Freeborn County, Minnesota - Chapter 3: Indian Treaties, 1911

Visit to Washington - Boundary Lines Between Indian Tribes Defined - Territory Now Freeborn County Included in the Sioux Jurisdiction - Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien - Some of Wabasha's Men Killed by Foxes in Iowa - Strip of Territory South of Freeborn County Ceded by Treaty - The Doty Treaty and Its Failure - Treaty of Traverse Des Sioux - Treaty of Mendota, by Which Freeborn County Was Opened to Settlement.

From prehistoric days up to the time of the treaty signed at Mendota, August 5, 1851, ratified and amended by the United States senate, June 23, 1852 ; accepted with amendments by the Indians, September 4 and 6, 1852, and proclaimed by President Filmore, February 24, 1853, the territory embraced in Freeborn county remained in the undisputed possession of the Indians, being used as a hunting ground by the Sioux Indians, but also being visited by other redmen. Before this treaty, however, sev¬ eral agreements were made between the Indians of this vicinity and the United States government, regarding mutual relations and the ceding of lands.

Visit to Washington. In the spring of 1824 the first delega¬ tion of Sioux Indians went to Washington to see their "Great Father," the president. A delegation of Chippewas accompanied, and both were in charge of JMajor Taliaferro. Wabasha, then properly called Wa-pa-ha-sha, the head chief cf the band at Winona; and Little CrowT, head of the Kaposia band; and Wahnatah, were the principal members of the Sioux delegation. The object of the visit was to secure a convocation of all of the upper Mississippi Indians at Prairie due Chien to define the boundary line of the lands claimed by the separate tribes and to establish general and permanent friendly relations among them. The party went in keel boats from Fort Snelling to Prairie du Chien, and from there to Pittsburg by steamboat, thence to Washington and other eastern cities by land.

Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1825. The treaty of Prairie du Chien, signed in 1825, was important to the Indians of this vicin¬ ity, in that it fixed certain boundaries between the Sioux and other Indians. The boundary lines were certainly, in some respects, quite indefinite, and whether this was the trouble or not, in any event, it was but a few months after the treaty when it was evident that none of the Indians who were concerned were willing to be governed by the lines established - and hardly by any others. The first article of the treaty provided: "There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between the Sioux and the Chippewas; between the Sioux and the confederated tribes of Sacs and Foxes; and between the 'Ioways' and the Sioux." But this provision was more honored in t lie breach than the observ¬ ance, and in a little time the tribes named were flying at one another's throats and engaged in their old-time hostilities. On the part of the Sioux this treaty was signed by Chiefs Wabasha, Little Crow, Standing Buffalo, Sleepy Eye, Two Faces, Tah-sahghee, or "His Cane;" Black Dog, Wah-ah-na-tah, or "The Charger;" Red Wing Shakopee, Penishon and Eagle Head, and also by a number of head soldiers and "principal men." The Chippewa signers were Shingauba Wassa, Gitehe Gaubow, Wis Coup, or "Sugar," and a number of sub-chiefs and principal men.

Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien. In 1830, the second treaty with the northwest Indian tribes was signed at Prairie du Chien. A few weeks previous to the convocation, which was begun July 15, a party of Wabasha's band of Sioux, and some Menominees, ambushed a party of Fox Indians some twelve or fifteen miles below Prairie du Chien and killed eight of them, including a subchief called the Kettle.

The Foxes had their village near Dubuque, and were on their wav to Prairie du Chien to visit the Indian agent, whom they had apprised of their coming. They were in canoes on the Mis¬ sissippi, and as they reached the lower end of Prairie du Pierreaux, they paddled up a narrow channel which ran near the eastern shore. At this point their concealed enemies opened fire. The Foxes returned to their village, bearing their dead, while the Sioux and Menominees went home and danced over their victory. A few weeks previous the Foxes had killed some of Wabasha's band on the Red Cedar river in Iowa, a few miles southeast of Freeborn county, and the Sioux claimed that their part in the Prairie du Pierreaux was taken in retaliation for the Red Cedar affair. In June of the following year, a large number of Menominees were camped on an island in the Mississippi, less than half a mile from Fort Crawford and Prairie du Chien. One night they were all intoxicated - men, women and children - when two hours before daylight the Dubuque Foxes took dread¬ ful reprisal for the killing of their brethren at Prairie du Pier¬ reaux. Though but a small band, they crept into the Menominee encampment, fell upon the inmates, and in a few minutes put numbers of them to the gun, tomahawk and the scalping knife.

Thirty Menominees were killed. When the entire Menominee band had been aroused, the Foxes, without having lost a man, retired, calling out in great exultation that the cowardly killing of their comrades at Prairie du Pierreaux had been avenged.

Because of the Prairie du Pierreaux affair, the Foxes at first refused to be present at the second treaty of Prairie du Chien, but finally came. Delegates were present from four bands of the Sioux, the Medawakantons, the Wapakootas, the Wahpatons and the Sissetons, and also from the Sacs, the Foxes and Iowas, and even from the Omahas, Otoes and Missouris, the homes of the last three tribes being on the Missouri river. At this treaty the Indian tribes represented ceded all of the claims to the land in western Iowa, northwestern Missouri, and especially the coun¬ try of the Des Moines river valley. The lower bands had a spe¬ cial article inserted in the treaty for the benefit of their halfblood relatives :

"The Sioux bands in council have earnestly solicited that they might have permission to bestow upon the half-breeds of their nation the tract of land within the following limits, to-wit: Be¬ ginning at a place called the Barn, below and near the village of the Red Wing chief, and running back fifteen miles; thence, in a parallel line, with Lake Pepin and the Mississippi river about thirty- two miles, to a point opposite Beef, or O'Boeuf, river, thence fifteen miles to the Grand Encampment, opposite the river aforesaid, the United States agree to suffer said half-breeds to occupy said tract of country, they holding the same title, and in the same manner that other Indian titles are held. ' '

Certificates or "scrip" were issued to many half-breeds, and there was much speculation in them, and litigation over them, in subsequent years, a matter of which will be treated later in this history. The Sioux also ceded a tract of land twenty miles wide along the northern boundary of Iowa from the Mississippi to <he Des Moines, the consideration for which was $2,000 in cash and $12,000 in merchandise. Thus it will be seen that as early as 1830 the Indians relinquished their title to the land just south of Freeborn county. The strip in question was for many years known as the "Neutral Land."

T§ie Doty Treaty. The Doty treaty, made at Traverse des Sioux (St. Peter), in July, 1841, failed to be ratified by the United States senate. This treaty embodied a Utopian dream that a ter¬ ritory of Indians could be established, in which the redmen would' reside on farms and in villages, living their lives after the style of the whites, having a constitutional form of government, with a legislature of their own people elected by themselves, the gov¬ ernor to be appointed by the president of the United States, much along the plan long followed with the Cherokees in the Indian ter- ritory, except that it embodied for the Indians a much higher type of citizenship than is found in the Indian territory. The Indians were to be taught the arts of peace, to be paid annuities, and to be protected by the armies of the United States from their Indian enemies on the west. In return for these benefits to be conferred upon the Indians, the United States was to receive all the lands in what is now Minnesota, the Dakotas and north¬ western Iowa. This ceded land was not to be opened to the settle¬ ment of the whites, and the plan was to have some of it reserved for Indian tribes from other parts of the country who should sell their lands to the United States, and who, in being moved here, were to enjoy all the privileges which had been so beautifully planned for the native Indians. But no one can tell what would have been the result of this experiment, for the senate, for politi¬ cal reasons, refused to ratify the treaty, and it failed of going into effect. This treaty was signed by the Sisseton, Wahpaton and Wahpakoota bands at Traverse des Sioux, July 31, 1841, and by the Medawakanton bands at Mendota, August 11 of the same year.

Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. In the spring of 1851 Presi¬ dent Fillmore appointed Governor Alexander Ramsey and Luke Lea as commissioners to open negotiations with the Indians for the purpose of opening to settlement what is now the greater part of Minnesota. The conference was held at Traverse des Sioux (now St. Peter), between the chiefs and head men of the Sisseton and Wahpaton, or Upper Bands, as they were called, and the two commissioners. The Indians were accompanied by their families, and many prominent pioneers were also present. The meeting was held under a brush arbor erected by Alexis Bailly, and one of the incidents of the proceedings was the mar¬ riage of two mixed blood people, David Faribault and Nancy Winona McClure, the former the son of Jean Baptist Faribault, and the latter of Lieut. James McClure. The treaty was signed July 22, 1851, and provided that the upper bands should cede to the United States all their land in Iowa as well as their lands east of a line from the Red river to Lake Traverse and thence to the northwestern corner of Iowa.

Treaty of Mendota. From July 29, 1851, to August 5,$Mendota was the scene of the conference which opened Freeborn and surrounding counties to white settlement. The chiefs and head men of the lower bands were thoroughly familiar with the proceedings of the Indians and the representatives of the United States at Traverse des Sioux and all were on hand that bright August day, waiting for the negotiations to open at Mendota. The first session was held in the warehouse of the Fur Company at that place, but the Indians found the atmosphere stifling, and not in accord with their usal method of outdoor councils, so the consideration of the treaty was taken up under a large brush arbor, erected by Alexis Bailly, on an elevated plain near the high prominence known as Pilot Knob. Dr. Thomas Foster was secre¬ tary for Commissioners Lea and Ramsey; the interpreters were Alexander Faribault, Philander Prescott and Rev. G. H. Pond; the white witnesses were David Olmsted, W. C. Henderson, Alexis Bailly, Richard Chute, Henry Jackson, A. L. Carpenter, W. H. Randall, A. S. IT. "White, H. L. Dousman, Fred C. Sibley, Martin McLeod, George N. Faribault and Joseph A. Wheelock. After much deliberation and many disagreements, the treaty was signed August 5, 1851. Little Crow was the first signer. To the treaty Little Crow signed his original name, Tah O-ya-te Doota, meaning His Red Nation. Wabasha was the next to sign, making his mark. Then the other chiefs, head soldiers and principal warriors crowded around to affix their marks. In all, there were sixtyfive Indian signatures.

At Mendota, as at Traverse des Sioux, when the treaty was concluded, each Indian signer stepped to another table where lay another paper which he signed. This was called the traders' paper, and wras an agreement to pay the "just debts," so called, of the Indians, including those present and absent, alive and dead, owing to the traders and the trading company. Some of the accounts were nearly thirty years old, and the Indians who had contracted them wrere dead, but the bands willingly assumed the indebtedness and agreed that it might be discharged out of the first money paid them. The territory ceded by the two treaties was declared to be: "All their lands in the state of Iowa, and also all their lands in the territory of Minnesota lying east of the following line, to-wit : Beginning at the junction of Buffalo river with the Red River of the North (about twelve miles north of Morehead, at Georgetown station, in Clay county), thence along the western bank of said Red River of the North, to the mouth of the Sioux Wroocl river; thence along the western bank of said Sioux "Wood river to Lake Traverse; thence along the western shore of said lake to the southern extremity thereof ; thence, in a direct line, to the juncture of Kampeska lake with the Tehan-Ka-Sna-Duka, or Sioux river; thence along the west¬ ern bank of said river to its point of intersection with the north¬ ern line of the state of Iowa, including all islands in said rivers and lakes."

The lower bands were to receive $1,410,000, to be paid in the manner and form following: For settling debts and removing themselves to the new reservation, $220,000, one-half to the Medawakanton bands, and one-half to the single Wahpakoota band; for schools, mills and opening farms, $30,000. Of the principal of

$1,410,000, the sum of $30,000 in cash was to be distributed among the two bands as soon as the treaty was ratified, and $28,000 was to be expended annually, under the president's direction, as follows: To a civilization fund, $12,000; to an educational fund, $6,000; for goods and provisions, $10,000. The balance of the principal, or $1,160,000, was to remain in trust with the United States at 5 per cent interest, to be paid annually to the Indians for fifty years, commencing July 1, 1852. The $58,000 annuity interest was to be expended as the first installment - $30,000 in cash, $12,000 for civilization, $6,000 for education, and $10,000 for goods and provisions. The back annuities under the treaty of 1837 remaining unexpired were also to be paid annually. Their reservation was to extend from the mouth of the Yellow Medicine and Ilawk creek southeasterly to the mouth of Rock creek, a tract twenty miles wide and about forty-five miles in length. The half-breeds of the Sioux were to receive in cash $150,000 in lieu of lands allowed them under the Prairie du Chien treaty of 1830, but which they had failed to claim.

The written copies of the Traverse des Sioux and the Mendota treaties, duly signed and attested, were forwarded to Washington to be acted upon by the senate at the ensuing session of congress. An unreasonably long delay resulted. Final action was not had until the following summer, when, on July 23, the senate ratified both treaties with important amendments. The provisions for res¬ ervations for both the upper and lower bands were stricken out, and substitutes adopted, agreeing to pay ten cents an acre for both reservations, and authorizing the president, with the assent of the Indians, to cause to be set apart other reservations, which were to be within the limits of the original great cession. The provision to pay $150,000 to the half-bloods of the lower bands was also stricken out. The treaties, with the changes, came back to the Indians for final ratification and agreement to the altera¬ tions. The chiefs of the lower bands at first objected very stren¬ uously, but finally, on Saturday, September 4, 1852, at Governor Ramsey's residence in St. Paul they signed the amended articles, and the following Monday the chiefs and head men of the upper bands affixed their marks. As amended, the treaties were pro¬ claimed by President Fillmore, February 24, 1853. The Indians were allowed to remain in their old villages, or, if they preferred, to occupy their reservations as originally designated, until the president selected their new homes. That selection was never made, and the original reservations were finally allowed them. The removal of the lower Indians to their designated reservation began in 1853, but was intermittent, interrupted, and extended over a period of several years. The Indians went up in detach¬ ments, as they felt inclined. After living on the reservation for a time, some of them returned to their old hunting grounds, where they lived continuously for some time, visiting their reser¬ vation and agency only at the time of the payment of their annuities. Finally, by the offer of cabins to live in, or other sub¬ stantial inducements, nearly all of them were induced to settle on the Redwood Reserve, so that in 1862, at the time of the out¬ break, less than twenty families of the Medawakantons and Wahpakootas were living off their reservation. With the subsequent history of these Indians this volume will not deal in detail; the purpose of treating with the Indians thus far in this chapter having been to show the various negotiations by which Freeborn county and the surrounding territory came into the possession of the whites and was thus opened for settlement and development.

It should be stated in this connection that the Medawakanton Sioux, generally speaking, had their villages along the west banks of the Mississippi, within the present limits of the state of Minne¬ sota, while the Wahpakoota Sioux had their headquarters around the headwaters of the Blue Earth and Cannon rivers, both within easy marching distance of their hunting grounds in Freeborn county.