but soon another rumpus was heard in the American
*Capt. Anderson is somewhat at fault as to the date when Lieut. Pike camped ou the island at the mouth of the St. Peter's. According to Pike's Travels, page 24, it was Sept. 21, 1805 :but nothing is related by the lieutenant as to the incident of the Red Whale.
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encampment, and he ran there with all haste. He found the man again tied to the tree, ready for the nine tails. "I told you," said Red Whale, not to hurt this man. You have got your flag. What more has he done ?" "Noth- ing," was the reply, "but he must be punished." "I say no," retorted the Sioux chief ; "white man's blood shall not stain my land-unloose him." "No," replied Pike, he must be flogged." "I say he must not," said Red Whale, and gave the shrill war whoop. A portion of his war- riors were quickly at his side, whom he ordered to cut the strings and let the soldier go. It was soon done, and Red Whale turning to the officer, said :
"Young man ! my name is Onk-e-tah En-du- tah. I know all that happens for many a day's journey around me. It was your fault, and not the soldier's, that your flag floated down the river. Now I warn you, if you hurt this man during the winter, I will make a hole in your coat when you come back in the spring. Go now ; you may tell all the Sioux you meet that Red Whale desires them to be kind to you and your soldiers, and give you plenty to eat ; but, as I have warned you, beware of hurting that man's back."
The Lower Sioux at this time consisted of six bands, to wit : That of Wau-be-shaw, or The Leaf, the most respected, as he had been twiee to Quebee, where he had received medals, flags and other presents, which the Sioux remember with gratitude to this day. Their offspring are at this moment as fond of and loyal to the British government as their ancestors were. Whoo-pah En-du-tah,* or Red Wing,t who was famed for foretelling events, was at the head of one of the bands; Red Whale, another ;
Shock-o-pe, or The Six, another ; Kab-hai-ge- gad, or Little Crow, and Thunder, the remain- ing two bands. Red Thunder, in fact, was not considered as fixedly attached to any particular band or locality ; but his was a roving, friendly band, welcome any and everywhere.
About the year 1810, whether from a pros- pect of war, or what, I know not, the Americans would not permit British traders, though we were willing to pay the duties on them as usual, to carry goods into the Indian country within the territory of the United States. This was bad news. The Montreal merchants had landed their goods, as formerly, at the island of St. Joseph, a British garrisoned outpost, forty-five miles distant from Mackinaw ; and Indian traders were waiting for their outfits, without which the Indians would be great sufferers. All arguments failed ; "Jonathan" would not permit us to enter his territory.
After a brief consultation, eight of us (in the autumn of 1810) formed a league or partnership, with the intention of running the blockade, or sinking our all in the adventure. The parties to this arrangement were : Robert Diekson of Queenstown, U. C., head man ; Allen Wilmot, T. G. Anderson, Jacob Franks, Joseph Rolette, John Lawe, James and George Aird, of Prairie du Chien. Seven well filled boats, contain- ing, altogether, about £10,000 worth of goods, were in a few days in readiness, with about 100 guns, all loaded and distributed conveniently on the boats for ready use, in case of an attack by American soldiers from the Mackinaw gar- rison. We started early in the morning, and, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, came in sight of the dreaded fort, nine miles in front of us. Prudence directed the shoving of our boats into the rushes and await the night. We hailed an Indian passing and impressed him as our guide or pilot. In a straight line it was fifteen miles, which would require us to pass immedi- ately under the garrison's guns, and beneath the high bank, so as to be out of reach of the reve- nue officer; but, to be on the safe side we took
*En-du-tah, red-whoo-pah, wing ; onk-e-tah, whale, and en-du-tah, red ; Waek-haw, thunder-en-du-tab, red ; hence, Red Wing. Red Whale and Red Thunder.
+Pikc, In his Travels, page 23, mentions Red Wing, in September, 1805, as the "second war ehief in the nation. He made me a speech and presented a pipe, poueh and buffalo skin. He appeared to be a man of sense, and promised to accompany me to St. Peter's ; he saluted me, and had it returned. I made bim a small present."
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the deep bay route on the northern side of the island-increasing our night's work five miles, no trifling matter for people in a hurry.
About daylight it blew hard, a heavy sea arose and my boat sprang a leak. Had not the guard kept a good look-out, we would have been discovered; but another and a strong pull took us out of view around Point St. Ignace, where we repaired my boat, boxed up the guns and proceeded fearlessly on our journey. At Green Bay we spent two days giving Mr. Jacob Franks and Mr. John Lawe their outfits of goods. Mr. Dickson and the two Airds went above the Falls of St. Anthony for their trading grounds; Mr. Wilmot, second in command of the combina- tion, chose for himself Rolette and Anderson to winter on the island where Red Whale pre- vented Lieut. Pike from whipping one of his soldiers. Wilmot and Rolette had never wintered with the Sioux before, and thought it would be safer to have the protection of a fort for a trading-post; and though a novel notion in this part of the country, it must be done. It nearly cost me my life. The necessary stores and dwellings forming three sides of a square and stout oak pickets the other.
This year, following the custom of the country, which I had hitherto resisted, I took to live with me a little half-breed. When the In- dians came out from their winter hunting grounds in spring, they formed ab ut 300 lodges. They encamped immediately about the fort; and after the trading was over, the usual bonus of high wines was issued to them. This was done in the morning; and, immediately after, our head man (Wilmot) started to visit another band of Indians, taking with him twelve out of our full strength-sixteen in all; thus leaving me with two white men and a negro, to meet the storm which generally took place at the close of these drunken carousals, when they were particularly thirsty, and their supply was cut off.
All were jolly in the camp during the day, dancing, singing and hair-pulling prevailed;
and sometimes an attempt at stabbing. One poor fellow was stabbed over the right eye, following the skull around till it reached the left ear. An old man had his skull fractured by a heavy stroke from a fire-brand. On sober- ing off next morning, and fearing the fracture would result in his loss of hearing, as had been the case with his brother before him; and firm in the conviction that after his departure he should join his brother in the land of happy spirits, he used a stiff straw, probing the wound and preventing all chance of healing and re- covery, and soon died.
About 12 o'clock at night the supply of grog became scanty. The empty kegs had been heated over the fire, and rinsed till even the smell of liquor was no longer perceptible; and to obtain more of the fiery beverage, ore reck- less fellow, with gun in hand, scaled our fortifi- cation, while the four guardsmen were sleeping in supposed security. The interpreter slept in a room, the door of which opened into the yard; and my room was adjoining. The noise of the drunken Indians outside had awakened him; and he called to me saying there was an Indian in the yard with his gun. I threw on my clothes as quickly as I could; got to the door, with my hand on the latch, standing with my full front to the door. The interpreter now said something to me which I did not under- stand; and on turning to ask an explanation, the Indian fired, the ball passing through the door at the very spot where I had just been standing. The concussion nearly knocked me down. I looked on the floor and felt of my body but found no blood. I then rushed out and caught the fellow by the hair before he had finished re-loading his gun for a second shot. I threw him on his back before he had time to think of what was transpiring, and drew him inside, placing him in charge of the negro. All this did not consume five minutes, including my merciful preservation, through God's providen- tial care of me. Mr. Rolette, the third white man, pretended that he did not hear the
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firing, and when I knocked at his door and bid him get ready for a fight, he would not move until I threatened to break into his room ; and, in loading his gun, he so shook with fear, that he broke his ram rod. When we were all ready, I took the interpreter to the pickets and had him call to the Indians and say, that they need not send away their women and children, as they commenced doing, for we did not wish to kill them, but let the warriors come on, if they desired to do so.
In an instant the whole Indian camp was in motion, women screaming, children crying, dogs howling. Some of the Indians were in search of their guns, which their women had hid away before the sprec began, lest in their drunken orgies they might kill one another. Every few minutes I called out to them, inquir- ing if the women and children were gone, and if the warriors were ready for the fray. At length I discerned some one very cautiously approaching the fort ; and on challenging him as to who he was, and what he wanted ? Ile replied: "I am Red Whale; let me in. I want to take care of the whites." This was good news. I know we were safe under his protec- tion. He insisted on my releasing my prisoner, which I did, and all became qniet.
By 10 o'clock the next morning, the would be murderer invited all to a feast. On the receipt of this invitation, we all concluded that our end had come, and my companions were indisposed for the breakfast tendered. But we must show pluck ; so placing my two pistols in my belt, I led the way ; and, to our great relief, on reaching the door of the lodge, the pipe of peace was presented to us, which was a confession and atonement for the culprit's drunken folly. I always found, that to be truthful, honest and unflinching, where justice was demanded, invariably gained respect and confidence with all Indian tribes.
In two days the Indians were all gone, Mr. Wilmot and party had returned, our packs were made up, and our friend Dickson, from above
the St. Anthony Falls, had arrived. A council of the partners was held, at which it was deter- mined, as a quantity of goods remained over, to carry on a summer's trade for deer skins, and I was requested to take charge of the post, and conduct the trade. I consented to do so, on condition of their leaving with me one of the boats, an interpreter and four men. This was acceded to, and I was left in sole charge of the Sioux trade.
In case this narrative should fall into the hands of any French cooks, which is not very likely, I must enlighten him touching the mode in which we prepared a Christmas dinner in Onke-tah En-du-tah's dominions, in the year 1811. Our stock of wild fowl, which our fall sport had laid in, was consumed. The Indians, on whom we had depended for venison, were a great distance from ns ; and we had, for some time, been feasting on dried and smoked musk- rats, a bale of which savory meat had been secured from the Indian autumnal hunting season. Christmas day had arrived; and, as on former festival days, I was minded to prepare something new for myself and friends to eat, and to talk about for awhile.
So, immediately after breakfast, I called my servant and told him we intended to have a "sea-pie " for dinner ; and that it must be made under my own inspection, as I wanted it particularly nice. "So," said I, "go and wash your hands very clean and bring Red Whale's large wooden bowl full of flour, to be made into a paste." That being done and set by the fire to raise, I directed that six of the fattest musk- rats that could be found in the bale be bronght; cut off the head and hairy part of the feet, throwing them away. Divide cach musk-rat into six parts and wash them in warm water. Then put into a piece of deer-skin, a dozen grains of pepper and powder it, by pounding, as fine as snuff, and pulverize some salt also.
"Is the bake-kettle clean?" "Yes, sir," replied the servant, "I baked bread in it yesterday." " All right," said I ; " now roll out some paste
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the size of the bake-kettle, not more than half an inch thick ; grease the bottom of the kettle with that lump of tallow; fit the paste to the bottom of the dish. Then lay on the paste a layer of musk-rat meat; pepper and salt it ; then some strips of paste over the meat, and so alternate the courses till the kettle is nearly full." After filling the dish with water, cover- ing it tight with plenty of live coals on the top, it was left to cook by a slow fire. But pepper and salt did not save it, nor savory crust convert musk-rat into relishable food. On opening the pie, so sickening was the effluvia emanating from it, that all were glad to rush to the door for fresh air. Nor have I ever since voted in favor of smoked musk-rat pies.
Fishing and shooting were now out of season, Indians were away at their summer villages, and time began to hang heavily on my hands. No books, no news from the outside world, no exchange of ideas with my fellow men, except an occasional visit from some old chief, who, pleased to find me amused with his supersti- tious and long-tailed stories of the pre-adamite period, only interesting from the dreams and vagaries of his forefathers, would sit, drink tea, smoke and talk by the hour.
To kill time, I planted a few potatoes and some corn around the fort, and they produced marvelous crops on which I and my men made marvelous meals. The Indians have capacious stomachs. One old fellow offered a wager that he could eat at one sitting sixty of the largest potatoes I could produce, and would have weighed at least thirty pounds; but, knowing that he had lately eaten a full grown ground- hog, and drank a pint of oil to keep it down, I declined the bet.
The Indians were now collecting for their summer's hunt on the upper Mississippi, and I prepared to accompany them, to encourage their hunting; but how to get my boat over St. An- thonys Falls was a serious consideration. I, however, set the men to work to make four wheels, with a temporary rigging, not having
tools to do more. As the Indians were going in the direction of their Chippewa enemies, I took with me a pound swivel, in case of acci- dents. On reaching the falls, I got my boat on the truck, but a break-down soon followed. My hunters turned out with willing hands and the boat was soon over.
From this point a narrow fringe of timber shades the river above. A few miles onward, Rum river, from the east, and a few miles far- ther, Crow river, from the west, both powerful tributaries, largely swell the Mississippi. Above them the river narrows gradually, as far as I went, until it becomes a small stream of eighty or 100 yards wide. In this fringe of timber the deer retire from the scorching sun of summer; and if the mosquitoes are troublesome, the pes- tered animals plunge into the river.
Our first day's hunt was not very successful. It was confined to one side of the stream, with our camp at Crow river. The next and succeed- ing days we were on both sides, and the shots were frequent. The hunters were in their canoes, gaily and leisurely paddling and chat- ting, while the children were squalling and yelling lustily-occasionally stopping to pick berries-while the hunters were keeping abreast of the navigators, outside the wood, and shoot- ing the deer as the noisy paddlers frightened them from their coverts.
We always laid by every third day to stretch and dry the skins. The meat of the slaughtered deer was very little cared for; I do not believe that more than one in ten of those killed was taken from the spot where they were skinned. On these resting days, the old trappers would go up quietly to the place indicated for the next two days' journey, and set their traps for the beaver, otter, musk-rats, etc., which would be collected as we journeyed on for the next ensuing two days.
On one occasion, the hunters had nearly all reached the place of rendezvous before I did. On arriving there, my attention was drawn to a large group of men, women and children at a
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short distance away; and on reaching the spot, I saw a a stout woman lying on her back, with a leather strap drawn tight about her neck, and she black in the face. Many of the by-standers were making jocular remarks at the folly of tak- ing so slender a cord "to hang so big a meat to." I cut the strap and dashed water in her face, and she revived; when she jawed me roundly for bringing her back to her cruel sister. On inquiry, I found that she and her elder sister were married to a fellow called "Cut Thumb," and, in a fit of jealousy, the elder had struck the younger with a hoe. Out of revenge and spite to her rival and husband, she found and climbed a convenient tree, to a limb of which she fastened one end of a strap, and the other to her neck, and jumped off; but as many of the sight-seers unfeelingly said, the leather was unfortunately not strong enough.
At length our Sioux hunters had reached the borders of their Chippewa enemies, and conse- quently alarms were frequently, though falsely reported. The scouts, who hunted no longer abreast of the navigators, but took an early morning start in advance of the canoes. At length a trap had been lost ; and the only pos- sible way of accounting for it was, that it had been stolen by their thieving enemies.
We had now reached a sandy plain, a beauti- ful spot for our resting day. The war chief, who had now command of the expedition, had blackened his face and sung his war song in expectation of an attack from the Chippewas the next morning. He increased the number of scouts, directing them not to fire a shot, and to exercise every care in discovering traces of the enemy. About 4 o'clock the scouts came in reporting having heard and seen sorts of imaginable things their superstitious fancies could invent-foot-prints, gun reports, indica- tions where fire had been made, the glistening from looking-glasses-for young Indian dandies often carry small looking-glasses attached to their belts, which in the sun, reflect the glaring light a great distance. Other signs were also
reported-buffalo, deer, ducks, geese, etc., going in all directions, as if escaping from the hunter, and smelling the enemy.
Not one word of any of these reports was true. It, however, accorded with our Gen. Cut- Thumb's prediction, that the enemy were at hand. A council of war was forthwith called, by which it was concluded that we had been discovered by the Chippewas, and they would be upon us during the night. The warriors were directed to sharpen their knives, clean their guns, and have everything in readiness for battle. The women were ordered to ex- tinguish the fires, and carry their children back to the bush; and the old and infirm to guard the lodges. The excitement was too great for me to describe; it was, however, confined to the women and children, for the warriors were quietly preparing their weapons for great slaughter.
At length Cut-Thumb requested me to do him the favor to join him in a raid he was about to make on the terrible Chippewas, aud take my artillery with me. To this I readily consented on condition that he would provide transporta- tion for my gun, which he promised. I was told that we were immediately to proceed about a mile up the river, to a place where we could not fail to annihilate the expected war party. My gun having been well swabbed out, and charged with twenty-five fusil balls, and a novel kind of port-fire constructed of dry cedar bark, crushed fine, and rubbed with a coat of tahow-the construction of which occupied me, perhaps, five minutes. Meanwhile, I was re- minded by my chief every ten seconds, that delays were dangerous.
All, at length, being ready, one of my gun- ners shouldered my cannon, the other its car- riage-they were very Samsons ; and all on tip- toe marched off for the selected battle-ground- "conquer or die," and "no quarters," were our mottoes. The artillery commander had neither paint nor feathers, but his braves were dressed in their best, so that in the event of the enemy
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taking one of their scalps, the Chippewa women might say : "What a handsome fellow he must have been !"
When the words "halt ! prepare for action," were whispered, I found myself, gunners, port- fire, a'l, on the edge of a perpendicular sand- bank, which terminated at the water's beach, sixty feet below; and, immediately opposite, an island, which, at this season of the year con- tracted the stream to about thirty yards wide, the main channel being on our side. It was now getting dark, and I had much difficulty in adjusting the royal artillery, so as to fire a per- pendicular shot downward to destroy the ex- pected fleet of Chippewa canoes.
The plan of attack was so arranged that on the canoes arriving within common range, I was to discharge my one pound artillery, which, it was supposed, would throw the fleet ito confu- sion, when the general discharge of small arms would cause many to fall, and throw the enemy into still further dismay. The Sioux braves would jump, roll or tumble down hill, plunge into the grand old Father of Waters, and stab, tomahawk or drown every Chippewa son of them who should have the temerity to invade the country of the Wau-be-shas, the Red Whales and the Cut-Thumbs. The dry grass was to be fired, to throw light on the massacre, and to distinguish friend from foe. I was to remain on the bank, and witness the extreme horrors of Indian war, or to retire to the woods, should I desire to avoid the murderous scene.
All was "hush," and if any one wished to smoke he must retire to the rear and hide the light of his pipe. All was extreme anxiety. At length the supposed paddling was heard at a distance, and as it became more distinct
1 confess I fully believed the noise pro- ceeded from the action of paddles, the braves threw off every incumbrance of dress, except a well secured belt around the waist, in which to carry the carnage knife and tomahawk. The critical moment had now arrived; one of the supposed canoes had reached the boundary.
But one of the braves who had stealthily gone down to the beach to appropriate to himself the first scalp and the earliest glory, yelled out, " Sha-teck!" the Sioux word for pelican; and up flew a hundred or more affrighted pelicans that had been innocently swimming down the river on a leisure foray against the little fishes. Thus suddenly and ludicrously was brought to a termination my first and bloodless war ad- venture.
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