Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 5: Indian Occupancy and Treatd3s, 1916

Chapter 5: Indian Occupancy and Treatd3s

The archeology and anthropology of the American Indian is still in its infancy. But a few fundamental facts stand out in bold relief. We are told by scientists that man is of great antiquity in America; and that though the aborigines' blood is doubtless mixed with later arrivals in many localities and tribes, still, barring the Eskimo, the fundamental race characteristics are the same from Hudson Bay to Patagonia. Hence a common American ancestry of good antiquity must be predicated of the whole Indian race.

If an imaginary line is drawn east and west through the southern boundary of Virginia, then except for the northwest corner of British America, the Red Men in the territory north of this line and east of the Rocky mountains, including the larger part of the United States and British America, are and have been for centuries almost exclusively of just three linguistic stocks: Iroquoian, Siouan and Algonquian. The one reason for classing these Indians into three ethnic stocks is that the vocabularies of their languages do not seem to have a common origin. Otherwise these Indians are so familiar physically and psychically that even an expert will at times find it hard to tell from appearance to which stock an individual belongs. These three stocks are in mental, moral and physical endowment the peers of any American aborigines, though in culture they were far behind the Peruvians, Mexicans and the nations in the southwestern United States. But their native culture is not so insignificant as is the popular impression. Except the far western bands who subsisted on the buffalo, they practiced agriculture; and in many, if not in most tribes, the products of the chase and fishing supplied less than half their sustenance ; their moccasins, tanned skin clothing, bows and arrows, canoes, pottery and personal ornaments evinced a great amount of skill and not a little artistic taste. Their houses were not always the conical tipi of bark or skins, but were often very durable and comparatively comfortable and constructed of timber or earth or even stone.

The Dakotas. As to how these stocks came originally into this territory there is no certain knowledge but much uncertain speculation. Here we shall be content to start with the relatively late and tolerably probable event of their living together, in the eastern part of the United States, some five centuries ago. Algonquians lived on the Atlantic slope, the Iroquois perhaps south of Lake Erie and Ontario, and the Siouans in the upper Ohio valley. These Siouan peoples had possibly previously occupied the upper

Mississippi region, but for some reason had left there. At any rate, a century or so before the arrival of Columbus, found them for the most part in the upper Ohio valley. What peoples, if any, were in the meantime living on the plains of the upper Mississippi is not definitely known. Of the Siouan peoples we are interested in the main division of the Sioux, more properly the Dakotas. Probably because of the pressure of the fierce and well organized Iroquois, the Sioux, perhaps about 1400 A. D., began slowly to descend the Ohio valley. Kentucky and the adjacent parts of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were certainly at that time a primitive man's paradise, and the anabasis begun under compulsion was enthusiastically continued from choice. They reached the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi. Probably here they first encountered the buffalo, or bison, in large numbers. The spirit of adventure and the pressure of an increasing population sent large bands up the Mississippi. When the Missouri was reached no doubt some followed that stream. Those who kept to the Mississippi were rewarded as they ascended the stream by coming into what was from the viewpoint of primitive man a richer country. Coming up into Minnesota a forest region was encountered soon after passing through beautiful Lake Pepin. Soon a roaring cataract blocked the way of the Dakota canoes. St. Anthony Falls, of which now scarce a remnant is left, thundered over its ledge among the leafy boskage of banks and islands. Slowly but surely up the stream pushed the Dakotas. Rum river was reached, and its friendly banks were doubtless for many seasons dotted with the Dakota's tipis. But when the hunter-explorer's eyes first rested on the wide expanse of Mille Lacs, he rightly felt he had found a primitive paradise. M'dewakan, the Spirit lake, the lake of spiritual spell, soon became the site of perhaps the largest permanent encampment or headquarters of the Sioux. From there they scattered wide. Some of the bands discovered the upper Minnesota river region and here settled. These returning Sioux, it is believed, were the builders of all or nearly all of the Redwood county mounds, though some may have been built by their ancestors before they were expelled many centuries earlier. The Redwood county mounds, though less in size and smaller in number, have the same interest as those found in Ohio, and which this same people are believed to have constructed.

The name "Dakota," which these Indians applied to themselves, means, "joined together in friendly compact." "Sioux" is a contraction of the word Nadowessioux (variously spelled), the French version of the Chippewa word meaning "Little Adders," or figuratively, "enemies."

The Sioux were in many ways the highest type of the North American Indian, and were physically, perhaps, among the highest types that mankind has reached. Living free lives close to the democracy of nature, they saw no advantages in organized government; living on the boundless sweeps of the prairies and in the limitless forests, they saw no virtue in that civilization which shackles mankind to a daily routine of petty duties and circumscribes life to the confinement of crowded cities and villages.

There was no written code of law. Tradition and custom alone dictated the conduct and morals of the Sioux. The spirit of this traditional law was as stern as the Mosaic law of the Holy Scriptures, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." A favor was never forgotten, neither was a wrong. Possibly no race has ever been so true to its standards as was the Sioux. Punishment swift and sure was meted out to those who departed from these precepts.

Just as Jehovah revealed himself to the Hebrews as a spirit, permeating all space and all matter, the great Creator who breathed in and through all things, so had the Great Spirit revealed himself to the Sioux. The Sioux found God everywhere. The waterfalls, the winds, the heat, the cold, the rains and the snows, the trees and the birds, the animals and the reptiles, all were "wakon," spiritual mysteries in which God spoke to them.

In an age when civilized Europeans were having their blood drawn from their veins by a barber as a panacea for all diseases, and believing implicitly in the curing powers of witches' brews, made of such ingredients as snake's eyes and rabbit's claws, the Sioux was bringing the ailing back to health by the use of sweat baths and simple herbs.

But with the coming of the white man a great change took place. Outspoken, absolutely truthful, the Sioux was no match for the lying tongue of the white, by which he was robbed of much more than by the white man's gun and powder. He was no match against the insidious vices of alcohol and lust which the white man introduced.

The life of the red man before he came in contact with our so-called civilization, and even later when he had secured nothing more than his gun, knife and kettle, was, though primitive and coarse, not mean nor base. The Indian was healthy and sound in mind and body, wholesome as the woods through which he hunted.

He was poor and improvident, it is true, living from hand to mouth, and taking little thought of the morrow. But this was not moral nor physical shiftlessness, it was a part of his religion. His creed pledged him to poverty; with God's boundless riches spread around about him, his faith forbade his taking more than was necessary for his immediate needs. No one was richer than another. All food was shared. A friend was always welcome to help himself at any time.

could command sufficient respect to hold the position. While there is no evidence that the office of chief was hereditary, nevertheless from the coming of the white man each trihe seems to have had its royal dynasty, handing the ruling power of chief from father to son through several generations. War and hunting parties, however, were led by any brave who could gather a sufficient number of friends about him. One brave might be chief of one expedition and another brave of a succeeding expedition, while the permanent chief of the band seems to have occupied more of a civil position, deciding disputes and giving counsel. 11S8133

Wabasha, living at Ke-ox-ah (Winona), seems fu nave been the great overlord of the Medawakanton Sioux, and he likewise seems to have been recognized as ruler by many of the other branches of the Sioux. Each band likewise had a permanent chief, and as noted each expedition that was made had a temporary chief.

All in all, the Indian as he was before the coming of the white man, is deserving of all honor and respect. And horrible though the warfare was that he later waged on the whites who had secured his lands, terrible and wanton as was the revenge he took on defenseless men, women and children, occupying his ancient domains, bitter though the feeling against him must of necessity be by those whose loved ones were ravished, mutilated and murdered, nevertheless the methods of the most civilized and modern warfare have taught the world that between the motives of the wildest savage and the most cultured soldier there is little difference when a man finds himself fighting for existence against those whom he believes to have wronged him. The Indian's method was to torture and mutilate, to strike such terror that the enemy would forever after fear him. The civilized method likewise mutilates, terrorizes and strikes sudden death against those equally defenseless and inoffensive as were those the Indian massacred. The Indian, regarded and treated by the whites as a little lower than an animal, with even his treaty rights disregarded, struck, in the only way he knew, in behalf of the continued existence of himself and of his wife and babes, against a race whose desire for broad acres was ever driving the Red Man and his family further and further from the sweeps over which his forefathers had ranged.

Evil days indeed came for the simple child of the forest, when as scum on the advancing frontier wave of civilization came the firewater, the vices and the diseases of civilized man. Neither his physical nor his spiritual organization is prepared to withstand these powerful evils of a stronger race, and the primitive red man has often, perhaps generally, been reduced to a pitiful parasite on the civilized community, infested with the diseases, the vermin

The white man took from the Indian all his primitive virtues, and gave him none of the virtues of the white man in return. He taught the red man all of the evils of civilization before he was advanced enough to accept its advantages, and tried to make him conform suddenly with those habits of life which with the white race have been the development of ages. Thus burdened with the white man's vices, his own natural mode of living suddenly made impossible, driven here and there by the onrush of civilization, cheated and defrauded by traders and government officials alike, the Indian has degenerated until he is only a travesty on the noble kings of the forest who once held sway in the upper Mississippi and the Minnesota valleys. But a change is now coming with an awakened public conscience. And the results are encouraging. The census seems to indicate that the Indian is no longer a vanishing race. Steady and considerable progress is made in his civilization, and his physical condition is improving.

Wapeton Dakotas. Information as to the occupancy of the Minnesota valley during the era of the early explorers is somewhat vague. After the Dakotas in prehistoric times came up the Mississippi river, and in the upper reaches of that river established their homes, the Medewakanton and several subsidiary of the Sioux made their headquarters about Mille Lacs, ranging the rivers and forests and prairies from that point to unknown distances. Probably some bands became permanently separated from the main band. In the days of the early French explorers, the Medewakantons were still living at Mille Lacs. The Warpetonwans, apparently closely allied to the Medewakantons, were ranging the territory west of the upper Mississippi river, between the Crow and the Crow Wing rivers.

The location of the several bands inhabiting Southern Minnesota in 1834 has been told by the missionary, S. W. Pond, who came to Minnesota that year. He has written :

"The villages of the Medewakantonwan were on the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, extending from Winona to Shakapee. Most of the Indians living on the Minnesota river above Shakopee were Warpetonwan. At Big Stone lake there were both Warpetonwan and Sissetonwan, and at Lake Traverse, Bianktonwan (Yankton), Sissetonwan and Warpetonwan. Part of the Warpekute lived on Cannon river and part at Traverse des Sioux. There were frequent intermarriages between these divisions of the Dakotas, and they were more or less intermingled at all their villages. Though the manners, language and dress of the differ-

Thus, at that time, Redwood county was Wapeton (spelled Warpetonwan, Wahpeton and Warpeton) country, though the Sissetons, the Yanktons and the Medawakantons were not far away.

Nicollet in his map of the state placed the "Wapetons along the Minnesota river in this part of the state, and the Sissetons in the southwestern part of the state.

However, Sleepy Eye's village of Sissetons appears to have been located for a time at least in the vicinity of the mouth of the Little Rock, not far from the present area of Redwood county, and Sleepy Eye and his people also appear at times to have been located in the Cottonwood valley, at various points.

Indian Treaties

1852, and proclaimed by President Millard Fillmore February 24, 1853, the land now embraced in Redwood county remained in the nominal possession of the Indians. Before this treaty, however, several agreements were made between the Indians of this vicinity and the United States government, regarding mutual relations and the ceding of lands. The first of these was the treaty with Pike in 1805, by which land at the mouths of the Minnesota and St. Croix rivers was ceded to the government for military purposes.

Visit to Washington. In 1816, the War of 1812 having been brought to a close, the Indians of this vicinity made peace with the United States and signed treaties placing the Sioux of this neighborhood "in all things and in every respect on the same footing upon which they stood before the late war." Perpetual peace was promised, and it was agreed that "every injury or act of hostility committed by one or the other of the contracting parties against the other shall be mutually forgiven and forgotten." The tribes recognized the absolute authority of the United States. After Ft. Snelling was established, the officers at various times engineered peace pacts between various tribes, but these were usually quickly broken.

In the spring of 1824 the first delegation of Sioux Indians went to Washington to see their "Great Father," the president. A delegation of Chippewas accompanied, and both were in charge of Major Lawrence Taliaferro. Wabasha, then properly called Wa-paJaa-sha or Wah-pahJ^ah-sha, the head chief of the band at

Winona; and Little Crow, head of the Kaposia band; and Wahnatah, were the principal members of the Sioux delegation. When the delegation had gone as far as Prairie du Chien, Wabasha and Wahnatah, who had been influenced by traders, desired to turn back, but Little Crow persuaded them to continue. The object of the visit was to secure a convocation of all of the upper Mississippi Indians at Prairie du Chien, to define the boundary line of the lands claimed by the separate tribes and to establish general and permanently friendly relations among them. The party made the trip in keel boats from Fort Snelling to Prairie du Chien, and from there to Pittsburgh by steamboat, thence to Washington and other eastern cities by land.

Prairie du Chien Treaty of 1825. This treaty, signed August 19, was of importance to the Indians who ranged Redwood county in that it fixed certain general boundaries, and confirmed the fact that the present county lay entirely in Sioux territory. The treaty was participated in by the Chippewa, Sauk (Sac) and Fox; Menominee, Iowa, Sioux, Winnebago; and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa and Potawatomi tribes living on the Illinois.

The line between the Sioux and the confederated Sauks and Foxes extended across a part of northern Iowa. It was declared in the treaty to run up the upper Iowa (now the Oneota) river to its left fork, and up that fork to its source; thence crossing the Cedar river to the second or upper fork of the Des Moines, and in a direct line to the lower fork of the Calumet (Big Sioux) river, and down that river to the Missouri river. On both sides of this line extended a tract which came to be known as the "Neutral Strip," into which the Winnebagoes were later moved as a buffer between the Sioux and their enemies to the South.

The eastern boundary of the Sioux territory was to commence on the east bank of the Mississippi river opposite the mouth of the "Ioway" river, running back to the bluffs and along the bluffs to the Bad Axe river, thence to the mouth of the Black river, and thence to half a day's march, below the falls of the Chippewa. East of this line, generally speaking, was the Winnebago country, though the Menominee country lay about Green Bay, Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee river, and the Menominees claimed as far west as the Black river. The Chippewa country was to be to the north of the Winnebagoes and Menominees, and east of the northern line of the Sioux country, the line between the Chippewa and the Sioux beginning at a point a half a day's march below the falls of the Chippewa, thence to the Red Cedar river immediately below the falls, thence to a point on the St. Croix river, a day's paddle above the lake at the mouth of that river, and thence northwestward across the present state of Minnesota. The line crossed the Mississippi at the mouth of the Watab river just above St. Cloud. Thus both sides of the

The boundary lines were certainly, in many 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 signers 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 the breach than the observance, and in a little time the tribes named were flying at one another's throats and engaged in their old-time hostilities.

Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien. In 1830 a second treaty with the Northwest Indian tribes was held 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 way to Prairie du Chien to visit the Indian agent, whom they had apprised of their coming. They were in canoes on the Mississippi. As they reached the lower end of Prairie du Pierreaux they paddled up a narrow channel which ran near the eastern shore, where 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 previously the Foxes had killed some of Wabasha's band on the Red Cedar river, in Iowa, and the Sioux claimed that their part in the Prairie du Pierreaux affair 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 a half a mile from Fort Crawford and Prairie du Chien. One night they were all drunk, "men, women and children." Two hours before daylight the Dubuque Foxes took dreadful reprisal for the killing of their brethren at Prairie du Pierreaux. Though but a small band, they crept into the Menominee encampment, fell upon inmates, and in a few minutes put a number of them to the gun, the 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, crying out in great exultation that the cowardly killing of their comrades at Prairie du Pierreaux had been avenged.

came. Delegates were present from four bands of the Sioux, the Medawakantons, the Wapakootas, the Wahpatons and the Sissetons, and also from the Sacs, 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 their claims to the land in western Iowa, northwestern Missouri and especially the country of the Des Moines river valley.

The Medawakanton, Sioux, "Wabasha's band, had a special article (numbered 9) inserted in the treaty for the benefit of their half-breed relatives.

The Sioux also ceded a tract of land twenty miles wide along the northern boundary of Iowa from the Mississippi to the Des Moines; consideration $2,000 in cash and $1,200 in merchandise.

The 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 territory of Indians could be established, in which the red men 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 governor to be appointed by the president of the United States. They 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 northwestern Iowa. This ceded land was not to be opened to the settlement 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 political reasons, refused to ratify the treaty, and it failed of going into effect. This treaty was signed by the Sisseton, Wahpeton and Wahpakoota bands at Traverse des Sioux, July 31, 1841, and by the Medawakanton bands at Mendota, August 11 of the same year.

Preliminaries to Final Session. No other events or incidents in all time have been of more importance in their influence upon the character and destiny of Minnesota than the negotiations with the Sioux Indians in the summer of 1851, commonly known as the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. As a result of these treaties a vast region of country large enough and naturally rich enough for a kingdom was released from the sway of its owners and opened to white settlement.

Prior to these events only the lands in Minnesota east of the Mississippi river were open to white occupation. The fine, fertile expanse to the westward was forbidden ground. The waves of immigration were steadily rolling in and beating against the legal barrier in increasing volume and growing forces; and as opposed to the demand of the whites for land and power the rights and necessities of the Indians were of little weight. A decent regard for the opinions of mankind and also a fear of the revenge that the Indians might take, demanded, however, that the government go through the form of a purchase, and that some sort of price, even if ridiculously small, be paid for the relinquished land.

In his message to the first Territorial Legislature Governor Ramsey recommended that a memorial to Congress be prepared and adopted praying for the purchase by treaty of a large extent of the Sioux country west of the Mississippi. Accordingly a lengthy petition, very earnest and eloquent in its terms, was, after considerable deliberation, drawn up, finally adopted by both houses and duly presented to Congress. This was in October, but already the national authorities had taken action.

In June, 1849, Orlando Brown, commissioner of Indian affairs, addressed an official letter to Thomas Ewing, then secretary of the interior, recommending negotiations with the Sioux, "for the purpose of purchasing their title to a large tract of country west of the Mississippi river." The commissioner said that the object of the purchase was, "in order to make room for the immigrants now going in large numbers to the new territory of Minnesota, as the Indian title has been extinguished to but a comparatively small extent of the country within its limits." Secretary Ewing approved the report and selected Governor Ramsey and John Chambers, the latter a former territorial governor of Iowa, as commissioners to make the proposed treaty.

In his annual report for 1848 Commissioner Brown had recommended an appropriation to defray the expenses of a Sioux treaty, but Congress failed to make it. So desirous was he for the treaty in 1849 that he was willing to pay the attendant expense out of the "small current appropriations" for his office, and so he warned Ramsey and Chambers that "the strictest economy in all your expenditures will be necessary." He said if they waited for a special appropriation from the next Congress the treaty in its complete form would be postponed for two years, and in the meanwhile there would be increasing trouble between the Indian owners of the land and trespassing settlers.

In August, 1849, Commissioner Brown addressed a lengthy letter to Governors Ramsey and Chambers informing them of their appointment as commissioners to make the treaty and instructing them particularly as to their duties in the premises.

The instructions were not only clear, but very elaborate and comprehensive, and so far as they could be given the commissioners were told just what to do and just how to do it. The fact that some of the directions were unwise and unwarranted was due to the misinformation on the subject which the commissioner had received, and his consequent lack of knowledge as to the situation. For example, in describing the territory which the commissioners were to acquire, Commissioner Brown expressed the opinion that it contained "some 20,000,000 of acres," and that "some of it," no doubt, contained "lands of excellent quality." With respect to the probable worth of the country to the United States the commissioner expressed the opinion that, "from its nature, a great part of it can never be more than very trifling, if of any, value to the government." The country was more valuable for the purpose of a location for homeseekers than for any other purpose, and Commissioner Brown realized that "only a small part of it is now actually necessary for that object."

The contemplated and directed treaty with the Sioux in the fall of 1849 was not held as contemplated. On repairing to Traverse des Sioux in October, Commissioners Ramsey and Chambers found that a large majority of the Upper Indians were absent on their fall hunts. Coming down to Mendota, they found the greater part of the Lower bands were absent gathering wild rice, hunting in the Big Woods and elsewhere, and those still in the villages were, under the circumstances, unwilling to engage in any important negotiations.

At Mendota, however, a treaty was made with some of the chiefs of the Medawakanton and Wapakooto bands providing for the purchase, on reasonable terms, of what was known as the "Half -Breed Tract," lying west of Lake Pepin, and which had been set apart for the Sioux mixed bloods by the treaty of July 15, 1830. The tract comprised about 384,000 acres of now well known and valuable country. The purchase was to be completed as soon as possible, and the money given to the mixed blood beneficiaries in lieu of the lands. The treaty was duly forwarded to Washington, but never ratified by the Senate. In 1850 the agitation for a more comprehensive treaty resulted in the important negotiations of the summer of 1851, and the subject of the Lake Pepin Half Breed Tract was put aside and soon forgotten.

At last, in the spring of 1851, President Fillmore directed that a treaty with the Sioux be made, and appointed commissioners to that end. The pressure upon him could no longer be resisted. The Territorial Legislature had repeatedly memorialized Congress, Ramsey had written, Sibley and Rice had reasoned and pleaded, and Goodhue and the other Minnesota editors had well nigh heated their types in their fervid exhortations to the na- tional authorities to tear down the barriers and allow the eager and restless whites to grasp the wealth of the great inland empire now furnishing home and sustenance to its rightful owners. Already many settlers, as reckless of their own lives as they were regardless of the laws of their country, were squatting within the forbidden area.

The traders were especially desirous that a treaty be made. It was the practice in such negotiations to insert a provision in the treaty that the "just debts" of the Indians should be paid out of the amounts allowed them. The American Fur Company - then Pierre Chouteau, Jr., & Company - represented by Sibley and the various sub-traders claimed that the Sioux of Minnesota owed them in the aggregate nearly $500,000 for goods they had received in past times; the accounts, in some instances, were dated twenty years previously. If a treaty were made, all of the accounts, both real and fictitious, and augmented to suit the traders' fancy, would probably be declared as "just debts" and paid out of such funds as might be allotted the Indians. That the traders, including the firm of Choteau, Jr., & Company, did all they could to have a treaty made may readily be believed.

Under a paragraph in the Indian appropriation bill of 1851, approved February 27, all Indian treaties thereafter were to be negotiated by "officers and agents" connected with the Indian department and selected by the president. The appointees were not to receive for their service in such cases any compensation in addition to their regular salaries. Previously treaties had been negotiated on the part of the government by special agents, who were generally not connected with the public service and who were paid particularly and liberally for these services.

In consideration of the great extent of country to be possibly acquired, and the importance of the treaty generally, President Fillmore appointed to conduct it, on the part of the government, two prominent officials of the Indian department. These were Governor Alexander Ramsey, ex-officio Indian commissioner for Minnesota, and Luke Lea, the national commissioner of Indian affairs. The instructions given them were in the main those of Commissioner Brown, two years before, to Ramsey and Chambers when it was designed that the treaty should then be made.

Treaty of Traverse des Sioux. Commissioner Lea arrived at St. Paul, on the steamboat Excelsior, June 27. On the twentyninth he and Governor Ramsey left Fort Snelling on the boat for Traverse des Sioux, the site of the council ground selected for the treaty with the two upper bands of Sioux, the Wahpetons and Sissetons, who occupied the country of the upper Minnesota valley. On board of the Excelsior were some beef cattle and other supplies, to be furnished the Indians during the negotiations. There were also on board about twenty-five white persons

The Excelsior landed at Traverse des Sioux early on the morning of Monday, June 30. This was a well known locality. Here the Sioux, in early days, were wont to cross the Minnesota, on their way between the Cannon river country and Swan lake, and the ford bore the French equivalent for the "crossing of the Sioux." From the earliest days there had been a trading post here and in 1843 Reverend Riggs and his associates had established a mission at the site. In the summer of 1849 this station was in charge of Reverend Messrs. Robert Hopkins and Alexander G. Huggins. The missionaries had comfortable residences, and there was a frame mission house neatly painted and well furnished.

There was also at "The Traverse," as it was often called, the trading houses of Alexander Graham and Oliver Faribault, with residence cabins and other log outbuildings; there was also the old log warehouse in which the Doty treaty of 1841 had been made and signed, while scattered along the ridge to the rear were thirty or more buffalo skin tepees, occupied by Indian families belonging to Chief Red Iron's band of Sissetons. Ten miles to the northwest was the village of Chief Sleepy Eye's Little Rock band of Sissetons, numbering two hundred and fifty. The site of the Traverse, where the town was afterwards laid out, is two miles east of St. Peter, or seventy miles southwest of St. Paul.

Word had been sent to all of the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands - the Upper bands, as they were often called - that a treaty was to be held at the Traverse early in July. They were notified to be present; not only the chiefs, but the head men - the war leaders and principal orators of the band - were to participate in the deliberations. A large brush arbor was erected, under the supervision of Alexis Failly, and beneath this comfortable shade the treaty negotiations were to be held. A number of beeves were slaughtered and boxes of hard-tack opened to feed the expected visitors, while baskets of champagne and other refreshments were offered for the entertainment of the white visitors. But the arrival of the reluctant Indians was long delayed, and it was not until July 18 that the representatives of the last bands came in, very tired, very hungry and not favorable to the purpose for which the council was called. They were heartily welcomed by the designing whites and bountifully fed on fresh beef, pork and hard-tack, but were refused whisky or other spirits, the whites desiring all that for themselves.

There were present on the part of the Indians the two head chiefs and the principal sub-chiefs of the bands, as well as their head soldiers, chief speakers and prominent men of all classes. On the part of the whites were Commissioners Lea and Ramsey ;

Dr. Thomas Foster, the secretary; and Alexander Faribault and Reverend S. R. Riggs, interpreters. Other prominent white spectators, some of whom acted as witnesses to the treaty, were: James M. Goodhue, editor of the Minnesota Pioneer, who made and published a daily report of the proceedings ; Frank B. Mayer, a noted artist from Baltimore ; Major Nathaniel McLean, Sioux Indian agent at Fort Snelling ; Doctor Thomas S. Williamson, the missionary at Kaposia ; Judge James H. Lockwood, of Prairie du Chien, who had ascended the Minnesota far above Patterson's Rapids in 1816 ; Richard Chute and wife, then a newly married couple from Indiana; H. H. Sibley, Colonel C. Henderson, Joseph R. Brown, W. H. Forbes, Hugh Tyler, Reverend Alexander G. Huggins, Martin McLeod, Henry Jackson, A. S. H. White, Wallace B. White, Alexis Bailly, Kenneth McKenzie, Hercules L. Dousman, Franklin Steele, F. Brown, William Hartshorn, William G. Le Due, Joseph La Frambois, Sr., James McC. Boal, and sundry French voyageurs, traders' employes and retainers, all of whom were entertained sumptuously with delicious viands, and many with fiery spirits and rare wines at the government's expense.

While waiting for the Indians the whites diverted themselves in various ways, but chiefly in observing the Indian dances and their other customs. It was intended to formally observe the Fourth of July. Reverend Robert Hopkins, one of the local missionaries, was drowned while bathing in the Minnesota, and the intention was abandoned.

July 11 occurred the marriage of two mixed blood people, David Faribault and Nancy Winona McClure. They were a fine looking couple, attracted general admiration, and the whites gave them a pretentious wedding reception. The groom was a son of John B. Faribault, the pioneer trader, and the bride was the natural daughter of Lieutenant James McClure of the regular army, who was at one time stationed at Fort Snelling and died in Florida during the Seminole War of 1837 ; she had been reared by her Indian grandmother and educated and Christianized by Reverend Messrs. Riggs and Williamson.

The ceremony was performed by Alexis Bailly, the trader, who had been commissioned a justice of the peace. The wedding reception was followed by an elaborate banquet prepared by the whites, and at which there were a number of toasts presented and responses made. Referring to her marriage reception years afterwards Mrs. Faribault wrote : "I have often wondered how so much champagne got so far out on the frontier." After the wedding festivities the Sioux girls, to the number of twenty or more, had a "virgin feast," in which none but vestals of undoubted purity were allowed to participate.

all of the women and children were brought along. Chief Shakopee, of the Lower bands of the Sioux, was in attendance a great part of the time. On the tenth a band of twenty Chippewas attacked a party of six Sisseton Sioux forty miles above Lac Qui Parle and killed and scalped five of them; the sixth, a boy, escaped by running. The Sioux went out and found their tribesmen blackening in the sun; the bodies had been beheaded and loathsomely mangled. The father of two of the murdered children came into the Traverse July 15, bringing the tragic news. He took part in the treaty, but sat with his face blackened, because of his bereavement.

July 18 the council opened under the brush arbor. Governor Ramsey opened the proceedings with a short speech and was followed by Commissioner Lea, who in explanation of the desires of the white authorities made a lengthy address, with much in it about the ineffable goodness and gigantic greatness of the ' ' Great Father" of the Indians (the President) and his unselfish desire that they sell to him all of their lands as far west at least as Lake Traverse and the Big Sioux river down to the western border of Iowa, retaining only enough land for their actual residence. The Sissetons and Wahpatons claimed the country from Traverse des Sioux westward to the line indicated and the commissioners wanted all of it. After the speeches of the commissioners, in order that their words might "sink deep into the hearts" of the Indians, the council adjourned.

The following day, Saturday, the nineteenth, the council was opened with a speech from Star Face (or "The Orphan," as the whites called him) after a long silence and apparently much reluctance to speak, and when he spoke he said simply that all his young men had not arrived, and he was very sorry that the council had opened without their presence, or that, as he expressed himself, the commissioners were "not willing to shake hands with those that are behind." He said he understood that some one had been sent to meet them on the road and turn them back, and this made him feel very bad.

Then Sleepy Eye, the old Sisseton chief, who had been one of the signers of the Prairie du Chien treaty of 1825, had visited Washington, and had his portrait painted, in 1824, rose and said :

"Fathers: Your coming and asking me for my country makes me sad ; your saying that I am not able to do anything with my country makes me still more sad. The young men who are coming (of whom Star Face had spoken) are my near relatives, and I expect certainly to see them here. That is all I have to say. I am going to leave and that is the reason I spoke."

Then, turning to the other Sissetons he said : ' ' Come ; let us go away from here." Instantly there was great confusion. The Indians left the arbor and were greeted with shouts by their

Governor Ramsey, however, knew the circumstances and necessities of the Indians who had assembled. Calmly he said to the interpreter: "Tell them that as our stock of provisions is short, and they seem indisposed to talk, there will be no further issue of provisions to them." Commissioner Lea added: "Tell them they must let us know by this evening if they really wish to treat. If we do not hear from them by that time we will go below early tomorrow morning." The council then adjourned and orders were given to get boats ready and to prepare to move in the morning.

The word that they were to be given nothing more to eat produced great consternation among the Indians. Coming, as they had, far from their homes, and solely for the benefit of the whites, they had supposed that at least they were to be furnished provisions while attending the conference, especially in view of the riotous good times that the whites were enjoying out of the expense fund. Hunger faced the Indians and their families on their long journey back to their villages. The white men were clearly saying : ' ' Give us your land at our own terms or we will get it anyhow without a pretense of terms. We are in a hurry, do not delay us, do not wait until all your men get here; enter into this treaty as we have arranged for you to do, or take your wives and children and go hungry until you can get back home and get something to eat. It matters not to us that at our request you have come here and given up gathering food for weeks, do as we want you to or starve." Foreseeing the inevitable the Indians agreed to again go into council on the following Monday, and the officials knowing that the cause of the white man was already won ordered that food should be distributed.

On Monday, the twenty-first, the council opened at noon. The first speaker was Sleepy Eye, who sought to explain his viewpoint of the events which had transpired. He said : "On the day before yesterday, when we convened together, you were offended, I hear, at what was said. No offense or disrespect was intended. We only wanted more time to consider. The young men who made a noise were waiting to have a ball play, and not understanding English thought the council was over, and as they did so made the disturbance, for which we are very sorry."

Chief Extends-His-Head-Dress - or Big Curly Head, as the whites called him - a Sisseton sub-chief, said: "I am not speaking for myself, but for all that are here. We wish to understand what we are about before we act - to know exactly the proposition made to us by the commissioners. The other chiefs and all our people desire that you will make out for us in writing the particulars of your offer for our lands, and when we have this paper fully made out we will sit down on the hill back there (indicating), consult among ourselves, come to a conclusion, and let you know what it is."

Commissioner Lea then quickly prepared on paper the terms desired by the United States, which had been declared verbally at a previous meeting, and which were as follows :

"The Indians will cede to the United States all their lands in the State of 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. The United States will (1) set apart a suitable country for the Indians on the upper waters of the Minnesota river for their future support; will (2) pay, say, $125,000 or $130,000 to them to enable them to arrange their affairs preparatory to removal, to pay the expense of removal, and to subsist themselves for a year after removal - part of the above sum to be paid in money and the other part to be paid in goods and provisions; will (3) pay the Indians an annuity of $25,000 or $30,000 for many years - say thirty or forty years - part in money, part in goods and provisions, and part to be applied to such other beneficial objects as may be agreed upon."

The Indians deliberated over the words of these provisions and let them "sink into their hearts" for two days and nights. There was great divergence of opinion among them, the interpreters said. The majority seemed to realize that their lands were of great value to the United States. But they had no proper conception of the actual value in dollars and cents of the great domain which they were about to sell. Their idea of numbers was limited, and they seemed to think that one hundred and forty-five thousand dollars and seventy-five cents was far more money than a million dollars, because the latter was the shorter phrase and did not sound so imposing and formidable. When, therefore, the commissioners made an offer, the poor unlettered Indians did not know whether it was a fair one or not. Of course they appealed to their traders and missionaries, who understood the Dakota language, but the explanations offered hardly explained. Missionaries, traders and officials alike were determined that the land should be opened to white settlement. The work of these traders and missionaries in finally effecting the treaty was constant and very valuable to the whites. The services rendered by Reverend Riggs, one of the official interpreters, were most important. While the Indians were considering the white men's proposition, Riggs, Sibley, McLeod, Brown and Faribault were sent for at all hours of the day and night to explain to the various bands the provisions of the treaty and their application. The Indians, justly suspicious, would not be satisfied with the meaning of any provision until at least three white men, acting singly, had read it and interpreted it fully.

July 22, the Indians, after much deliberation, proposed certain amendments, which they said they would insist upon as a part of their treaty. These amendments were practically unimportant and the commissioners readily accepted. The treaty was then prepared and on the following day was signed by the contracting parties by Commissioners Lea and Ramsey and the chiefs and the head men of the Sisseton and Wahpaton bands of the Sioux. The ceremony of signing was somewhat impressive. After the white commissioners had affixed their names the Indians selected the one of their number who should sign first. This was Chief Eeen-yang Man-nie, or Running Walker (sometimes called "Big Gun"), chief of the Lake Traverse band of Sissetons. Boldly he stepped upon the platform and touched the goose quill pen in the hands of Dr. Foster. Next came Chief Star Face, or "The Orphan." The commissioners tried to hasten matters and to conclude the signing as soon as possible, but at one time there was a hitch in the proceedings.

Old Sleepy Eye, who had said at the outset that he was sad at heart because he had to sell his country, now arose, to the great apprehension of the whites, and begged to say a few words. He said that many of the Indians, young men and soldiers, had without consulting their chiefs, concluded that the country which they were asked to sell was worth $3,500,000, but that the commissioners were trying to get it for a less sum. The young men had a right to be made satisfied. He also demanded other conditions :

"You will take this treaty paper home and show it to the Great Father," said Sleepy Eye, "but we want to keep a copy here so that we may look at it and see whether you tell us the truth or not - see whether you have changed it. As to paying our debts to our traders I want to pay them what is right, but I would like to know how much I owe them. If they have charged me ten dollars for a gun I want them to tell me, and if they have charged me ten dollars for a shirt I want them to tell me that. I am a poor man and have difficulty in maintaining myself, but these traders have good coats on. The prairie country in which I live has not much wood j I live along with the traders, and they are also poor, but I do not want to have to provide for them. I think it will be very hard upon us when the year becomes white, and I would like to have some provisions given me for the winter. I would like to have what is mine laid on one side ; then when we have finished this business I will know how many of my relatives I can have mercy upon."

Colonel Lea assured Sleepy Eye that the money which the United States would pay for the Indian land would amount to more than the young men desired - to more than $3,500,000. He sharply reproved Sleepy Eye and said: "We think it fortunate for our red brothers that they have not entrusted the entire treaty to Sleepy Eye, because they would not have made so good a bargain for themselves as they have." As a matter of fact the amount named in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux was less than half of the amount Sleepy Eye requested. Out of the sum named in the treaty the traders and cost of removal were to be paid. Of what remained the Indians were not to receive one cent - merely the interest for a certain number of years. Even some of this interest was to be used to pay white teachers and white farmers. And as a climax the payment of that part of the interest which remained was, just before the massacre, withheld and delayed under various pretenses. Even were the amount named in the Treaty of Mendota added to the amount named in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux the total still falls far short of $3,500,000.

Then Thunder Face, or "Limping Devil," a sub-chief of the Sissetons, whose village was on the present site of the late Gilfillan farm, in Redwood county, came forward and signed. He was followed by Sleepy Eye, who came gravely forward and touched the pen. "Big Curly" was next, but after reaching the platform he said: "Before I sign I want to say that you think the sum you will give for our land is a great deal of money, but you must well understand that the money will all go back to the whites again, and the country will remain theirs." The Blunt- Headed-Arrow, or "The Walnut," the Handsome Man, the Gray Thunder, the Good Boy, and other noted warriors and head men signed in order. Face-in-the-Middle was introduced by his father, "Big Curly," who said: "This is my son; I would like you to invest him with the medal which you have given to me by my right as chief. He is to succeed me and will keep the medal for you." Red Day next signed and was followed by Young Sleepy Eye, nephew of and successor to the old chief upon the latter 's death in 1859. They were followed by old Rattling Moccasin, chief of a small band which generally lived in the neighborhood of the great bend of the Minnesota. Old Red Iron was the first Wahpaton chief to sign. ,

Chiefs - Running Walker, or "The Gun;" Star Face, or "The Orphan;" Thunder Face, or the "Lame Devil;" Sleepy Eye, Extends the Train of His Head Dress, Walking Spirit, Red Iron and Rattling (or Sounding) Moccasin.

Head Men - Blunt-Headed-Arrow, or "The Walnut;" Sounding Iron, the Flute, Flies Twice, Mildly Good, Gray Thunder, Iron Frenchman, Good Boy, Face in the Middle, Iron Horn, Red Day, Young Sleepy Eye, Goes Galloping On, Cloud Man, the Upper End, the Standard or Flag, Red Face (2) (there were two

Red Faces), Makes Elks, Big Fire, Moving Cloud, the Pursuer, the Shaking Walker, Iron Lightning, Reappearing Cloud, the Walking Harp that Sounds, the Iron that Shoots Walking and Standing Soldier.

Of the Indian signers Red Iron and Sleepy Eye were the most prominent of the chiefs. The head-man, "Goes Galloping On" (or Anah-wang Manne in Sioux), was a Christian Indian and a member of Reverend Riggs' Hazelwood Republic. He had been baptized under the name of Simon Anahwangmanne, and was commonly called Simon by the whites. He distinguished himself by his fidelity to and services for the whites during the outbreak in 1862. The Iron-That-Shoots-Walking was a Christian comrade of Simou and called by his white brethren Paul Mazah-koo-temanne, but commonly Paul or Little Paul. He well nigh immortalized himself during the outbreak by his efforts in behalf of the white prisoners.

As soon as the signing was completed a considerable quantity of provisions and other presents, including silver medals, were presented to the Indians. These presents, which had been furnished by the government, had been piled up and displayed somewhat ostentatiously, under guard, while the treaty was under discussion. The commissioners announced that the presents would be distributed "just as soon as the treaty is signed," and the announcement was sufficient to hasten the signing, and even to remove many objections to the terms of the treaty. The members of the rank and file of the great Indian host present kept constantly calling out: "Sign! sign! and let the presents be given out."

July 23, the next morning after the treaty had been signed, Chief Star Face, or "The Orphan," and his band in their fullest and richest dress and decoration, with all the animation they could create, gave the buffalo dance and other dances and diversions for the entertainment of the white visitors. A delegation accompanied the commissioners to the river when they embarked for Fort Snelling that evening and gave them a hearty goodbye.

When the ceremony of signing the treaty was completed, both at Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, each Indian signer stepped to another table, where lay another paper, which he signed. This was called the traders' paper and was an agreement to pay the "just debts" 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' standing and the Indians who contracted them were dead. It was afterward claimed that the Indians in signing the "traders' paper" thought they were merely signing a third duplicate of the treaty. The matter of payment had been discussed, but Sleepy Eye had justly demanded an itemized account, and the Indians had supposed that this request was to be complied with before they agreed to pay.

The entire territory ceded by the Sioux Indians 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 the Buffalo river with the Red river of the North (about twelve miles north of Moorhead, at Georgetown station, in Clay county) ; thence along the western bank of said Red river of the North, to the mouth of the Sioux Wood 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-duta, or Sioux river; thence along the western bank of said river to its point of intersection with the northern line of the State of Iowa, including all islands in said rivers and lakes."

The consideration to the Upper bands was the reservation twenty miles wide - ten miles on each side of the Minnesota - and extending from the western boundary to the mouth of the Yellow Medicine and Hawk creek, and $1,665,000, payable as follows : To enable them to settle their affairs and comply with their present just engagements, and to enable them to remove to their new reservation and subsist themselves for the first year, $275,000. To be expended under the direction of the President, in the erection and establishment of manual labor schools, mills and blacksmith shops, opening farms, etc., $30,000. The balance ($1,360,000) to remain in trust with the United States and five per cent interest thereon, or $68,000 to be paid annually for fifty years from July 1, 1852. This annuity was to be paid as follows : In cash, $40,000; for general agricultural improvement and civilization fund, $12,000; for goods and provisions, $10,000, and for education, $6,000.

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 June 23, the Senate ratified both treaties with important amendments. The provisions for reservations for both the Upper and Lower bands were stricken out, and substitutes adopted, agreeing to pay 10 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 alterations. The chiefs of the Lower bands at first objected very strenuously, 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 proclaimed 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, Congress on July 31, 1854, having passed an act by which the original provisions remained in force.

The Ramsey Investigation of 1853. During the greater part of the year 1853 public attention in Minnesota and elsewhere in the country was directed to an official investigation of the conduct of ex-Governor Ramsey in connection with the payment to the representative of the traders of money to which the Indians supposed themselves entitled under the treaties of 1851. The Indians protested against paying any of their money in discharge of their debts to the traders. They had at both treaties signed a paper providing for the payment of these debts, but subsequently claimed that the nature of the "traders' paper" they had signed was misrepresented to them as merely another copy of the treaty.

At Traverse des Sioux the Indians' protest against paying the traders took the form of menace and violence on the part of Chief Red Iron and his band, and quiet was secured only by the soldiers present through the seizing and imprisoning of Red Iron. But Governor Ramsey was firm in his purpose that the traders should be paid. At Traverse des Sioux he paid a representative of the traders $210,000 which, he said, "paid $431,735.78 of Indian indebtedness;" at Mendota he paid a representative of the traders $70,000, which, he said, "according to the traders' books of account paid $129,885.10 of indebtedness."

In December, 1852, charges of conspiracy with H. H. Sibley, Franklin Steele and others to defraud the Indians; that he had made unlawful use of the public funds by depositing them in a private bank and exchanging government gold for the bills of that bank ; that he had been guilty of tyrannical conduct toward the Indians in connection with the payment of the sums due them, were made against Governor Ramsey. The authors of the charges were Madison Sweetzer, of Traverse des Sioux, and Colonel D. A. Robertson, of St. Paul. Sweetzer was a trader, who had rather recently located at Traverse des Sioux, and was connected with a rival company to that of Pierre Choteau, Jr., &

Company, the corporation to which Sibley, Steele and the others charged with conspiracy belonged. Colonel Robertson was the editor of the Minnesota Democrat, which was the organ of the faction controlled by H. M. Rice, then the opponent of Sibley and Ramsey.

The allegations against Governor Ramsey were, that he had paid the traders various sums of money without the right to do so, and that for so doing he had been paid by the beneficiaries, and thus, in effect, had been bribed to violate the law and his duty.

At the request of Mr. Sibley, then the delegate in Congress, Senator Gwin of California, secured the passage of a Senate resolution (April 5, 1853), ordering the investigation of the charges against the ex-governor. At the same time the governor's accounts as paymaster under the treaties were held up until the investigation should be concluded. President Pierce appointed Richard M. Young, of Ohio, and Governor Willis A. Gorman, of Minnesota, commissioners to investigate, during which testimoney was given by Madison Sweetzer, Dr. Charles Wolf Borup and Joseph A. Sire.

The investigation and the taking of testimony began at St. Paul July 6, and was concluded October 7, 1853. A large number of witnesses were examined - whites, Indians and mixed bloods. Some of the most prominent citizens of the Territory testified - Sibley, Brown, McLeod. Steele, Forbes and Alexander Faribault, the traders; Reverends Riggs and Williamson, of the missionaries; Dr. Thomas Foster, Captain W. B. Dodd, Henry Jackson and David Olmsted, of the citizens; Wabasha, Little Crow, Wacouta, Red Iron, Grey Iron, Shakopee, the Star and Cloud Man, of the Indians ; Captain James Monroe, of the army ; Indian Agent Nathaniel McLean, and many others.

Commissioner Young made an official report of the investigation to the commissioner of Indian affairs, which bears date December 20, 1853. This report criticised the conduct of Governor Ramsey in depositing the government funds in a private bank and in paying out large amounts in bills and drafts on that bank to beneficiaries under the treaty. It also contained some strictures on various other features of the governor's conduct. It did not, however, find him guilty of conspiring with the traders, nor of being paid by the traders for the part he took in bringing about the signing of the treaties. February 24, 1854, Senator James Cooper, of Pennsylvania, a member of the committee on Indian affairs, presented a report to the effect that Governor Ramsey had been acquitted by the committee of all impropriety of conduct, and that one of the complainants, Colonel D. A. Robertson, had retracted his charges. The resolution was considered by unanimous consent and the committee discharged.

As a matter of fact, the guilt, if guilt there was, was shared by all. The whites desired that Minnesota be opened to settlement, the traders demanded vast sums for the goods which they had already sold to the Indians on credit, the only way the Indians could be persuaded to sign the treaties was through the influence of the traders, and the traders would not consent to serve unless the Indians were compelled to sign the "traders' paper." Probably the Indians had no idea what they were doing when they signed the paper, and even of the treaty which they knowingly signed they had no adequate conception, and the white men who negotiated it were well aware that if the Indians realized the truth about what they were doing they would never sign even the treaty, to say nothing of the "traders' paper." It was not a crime of individuals, it was merely one of the steps by which one race through guile, trickery and force of numbers and superiority of war equipment, was supplanting another and more primitive people.

Treaty of 1858. June 19, 1858, the government made a treaty with certain selected chiefs and braves of the Medawakanton, "Wahpakoota, Sisseton and Wahpaton bands of Sioux for the cession of their reservation, ten miles in width, on the north side of the Minnesota, and extending from the west line of the State to Little Rock creek, four miles east of Fort Ridgely. The area purchased amounted to about 8,000,000 acres, and the price to be paid was subsequently (but not until June 27, 1860) fixed by the Senate at thirty cents an acre. The Indians agreed that, in the aggregate for the four bands, the sum of $140,000 might be taken from the purchase price to pay their debts owing to the traders, or, as the treaty expressed it, "to satisfy their just debts and obligations."

The influx of white settlers into the country of the Minnesota valley, where were some of the finest lands in the State, had been very large after the Indian title to the greater part of the country had been extinguished. The magnificent domain comprising a great part of what are now the southern portions of Renville, Chippewa, Swift and Big Stone counties was looked upon with covetous eyes by the homeseekers. The waves of immigration beat against the legal barrier which surrounded this fine fertile expanse, and there was a great clamor that the barriers be removed. "The country is too good for the Indian," said the whites. The Indians themselves had not to any considerable extent occupied the north half of their reservation. Their villages and nearly all of their tepees - except about Big Stone lake - were situated in the south half. But a majority of the Indians, owing to their previous experiences, were opposed to selling any portion of their reserve. Some of the head chiefs and the headmen, however, were willing to sell the north side strip if they could get a good price for it. Major Joseph R. Brown, then the Sioux agent, consulted with them and at last a number of them agreed to accompany him to Washington to make a treaty. Not all of the sub-chiefs nor all of the head-men could be induced to go; some of them were opposed to the sale of the land, and others were afraid of the results of a hostile public sentiment. It required all of Major Brown's great influence with the Sioux to effect the important negotiations. The Indians went to Washington in something like imposing array. Major Brown gave high silk hats and other articles of the white man's adornment to those who would wear them, and there accompanied the party a retinue of whites and mixed bloods from Minnesota. A. J. Campbell (commonly called "Joe" Campbell) was the official interpreter, but assisting him was the shrewd old Scotchman, Andrew Robertson, and his mixed blood son, Thomas A. Robertson. Other members of the party were: Nathaniel R. Brown, John Dowling, Charlie Crawford and James R. Roche.

On behalf of the United States the treaty was signed by Charles E. Mix, then commissioner of Indian affairs. Sisseton and Wahpaton Indians who signed it were these :

Sissetons and Wahpatons - Chiefs, Red Iron, Scarlet Plume, and Extends His Train. Headmen : Stumpy Horn, The Planter, Walks On Iron, Paul Mah-zah-koo-te-Manne, John Other Day, and Strong Voiced Pipe.

The small number of dignitaries named assumed to act for the entire Sioux of Minnesota. It is not a matter of surprise that there was dissatisfaction among the bands on account of the limited list of their representatives on so important an occasion.

After the treaty had been signed the Indians were sumptuously entertained, given broadcloth suits, high hats, and patent leather shoes to wear, and had a grand good time, all at the expense of the Government. They were photographed and taken to the theatres, and allowed to return home by way of Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. When they returned to Minnesota their tales of the magnificence and strength of the whites were listened to by their people with interest and in some measure reconciled them to what had been done.

The opening of the "north ten -mile strip," as the land was called, was of great benefit to the development of Minnesota, at least for a time. Settlers came in considerable numbers and the country was improving rapidly when the Civil War interrupted the peaceful course of events. Then in 1862 came the Sioux outbreak and all of the civilization on the ten-mile strip was pushed off by a great wave of blood and fire.

on each side of the Minnesota, extending from the mouth of the Little Rock (Mud creek) westward to Lake Traverse. The dividing line between the Upper and Lower reservations was a line drawn north and south through the mouth of Hawk creek. Thus Redwood county for a ten-mile strip along the Minnesota, was in the Lower reservation.

With the establishment of the new Indian reserve and the removal of the Indians thereto, came the necessity of a new military post in Minnesota. The concentration of so many Indians upon an area really small in comparison with the country, a part of which they had occupied, and all of which they claimed to own, rendered the situation important and worthy of attention. A military post was necessary to preserve order should the Indians become dissatisfied. There were to be two Indian agencies for the Indians on the reservations. The Upper agency, for the Sissetons and Wahpatons, was established near the mouth of the Yellow Medicine and the Lower, for the Medawanton and Wahpakoota bands, was placed about six miles east of the mouth of the Redwood. Both agencies were on the south bank of the Minnesota river.

The matter of the new military post was called to the attention of C. M. Conrad, then secretary of war, and General Winfield Scott, then commanding the regular army, by Delegate Henry H. Sibley.

General Scott concurred in Sibley's recommendation, and the secretary of war approved it, and issued the necessary order. In the fall of 1852 Captain Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana, then of the quartermaster's department, and Colonel Francis Lee, then in command at Fort Snelling, were ordered to select a suitable site for the new fort, "on the St. Peter's river, above the mouth of the Blue Earth."

In the latter part of November, with an escort of dragoons from Fort Snelling and after a three-days' march in the snow, the officers reached Laframboise 's trading post, at the Little Rock. Five miles above the Rock, on the crest of the high bluff on the north side of the Minnesota, the site was fixed.

The new post was named Fort Ridgely, in honor of Major Randolph Ridgely, a gallant officer of the regular army from Maryland, who died of injuries received at the battle of Monterey.

When Fort Ridgely was established Fort Riley, Kansas, was ordered built. At the same time Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Fort Scott, Kansas, were ordered discontinued and broken up.

was composed of Companies C and K of the Sixth Infantry, and the first commander was Captain James Monroe, of Company K. Companies C and K went up on the steamboat West Newton from Fort Snelling, but later were joined by Company E, which marched across the country from Fort Dodge, and arrived in June, 1853, when work on the buildings was begun. When Company E arrived its captain, Brevet Major Samuel Woods, previously well identified with Minnesota history, took command by virtue of his rank. The work of constructing the fort was in charge of Captain Dana. The story of the Lower Agency is told elsewhere.

Authority and References. This chapter is a somewhat free compilation from articles by Return I. Holcombe in "Minnesota in Three Centuries," and by P. M. Magnusson in the "History of Stearns County." These articles were in turn compiled from other sources. To this material, the editor of this work has added numerous notes and facts, gathered chiefly from ' ' The Aborigines of Minnesota," and from Part 2, of the "Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology," 1896-97. Information has also been gathered from the "History of the Sioux Massacre," by Charles S. Bryant, and contained in the History of the Minnesota Valley, 1882. The article in Minnesota Valley book was in turn compiled from the "History of the Minnesota Indian Massacre," by Charles S. Bryant and Abel B. Murch, 1863.