Houston County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 15 of those read), 1882

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 15 of those read)

The three Indian nations who dwelt in this region after the organization of Minnesota, were the Sioux or Dahkotahs; the Ojibways or Chippeways; and the Ho-tchun-graws or Winnebagoes.

Sioux Ob Dahkotahs

They are an entirely different group from the Algonquin and Iroquois, who were found by the early settlers of the Atlantic States, on the banks of the Connecticut, Mohawk, and Susquehanna Rivers.

When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the European adventurers, large numbers were occupying the Mille Lacs region of country, and appropriately called by the voyageur, "People of the Lake," "Gens du Lac." And tradition asserts that here was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though we have traces of their warring and hunting on the shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory evidence of their residence, east of the Mille Lacs region, as they have no name for Lake Superior.

The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be designated, signifies allied or joined together in friendly compact, and is equivalent to " E pluribus unum," the motto on the seal of the United States.

In the history of the mission at La Pointe, Wisconsin, published nearly two centuries ago, a a writer, referring to the Dahkotahs, remarks :

" For sixty leagues from the extremity of the Upper Lake, toward sunset ; and, as it were in the centre of the western nations, they have all united their force by a general league."

The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and even until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux, or Soos. The name originated with the early voyageurs. For centuries the Ojibways of Lake Superior wa<*ed war against the Dahkotahs; and,

The French traders, to avoid exciting the attention of Indians, while conversing in their presence, were accustomed to designate them by names, which would not be recognized.

Under the influence of the French traders, the eastern Sioux began to wander from the Mille Lacs region. A trading post at O-ton-we-kpadan, or Rice Creek, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, induced some to erect their summer dwellings and plant corn there, which took the place of wild rice. Those who dwelt here were called Wa-kpa-a-ton-we-dan Those who dwell on the creek. Another division was known as the Ma-tan-ton-wan.

Less than a hundred years ago, it is said that the eastern Sioux,- pressed by the Chippeways, and influenced by traders, moved seven miles above Fort Snelling on the Minnesota River.

In 1849 there were seven villages of Med-daywah-kawn-twawn Sioux. (1) Below Lake Pepin, where the city of Winona is, was the village of Wapashaw. This band was called Kee-yu-ksa, because with them blood relations intermarried. Bounding or Whipping Wind was the chief. (2) At the head of Lake Pepin, under a lofty bluff, was the Red Wing village, called Ghay-mni-chan Hill, wood and water. Shooter was the name of the chief. (3) Opposite, and a little below the Pig's Eye Marsh, was the Kaposia band. The word, Kapoja means light, given because these people are quick travelers. His Scarlet People, better known as Little Crow, was the chief, and is notorious as the leader in the massacre of 1862.

a few miles above Fort Snelling, was Black Dog village. The inhabitants were called, Ma-ga-yutay-shnee. People who do not a geese, because they found it profitable to sell game at Fort. Snelling. Grey Iron was the chief, also known as Pa-ma-ya-yaw, My head aches.

At Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, eight miles above the fort, was (5) Hay-ya-ta-oton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contiguous was (6) O-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People, Known as Good Roads Band and (7) the largest village was Tin-ta-ton-wan,* Prairie Village ; Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the site of the town of Shakopee. West of this division of the Sioux were -

War-Pa Y-Ku-Tay

The War-pay-ku-tay, or leaf shooters, who occupied the country south of the Minnesota around the sources of the Cannon and Blue Earth Rivera.

North and west of the last were the War-paytwawns, or People of the Leaf, and their principal village was Lac qui Parle. They numbered about fifteen hundred.

To the west and southwest of these bands of Sioux were the Se-see-twawns (Sissetoans), or Swamp Dwellers. This band claimed the land west of the Blue Earth to the James River, and the guardianship of the Sacred Red Pipestone Quarry. Their principal village was at Traverse, and the number of the band was estimated at thirty-eight hundred.

Ho-Tchun-Graws, Or Winnebagoe8

The Ho-tchun-graws, or Winnebagoes, belong to the Dahkotah family of aborigines. Champlain, although he never visited them, mentions them. Nicollet, who had been in his employ, visited Green Bay about the year 1635, and an early Relation mentions that he saw the Ouinipegous, a people called so, because they came from a distant sea, which some French erroneously called Puants. Another writer speaking joti. these people says: "This people are called 4 Les Puants ' not because of any bad odor peculiar to them, but because they claim to have come from the shores of a far distant lake, towards the north, whose waters are salt. They call themselves the people ' de l'eau puants,9 of the putrid or bad water."

By the treaty of 1837 they were removed to Iowa, and by another treaty in October, 1846, they came to Minnesota in the spring of 1848, to the country between the Long Prairie, and Crow Wing Rivers. The agency was located on Long Prairie River, forty miles from the Mississippi, and in 1849 the tribe numbered about twenty-five hundred souls.

In February 1855, another treaty was made with them, and that spring they removed to lands on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862, Con gress, by a special act, without consulting them, in 1863, removed them from their fields in Minnesota to the Missouri River, and in the words of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above Fort Randall"

Ojibway Or Chippeway Nation

The Ojibways or Leapers, when the French came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement at Sault St Marie, and were called by the French Saulteurs, and by the Sioux, Hah-ha-tonwan, Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters.

When Du Luth erected his trading post at the western extremity of Lake Superior, they had not obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were constantly at war with their hereditary enemes, the Nadouaysioux. By the middle of the eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occupied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1820 the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. Since then, other treaties have been made, until in the year 1881, they are confined to a few reservations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity.