Houston County, Minnesota - Chapter 15: Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, and the Red River Valley, 1882

hrty traveler* to Lake Winnipeg - Earliest Map by the Indian Otehaga - BelUn's allusion to it - Verendrye's Map - De la Jemeraye's Map - Fort La Heine - Fort en Bed Hirer abandoned - Origin of name Bed Lake - Earl of Selkirk - Oniniboia described - Scotch immigrants at Pembina - Strife of trading companies- Earl of Selkirk visits America - Governor Semple Killed - Romantic life of John Tanner, and his son James - Letter relative to Selkirk's tour through Minne-

While there is no evidence that Groselliers, the first white man who explored Minnesota, ever visited Lake Winnipeg and the Red River, yet he met the Assineboines at the head of Lake Superior and at Lake Nepigon, while on his way by a northeasterly trail to Hudson's Bay, and learned something of this region from them.

The first person, of whom we have an account, who visited the region, was an Englishman, who came in 1692, by way of York River, to Winnipeg.

Ochagachs, or Otehaga, an intelligent Indian, in 1728, assured Pierre Gualtier de Varenne, known in history as the Sieur Verendrye, while he was stationed at Lake Nepigon, that there was a communication, largely by water, west of Lake Superior, to the Great Sea or Pacific Ocean. The rude map, drawn by this Indian, was sent to France, and is still preserved. Upon it is marked Kamanistigouia, the fort first established by Du Luth. Pigeon River is called Mantohavagane. Lac Sasakanaga is marked, and Rainy Lake is named Tecamemiouen. The river St. Louis, of Minnesota, is R. fond du L. Superior. The French geographer, Bellin, in his "Remarks upon the map of North America," published in 1755, at Paris, alludes to this sketch of Ochagachs, and says it is the earliest drawing of the region west of Lake Superior, in the Depot de la Marine.

After this Verendrye, in 1737, drew a map, which remains unpublished, which shows Red Lake in Northern Minnesota, and the point of the Big Woods in the Red River Valley. . There is another sketch in the archives of France, drawn by De la Jemeraye. He was a nephew of Verendrye, and, under his uncle's orders, he was in 1731, the first to advance from the Grand Portage of Lake Superior, by way of the Nalaouagan or Groselliers, now Pigeon River, to Rainy Lake. On this appears Fort Rouge, on the south bank of the Assineboine at its junction with the Red River, and on the Assineboine, a post established on October 3, 1738, and called Fort La Reine. Bellin describes the fort on Red River, but asserts that it was abandoned because of its vicinity to Fort La Reine, on the north side of the Assinneboine, and only about nine miles by a portage, from Swan Lake. Red Lake and Red River were so called by the early French explorers, on account of the reddish tint of the waters after a storm.

Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, a wealthy, kind-hearted but visionary Scotch nobleman, at the commencement of the present century formed the design of planting a colony of agriculturists west of Lake Superior. In the year 1811 he obtained a grant of land from the Hudson Bay Company called Ossiniboia, which it seems strange has been given up by the people of Manitoba. In the autumn of 1812 a few Scotchmen with their families arrived at Pembina, in the Red River Valley, by way of Hudson Bay, where they passed the winter. In the winter of 1813-14 they were again at Fort Daer or Pembina. The colonists of Red River were rendered very unhappy by the strife of rival trading companies.

In the spring of 1815, McKenzie and Morrison, traders of the Northwest company, at Sandy Lake, told the Ojibway chief there, that they would give him and his band all the goods and rum at Leech or Sandy Lakes, if they would annoy the Red River settlers.

in the fall of 1815, arrived at New York City. Proceeding to Montreal he found a messenger who had traveled on foot in mid-winter from the Bed River by way of Red Lake and Fon du Lac, of Lake Superior. He sent back by this man, kind messages to the dispirited settlers, but one night he was way-laid near Fon du Lac, and robbed of his canoe and dispatches. An O jibway chief at Sandy Lake, afterwards testified that a trader named Grant offered him rum and tobacco, to send persons to intercept a bearer of dispatches to Red River, and soon the messenger was brought in by a negro and some Indians.

Failing to obtain military aid from the British authorities in Canada, Selkirk made an engagement with f our officers and eighty privates, of the discharged Meuron regiment, twenty of the De Watteville, and a few of the Glengary Fencibles, which had served in the late war with the United States, to accompany him to Bed Biver. They were to receive monthly wages for navigating the boats to Bed River, to have lands assigned them, and a free passage if they wished to return.

When he reached Sault St. Marie, he received the intelligence that the colony had again been destroyed, and that Semple, a mild, amiable, but not altogether judicious man, the chief governor of the factories and territories of the Hudson Bay company, residing at Bed Biver, had been killed.

Before he heard of the death of Semple, the Earl of Selkirk had made arrangements to visit his colony byway of Fon du Lac, on the St. Louis Biver, and Bed Lake of Minnesota, but he now changed his mind, and proceeded with his force to Fort William, the chief trading post of the Northwest Company on Lake Superior ; and apprehending the principal partners, warrants of commitment were issued, and they were forwarded to the Attorney-General of Upper Canada.

While Selkirk was engaged at Fort William, a party of emigrants in charge of Miles McDonnel, Governor, and Captain D'Orsomen, went forward to reinforce the colony. At Bainy Lake they obtained the guidance of a man who had all the characteristics of an Indian, and yet had a bearing which suggested a different origin. By his efficiency and temperate habits, he had secured the respect of his employers, and on the Earl of Selkirk's arrival at Red River, his attention was called to him, and in his welfare he became deeply interested. By repeated conversations with him, memories of a different kind of existence were aroused, and the light of other days began to brighten. Though he had forgotten his father's name, he furnished sufficient data for Selkirk to proceed with a search for his relatives. Visiting the United States in 1817, he published a circular in the papers of the Western States, which led to the identification of the man.

It appeared from his own statement, and those of his friends, that his name was John Tanner, the son of a minister of the gospel, who, about the year 1790, lived on the Ohio river, near the Miami. Shortly after his location there, a band of roving Indians passed near the house, and found John Tanner, then a little boy, filling his hat with walnuts from under a tree. They seized him and fled. The party was led by an Ottawa whose wife had lost a son. To compensate for his death, the mother begged that a boy of the same age might be captured.

Adopted by the band, Tanner grew up an Indian in his tastes and habits, and was noted for bravery. Selkirk was successful in finding his relatives. After twenty-eight years of separation, John Tanner in 1818, met Ids brother Edward near Detroit, and went with him to his home in Missouri. lie soon left his brother, and went back to the Indians. Por a time he was interpreter for Henry R. Schoolcraft, but became lazy and ill-natured, and in 1836, skulking behind some bushes, he shot and killed Schoolcraft's brother, and fled to the wilderness, where, in 1847, he died. His son, James, was kindly treated by the missionaries to the Ojibways of Minnesota; but he walked in the footsteps of his father. In the year 1851, he attempted to impose upon the Presbyterian minister in Saint Paul, and, when detected, called upon the Baptist minister, who, believing him a penitent, cut a hole in the ice, and received him into the church by immersion. In time, the Baptists found him out, when he became an Unitarian missionary, and, at last, it is said, met a death by violence. Lord Selkirk was in the Red River Valley during the summer of 1817,and on the eighteenth" of July concluded a treaty with the Crees and Saulteaux, for a tract of land beginning at the mouth of the Red River, and extending along the same as far as the Great Forks (now Grand Forks) at the mouth of Red Lake River, and along the Assinniboine River as far as Musk Rat River, and extending to the distance of six miles from Fort Douglas on every side, and likewise from Fort Daer (Pembina) and also from the Great Forks, and in other parts extending to the distance of two miles from the banks of the said rivers.

Having restored order and confidence, attended by three or four persons he crossed the plains to the Minnesota River, and from thence proceeded to St. Louis. The Indian agent at Prairie du Chien was not pleased with Selkirk's trip through Minnesota; and on the sixth of February, 1818, wrote the Governor of Illinois under excitement, some groundless suspicions :

What do you suppose, sir, has been the result of the passage through my agency of this British nobleman? Two entire bands, and part of a third, all Sioux, have deserted us and joined Dickson, who has distributed to them large quantities of Indian presents, together with flags, medals, etc. Knowing this, what must have been my feelings on hearing that his lordship had met with a favourable reception at St. Louis. The newspapers announcing his arrival, and general Scottish appearance, all tend to discompose me ; believing as I do, that he is plotting with his friend Dickson our destruction - sharpening the savage scalping knife, and colonizing a tract of country, so»remote as that of the Red River, for the purpose, no doubt, of monopolizing the fur and peltry trade of this river, the Missouri and their waters ; a trade of the first importance to our Western States and Territories. A courier who had arrived a few days since r confirms the belief that Dickson is endeavouring to undo what I have done, and secure to the British government the affections of the Sioux, and subject the Northwest Company to his lordship. * * *

Dickson, as I have before observed, is situated near the head of the St. Peter's, to which place he transports his goods from Selkirk's Red River establishment, in carts made for the purpose. The trip is performed in five days, sometimes less. He is directed to build a fort on the highest land between Lac du Traverse and Red River, which he supposes will be the established lines. This fort will be defended by-twenty men, with two small pieces of artillery. "

In the year 1820, at Berne, Switzerland, a circular was issued, signed, R. May D'Uzistorf, Captain, in his Britannic Majesty's service, and agent Plenipotentiary to Lord Selkirk. Like many documents to induce emigration, it was so highly colored as to prove a delusion and a snare. The climate was represented as umild and healthy." "Wood either for building or fuel in the greatest plenty," and the country supplying "in profusion, whatever can be required for the convenience, pleasure or comfort of life." Remarkable statements considering that every green thing had been devoured the year before by grasshoppers.

Under the influence of these statements, a number were induced to embark. In the spring of 1821, about two hundred persons assembled on the banks of the Rhine to proceed to the region west of Lake Superior. Having descended the Rhine to the vicinity of Rotterdam, they went aboard the ship " Lord Wellington," and after a voyage across the Atlantic, and amid the icefloes of Hudson's Bay, they reached York Fort. Here they debarked, and entering batteaux, ascended Nelson River for twenty days, when they came to Lake Winnipeg, and coasting along the west shore they reached the Red River of the North, to feel that they had been deluded, and to long for a milder clime. If they did not sing the Switzer's Song of Home, they appreciated its sentiments, and gradually these immigrants removed to the banks of the Mississippi River. Some settled in Minnesota, and were the first to raise cattle, and till the soil.