Redwood County, Minnesota - Chapter 9: Causes of the Outbreak, 1916

The Sioux outbreak was the culmination of a long series of injustices toward the Indians on the part of the whites. Debauched, defrauded, degraded; forced by fear of the strength of the whites, and by misrepresentations, to dispose of their lands; herded together on reservations; treated by the whites as halfwitted children, cheated by the traders and starved by the stupidity of high officials at Washington, who, in addition to the unfair provisions of unjust treaties, imposed additional conditions; the Indians, knowing the revenge that the whites would take for a murder already committed by some renegade braves, arose in their might, and for a time nearly succeeded in regaining their hereditary holdings.

The relations of the Sioux Indians to the white trespassers on their lands were of a friendly nature from the time of the arrival of the first white explorer. Adventurers and traders came and went at will. The French, true to their policy, made friends with the Sioux, and the English followed their example. So deep was the friendship existing between the Sioux and the British that they fought side by side in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812.

With the people of the United States the Sioux were no less tolerant, and until the great outbreak they remained faithful to the obligations of the treaty they made with Zebulon M. Pike, in 1805, with the exception already mentioned of a short period during the War of 1812, when the Sioux, knowing little of the Americans, and remembering their many obligations to the English, took up arms in behalf of the British king. Even during that period Red Wing's band remained loyal to the Stars and Stripes.

There were, of course, isolated cases in which individual Sioux warriors wrought revenge for injuries received, just as there are illegal acts committed in civilized white communities. The despoiling of the French adventurers who, naked and bruised, sought shelter in LeSueur's fort near Mankato in the winter of 1700-01; the murder of Pagonta, "The Mallard Duck," at Mendota by Ix-ka-tapay in 1761 ; the murder of the two cattle drovers by a few wild Sisseton near Big Stone lake in 1846 ; the killing of Elijah S. Terry by men of the same tribe near Pembina in 1852; the shooting in October of the latter year of Mrs. Keener by Zv-yah-se were offenses in which the Sioux as a nation had no part, for which the perpetrators only were responsible. In fact, the Sioux boasted up to the time of the outbreak that never

Gradually, however, discontent grew up between the Indians and the whites, though an outward friendliness was maintained. The real causes of the final outbreak were the treaties of 1851. The Sioux did not want to give up their land. They desired to live as they had lived through the countless centuries. In signing the treaties which relinquished their lands and condemned themselves to a practical imprisonment on a reservation, the Sioux were bowing to the inevitable.

Probably if the treaties had merely provided for the transfer of their lands to the whites for a certain amount and the amount had been paid, the Indians would have made the best of a bad bargain, and on their reservations they might, as time progressed, have worked out their own problem. But there were many other provisions in the treaties.

By the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, dated July 23, 1851, between the United States and the Sissetons and Wapetons, $275,000 were to be paid their chiefs, and a further sum of $30,- 000 was to be expended for their benefit in Indian improvements. By the treaty of Mendota, dated August 5. 1851, the Medawakantons and Wapakutas were to receive the sum of $200,000, to be paid to their chief, and for an improvement fund the further sum of $80,000. Annuities were also to be paid for a certain number of years. The several sums, which were to become payable when the Indians reached their reservations, amounting in the aggregate to $555,000, these Indians, to whom they were payable, claimed they were never paid, except, perhaps, a small portion expended in improvements on the reservations. They became dissatisfied, and expressed their views in council freely with the agent of the government.

In 1857, the Indian department at Washington sent out Major Kintzing Prichette, a man of great experience, to inquire into the cause of this disaffection towards the government. In his report of that year, made to the Indian department, Major Prichette says:

"The complaint which runs through all their councils points to the imperfect performance, or non-fulfillment of treaty stipulations. Whether these were well or ill founded it is not my province to discuss. That such a belief prevails among them, impairing their confidence and good faith in the government, cannot be questioned."

In one of these councils Jagmani said : "The Indians sold their lands at Traverse des Sioux. I say what we were told. For fifty years they were to be paid $50,000 per annum. We were also promised $305,000, and that we have not seen." Mapipa Wicasta (Cloud Man), second chief of Jagmani 's band, said: "At the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, $275,000 were to be paid them when they came upon their reservation; they desired to know what had become of it. Every white man knows that they have been five years upon their reservation, and have yet heard nothing of it."

"When the treatment of the Indians became widely known the government could no longer cover up the matter and decided to appoint Judge Young to investigate the charges made against the governor, of the then Minnesota territory, then acting, exofficio, as superintendent of Indian affairs for that locality. Some short extracts from Judge Young's report are here presented:

"The governor is next charged with having paid over the greater part of the money, appropriated under the fourth article of the treaty of July 23 and August 5, 1851, to one Hugh Tyler, for payment or distribution to the 'traders' and 'half-breeds,' contrary to the wishes and remonstrances of the Indians, and in violation of law and the stipulations contained in said treaties; and also in violation of his own solemn pledges, personally made to them, in regard to said payments.

"Of $375,000 stipulated to be paid under the first clause of the fourth article of the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, of July 24, 1851, the sum of $250,000 was delivered over to Hugh Tyler, by the governor, for distribution among the 'traders' and 'halfbreeds, ' according to the arrangement made by the schedule of the Traders' Paper, dated at Traverse des Sioux, July 23, 1851," (This was the paper which the Indians declared they were told was merely another copy of the treaty. - Ed.)

"For this large sum of money, Hugh Tyler executed two receipts to the governor, as the attorney for the 'traders' and 'half-breeds;' the one for $210,000 on account of the 'traders,' and the other for $40,000 on account of the ' half-breeds ; ' the first dated at St. Paul, December 8, 1852, and the second at Mendota, December 11, 1852.

"And of the sum of $110,000, stipulated to be paid to the Medawakantons, under the fourth article of the treaty of August 5, 1851, the sum of $70,000 was in like manner paid over to the said Tyler, on a power of attorney executed to him by the traders and claimants, under the said treaty, on December 11, 1852. The receipts of the said Tyler to the governor for this money, $70,000, is dated at St. Paul, December 13, 1852, making together the sum of $320,000. This has been shown to have been contrary to the wishes and remonstrances of a large majority of the Indians." And Judge Young adds: "It is also believed to be in violation of the treaty stipulations, as well as the law making the appropriations under them."

provided for them by the treaties. In these matters the report shows they were not consulted at all, in open council ; but on the contrary, that arbitrary divisions and distributions were made of the entire fund, and their right denied to direct the manner in which they should be appropriated. (See Acts of Congress, August 30, 1852.)

The Indians claimed, also, that the third section of the act was violated, as by that section the appropriations therein referred to, should, in every instance, be paid directly to the Indians themselves, to whom it should be due, or to the tribe, or part of the tribe, per capital, "unless otherwise the imperious interests of the Indians or some treaty stipulation should require the payment to be made otherwise, under the direction of the president." This money was never so paid. The report further states that a large sum, "$55,000, was deducted by Hugh Tyler by way of discount and percentage on gross amount of payments, and that these exactions were made both from traders and halfbreeds, without any previous agreement, in many instances, and in such a way, in some, as to make the impression that unless they were submitted to, no payments would be made to such claimants at all."

And, finally the report says, that from the testimony it was evident that the money was not paid to the chiefs, either to the Sisseton, Wapaton or Medawakanton bands, as they in open council requested ; but that they were compelled to submit to this mode of payment to the traders, otherwise no payment would be made, and the money would be returned to Washington ; so that in violation of law they were compelled to comply with the governor's terms of payment, according to Hugh Tyler's power of attorney.

The examination of this complaint, on the part of the Indians, by the Senate of the United States, resulted in "whitewashing" the governor of Minnesota (Governor Alexander Ramsey), yet the Indians were not satisfied with the treatment they had received in this matter by the accredited agents of the government.

Neither were the Indians satisfied with the annual payments. They had desired that they receive the money promptly and in cash. Instead they received part of it in provisions, which gave the whites many opportunities for taking advantages of them, the market value of the provisions never being equal to the amount which was taken out of the Indian fund to pay for them. The Indians rightfully felt that they should be given the money and allowed to do the purchasing themselves.

Then, too, a certain amount of the money due the Indians each year was devoted to a "civilization fund," that is, for agency expenses, erecting agency buildings, paying agents, teach- ers, farmers, missionaries and the like, thus making another drain on an already small sum. The Indian could not view with calmness the luxury in which the whites were living on money which rightfully belonged to the Indian, while the Indian himself was living in poverty, shut off from the rich sweeps of land where he had formerly received his sustenance and condemned to a manner of life and work for which he had no aptitude

The action of the government in regard to the Inkpadoota massacre, so called, added force to the smouldering dissatisfaction. The Indians guilty of this tragedy were formerly members of Sioux bands, but their own acts, in many cases murder of companions and relatives, had shut them off from their own people, so at the time of the 1857 outrage they were renegades, outlaws, whose crimes against their own kinsmen had been such that the Sioux had driven them forth to wander the prairies like savage wolves, hated alike by Indian and Caucasian.

For many years they were in constant trouble with the whites, their outlaw acts being many and black, though the authorities took no action against them. Sometimes, however, an outraged white settler visited summary punishment on his own account without waiting for the authorities.

Early in March, 1857, Inkpadoota 's band of outlaws stole some horses and sleds from some settlers on the Little Sioux river, and on March 8 commenced their awful slaughter on Lake Okoboji, in Dickinson county, Iowa. Spirit lake is connected with this lake by open straits, and though only one man was actually murdered on the banks of Spirit lake the affair is usually called the Spirit lake massacre.

March 26 came the massacre at Springfield, in what is now Brown county, this state. Inkpadoota, whose force consisted of but twelve fighting men, in addition to women and children, was pursued by several companies of soldiers. Many innocent Indians were fired upon and maltreated, but Inkpadoota was not captured.

In June came the time for the annual payments to the Indians at the agency. "When the Indians gathered there to receive their money they were told that no payments would be made unless they (the Indians) should go out and capture Inkpadoota. This command was made on the order of Indian Commissioner J. W. Denver.

To the stupidity and stubbornness of this man Denver, Minnesota owes its Indian massacre of 1862. "Wise men in the territory suggested that the people of the territory be allowed to raise a troop of soldiers and go after Inkpadoota, supported by a detachment of cavalry. But these men were promptly told by Secretary of "War Floyd and Commissioner Denver that no suggestions were

Thus the weeks passed while the Indians endured untold sufferings of illness and starvation. They saw their wives and children hunger and sicken and die. The grasshoppers were eating up their garden produce and their corn fields and truck fields were spoiling of neglect while they waited at the agency for the money that a great government owed them. And this great government, whose own well-armed and well-equipped troops had failed to capture a small band of twelve men, though at one time only a few miles away from them, demanded that the starving Sioux awaiting their payments arm and equip themselves and capture these outlaws, in whose doings they had no part and no interest.

"Give us our annunities first, so that we can eat, and we will go after Inkpadoota," said many of the Indians. "The treaty I signed at Traverse des Sioux said our money would be paid us regularly, and nothing was said about our having to go out and bring in those who had killed white people. Ne-manka-Ha-yusha" (skin your own skunk). Thus spoke Chief Red Iron. Superintendent Cullen and Agent Plandrau could only reply that they were acting under orders from Commissioner Denver and must obey him. But Cullen 's heart was not in the work; he sent an agent, a Mr. Bowes, down to Dunleith, Illinois, then the nearest telegraph station to Minnesota, so that speedy communication could be had with Washington, and he telegraphed Denver, repeatedly urging a repeal, or at least a modification of the obnoxious order, which Cullen and Flandrau were as loth to enforce as the Indians were unwilling to execute. But Denver was obdurate, and Secretary Floyd was haughtily indifferent. At last Ciulen and Flandrau appealed to Little Crow to help them. They assured him that their superiors were determined that before the annunities were paid the peaceable Indians must pursue and destroy, or capture, Inkpadoota and all his band. If the Indians persisted in their refusal to do what was required there was the greatest danger of a bloody war between them and the whites, and nobody knew that better than Little Crow. He was asked to set an example by furnishing fifty men from his own bands for the expedition against the outlaws, and to command the expedition himself. "Your band shall first be furnished with abundant supplies," said Major Cullen. The chief at once consented, and visited the other chiefs and bands to induce them to. join him.

On the eighteenth another council was held relative to the expedition against Inkpadoota. Cullen, Flandrau, Special Agent Pritchette and Major Sherman represented the whites. A number of new bright colored blankets and a fat beef were presented

The next day, Sunday, July 19, the Lower Indians set out to join the Upper Indians at Yellow Medicine, and from that agency on the Wednesday following the entire party marched, Little Crow in command. Major Cullen sent his interpreter, Antoine Joseph Campbell, and three other half-breeds, John and Baptiste Campbell and John Mooers. The entire party numbered over one hundred men - Major Cullen says one hundred and thirty-one; Joe Campbell reported one hundred and six. Major Sherman furnished a wagon laden with provisions, drawn by six mules.

The expedition set out for Skunk lake - now called Madison lake - about forty miles west of the Red Pipestone Quarry, in what is now Lake county, South Dakota. Joe Campbell kept a daily journal of the expedition, and from his itinerary, published with the superintendent's report, it is learned that two days after leaving Yellow Medicine the party reached Joseph Brown's trading post on the head of the Redwood; here Glittering Cloud was elected conductor or guide of the expedition. The next day they encamped at the village of Lean Bear, head soldier of the Sleepy Eye band. Then via the "Hole in the Mountain," and Crooked river, the expedition reached Sunk lake on the afternoon of July 28 and found the outlaws. Meanwhile the outlawed band had quarreled and separated. Inkpadoota and three other warriors, with a number of women and children, had gone far to the westward. The other eight fighting men, with nine women and thirteen children, had come eastward and encamped at Skunk lake, where there were ducks and fish in abundance. They occupied six lodges, which were distributed along the lake shore for three miles. The advance of Little Crow and his party had been discovered, and all the lodges had been deserted, and their inmates had fled to another lake twelve or fifteen miles to the westward, then called by the Indians Big Driftwood lake, and now called Lake Herman. Little Crow had a mounted advance guard of seventeen men led by himself. They overtook the fugitives crossing the lake, and after a short parley commenced shooting, firing into and across the lake until the fugitives were far out of range. In all three women, three men and three children of the Inkpadootas were killed. It was never known or cared whether or not the women and children were killed deliberately.

Upon the return of Little Crow and his force with the two women prisoners, one of them the widow of Shifting Wind, who had been killed, they were notified that perhaps they had not clone enough to secure the payment of their annuities ; the authorities at Washington must decide. Commissioner Denver at first ordered that the payment and issue of supplies should be withheld until Little Crow should again go out and scour all the western country until he had destroyed the remainder of Inkpadoota's band. The representations and protestations of Superintendent Cullen and of the department's special agent, Major Kintzing Pritchette, could not change the unreasonable and stubborn commissioner. Little Crow and party returned to the agencies August 3. They and their women and children continued to go hungry, as the superintendent said, until about September, when, during Denver's absence from Washington, Acting Commissioner Charles T. Mix directed Superintendent Cullen to make the payment and issue the supplies. Denver's unwise and unjust course was to have its effect five years later.

The treaty of 1858 was not pleasing to the majority of the Indians. It was made at Washington by a few Indians picked by the white men for that purpose, and the braves declared that those who made the treaty had no authority to give away the Indian lands without the consent of the Indians as a whole.

By this treaty the Sioux relinquished their lands north of the Minnesota, and confined their reservation to a strip ten miles wide on the south side of that river.

The treaty also elaborated a scheme for forcing the Indian to the white man's way of living. A civilization fund was provided, to be taken from the annuities, and expended in improvements on the lands of such of them as should abandon their tribal relations, and adopt the habits and modes of life of the white race. To all such, lands were to be asigned in severalty, eighty acres to each head of a family. On these farms were to be erected out of the annuities the necessary farm buildings and farming implements, and cattle were to be furnished them.

In addition to these so-called favors the government offered them pay for such labors of value as were performed, in addition to the crops they raised. Indian farmers now augmented rapidly, until the outbreak of 1862, at which time about one hundred and sixty had taken advantage of the provisions of the treaty. A number of farms, some 160, had good, snug brick houses erected upon them. Among these was Little Crow, and many of these farmer Indians belonged to his own band.

The Indians disliked the idea of taking any portion of the general fund belonging to the tribe for the purpose of carrying out the civilization scheme. Those Indians who retained the "blanket," and hence called "blanket Indians," denounced the measure as a fraud upon their rights. The chase was then a God-given right ; this scheme forfeited that ancient natural right, as it pointed unmistakably to the destruction of the chase.

Minnesota, and the streams putting into the Minnesota, on either side, such as Beaver creek, Sacred Heart, Hawk and Chippewa rivers and some other small streams, were nourishing settlements of white families. Within this ceded tract, ten miles wide, were the scattered settlements of Birch Coolie, Patterson Rapids, on the Sacred Heart, and others as far up as the Upper Agency at Yellow Medicine, in Renville county. The county of Brown adjoined the reservation, and was, at the time, settled mostly by Germans. In that county was the flourishing town of New Ulm, and a thriving settlement on the Big Cottonwood and Watonwan, consisting of German and American pioneers, who had selected this lovely and fertile valley for their future homes.

In the spring and summer of 1862 the several Sioux bands of Minnesota who had been parties to the Treaties of 1851 and 1858 had, with a few exceptions, all their villages within the prescribed limits of the reservation. The Yanktons were on the Missouri river, in the region where the city of Yankton, South Dakota, is now located. They never came east of Lac qui Parle. The Sissetons were for the most part on the banks of Lake Traverse and Big Stone lake, though some were to the westward. The Wahpatons were near the Yellow Medicine, in the region known as the Upper Agency. The Medawakantons and the Wahpakootas, the "Lower Agency Indians,'" had their bands along the south bank of the Minnesota, stretching from a little east of Yellow Medicine eastward to some four miles below Ft. Ridgely.

The sub-band of Shakopee (Six, commonly called Little Six) was a mile and more west of the mouth of the Redwood river. All about the Lower or Redwood Agency were the other Medawakanton sub-bands. The old Kaposia village of Little Crow was on the south side of the Minnesota, a little west of the small stream called Crow's creek, somewhat above the present village of Morton. Near Crow's village was the band of the Great War Eagle, commonly called Big Eagle (Wam-bde-Tonka), and this had been the band of Gray Iron, of Fort Snelling. Below the agency was the sub-band of Wah-pahah-sha (meaning literally Red War Banner), who was commonly called Wabasha, and who was the head chief of the Medawakanton band. Near him was the village of Wacouta (pronounced Wah-koota, and meaning the Shooter), who was now chief of the old Red Wing band. In this vicinity was the band of Traveling Hail, sometimes called Passing Hail (Wa-su-he-yi-ye-dan). Old Cloud Man was alive, but old and feeble, and had turned over the chieftainship to Traveling Hail, formerly of Cloud Man's band of Lake Calhoun; and farther down the Minnesota, but along the crest of the high bluff bank was the band of Mankato, who had succeeded his father, the historic old Good Road, in the chieftainship of one of the prominent old Fort Snelling bands. The Wahpakootas were reduced to one band, whose chief was Red Legs (Hu-sha-sha), although Pa-Pay was recognized as one in authority. The Wahpakoota village was below Mankato's on the same side of the river.

In the spring of 1861 the Republican party came into national power. Major William J. Cullen, the Democratic Indian superintendent, was removed, and Clark W. Thompson, of Fillmore county, was appointed in his stead. Joseph R. Brown, agent for the Sioux, was removed, and his place taken by Thomas J. Galbraith, of Shakopee.

The new agent endorsed the policy and adopted the methods of his predecessor almost entirely. Especially did he endeavor to make the Indians self-supporting. Those who were already "farmers" or "breeches Indians" were favored and encouraged in many ways, and those who were still barbaric and blanketed were remonstrated with, and entreated to enter upon the new life.

The autumn of 1861 closed upon the affairs of the farmer Indians quite unsatisfactorily; their crops were light, the Upper Sioux raising little or nothing. The cut worms had destroyed well nigh all the corn fields of the Sissetons, and the same pests, together with the blackbirds, had greatly damaged the crops of the Wahpatons, Medawakantons and Wahpakootas. Agent Galbraith was forced to buy on credit large quantities of pork and flour for the destitute Indians. Under the direction of Missionary Riggs, who lived among them, Agent Galbraith fed 1,500 Sissetons and Wahpatons from the middle of December, 1861, to April 1, 1862, when they were able to go off on their spring hunts. He also fed and cared for a number of the old and infirm and other worthy characters among the Lower Indians; but for the assistance of the government numbers of these wretched savages would have starved during that hard winter of 1861-1862. The "farmer" Indians were kept at work during the winter making fence rails, cutting and hauling saw logs to the saw mills at the Upper and Lower Agency and other work, and in payment received regular issues of supplies for themselves and families.

Prior to 1857 the payment to the Indians under the treaties were made semi-annually. In that year Superintendent Cullen changed this practice to one payment a year, which, until 1862, had commonly been made about the tenth of June. This event was a great red letter day in the Indian calendar. It engaged attention for months before it came; it was a pleasant memory for months afterwards. Every beneficiary attended the payment, and many of the Cut Heads and Yanktonnais, that were not entitled to receive anything, came hundreds of miles and swarmed on the outskirts of the camp, hoping to get something, however little, from the stock to be distributed. So there was always a big crowd present at the payment and a rare good time.

The traders always received a liberal share of the money. For a year the Indians had been buying goods from them on credit, promising to pay in furs at the end of the hunting season. When default was made in the payment, which was invariably the case, the balance was promised in cash ' ' at the payment. ' ' The traders were therefore always present near the pay tables, with their books of account, and when the Indian had received his money from the government paymaster he was led over to his trader and asked to pay what he owed. The majority of the Indians were willing to pay their debts, but there were others who would not pay the most honorable debt if they could avoid it; usually the latter class owed their traders more than the thirty dollars they had received. Sometimes for some years a detachment of soldiers had been sent up from Port Ridgely to preserve order.

In 1861 the Lower Sioux had been paid June 27, and the Upper Sioux July 18. On the seventeenth of June the "St. Peter Guards," a newly recruited company, which became Company E of the Second Minnesota, Captain A. K. Skaro, and the "Western Zouaves" of St. Paul, which became Company D of the Second Regiment, Captain Horace H. Western, arrived by the steamer City Belle at Port Ridgely as its garrison, taking the place of Company B, Captain Bromley, and Company G, Captain McKune, of the First Regiment, which companies had been stationed at the post since May. Captain McKune 's company, however, remained at Ridgely until July 6.

About the first of July the Indians began certain demonstrations indicating that they would make serious trouble if troops were stationed at the agencies and near the pay tables during the coming payments. They seemed to believe that the presence of soldiers on these occasions was to coerce them into paying debts to the traders, and they were opposed to the idea. They soon organized a "soldiers' lodge" (or a-ke-che-ta tepee) to consider the matter. A soldiers' lodge was composed of warriors that were not chiefs or head soldiers, and who met by themselves and conducted all their deliberations and proceedings in strictest secrecy. Their conclusions had to be carried out by the chiefs and head soldiers. If a war was contemplated the soldiers' lodge decided the matter, and from its decision there was no appeal. Many other matters concerning the band at large were settled by the a-ke-che-ta tepee.

It was believed by the whites that the soldiers' lodges on the Sioux reservation had determined on armed resistance to the presence of troops at the pay tables. Agent Galbraith and other white people about the agencies became greatly alarmed, and June 25 the agent called on Fort Ridgely for troops to come at once to Redwood. The St. Peter Guards were promptly sent and remained at the Lower Agency until after the payment, which passed off quietly. July 3 Major Galbraith again became alarmed at the Indian signs and called for a strong force to come to Yellow Medicine. McKune's company of the First Regiment and Skaro's of the Second Regiment were at once started from Fort Ridgely, but ten miles out were turned back. The next day Captain "Western's company started for the Upper Agency, and on the sixth was overtaken by Captain Skaro's and the two companies reached the Yellow Medicine on the seventh, to the great relief of the agent and the other government employes and traders and their families, who were in great fear of the rebellious and menacing Indians, chiefly young men and reckless characters. The payment at the Upper Agency was without disorder; the Indians paid their debts, but some of them were reported as saying that "this is the last time" they would do so.

July 23 the two companies of the Second Regiment marched back to Fort Ridgely. August 13 detachments of both companies, under Captain Western and Lieutenant Cox, were sent by Lieutenant Colonel George, commanding the post at Fort Ridgely, to the Spirit lake district, in Iowa, to protect the settlers in that region from the depredations of certain Indians, who, it was feared, contemplated another raid of the Inkpadoota character. The command was absent for two weeks.

About September 1 the Indians at and above Yellow Medicine became turbulent and frightened. On the eighth Company E, Captain Skaro, was dispatched from Fort Ridgely and reached the Yellow Medicine on the tenth. On the fifteenth Lieutenant J. C. Donahower, with twelve men of Company E, was sent to Big Stone lake as an escort to the government farmer, who was directed to secure from the Sissetons about the lake some horses which had been stolen by them and the Yanktonnais from white settlers on the Missouri in southeastern Dakota. The lieutenant returned to Yellow Medicine with three of the recovered horses. The Sissetons and Yanktons stole about thirty horses that summer from Minnesota and Iowa settlers. September 23 Captain Skaro left Yellow Medicine for Fort Snelling, where he joined his regiment, which, in a few days, was sent to the South.

On the tenth of October, 1861, Companies A and B, of the Fourth Regiment, became the garrison at Fort Ridgely. Captain L. L. Baxter, of Company A, was commander of the post until in March, 1862, when the companies with the remainder of the regiment were sent to the Union army in front of Corinth, Mississippi.

Upon the organization of the Fifth Minnesota Infantry, March 29, 1862, three of the companies of that regiment were assigned to garrison duty at the Minnesota forts. To Fort Abercrombie was sent Company D, Captain John Vander Horck ; to Fort Ripley, Company C, Captain Hall; to Fort Ridgely, Company B,

Captain John S. Marsh. As Captain Marsh had not yet joined the company, and as Lieutenant Norman K. Culver was on detail as quartermaster, Sergeant Thomas P. Gere led the company on its march, in zero weather, through a deep snow, from Fort Snelling to Fort Ridgely, arriving at the latter post March 25. April 10 Gere became second lieutenant, and on the sixteenth Captain Marsh arrived and assumed command of the post. There were then at the fort, in addition to the officers and men of Company B, Post Surgeon Dr. Alfred Muller, Sutler Ben H. Randall, Interpreter Peter Quinn and Ordnance Sergeant John Jones, and a few soldiers' families living in cabins nearby. Sergeant Jones was in charge of the government stores and of six pieces of artillery of different calibers, the relics of the old artillery school at the post, which had been left by Major Pemberton when he departed for Washington with the last battery organization, in February, 1861.

The Minnesota Indian payments for 1862 were greatly delayed. They should have been made by the last of June, but the government agents were not prepared to make them until the middle of August. The authorities at Washington were to blame. For some weeks they dallied with the question whether or not a part at least of the payment should be made in greenbacks. Commissioner Dole, Superintendent Thompson and Agent Galbraith protested that the payment should be in specie. Not until August 8 did Secretary Chase, of the Treasury, order Assistant Treasurer Cisco, of New York, to send the Indians' money in gold coin to Superintendent Thompson at St. Paul. The money - $71,000, in kegs, all in gold coin - left New York August 11 and arrived at St. Paul on the sixteenth. Superintendent Thompson started it the next day for the Indian country in charge of C. W. Wykoff, E. C. Hatch, Justus C. Ramsey, A. J. Van Vorhees and C. M. Daily, and they, with the wagons containing the precious kegs, reached Fort Ridgely, August 18, the first day of the great outbreak. The money and its custodians remained within the fort until Sibley's army came, and then the money, in the original package as stated, was taken back to St. Paul by the parties named who had brought it up.

Meanwhile there was a most unhappy condition of affairs on the reservation. The Indians had been eagerly awaiting the payment since the tenth of June. On the twenty-fifth a large delegation of the chiefs and head men of the Sissetons and Wahpetons visited Yellow Medicine and demanded of Agent Galbraith to be informed whether they and their people were to get any money that year; they alleged they had been told by certain white men that they would not be paid because of the great war then in progress between the North and South. The agent said the payment would certainly be made by July 20. He then gave them some provisions, ammunition, and tobacco, and sent them back to their villages, promising to notify them when the money came of the exact time of the payment. He then went to the Lower Agency and counseled the people there as he had the people at Yellow Medicine, adding that they should busy themselves in cutting hay for the winter and in keeping the birds from the corn. These Lower Indians had worked hard during the summer but their crops had not turned out well, owing to the numerous birds and insect pests, and their stock of provisions was nearly exhausted. Major Galbraith therefore issued them a supply of mess pork, flour, salt, tobacco and ammunition.

Efforts have been made by many writers to show that the condition of the Indians was no worse than that of the white settler - that the Indian had a better chance to prosper than did the white pioneer.

But the circumstances were much different. The pioneer had come prepared for the rigors of pioneer life. He had come hoping to better himself. It is true that in coming the pioneer brought civilization. But he did not come for that purpose. Much as we admire the pioneer, much as we appreciate the great good that he has done, deep though the debt we owe him may be, many though his hardships were, nevertheless there can be no disguising the motive that brought him. He came because he expected to be more prosperous here than he had been in the place from whence he came.

The Indian had no such hope. He was not equipped for the mode of life that was thrust upon him. He had owned these stretches of land. He had lived in contentment. Through the chase he had obtained a good living. When he gave up the opportunity of securing his accustomed daily livelihood he was accepting the promise of a great nation that in exchange for his land he would be paid certain sums for his support. He had given up his land, he had given up his mode of making a living, he had moved to the reservation, he had kept his part of the bargain; yet the great government was breaking its part of the bargain by every quibble and pretense possible.

The sudden change of life had brought ructions among the Indians themselves. Some seeing that the white man by trickery and superior strength, was bound to rule, urged that the Indians make the best of a bad situation and take up the white man's ways. These Indians were called the farmer Indians.

There were others, however, who saw that the Indian was not adapted to the ways of the whites, and saw only slavery and degradation in the ways of the farmer Indians, many of whom were already dying of tubercular troubles as the result of their unaccustomed mode of life. These blanket Indians, as they were called, believed in the old ways. They wanted the government to keep its promise and make its payments according to agreement, after which they wanted the government to leave them to lead their own lives in their own way.

So these were arguments among the Indians, such matters as adopting the white man's habits, clothing, and customs, obeying instructions about not fighting the Chippewas, the election of chief speaker of the Medawakanton band.

In the spring Little Crow, Big Eagle, and Traveling Hail were candidates for speaker of the band. There was a heated contest, resulting in the defeat of Little Crow to his great mortification and chagrin and that of his followers, who constituted the greater part of the blanket Indian party. His successful opponent, Traveling Hail, was a civilization Indian and a firm friend of the whites.

In June, as the time for the payment approached, a number of the young Medawakantons and Wahpakootas formed a soldiers' lodge, to consider the question of allowing the traders to approach the pay table. The chiefs and head men, according to custom, were not allowed to participate in the deliberations of this peculiar council, although they were expected to enforce its decisions and decrees. After a few days of secret consultation the council sent a delegation to Fort Ridgely, which, through Post Interpreter Quiim, asked Captain Marsh, the commandant, not to send any soldiers to the payment to help the traders collect their debts. Captain Marsh replied that he was obliged to have some of his soldiers present at the payment, but they would not be used unless there was a serious disturbance of the peace, and on no account would he allow them to be employed to collect the debts owing to the traders by the Indians. This reply greatly gratified the Indians and they returned to their villages in high glee boasting of what they had accomplished.

The traders were indignant at the action of the Indian soldiers. They vowed not to sell the Indians any more supplies on credit. "You will be sorry for what you have done," said Andrew J. Myrick, who was in charge of his brother's trading house at Redwood, "you will be sorry. After a while you will come to me and beg for meat and flour to keep you and your wives and children from starving and I will not let you have a thing. You and your wives and children may starve, or eat grass, or your own filth." The traders tried to induce Captain Marsh to revoke his decision in their favor, but he would make them no promises.

In July the Lower warriors convened another soldiers' lodge. This time the subject of discussion was whether or not they should go on the war-path against the Chippewas, who had recently given a lot of trouble. Incidentally the trouble about their debts came up, and it was finally decided that if the soldiers guarded the pay tables, and their bayonets were employed as instruments for the collection of debts, the Indians would be forced to submit. This was the soldiers' lodge about whose purpose and plans so many startling and alarming statements were afterwards made by the whites. At the time too, the whites were afraid. On one occasion the Indians went down to Fort Ridgely and asked to be allowed to play ball (or la crosse) on the parade grounds. Captain Marsh refused to allow this, and it was afterwards printed that on the occasion mentioned the Indians had planned and schemed to get into the fort by stratagem, and then massacre the garrison and every white person in the neighborhood.

The Upper Indians were in far worse moods than their brethren at Redwood. In addition to their dissatisfaction in regard to the delay in the payment - for they needed assistance most sorely - they were incensed against the white authorities who had forbidden them to make war on the Chippewas. The latter made frequent forays upon the Sioux of the upper country. In May a hunting party of Red Iron's band was attacked on the Upper Pomme de Terre by a band of Chippewas and chased from the country, losing two men killed. About the twentieth of July the Chippewas slipped down and killed two Sioux within eighteen miles of Yellow Medicine.

These instances stirred the blood of the Upper bands and four days later several hundred of them formed a war party and, stripped and painted, and yelling and shouting, marched by the Agency buildings and the camp of the soldiers and down the Minnesota in the direction of Major Brown's stone mansion and big farm, near where the Chippewas were supposed to be. The majority of the Indians were mounted, but those who were on foot went galloping along by the side of the cantering ponies and kept up with them easily. The Chippewas had retreated and could not be overtaken.

About the fifteenth of August, only a few days before the outbreak, a man and his son of Red Iron's band were killed by the Chippewas, while hunting, a few miles north of the river. Their bodies were taken back to their village and exposed in public for a whole day. Hundreds of Sioux came to see them. A war party of a dozen or more set out after the murderers, followed them up into the Otter Tail lake country, and did not return to the reservation until nearly two weeks after the outbreak.

Certain writers have frequently declared that the outbreak was a long meditated and carefully planned movement of the Sioux and Chippewas in combination ; that Little Crow and Holein-the-Day were in constant communication and engaged in preparing for the uprising for weeks before it occurred. The incidents given of the tragic events, the homicides, and the fights between the two tribes up to the very date of the Sioux outbreak

The Upper Indians became turbulent and menacing, and serious results Were avoided only by the greatest care and the intelligent exercise of sound judgment.

As early as June 18, Captain Marsh, in command at Port Ridgely, deemed it best, in anticipation of trouble among the Indians at the payment, to strengthen his forces. On the eighteenth Captain Hall ordered Lieutenant T. J. Sheehan, with fifty men of Company B of the Fifth Regiment, from Fort Ripley to re-enforce the garrison at Fort Ridgely. The Lieutenant and his men arrived on the twenty-eighth, and the next day Captain Marsh started them and fifty men of Company B, under Lieutenant T. P. Gere for the Yellow Medicine, which post they reached July 2. They carried with them a piece of artillery, a twelvepound mountain howitzer, and plenty of ammunition. Lieutenants Sheehan and Gere were directed to obey the orders of . ! Agent Galbraith and to preserve peace and protect United States property, "during the time of the annuity payment for the present year." Sheehan ranked Gere, and was given command of the detachment.

When the soldiers reached the Yellow Medicine, they found the Upper Indians already arriving in large numbers in anticipation of the annuity payment, which was the prevailing and absorbing topic. On the eighth a detachment of warriors, through Interpreter Quinn, had a lengthy interview with the young officers. The Indians said: "We are the braves who do the fighting for our people. We sold our land to the Great Father, but j we don't get the pay for it. The traders are allowed to sit at the pay table, and they take all our money. We wish you to keep the traders away from the pay table, and as we are now hungry we want you to make us a present of a beef." The lieutenant answered that the payment regulations were in charge of Agent Galbraith, whose orders they must obey ; that they had no beeves or other provisions, save their own army rations, which -they needed for themselves, but that they would tell the agent what the warriors had said.

Every day brought accessions to the number of Indians about the Agency. On July 14, when Agent Galbraith arrived, he' was astonished and alarmed to find that nearly all of the Upper Indians had arrived, that they were greatly destitute, and that they were clamoring for ' ' Wo-kay-zhu-zhu ! Wo-kay-zhu-zhu, ' ' the payment! the payment! The agent asked them reproachfully: "Why have you come? I sent you away and told you not to come back until I sent for you again. I have not sent for you - why have you come?" The Indians replied: "It was such a long time that we did not hear from you, that we feared something was wrong. Then, because of the war in the south, some white men say that we will not get our money at all. We want to find out about all this. We are destitute and hungry. You may not have money, but you have provisions in that big house, and this is the time of the year that we should receive both our money and supplies; we want some of the supplies now. We will not leave our camps until we get our money and all. ' '

Major Galbraith sent word of his predicament to Superintendent Thompson and asked for instructions. The superintendent answered that the agent was on the ground and must do as he thought best. The agent then issued, in scanty quantities, some rations of pork and flour and some cloth and other supplies to the most destitute and deserving. The Indians were grateful, and gave numerous dances and other entertainments as returns for the favors.

To add to Major Galbraith 's perplexities, the presence of a large number of Yanktonnais and other non-annuity Indians was reported. On the day after his arrival he inspected the various camps and found, to his disgust and dismay, that there were 659 lodges of annuity Indians, 78 lodges of Yanktonnais, 37 of Cut Heads, and five of unidentified people, said to be Winnebagoes. There were more than 4,000 annuity Sioux and about 1,000 Yanktonians and Cut Heads. Even a portion of Inkpadoota's band was reported to be out on the prairies.

By July 18, the Indians had eaten nearly all of their dogs and everything, else of an edible character in their camps, and there was actual starvation among them. Still there was no payment and no issue of supplies. Down in the Minnesota bottoms, almost hidden in the high and succulent grass, were hundreds of fat cattle belonging to the settlers and to be had for the killing, and less than a day's march away were provisions of other kinds, enough to feed an army, and to be had for the taking. Lieutenant Sheehan feared that the strain would not endure much longer, and sent down to Ridgely and brought up another howitzer. Galbraith, however, did not believe there was any danger, as the Indians were apparently quiet and peaceable. On the twentyfirst the lieutenants interviewed Galbraith and plainly told him that did he not at once relieve the most pressing necessities of the Indians, he would be responsible for any casualty that might ensue. The agent agreed that he would at once take a census of the annuity people, issue an abundant supply of provisions, and then send them back to their villages to await the arrival of their money.

Cut Heads were ignored. All of the people eligible to payment were assembled near the Government buildings, and a cordon of soldiers thrown about the entire concourse. Each sub-chief called upon the heads of families in his band to give the number of persons in their respective families and when the number was announced those composing it were sent out of the lines to their camps. The enumeration occupied twelve and a half hours.

The Indian census had been taken, but still Agent Galbraith made no issue of provisions, as he had promised. The man seemed beside himself, in the perplexities of his situation. He was a drinking man, and it is said that he was intoxicated a great portion of the time in an effort to meet the dangers which confronted him with a "Dutch courage."

The next day after the census was taken, or July 27, Major Galbraith sent Lieutenant Sheehan, with fourteen soldiers, four citizens and the ever faithful Good Voiced Hail, as a guide, on a futile and foolish chase after the half dozen of Inkpadoota 's band reported to be hovering about the Dakota boundary, south and west of Lake Benton. The men were all mounted and had two baggage wagons. After scouring the country in a vain search for trails or even signs, the detachment set out on the return trip and reached Yellow Medicine August 3. The failure to overtake the outlaws had a bad effect upon the Agency Indians, who derided the work of the soldiers and were confirmed in their belief that in matters pertaining to warfare of anj* sort, Indians could easily outwit white men.

The fourth of August came but no paymaster was in sight, and there had been no issue of provisions, save a few pieces of hard tack, for two weeks. Early in the morning of the fourth the Indians sent two messengers to Lieutenant Sheehan and informed him that later in the day, they were coming to the Agency to fire a salute and make a great demonstration for the entertainment of the white people, and especially the soldiers. "Don't be afraid," they said, "for although we will do a lot of shooting we won't hurt anybody."

About 9 o'clock the soldiers were startled to see that, suddenly and without having previously been seen, the Indians had surrounded the camp and were pointing guns at them. The sentinels or camp guards were pushed from their beats and told to go to their tents and stay there, and Private James Foster, of Company B, had his gun wrested from him. At the same time several hundred mounted and armed warriors galloped up, yelling and shooting, and began riding wildly about. The real object of this startling and thrilling demonstration was not apparent until the Indian leader dashed up to the west end of the Government warehouse and struck its big door a resounding blow with him tomahawk. Very soon the door was broken down and

According to Lieutenant Gere's account, the situation was now perilous in the extreme. The soldiers were outnumbered seven to one by the excited warriors, who were priming, cocking, and aiming their guns only a hundred feet away. Private Josiah Weakley, of Company C, precipitated a crisis. An Indian had pointed a gun at him, and the soldier swore a big mouth-filling oath and hastily capped and aimed his gun at the savage to resent the insult. He was about to the pull the trigger, when Jim Ybright struck down the gun, and thus prevented the destruction of the entire command and of every other white person at or about the Agency. For at that critical moment had a single hostile shot been fired, by either white man or Indian, the great savage outbreak of a fortnight later would have begun and its first victims would have been the people of Yellow Medicine.

Lieutenant Sheehan ordered his little command to "fall in," and promptly every man, gun in hand, sprang into line. There was no shrinking and apparently no fear. It was soon realized that the object of the Indian attack was to secure the provisions in the warehouse wherewith to feed themselves and their famishing women and children. Had the murder of the whites been intended, the bloody work would have been begun at once. It seemed certain that the Indians would not fire the first shot.

But the peace must be preserved, even if it had to be fought for, and the Government property must be protected at all hazards. Lieutenant Gere had direct charge of the two cannon, and the men of his company had been trained by old Sergeant Jones, at Ridgely, to handle them. Taking the tarpaulin cover from one of the guns, which was loaded with canister, Lieutenant Gere aimed it at the warehouse door, through which the Indians were crowding, going for and returning with sacks of flour. From the cannon to the warehouse the distance was not more than 150 yards ; the ground was level, and the range point blank.

Instantly there were yells of surprise and shouts of warning, and the Indians fell back on either side of the line of fire and the range of the gun, leaving a wide and distinct lane or avenue between the cannon and the warehouse door. Lieutenant Sheehan now appeared with a detachment of sixteen men, and that brave soldier, Sergeant Solon A. Trescott, of Company B, at their head. Down the lane with its living walls marched Sheehan and his little band straight to the warehouse. Reaching the building the lieutenant went at once to the office of Major Galbraith, too impotent through fear, drink and excitement for any good. Sergeant Trescott and his men summarily drove every Indian from and away from the, warehouse. Only about thirty sacks of flour had been taken.

Lieutenant Sheehan stoutly demanded that Galbraith at once give to the Indians the provisions which really belonged to them, and thereby avert not only starvation but probably war. But the agent, now that the soldiers were in line and their leader in his presence, became, through his "Dutch courage," very dignified and brave. He said that if he made any concessions to the Indians they would become bolder in the future, that the savages must be made to respect his position and authority as their agent, and not attempt to coerce him into doing his duty. He then demanded that Lieutenant Sheehan should take his soldiers and make the Indians return the flour they had seized and which their women were already making into bread.

Sheehan had his Irish spirit thoroughly aroused, and at last forced the agent to agree to issue three days' rations of flour and pork to the Indians, if they would return to their camps and send their chiefs for a council the next day. Meanwhile the Indians had assembled by bands about the warehouse and were addressed by their chiefs and head soldiers, all of whom said, in effect: "The provisions in that big house have been sent to us by our Great Father at Washington, but our agent will not let us have them, although our wives and children are starving. These supplies are ours and we have a right to take them. The soldiers sympathize with us and have already divided their rations with us, and when it comes to the point they will not shoot at us, but if they do, we can soon wipe them off the earth."

The three days' rations were issued, but the Indians declined to return to their camps, unless they should first receive all that was due them. They again became turbulent and threatened to again attack and loot the warehouse. Lieutenant Sheehan moved up his entire command directly in front of the warehouse and went into fighting line with his two cannons "in battery." Then the Indians concluded to forego any hostile movement and returned to their camps. Their three days' rations had been well nigh all devoured before midnight.

Agent Galbraith continued in his excited mood and eccentric conduct. Months afterward, in writing his official report and describing the events of the fourth of August, he declared that when the Indians assaulted the warehouse they "shot down the American flag" waving over it. His statement was accepted by Heard, who, in his history, states that the flag was "cut down." Lieutenant Sheehan and the men who were under him at Yellow Medicine all assert that the flag was neither shot down or cut down or injured in any way, but that when the trouble was over for the day the banner was "still there." August 5 the agent was still beside himself. He declared that the loyal old Peter Quinn, who had lived in Minnesota among his white brethren for nearly forty years and was always faithful to his trust, even to his death in the slaughter at Redwood Ferry - was not to be trusted to communicate with the Indians. He ordered Lieutenant Sheehan, who had brought Quinn from Ridgely, to send him back and he requested that the loyal old man be "put off the reservation."

Sheehan could bear with the agent no longer. He accommodated him by sending Quinn away, but he sent the old interpreter with Lieutenant Gere, whom he directed to hasten to Fort Ridgely, describe the situation to Captain Marsh, and urge that officer to come at once to Yellow Medicine and help manage Galbraith. The captain reached Yellow Medicine at 1 :30 p. m. on the sixth, having come from Fort Ridgely, forty-five miles distant, by buggy in seven hours.

August 7, Galbraith having been forced to agree to a sensible course of action, he, Captain Marsh and Missionary Riggs held a council with the Indians. The agent had sent to Hazelwood for Mr. Riggs and when the good preacher came, said to him appealingly: "If there is anything between the lids of the Bible that will meet this case, I wish you would use it. ' ' The missionary assured the demoralized agent that the Bible has something in it to meet every case and any emergency. He then repaired to Standing Buffalo's tepee and arranged for a general council that afternoon. The missionary gives this description of the proceedings:

"The chiefs and braves gathered. The young men who had broken down the warehouse door were there. The Indians argued that they were starving and that the flour and pork in the warehouse had been purchased with their money. It was wrong to break in the door, but now they would authorize the agent to take of their money and repair the door. The agent then agreed to give them some provisions and insisted on their going home which they promised to do."

Captain Marsh demanded that all of the annuity goods, which for so long had been wrongfully withheld, should be issued immediately, and Reverend Riggs endorsed the demand. Galbraith consented, and the Indians promised that if the issues were made they would return to their homes and there remain until the agent advised them that their money had come. The agreement was faithfully carried out by both parties to it. The issue of goods began immediately and was continued through the eighth and ninth. By the tenth all the Indians had disappeared and on the twelfth word was received that Standing Buffalo's and the Charger's band, with many others, had gone out into Dakota on buffalo hunts. On the eleventh the soldiers left Yellow Medicine for Fort Ridgely, arriving at that post in the evening of the following day.

to have disappeared. Only the Upper Indians had made mischief; the Lower Indians had taken no part nor manifested any sympathy with what their brethren had done, but had remained quietly in their villages engaged in their ordinary avocations. Many had been at work in the hay meadows and corn fields. All the Indians had apparently decided to wait patiently for the annuity money. This agreeable condition of affairs might have been established six weeks earlier, but for the unwise, yet well meant work of Agent Galbraith, who should have done at first what he did at last.

Believing that no good reason any longer existed for the presence of so many troops at Fort Ridgely, Captain Marsh ordered Lieutenant Sheehan to lead Company C of the Fifth Minnesota back to Fort Ripley, on the Upper Mississippi, the march to be made on foot, across the country, by the most direct route. At 7 o'clock on the morning of August 17, the detachment set out, encamping the first night at Cumming's Grove, near the present site of "Winthrop, Sibley county.

After the troubles at Yellow Medicine were over a number of discharged government employes, French-Canadians, and mixed blood Sioux expressed a desire to enlist in the Union army, under President Lincoln's call for "300,000" more.

The Government was advancing forty dollars of their prospective bounty and pay to recruits, and as quite a number of the would-be volunteers were out of employment and money, the cash offer was perhaps to some as much of a stimulus to enlist as was their patriotism. A very gallant frontiersman named James Gorman, busied himself with securing recruits for the pioneer company, which, because most of its numbers were from Renville county, was called the "Renville Rangers." Captain Marsh had encouraged the organization, and Agent Galbraith had used all of his influence in its behalf. August 12 thirty men enlisted in the Rangers at Yellow Medicine and on the fourteenth twenty more joined the company at Redwood. Galbraith and Gorman, with their fifty men, left Redwood Agency for Fort Snelling, where it was expected the company would join one of the new regiments then being formed. At Fort Ridgely Captain Marsh furnished the Rangers quarters and rations and sent Sergeant James G. McGrew and four other soldiers with them on their way to the fort. At New Ulm they received a few men, and the entire company, in wagons, reached St. Peter in the afternoon of the eighteenth.

Confederacy urging the Indians to revolt, Little Crow was most assuredly guiltless of having long planned a general massacre. Possibly, for such is human nature, the Indians, smarting under untold wrongs, may have considered the possibilities of driving out the whites and resuming their own ancient freedom. But no details had been planned upon. The officials at Washington and their representatives on the reservation were wholly and solely responsible for the great massacre. The spark which lighted the conflagration was the lawless act of a few renegades, but there would have been no blaze from this spark had not the whites, through guile and dishonesty, been gradually increasing the disgust, discontent and resentment in the Red Men's breast.

The editor of this work holds no brief for the Indian. No one realizes more than he the sufferings of those innocent settlers, those martyrs to civilization, who underwent untold horrors at the hands of a savage and infuriated race. In savage or civilized warfare, no acts of heartless cruelty can be excused or condoned. In the wrongs to which the Indian had been subjected the noble settlers of the Minnesota valley were guiltless.

Civilization can never repay the Minnesota pioneers for the part they had in extending further the dominion of the white man, for the part they took in bringing the county from a wild wilderness to a place of peace, prosperity and contentment.

The treatment of the Indian by the settlers of this county was ever considerate and kind, the red man was continually fed and warmed at the settlers' cabins. There is no condoning the terrible slaughter of these innocent, kind hearted, hospitable whites who in seeking their home in this rich valley were not unmindful of the needs of their untutored predecessors.

It should, however, be remembered that however cruel, lustful and bloodthirsty the Indian showed himself to be, base, treacherous, barbarous as his conduct was, cowardly and murderous though his uprising against the innocent pioneers; nevertheless not his alone was the guilt. The officials who tricked and robbed him, whose stupidity and inefficiency incensed him, whose lack of honor embittered him against all whites, they too, must bear a part of the blame for that horrible uprising.

It should be remembered too, that the white soldiers battling for a great nation taught the Indian no better method than the Indian himself practiced. The Indian violated the flag of truce, and likewise the white soldiers fired on Indians who came to parley under the white flag. The Indians killed women and children, the white soldiers likewise turned their guns against the teepes that contained the Indian squaws and papooses. The Indian mutilated the bodies of those who fell beneath his anger, and there were likewise whites who scalped and mutilated the bodies of the Indians they killed. The Indian fired on unprotected white

Neither side was guiltless. And the innocent settlers, especially those heroic families living along the valley of the Minnesota, paid the horrible price for the crimes of both races.