McLeod County, Minnesota - Chapter 12: Great Sioux Uprising, 1917

The summer of 1862 passed pleasantly enough in McLeod county. The season was very favorable. Crops were good and promising. The health of the people was excellent. There were no grasshoppers, cyclones, or other calamitous visitations. There was of course some inconvenience and a little distress on account of the war, but upon the whole the situation was satisfactory.

July 4 President Lincoln issued a call for 300,000 more volunteers to serve in the army for three years unless sooner discharged. Lieut. Gov. Ignatius Donnelly, acting governor in place of Alex Ramsey, who was down South visiting the soldiers, instantly passed the word that Minnesota must raise at least one regiment in response to the President's call; whereupon Minnesota set to work and raised not one regiment alone, but five regiments, the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Regiments of Infantry. Later in the year three regiments of cavalry and a battery of artillery were formed out of the sparse population, and in both cases McLeod county furnished its full quota. A little later Congress enacted a conscript law to be enforced if necessary to fill the requisitions upon the several states. In Minnesota special officers were appointed in each county to carry out the provisions of the law; in McLeod these officers were John H. Stevens, commissioner; Robert Fraser, agent, and Dr. McWright, the examining surgeon, Nobody was drafted from the county this year, and the officers earned their salaries easily. It was fine that McLeod eounty in spite of its straitened circumstances and the adverse conditions generally, should have done its duty so loyally that her proportion of Union volunteers was full and running over, with everybody "shouting the battle-cry of Freedom!"

In the early part of 1862 Congress enacted the Homestead Bill, which was of incalculable benefit in the settlement and development of Minnesota and McLeod county. The act provided that any citizen of the United States or any applicant for citizenship, whe was the head of a family, or was 21 years of age (or if younger had served not less than fourteen days in the army or navy of the United States during actual war) might apply for 160 acres or less of unappropriated public lands, and might acquire title to this amount of land by residing upon and cultivating it for five years immediately following, and paying such fees as were necessary to cover the cost of administration; a homestead acquired in this manner was exempted from seizure for any debt contracted prior to the date of issuing the patent. A commutation clause of the act permitted title to the homestead to be acquired after only six ynonths' residence thereon, by paying $1.25 per acre, as provided in the Pre-emption Act of 1841, under which land claims had theretofore been made. The Homestead Act did not go into effect until Jan. 1, 1863, a year after it was passed; but when it did become effective there was a boom in Western land investment even though a great war was in progress in the country. The land offices established nearest to McLeod were Forest City, in Meeker, and Henderson, in Sibly county. It is hardly to be believed now that only 50 years ago the

Thus busy improving their claims, planning for the future, and watching with anxious hearts the progress of the great conflict in the South, the people of McLeod county had no premonition of the awful holocaust which was to break loose at their very doors.

About the latter part of June in each year it was the custom of the government agents to pay the Sioux Indians of Minnesota their annuities - amounting to about $30 each - for the lands they had sold to the United States in 1851. These annuities were paid in specie, gold and silver U.S. coin, which, in the summer of 1862, was scarce and daily becoming scarcer because of the Civil War. This year the payments (partly by a blunder of a clerk,) were delayed; the money did not reach Fort Ridgely until August 18.

In the latter part of July the Upper Sioux (the Sissetons and Wahpaytons) came down to their agency at the mouth of the Yellow Medicine river, and encamped, expecting to receive their "payment." But days passed and no payment came; the Indians ran out of provisions and were very hungry; the delay in the payment exasperated them, and at last, on the 4th of August, they broke into the agency warehouse and carried out considerable quantities of flour and pork, and were very threatening. Agent Galbraith had a company of soldiers (C, Fifth Minnesota) and two pieces of cannon; displaying these and promising to give them three days' rations at once, Agent Galbraith succeeded in quieting the Indians for a time. On the 10th he gave them some more rations and sent them home, promising to let them know when the money for the payment arrived, On the 12th they were back in the Dakotas and soon a great many of them went out in the James river country on a buffalo hunt.

The Lower Indians, as those were called whose agency was in Redwood county, opposite Morton, were quiet and well-nigh contented. The most of them were in civilization, living and dressing like white people, cultivating and raising good crops, working for wages for the government and for white men, and some of them had become converts to Christianity and were church attendants, Their cabins were neat and comfortable, they had enough to eat and made no murmurings regarding the whites, against whom they had no grievances. It was some of these Lower Indians that were wont to visit McLeod county, and slightly annoy the people by their begging and thievish propensities.

There was a small village of the Lower Indians on the railroad side of the Minnesota, at the mouth of a little rivulet called Rice creek. These Indians were of the nature of refugees and renegades, for they had left their several bands and formed a band of their own; some of them were Upper Indians and some belonged to the Lower bands. A few were mixed bloods and most of them dressed like white men and quite a few spoke broken English. None of them were Christians and all were lazy and did little else for a livelihood except to hunt and fish. All told, they numbered about fifty persons, and they had a chief with the hardly understandable name of Red Middle Voice, who was a half brother (or cousin) of Chief Shakopee. They frequently made incursions into the Big Woods country, on the north side of the Minnesota, to hunt and traffic with the white settlers.

On Sunday morning, August 17, four Rice Creek Indians, who were of a hunting party, were passing along the road from Henderson to Pembina in Acton township, Meeker county. They were near Acton Postoffice, which was in the house of Robinson Jones, who was the postmaster and who also kept for sale a little general merchandise with a barrel of whiskey, In a fence corner they found some hens' eggs which one of the Indians took intending to eat them for his breakfast. Another Indian forbade him, saying that the eggs belonged to a white man and their appropriation by an Indian might make trouble. In a quarrel which resulted the egg taker called the peace maker a coward, "afraid of a white man." A tumult resulted, during which the egg taker, whose Indian name in translation was One Who Kills Ghosts, vaunted his courage and the peace maker, Brown Wing, hotly asserted that he was ready to demonstrate that he was not a coward, and the other two, Breaks Up and Scatters, and Crawls Against an Obstacle, said they would be glad to show that they were brave too. To test one another's valor and contempt of danger it was finally agreed to go up to Jones's house and shoot him and others if necessary,

Pursuant to the agreement the Indians went to Acton postoffice, (Jones's house) and, seeking an excuse to kill him, acted so menacingly that he left and went half a mile to the house of his step-son, Howard Baker, where Mrs. Jones, his wife, then was. The Indians followed him and, after simulating friendship, suddenly and treacherously shot and killed Mr, and Mrs. Jones, Howard Baker, and Viranus Webster; the last named was a newly-arrived immigrant, who, with his wife, was encamped in his wagon in Baker's dooryard. Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Baker and her baby were not harmed. A little time before the killing two other Indians belonging to another hunting party, of Shakopee's band, came to Baker's, got some water and went back to their party; they were not participants in or accessories to the murders, The members of the hunting party to which they belonged were all mounted and the party was headed by a prominent warrior named Island Cloud. The four murderers were on foot.

After the killing of the people at the Baker house, the Ghost Killer and his comrades returned to the Jones house, shot and killed Clara D. Wilson, a girl of 15 (a relative of Jones,) but spared her baby brother of 18 months. They did not take a pin from the house although there was a barrel of whisky and many other articles of their liking. After killing Miss Wilson they hastened eastward to the house of Peter Wicklund, near Lake Elizabeth. Here one of them held a gun toward Wicklund, his wife, his daughter, and his son-in-law, A. M. Ecklund, while the three others went to the stable and seized Ecklund's span of horses. Mounting them, two to a horse, they rode away toward their village at the mouth of Rice creek. Some miles out they secured two other horses, and then readily trotted to their home village about 8 o'clock, having ridden 40 miles in about six hours. According to the sworn statement of Jere Campbell, a mixed-blood member of the Rice Creekers, when the four rode into the village they sprang from their horses and cried out: "Get your guns! There is war with the whites and we have commenced it!" Then they related the details.

The other Lower Indians seemed to smell the blood which had been shed and by midnight, from Shakopee's village, above the Redwood, eastward to Mankato's and Wacouta's, ten miles below Redwood, all the Indians were mustering for war.

The particulars of the killing of the five persons at Acton were soon published throughout the neighborhood and the country by Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Webster and that night a party of citizens, mainly from Forest City, went to the scenes of the murders, both at Baker's house and Acton postoffice, Jones's house. At the latter they found the beautiful corpse of Clara Wilson, lying in her virgin blood, and the living body of her two-year-old baby brother who prattled that Clara was "hurt" and that he wanted his supper. These children were the daughter and son of a relative of Mr. and Mrs. Jones, who had adopted them as their own. The little boy was taken to

On Monday, August 18, about 60 citizens assembled at Acton and an inquest was held by Probate Judge A. C. Smith, of Forest City, over the remains of Jones, Webster, Baker, and Mrs. Jones, and Clara Wilson. Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Baker both testified at this inquest and their testimony is of record. (See Judge Smith's valuable little history of Meeker county.) While this inquest was in progress the eleven mounted Indians of the party of Island Cloud came in sight. The two members of this party that called at Baker's just before the murders (and got a drink of water) returned to the party and reported that they heard gun-firing after they had gotten half a mile from the house, and believed that there had been a fight between the four Indians and the three white men. So the next morning the eleven rode down to investigate. They rode slowly, keeping their eyes and ears open and in great suspense as to what had actually happened. Nearing the Baker house they saw the crowd at the inquest and rode still more slowly and warily, Suddenly the whites discovered them and at once twenty men grabbed their guns, sprang upon their horses, and galloped out to meet the supposed enemy. The Indians turned and fled precipitately and the whites chased them well up into Kandiyohi county. Of this affair Judge Smith in his History of Meeker County says: "Subsequent development rendered it certain that those Indians had no hand in the Acton tragedy, and in fact knew nothing about it at the time." The statements made by Island Cloud and others of the party to Wm. L. Quinn, in 1867, are corroborative of Judge Smith's assertions that the murder of the five persons at Acton was not planned or concocted by any other Indians than the four that did the deed, and that they had no accessories before or after the fact. This murder was not committed because of dissatisfaction with what the white traders had done, nor on account of delay in the annual payment. The murderers were all Lower Indians and the Lower Indians were all satisfied - at least they did not complain at conditions - for they were at peace and in comfort. The Upper Indians, a few days previously, had been discontented and turbulent, but at the time of the murder they were entirely peaceful, and it was not the discontented Upper Indians but the contented Lower bands that began the great outbreak. There was but one cause for killing the first white victims - a very trivial cause, but a sufficient one for Indian warriors. One of these warriors had his courage impeached because he found that the taking of a few eggs would bring trouble. To prove that he was brave and maintain his reputation he declared that he would kill a white man; his comrades then said they were as brave as he and if he shot a white man they would do likewise. What terrible conditions resulted from a quarrel over a few poultry eggs! Volume 3 of "Minnesota in Three Centuries," Smith's History of Meeker County, "Big Eagle's Sioux Story of the War," Lawson and Lew's History of Kandiyohi, and other recent publications establish the facts as here stated.

Behold, what a torrent of carnage and rapine and what a flood of tears and sorrow a little bloodshed may cause. The next day after the murders at Acton the Lower Indians, almost to a warrior, fell upon the whites, massacring indiscriminately men, women and children. They were crazed by the taint of blood in the air. It was the peculiarity of the old-time American Indian to become roused by the smell of a few drops of blood which had been shed in anger as if they had been so many bolts of electricity. Their long-lasting and always sincere friendship for the whites availed nothing in the resultant wild riot of blood and fire. The whites at the Indian agencies were assaulted, slain, and their bodies horribly mutilated by Indians who had long been their neighbors, their associates, and their friends.

This is not the place to write the history of the great Sioux Outbreak of 1862, only so far as it pertains to McLeod county, It must suffice to say that the next day after the murders at Acton the Indians fell upon the defenseless whites as panthers leap upon helpless sheep and lambs, and with the same bloody result. They attacked first the whites at the Lower Agency, killed many, and drove the rest away. Then they spread out over the country, on both sides of the Minnesota, murdering, lavishing, burning and depopulating every settlement by torch, tomahawk, and terror. That bloody Monday, that dies trae, the savages, at the Lower Agency Ferry, ambushed Capt. John S. Marsh and 40 odd soldiers of Company B, Fifth Minnesota, and in fifteen minutes the captain and 23 of his men had been swallowed up in death as suddenly as by the yawn of an earthquake. The same afternoon some irregular Indian forces attacked New Ulm, but were driven away.

Tuesday, August 19, the Sioux scouts approached Fort Ridgely, and the next day attacked it ineffectually. Friday, August 22, they made a formidable and protracted attack, but were again repulsed, this time by the heavy artillery of the Fort. Saturday they again made a concerted attack on New Ulm which lasted from 9:30 that morning until Sunday noon. In both battles the whites had 24 killed in the town, 10 on the outskirts, and about 60 wounded, some of whom died. At Fort Ridgely there were four white fighting men killed. Both Fort Ridgely and New Ulm were crowded with refugees, men, women, and children, some wounded. The Fort was commanded during seven days of savage investment by Lieut. T. J. Sheehan, of Company C, Fifth Minnesota. Sunday morning August 17, he had marched with his company from this fort for Fort Ripley, on the Mississippi, in Morrison county. Monday night, at the close of a hot day's march, the company went into camp on Buffalo creek, a few miles southeast of Glencoe, on the New Auburn road, (sec. 15, twp. 115, range 27,) and some of the boys were bathing in the creek, when Sergeant McLean, a messenger from Fort Ridgely rode in with the frightful news of the outbreak and orders for Lieutenant Sheehan to bring his company back to Fort Ridgely. The return march was begun instantly, and the distance to Ridgely, 42 miles, was encompassed by 9 o'clock the following morning.

Hon, Chas, E. Flandrau, an ex-Judge of the Supreme Court, commanded the whites at New Ulm, and right well did he serve. He disposed his forces so as to beat off the Indians, but during the fighting there were many losses. Monday, after the fighting had ended at noon the previous day, and New Ulm lay fire-blackened, blood-stained, and demoralized, Flandrau led his forces and fugitives from New Ulm to a city of refuge at Mankato, and for a few days the former town did not have a single human oceupant.

After the Indians were so thoroughly driven back at New Ulm and Fort Ridgely, the greater part of them, carrying with them nearly 200 white prisoners and a lot of captured plunder, fell back up the Minnesota to the Yellow Medicine. The backward movement began August 27 and three days later they reached the country of the Upper Indians at the Yellow Medicine and found their brethren not in favor of war and forbidding them to trespass on the Upper Indian lands. A few scouts were left back to watch Fort Ridgely and report the movement of the white forces generally. In a few days they reported that New Ulm had been abandoned, and on the 28th announced that Ex-Governor Sibley had arrived at Fort Ridgely "with a large re-enforcement of men and wagons, and also about a thousand men on horseback."

Ridgely, Aug. 28, A company of his cavalry had arrived at the fort the day previous, to the great joy of the garrison and the refugee settlers. The force at the fort under Col, Sibley now consisted of perhaps 2,000 men, newly recruited United States volunteers, thirty day and ten day militia, and a few private citizens.

August 31 General Sibley, then encamped at Fort Ridgely with his entire command, dispatched a force of some 150 men, under the command of Maj. Joseph R, Brown, to the Lower Agency, with instructions to bury the dead of Captain Marsh's command and the remains of all settlers found. No signs of Indians were seen at the agency, which they visited on September 1. That evening they encamped near Birch Coulie, about 200 yards from the timber. This was a fatal mistake, as subsequent events proved. At early dawn the Sioux, who had surrounded the camp, were discovered by a sentinel, who fired. Instantly there came a deadly roar from hundreds of Indian guns all around the camp. The soldiers sprang to their feet, and in a few minutes thirty were shot down. Thereafter all hugged the ground. The horses to the number of 87 were soon killed, and furnished a slight protection to the men, who dug pits with spades and bayonets. General Sibley sent a force of 240 men to their relief, and on the same day followed with his entire command. On the forenoon of September 3 they reached the Coulie and the Indians retreated. Twenty-eight whites were killed and sixty wounded. The condition of the wounded and indeed the entire foree was terrible. They had been some forty hours without water, under a hot sun, surrounded by bloodthirsty, howling savages. The dead were buried and the wounded taken to Fort Ridgely.

After the battle of Birch Coulie many small war parties of Indians started for the settlements to the Northwest, burning houses, killing settlers and spreading terror throughout that region. There were minor battles at Forest City, Acton, Hutchinson and other places. Stockades were built at various points. The wife and two children of a settler, a mile from Richmond, were killed on September 22. Paynesville was abandoned and all but two houses burned. The most severe fighting with the Indians in the northwestern settlements was at Forest City, Acton and Hutchinson, on September 3 and 4. Prior to the battle at Birch Coulie, Little Crow, with 110 warriors, started on a raid to the Big Woods country. They encountered a company of some sixty whites under Captain Strout, between Glencoe and Acton, and a furious fight ensued,

Strout's forces finally reaching Hutchinson, with a loss of five killed and seventeen wounded. Next day Hutchinson and Forest City, where stockades had been erected, were attacked, but the Indians finally retired without much loss on either side, the Indians, however, burning many houses, driving off horses and cattle, and carrying away a great deal of personal property.

Twenty-two whites were killed in Kandiyohi and Swift counties by war parties of Sioux. Unimportant attacks were made upon Fort Abercrombie on September 3, 6, 26 and 29, in which a few whites were killed.

There was great anxiety as to the Chippewas. Rumors were rife that Hole-in-the-Day, the head chief, had smoked the pipe of peace with his hereditary enemies, the Sioux, and would join them in a war against the whites. There was good ground for these apprehensions, but by wise counsel and advice, Holein-the-Day and his Chippewas remained passive.

General Sibley was greatly delayed in his movements against, the Indians by insufficiency of supplies, want of cavalry and proper supply trains, Early in September he moved forward and on September 23, at Wood Lake, engaged in a spirited battle with 500 Indians, defeating them with considerable loss. On the twenty-sixth, General Sibley moved forward to the Indian camps. Little Crow and his followers had hastily retreated after the battle at Wood Lake and left the state. Several bands of friendly Indians remained, and through their action in guarding the captives they were saved and released, in all ninety-one whites and 150 half-breeds. The women of the latter had been subjected to the same indignities as the white women.

General Sibley proceeded to arrest all Indians suspected of murder, abuse of women and other outrages. Eventually 425 were tried by a military commission, 303 being sentenced to death and eighteen to imprisonment. President Lincoln com muted the sentence of all but forty. He was greatly censured for doing this, and much resentment was felt against him by those whose relatives had suffered. Of the forty, one died before the day fixed for execution, and one, Henry Milord, a half-breed, had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary; so that thirty-eight only were hung. The execution took place at Mankato, December 26, 1862,

The Battle of Wood Lake ended the campaign against the Sioux for that year. Small war parties occasionally raided the settlements, creating 'scares' and excitement, but the main body of Indians left the state for Dakota. Little Crow and a son returned in 1863, and on July 8 was killed near Hutchinson by a farmer named Nathan Lamson. In 1868 and 1864 expeditions against the Indians drove them across the Missouri river, defeating them in several battles. Thus Minnesota was forever freed from danger from the Sioux.

In November, 1862, three months after the outbreak, Indian Agent Thomas J. Galbraith prepared a statement giving the number of whites killed as 738. Historians Heard and Flandrau placed the killed at over 1,000.

On February 16, 1863, the treaties before that time existing between the United States and the Sioux Indians were abrogated and annulled, and all lands and rights of occupancy within the State of Minnesota, and all annuities and claims then existing in favor of said Indians were declared forfeited to the United States.

These Indians, in the language of the act, had, in the year 1862, "made unprovoked aggression and most savage war upon the United States, and massacred a large number of men, women and children within the State of Minnesota"; and as in this war the massacre they had "destroyed and damaged a large amount of property, and thereby forfeited all just claims" to their "monies and annuities to the United States," the act provides that "two-thirds of the balance remaining unexpended" of their annuities for the fiscal year, not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars, and the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars, being two-thirds of the annuities becoming due, and payable during the next fiscal year, should be appropriated and paid over to three commissioners appointed by the President, to be by them apportioned among the heads of families, or their survivors, who suffered damage by the depredations of said Indians, or the troops of the United States in the war against them, not exceeding the sum of two hundred dollars to any one family, nor more than actual damage sustained. All claims for damages were required, by the act, to be presented at certain times, and according to the rules prescribed by the commissioners, who should hold their first session at St. Peter, in the State of Minnesota, on or before the first Monday of April, and make and return their finding, and all the papers relating thereto, on or before the first Monday in December, 1863.

The President appointed for this duty, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, Albert S. White, of Indiana; Eli R. Chase, of Wisconsin, and Cyrus Aldrich, of Minnesota.

The duties of this board were so vigorously prosecuted, that, by November 1 following their appointment, some twenty thousand sheets of legal cap paper had been consumed in reducing to writing the testimony under the law requiring the commissioners to report the testimony in writing, and proper decisions made requisite to the payment of the two hundred dollars to that class of sufferers designated by the act of Congress.

On February 21 following the annulling of the treaty with the Sioux above named, Congress passed an act for the removal of the Winnebago Indians, and the sale of their reservation in Minnesota for their benefit. "The money arising from the sale of their lands, after paying their indebtedness, is to be paid into the treasury of the United States, and expended, as the same is received, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, in necessary improvements upon their new reseyvation. The lands in the new reservation are to be allotted in severalty, not exceeding eighty acres to each head of a family, except to the chiefs, to whom larger allotments may be made, to be vested by patent in the Indian and his heirs, without the right of alienation."

The several acts of the general government moderated to some extent the demand of the people for the execution of the condemned Sioux yet in the military prison at Mankato awaiting the final decision of the President. The removal of the Indians from the borders of Minnesota, and the opening up for settlement of over a million of acres of superior land, was 4 prospective benefit to the State of immense value, both in its domestic quiet and its rapid advancement in material wealth.

In pursuance of the acts of Congress, on April 22, and for the purpose of carrying them into execution, the condemned Indians were first taken from the State, on board the steamboat Favorite, carried down the Mississippi, and confined at Davenport, in the State of lowa, where they remained, with only such privileges as are allowed to convicts in the penitentiary. Many of them died as the result of the confinement.

On May 4, 1863, at six o'clock in the afternoon, certain others of the Sioux Indians, squaws and papooses, in all about seventeen hundred, left Fort Snelling, on board the steamboat Davenport, for their new reservation on the Upper Missouri, above Fort Randall, accompanied by a strong guard of soldiers, and attended by certain of the missionaries and employes, the whole being under the general direction of Superintendent Clark W. Thompson.