Washington County, Minnesota - Chapter 17: Occuukence8 in Tiik Vicinity, 1881

Chapter 17: Occuukence8 in Tiik Vicinity

Arrival of J. N. Nu'olli'i Marriage of J^iun Wells - Nicollet'* UUcr from Kallv of Si. Antlioii) -Perils of Martin -Chi|.|*<wj) treachery- Sioux Kc

On the second of July 1830, the steamboat Saint Peter landed supplies, and among its passengei's was the distinguished French as¬ tronomer, Jean N. Nicollet (Nicokiy). Major Taliaferro on the twelfth of July, wrote; "Mr. Nicollet, on a visit to the post for scientific research, and at present in my family, has shown me the late work of Henry It. Schoolcraft on the discovery of the source of the Mississippi ; which claim is ridiculous in the extreme." On the twenty-seventh, Nicollet, ascended the Mississippi on a tour of observation.

James Wells, a trader, who afterwards was a member of the legislature, at the house of Oliver Cratte, near the fort, was married on the twelfth of Septeml»er, by Agent Taliaferro, to Jane, a daughter of Duncan Graham. Wells was killed in 1802, by the Sioux, at the time of the massacre in the Minnesota Valley.

Nicollet in September returned from his trip to Leech Lake, and on the twenty-seventh wrote the following to Major Taliaferro the Indian Agent at the fort, which is supposed to be the earliest letter extant written from the site of the city of Minneapolis. As the principal hotel and one of the finest avenues of that city bears his j name it is worthy of preservation. lie spelled his name sometimes Nicoley, and the pronuncia¬ tion in English, would be Nicolay, the same as if written Nicollet in French. The letter shows that he had not mastered the English language :

" St. Anthony's Falls, 27th September, 183G, Deak Fkiend I arrived last evening about dark; all well, nothing lost, nothing broken, happy and a very successful journey. But I done exhausted, and nothing can relieve me, but the pleasure of meeting you again under your hospitable roof, and to see all the friends of the garrison who have been so kind to me.

" This letter is more particularly to give you a very extraordinary tide. Flat Mouth, the chief of Leech Lake and suite, ten in number are with me. The day before yesterday I met them again at Swan river where they detained me one day. I had to bear a new harangue and gave answer. All terminated by their own resolution that they ought to give you the hand, as well as to the Guinns of the Fort (Colonel Davenport. ) I thought it my duty to acquaint you with it be¬ forehand. Peace or war are at stake of the visit they pay you. Please give them a good welcome until I have reported to you and Colonel Davenl>ort all that has taken place during my stay among the Pillagers. But bo assured I have not trespassed and that I have behaved as would have done a good citizen of the U. S. As to Schoolcraft's statement alluding to you, you will have full and complete satisfaction from Flat Mouth himself. In haste, your friend, J. N. Nicoley."

On the seventeenth of March, 1837, there ar¬ rived Martin McLeod, who became a prominent citizen of Minnesota, and the legislature has given his name to a county.

He left the lied River country on snow shoes, with two companions, one a Polamler and the other an Irishman named Hays, and Pierre Bot¬ tineau ns interpreter. Being lost in a violent snow storm the Pole and Irishman ]>crished. He and his guide, Bottineau, lived for a time on the flesh of one of their dogs. After being twentysix days without seeing any one, the survivors reached the trading post of Joseph It. Brown, at Lake Traverse, and from thence they came to the fort.

under the noted and elder Hole-in-the-Day. The Chippeways feigned the wannest friendship, and at dark lay down in the tents by the side of the Sioux, and in the night silently arose and killed them. The occurrence took place at the Chippeway Itiver, about thirty miles from Lac qui Parle, and the next day the Rev. G.II. Pond, the Indian missionary, accompanied by a Sioux, vent out and buried the mutilated and scalpless bodies.

On the second of August old IIole-in-the-Day, and some Ojilnvays, came to the fort. They stopped first at the cabin of Peter Quinn, whose wife was a half-breed Cliippeway, about a mile from the fort.

The missionary, Samuel W. Pond, told the agent that the Sioux, of Lake Calhoun were aroused, and on their way to attack the Cliippeways. The agent quieted them for a time, but two of the relatives of those slain at Lac qui Parle in April, hid themselves near Quinn's house, and as IIole-in-the-l>ay and his associates were pass¬ ing, they fired and killed one Cliippeway and wounded another. Obequette, a Cliippeway from Red Lake, succeded, however, in shooting a Sioux while he wns in the act of scalping his comrade. The Cliippcways were brought within the fort as soon as possible, and at nine o'clock a Sioux was confined in the guard-house ns a hostage.

Notwithstanding the murdered Chippeway had been buried in the graveyard of the fort for safety, an attempt wns made on the part of some of the Sioux, to dig it up. On the evening of the sixth, Major Plympton sent the Chippeways across the river to the east side, and ordered them to go home as soon as possible.

On the twentieth day of June the elder llolein-the-Day arrived from the Upper Mississippi with several hundred Chippeways. Upon their return homeward the Mississippi and Millo Lacs hand encamped the first night at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and some of the Sioux visited them and smoked the pipe of peace.

On the second of July, about sunrise, a son-inlaw of the chief of the Sioux band, at Lake Cal¬ houn, named Meekaw or Badger, was killed and scalped by two Chippeways of the Pillager band, relatives of him who lost his life near Patrick

Quinn's the year before. The excitement was intense among the Sioux, and immediately war parties started in pursuit. lIole-in-the-Day's band was not sought, but the Mille Lacs and Saint Croix Chippeways. The Lake Calhoun Sioux, with those from the villages on the Minnesota, assembled at the Falls of Saint Anthony, and on the morning of the fourth of July, came up with the Mille Lacs Chippeways on Rum River, before sunrise. Not long after the war whoop was raised and the Sioux attacked, killing and wounding ninety.

The Ka)>osia band of Sioux pursued the Saint Croix Chippeways, and on the third of July found them in the Penitentiary ravine at Stillwater, under the influence of whisky. Aitkin, the old trader, was with them. The sight of the Sioux tended to make them sober, but in the fight twenty-one were killed and twenty-nine were wounded.

Whisky, during the year 1839, was freely in¬ troduced, in the face of the law prohibiting it. The first boat of the season, the Ariel, came to the fort on the fourteenth of April, and brought twenty barrels of whisky for Joseph R. Brown, and on the twenty-first of May, the Glaucus brought six barrels of liquor for David Faribault. On the thirtieth of June, some soldiers went to Joseph R. Brown's groggery on the opposite side of the Mississippi, and that night forty -seven were in the guard-house for drunkenness. The demoralization then existing, led to a letter by Surgeon Emerson on duty at the fort, to the Sur¬ geon General of the United States army, in which he writes :

" The wThisky is brought here by citizens who are pouring in upon us and settling themselves on the opposite shore of the Mississippi river, in defiance of our worthy commanding officer, Major J. Plympton, whose authority they set at naught. At this moment there is a citizen named Brown, once a soldier in the Fifth Infantry, who was discharged at this post, while Colonel Snelling commanded, and who has been since employed by the Ameri¬ can Fur Company, actually building on the land marked out by the land officers as the reserve, and within gunshot distance of the fort, a very expensive w hisky shop."

Explorers And Pioneers Of Minnesota Indian Tki1Ie8 In Minnesota At

Bioux or DthkoUh iwoplo-Xeuiini of word* Sioux and DahkiUh-Karly tillafm - Rwia.iic* of Sioux in UJ*-Tha WiDucluyuo-Tlie Ojibwajra or rki|>|Mway*.

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

Sioux Or Da1Ikota1I8

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

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

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

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

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

The French traders, to avoid exciting the atten¬ tion of Indians, while conversing in their pres¬ ence, were accustomed to designate them by names, which would not be recognized.

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

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

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

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

At Oak Grove, on the north side of the river, eight miles above the fort, was (6) Ilay-ya-ta-oton-wan, or Inland Village, so called because they formerly lived at Lake Calkoun. Contigu¬ ous was (0) O-ya-tay-shee-ka, or Bad People, Known as Good Roads Band and (7) the largest village was Tin-ta-ton-wan, Prairie Village ; Shokpay, or Six, was the chief, and is now the site of the town of Shakopee.

Wau-Pay-Ku-Tay

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

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

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

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

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

In February 1855, another treaty was made with them, and that spring they removed to lands on the Blue Earth River. Owing to the panic caused by the outbreak of the Sioux in 1802, Con gress, by a special act, without consulting them, in 1863, removed them from their fields. in Min¬ nesota to the Missouri River, and in the words of a missionary, "they were, like the Sioux, dumped in the desert, one hundred miles above Fort Randall"

Tho Ojibways or Leai>ers, when the French came to Lake Superior, had their chief settlement at Sault St. Marie, and were called by the French Saulteura, and by the Sioux, Ilah-ha-tonwan, Dwellers at the Falls or Leaping Waters.

When I)u Luth erected his trading post at the western extremity of Lake Sui>erior, they had not obtained any foothold in Minnesota, and were constantly at war with their hereditary enemes, the Nadouaysioux. By the middle of the eighteenth century, they had pushed in and occu¬ pied Sandy, Leech, Mille Lacs and other points between Lake Superior and the Mississippi, which had been dwelling places of the Sioux. In 1S20 the principal villages of Ojibways in Minnesota were at Fond du Lac, Leech Lake and Sandy Lake. In 1837 they ceded most of their lands. Since then, other treaties have been made, until in the year 1881, they are confined to a few res¬ ervations, in northern Minnesota and vicinity.

Jesuit Aliteiooi not permanent- pmbylorijn Mi>*i«>n at Mackinaw -Vi* it of Rev. A. Co* and J D. SUtntt to Kurt Smiling Notice of A) on, Hall. au«l Bout well - Kurmolion ol the word Itaaca - Tlie Brother* 1'oml- Arrival of l)r. Willuunion -Preabytei ian Church at Fort Snelling - Mimioii at Lake Harriet - Mount¬ ing for the Dead - Church at Lac-qui jmrlc - Father Huvoox - Mivsiou at Uk« Foki guma - Attack bjr the Sioux - Chi|>|»cw ajr attac k at Fif'a Cye - DimIIi of Hev. Shenuan Hall - Method i»t Miteioii* Hev. S. W. Pond prciurvs a ttivux Grammar and Dictionary Swiaa Freahytenan Mite ion.

Bancroft the distinguished historian, catching the enthusiasm of the narratives of the early Jesuits, depicts, in language which glows, their missions to the Northwest; yet it is erroneous to suppose that the Jesuits exercised any perma¬ nent influence on the Aborigines.

Shea, a devoted member of the Roman Catho¬ lic Church, in his History of American Catholic Missions writes: "In 1080 Father Engnlran was apparently alone at Green Bay, and Pierson at Mackinaw. Of the other missions neither Le- Clerq nor Hennepin, the Recollect writers of the West at this time, make any mention, or in any way allude to their existence." He also says that "Father Menard had projected a Sioux mission ; Marquette, Allouez, Hruilletes, all en¬ tertained hopes of realizing it, and had some intercourse with that nation, but none of them ever succeeded in establishing a mission."

Father Hennepin wrote: " Can it be possible, that, that pretended prodigious amount of savage converts could escape the sight of a multitude of French Canadians who travel every year?

* * * * How comes it to pass that these churches so devout and so numerous, should be invisible, when I passed through so many countries and nations V "

After the American Fur Company was formed, the island of Mackinaw became the residence of the principal ageut for the Northwest, Robert Stuart a Scotchman, and devoted Presbyterian.

In the month of June, 1820, the Rev. Dr. Morse, father of the distinguished inventor of the telegraph, visited and preached at Mackinaw', and in consequence of statements published by him, upon his return, a Presbyterian Missionary Society in the state of New York sent a graduate of Union College, the Rev. W. M. Ferry, father of the present United States Senator from Michi¬ gan, to explore the held. In 1823 he had estab¬ lished a large Ixiarding school conqiosed of children of various tribes, and here some were educated who became wives of men of intelli¬ gence and influence at the capital of Minnesota. After a few years, it was determined by the Mission Board to modify its plans, and in the place of a great central station, to send mission¬ aries among the several tribes to teach and to preach.

In pursuance of this policy, the Rev. Alvan Coe, and J. D. Stevens, then a licentiate who had been engaged in the Mackinaw Mission, made a tour of exploration, and arrived on September 1, 1829, at Fort Snelling. In the journal of Major Lawrence Taliaferro, which is in possession of the Minnesota Historical Society, is the following entry : " The Hev.

Mr. Coe and Stevens reported to be on their way to this post, members of the Presbyterian church looking out for suitable places to make mission¬ ary establishment for the Sioux and Chippew-ays, found schools, and instinct in the arts and agri¬ culture."

The agent, although not at that time a commu¬ nicant of the Church, welcomed these visitors, and afforded them every facility in visiting the Indians. On Sunday, the Gth of September, the Rev. Mr. Coo preached twice in the fort, and the next night held a prayer meeting at the quarters of the commanding ollicer. On tho next Sunday he preached again, and on the 14th, with Mr. Stevens and a hired guide, returned to Mackinaw' by way of the St. Croix river. During this visit the agent offered for a Presbyterian mission the mill which then stood on the site of Minneapolis, and had been erected by the government, as well as

Upon the 30th day of August, 1831, a Macki¬ naw boat about forty feet long arrived at La Pointe, bringing from Mackinaw the principal trader, Mr. Warren, Rev. Sherman Ilall and wife, and Mr. Frederick Ayer, a catechist and teacher.

Mrs. Hall attracted great attention, as she was the first white woman who had visited that region. Sherman Hall was born on April 30, 1801, at Wethersfield, Vermont, and in 1828 graduated at Dartmouth College, and completed his theological studies at Andover, Massachu¬ setts, a few weeks beforo ho journeyed to the Indian coimtry.

His classmate at Dartmouth and Andover, the liev W. T. Boutwell still living near Stillwater, became his yoke-fellow, but remained for a time at Mackinaw, which they reached about the mid¬ dle of July. In June, 1832, Henry R. School¬ craft, tho head of an exploringcxpodition, invited Mr. Boutwell to accompany him to the sources of tho Mississippi.

When the expedition reached Lac la Biclie or Elk Lake, on July 13, 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft, who was not a Latin scholar, asked tho Latin word for truth, and was told "veritas." He then wanted tho word which signified head, and was told "caput." To the astonishment of many, School¬ craft struck oil the first sylable, of the word ver-i-tas and the last sylable of ca-put, and thus coined the word Itasca, which he gave to the lake, and which some modern writers, with all gravity, tell us was the name of a maiden who once dwelt on its banks. Ui>on Mr. Boutwell's return from this expedition he was at first asso¬ ciated with Mr. Ilall in the mission at La Pointe.

In 1833 the mission band which had centered at La Pointe diffused their influence. In Octo¬ ber Rev. Mr. Boutwell went to Leech Lake, Mr. Ayer opened a school at Yellow Lake, Wiscon¬ sin, and Mr. E. F. Ely, now in California, became a teacher at Aitkin's trading post at Sandy Lake.

Sioux Missionaries

sixth of May, 1834, happened to be on a visit to Fort Snelling. While there a steamboat arrived, and among the passengers were two young men, brothers, natives of Washington, Connecticut, Samuel W. nud Gideon II. Pond, who had come, constrained by the love of Christ, and without con¬ ferring with flesh and blood, to try to improve the Sioux.

Samuel, the older brother, the year before, had talked with a liquor seller in Galena, Illinois, who hail come from the Red River country, and the desire was awakened to help the Sioux ; and he wrote to his brother to go with him.

The Rev. Samuel W. Pond still lives at Shakopee, in the old mission house, the first building of sawed lumber erected in the valley of the Minne¬ sota, alx>ve Fort Snelling.

Missions Among T1Ie Sioux A. D.

About this period, a native of South Carolina, a graduate of Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, tho Rev. T. S. Williamson, M. D., who previous to his ordination had been a respectable physi¬ cian in Ohio, was appointed by the American Board of Foreign Missions to visit the Dahkotahs with the view of ascertaining what could be done to introduce Christian instruction. Having made inquiries at Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling, he reported the field was favorable.

The Presbyterian and Congregational Churches, through their joint Missionary Society, api>ointed the following persons to labor in Minnesota : Rev. Thomas S. Williamson, M. I)., missionary and physician; Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary; Alexander Huggins, farmer; and their wives; Miss Sarah Poage, and Lucy Stevens, teachers; who were prevented during the year 1834, by the state of navigation, from entering upon their work.

During the winter of 1834-35, a pious officer of the army exercised a good influence on liis fellow officers and soldiers under his command. In the absence of a chaplain of ordained minis¬ ter, he, like General Havelock, of the British army in India, was accustomed not only to drill the soldiers, but to meet them in bis own quar¬ ters, and reason with them "of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." were hospitably received by the officers of the garrison, the Indian Agent, and Mr. Sibley, Agent of the Company at Mendota, who had been in the country a few months.

On the twenty-seventh of this month the Rev. Dr. Williamson united in marriage at the Fort Lieutenant Edward A. Ogden to Eliza Edna, the daughter of Captain (i. A. Iammis, the first marriage service in which a clergyman officiated in the present State of Minnesota.

On the eleventh of. June a meeting was held at the Fort to organize a Presbyterian Church, sixteen persons who had been communicants, and six who made a profession of faith, one of whom was Lieutenant Ogden, were enrolled as members.

Four elders were elected, among whom were Capt. Gustavus Loomis and Samuel W. Pond. The next day a lecture preparatory to administer¬ ing the communion, was delivered, and on Sun¬ day, the 14th, the first organized church in the Valley of the Upper Mississippi assembled for the first time in one of the Company rooms of the Fort. The services in the morning were conducted by Dr. Williamson. The afternoon service com¬ menced at 2 o'clock. The sermon of Mr. Stevens was upon a most appropriate text, 1st Peter, ii:25 ; " For ye were as slieep going astray, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your stalls." After the discourse, the sacrament of the Lord's supper was administered.

At a meeting of the Session on the thirty-first of July, Rev. J. D. Stevens, missionary, was in¬ vited to preach to the church, " so long as the duties of his mission will permit, and also to pre¬ side at all the meetings of the Session." Captain Gustavus Loomis was elected Stated Clerk of the Session, and they resolved to observe the monthly concert of prayer on the first Monday of each month, for the conversion of the world.

Two points were selected by the missionaries as proper spheres of labor. Air. Stevens and family proceeded to Lake Harriet, and Dr. Wil¬ liamson and family, in June, proceeded to Lac qui Parle.

As there had never been a chaplain at Fort Snelling, the Rev. J. D. Stevens, the missionary at Lake Harriet, preached on Sundays to the Presbyterian church, there, recently organized.

" Yesterday a portion of this band of Indians, who had been some time absent from this village, returned. One of the number (a woman) was informed that a brother of hers had died during her absence. He was not at this village, but with another band, and the information had just reached here. In the evening they set up a most piteous crying, or rather wailing, which con¬ tinued, with some little cessations, during the night. The sister of the deceased brother would repeat, times without numlter, words which may l>e thus translated into English : 1 Come, my brother, I shall see you no more for ever.' The night was extremely cold, the thermometer - standing from ten to twenty below zero. About sunrise, next morning, preparation was made for performing the ceremony of cutting their flesh, in order to give relief to their grief of mind. The snow was removed from the frozen ground over about as large a space as would be require* l to place a small Indian lodge or wigwam. In the centre a very Rmall fire was kindled up, not to give warmth, apparently, but to cause a smoke. The sister of the deceased, who was the chief mourner, came out of her lodge followed by three other women, who repaired to the place prepared. They were all barefooted, and nearly naked. Here they set up a most bitter lamenta¬ tion and crying, mingling their wailings with the words l>efore mentioned. The principal mourner commenced gashing or cutting her ankles and legs up to the knees with a sharp stone, until her legs were covered with gore and flowing blood ; then in like manner her arms, shoulders, and breast. The others cut themselves in the same way, but not so severely. On this poor infatuated woman I presume there were more than a hun¬ dred long deep gashes in the flesh. I saw the operation, and the blood instantly followed the instrument, and flowed down upon the flesh. She appeared frantic with grief. Through the pain of her wounds, the loss of blood, exhaustion of strength by fasting, loud and long-continued and bitter groans, or the extreme cold upon her al¬ most naked and lacerated body, she soon sunk upon the frozen ground, shaking as with a violent fit of the ague, and writhing in apparent agony. 'Surely,' I exclaimed, as I beheld the bloody

A Roman Catholic Missionary

" The little church at the fort begins to mani¬ fest something of a missionary spirit Their con¬ tributions are considerable for so small a number. I hope they will not only be willing to contribute liberally of their substance, but will give them¬ selves, at least some of them, to the missionary work.

" The surgeon of the military post, Dr. Jarvis, has l>een very assiduous in his attentions to us in our sickness, and has veiy generously made a do¬ nation to our board of twenty-five dollars, being the amount of his medical services in our family.

" On the nineteenth instant we commenced a school with six full Indian children, at least so in all their habits, dress, etc.; not one could speak a word of any language but Sioux. The school has since increased to the number of twenty-five. I am now collecting and arranging words for a dic¬ tionary. Mr. Pond is assiduously employed in preparing a small spelling-book, which we may forward next mail for printing.

On the fifteenth of September, 1836, a Presby¬ terian church was organized at Lac-qui-Parle, a branch of that in .and near Port Snelling, and Joseph lienvillc, a mixed blood of great influ¬ ence, became a communicant. He had been trained in Canada by a Homan Catholic priest, but claimed tho right of private judgment. Mr. lienvillo's wifo was tho first pure Dahkotah of whom we have any record that ever joined the Church of Christ. This church has never become extinct, although its members have been neces¬ sarily nomadic. After the treaty of Traverse des Sioux, it was removed to Ilazlewood. Driven from thence by the outbreak of 18(52, it has be¬ came the parent of other churches, in the valley of the upper Missouri, over one of which John Renville, a descendant of the elder at Lac-qui- Parle, is the pastor.

Father Itavoux, recently from France, a sin¬ cere and earnest priest of tho Church of Rome, came to Mendota in the autumn of 1841, and after a brief sojourn with the Rev. L. Galtier, who had erected Saint Paul's chapel, which has given the name of Saint Paul to the capital of Minnesota, he ascended tho Minnesota River and visited Lac-qui-Parle.

Bishop Loras, of Dubuque, wrote the next year of his visit as follows : " Our young missionary, M. Itavoux, passed the winter on the banks of Lac-qui-Parle, without any other support than Providence, without any other means of conver¬ sion than a burning zeal, he has wrought in the space of six months, a happy revolution among the Sioux. From the time of his arrival he has lieen occupied night and day in the study of their language. ***** When he instructs the savages, he speaks to them with so much fire whilst showing them a large copper crucifix which he carries on his breast, that he makes the strong¬ est impression upon them."

The impression, however was evanescent, and he soon retired from the field, and no more efforts were made in this direction by the Church of Rome. Tills young Mr. Ravoux is now the highly respected vicar of the Roman Catholic diocese of Minnesota, and justly esteemed for his simplicity and unobtrn8iveness.

Pokeguma is one of the " Mille Lacs," or thou¬ sand beautiful lakes for which Minnesota is re¬ markable. It is about four or five miles in extent , and a mile or more in width.

In the year 1836, missionaries came to reside among the Ojibways and Pokeguma, to promote their temporal and spiritual welfare. Their mis¬ sion house was built on the east side of the lake ; but the Indian village was on an island not far from the shore.

In a letter written in 1837, we find the fol¬ lowing: "The young women and girls now make, mend, wash, and iron after our man¬ ner. The men have learned to build log houses, drive team, plough, hoe, and handle an American axe with some skill in cutting large trees, the size of which, two years ago, would have afforded them a sufficient reason why they should not med¬ dle with them."

In May, 1841, Jeremiah Russell, who was In¬ dian farmer, sent two Chippeways, accompanied by Elam Greeley, of Stillwater, to the Falls of Saint Croix for supplies. On Saturday, the fifteenth of the month they arrived there, and the next clay a steamboat came up with the goods. The captain said a war party of Sioux, headed by Little Crow, was advancing, and the two Chippeways prepared to go back and were their friends.

They had hardly left the Falls, on their re¬ turn, lwfore they saw a party of Dahkotahs. The sentinel of the enemy had not noticed the ap¬ proach of the young men. In the twinkling of an eye, these two young Ojibways raised their guns, fired, and killed two of Little Crow's sons. The discharge of the guns revealed to a sentinel, that an enemy was near, and as the Ojibways were retreating, he fired, and mortally wounded one of the two.

According to custom, the corpses of the chief's sons were dressed, and then set up with their faces towards the country of their ancient ene¬ mies. The wounded Ojibway was horribly mangled by the infuriated party, and his limbs strewn about in every direction. His scalped head was placed in a kettle, and suspended in front of the two Dahkotah corpses.

It was not till Friday, the twenty-first of May, that the death of one of the young Ojibways sent by Mr. Russell, to the Falls of Saint Croix, was known at 1'okeguma.

Mr. Russell on the next Sunday, accompanied by Captain William Ilolcomb and a half-breed, went to the mission station to attend a religious service, and while crossing the lake in returning, the half-breed said that it was rumored that the Sioux were approaching. On Monday, the twen¬ ty-fourth, three young men left in a canoe to go to the west shore of the lake, and from thence to Mille Lacs, to give intelligence to the Ojibways there, of the skirmish that had already occurred. They took with them two Indian girls, about twelve years of age, who were pupils of the mis¬ sion school, for the purpose of bringing the canoe back to the island. Just as the three were land¬ ing, twenty or thirty Dahkotah warriors, with a war whoop emerged from their concealment be¬ hind the trees, and fired into the canoe. The young men instantly sprang into the water, which

The little girls, in their fright, waded into the lake ; but were pursued. Their parents upon the island, heard the death cries of their children. Some of the Indians around the mission-house jumped into their canoes and gained the island. Others went into some fortified log huts. The attack uixm the canoe, it was afterwards learned, was premature. The party upon that side of the lake were ordered not to fire, until the parly stationed in the woods near the mission began.

There were in all one hundred and eleven Dahkotah warriors, and all the fight was in the vicinity of the mission-house, and the Ojibways mostly engaged in it were those who had been under religious instruction. The rest were upon the island.

The fathers of the murdered girls, burning for revenge, left the island in a canoe, and drawing it up on the shore, hid behind it, and iirnl upon the Dahkotahs and killed one. The Dahkotahs advancing upon them, they were obliged to escape. The canoe was now launched. One lay on his back in the bottom; the other plunged into the water, and, holding the canoe with one hand, and swimming with the other, he towed his friend out of danger. The Dahkotahs, in¬ furiated at their escape, fired volley after volley at the swimmer, but he esea|>ed the balls by putting bis head under water whenever he saw them take aim, and wailing till he heard the discharge, he would then look up and breathe.

After a fight of two hours, the Dahkotahs re¬ treated, with a loss of two men. At the request of the parents, Mr. E. F. Ely, from whose notes the writer has obtained these fiicts, be¬ ing at that time a teacher at the mission, went across the lake, with two of his friends, to gather the remains of his murdered pupils. He found the corpses on the shore. The heads cut off and scalped, with a tomahawk buried in the brains of each, were set up in the sand near the bodies. The bodies were pierced in the breast, and tbe right arm of one was taken away. Re¬ moving the tomahawks, the lnxlies were brought back to the island, and in the afternoon were buried in accordance with the simple but solemn rites of the Church of Christ, by members of the mission.

Sioux Missionaries Before The Treaties

The sequel to this story is soon told. The In¬ dians of Pokeguma, after the fight, deserted their village, and went to reside with their countrymen near Lake Superior.

In July of the following year, 1842, a war party was formed at Fond du Lac, about forty hi num¬ ber, and proceeded towards the Dahkotah country. Sneaking, as none but Indians can, they arrived unnoticed at the little settlement below Saint Paul, commonly called "Pig's Eye," which is opposite to what was Kaposia, or Little Crow's village. Finding an Indian woman at work in the garden of her husband, a Canadian, by the name of Gamelle, they killed her ; also another woman, with her infant, whose head was cut off. The Dahkotalis, on the opposite side, were mostly intoxicated ; and, flying across in their canoes but half prepared, they were worsted in the en¬ counter. They lost thirteen warriors, and one of their number, known as the Dancer, the Ojibways are said to have skinned.

In a little while Rev. Mr. Boutwell removed to the vicinity of Stillwater, and the missionaries, Ayer and Spencer, went to Red Lake and other points in Minnesota.

Metitodist M18Sion8

In 1837 the Rev. A. Brunson commenced a Methodist mission at Kaposia, about four miles below, and opposite Saint Paul. It was afterwards removed across the river to Red Rock. lie was assisted by the Rev. Thomas W. Pope, and the latter was succeeded by the Rev. J. Holton.

At the stations the Dahkotah language was dil¬ igently studied. Rev. 8. W. Pond had prepared a dictionary of three thousand words, and also a small grammar. The Rev. 8. R. Riggs, who joined the mission in 1837, in a letter dated February 24, 1841, writes: "Last summer after returning from Fort Snelling, T spent five weeks in copying again* the Sioux Vocabulary which we had collected and arranged at this sta¬ tion. It contained then about 6500 words, not including the various forms of the verbs. Since that time, the words collected by Dr. Williamson and myself, have, I presume, increased the num¬ ber to six thousand. ***** In this con¬ nection, I may mention that during the winter of 1839-40, Mrs. Riggs, with some assistance, wrote an English and Sioux vocabulary containing about three thousand words. One ot Mr. Ren¬ ville's sons and three of his daughters are en¬ gaged in copying. In committing the grammati¬ cal principles of the language to writing, we have done something at this station, but more has been done by Mr. 8. W. Pond."

8teadily the number of Indian missionaries increased, and in 1851, before the lands of the Dahkotalis west of the Mississippi were ceded to the whites, they were disposed as follows by the Dahkotah Presbytery.

The Rev. Daniel Gavin, the Swiss Presbyte¬ rian Missionary, spent the winter of 1839 in Lacqui-Parle and was afterwards married to a niece of the Rev. J. D. Stevens, of the Lake Harriet Mission. Air. Stevens became the farmer and teacher of the Wapashaw band, and the tint white man who lived where the city of Winona has been built. Another missionary from Switz¬ erland, the Rev. Air. Denton, married a Aliss Skinner, formerly of the Mackinaw mission. During a portion of the year 1839 these Swiss - missionaries lived with the American mission¬ aries at camp Cold Water near Fort Snelling, but their chief field of labor was at Red Wing.

Origin of tho name Saint Croix - Du Luth, lint Explonr - French Pkat on Um 80. Croix - rill, an aarljr pionacr - Early aottlcn at faint Croix Kalla - Pint woman than - Marina Bettlamant - Joaaph R. Brown 'a town aita - Saint Croix County ort*nli*d - Proprietor* of Still water - A deaj Negro woman - Pig'a Eye, origin of name - Kite of Saint Paul - Dr Williaaaaon aecuree flr>t acbool teacher for Saint Paul - Dear ript ion of Irat aehool room - Saint Croix County r*«rganiiad - Rav. W. T. Boutwoll, pioneer clergyman.

The Saint Croix river, according to Le Sueur, named after a Frenchman who was drowned at its mouth, was one of the earliest throughfares from Lake Superior to the Mississippi. The first white man who directed canoes upon its waters was Du Luth, who had in 1679 explored Minne¬ sota. He thus describes his tour in a letter, first published by Ilarvisse : " In June, 1680, not be¬ ing satisfied, with having made my discovery by land, I took two canoes, with an Indian who was my interpreter, and four Frenchmen, to seek means to make it by water. With this view I entered a river which empties eight leagues from the extremity of Lake Superior, on the south side, where, after having cut some trees and broken about a hundred beaver dams, I readied the upper waters of the said river, and then I made a portage of half a league to reach a lake, the outlet of which fell into a very fine river, which took me down into the Mississippi. There I learned from eight cabins of Nadouecioux that the Rev. Father Louis Hennepin, -Recollect, now at the convent of Saint Germain, with two other Frenchmen had been robbed, and earned off as slaves for more than three hundred leagues by the Nadouecioux themselves."

He then relates how be left two Frenchmen with his goods, and went with his interpreter and two Frenchmen in a canoe down the Mississippi, and after two days and two nights, found Henne¬ pin, Accault and Augelle. He told Hennepin that he must return with him through the country of the Fox tribe, and writes : " I preferred to re¬ trace my steps, manifesting to them [the Sioux] the just indignation I felt against them, rather than to remain after the violence they had done

After this, the Saint Croix river liecame a chan¬ nel for commerce, and Beilin writes, that before 1755, the French had erected a fort forty leagues from its mouth and twenty from Lake Superior.

The pine forests between the Saint Croix and Minnesota had been for several years a tempta¬ tion to energetic men. As early as November, 1836, a Mr. Pitt went with a boat and a party of men to tho Falls of Saint Croix to cut pine tim¬ ber, with the consent of the Chippeways hut the dissent of the United States authorities.

In 1 837 while the treaty was being made by Com¬ missioners Dodge and Smith at Fort Snelling, on one Sunday Franklin Steele, Dr. Fitch, Jeremiah Russell, and a Mr. Maginnis left Fort Snelling for the Falls of Saint Croix in a birch bark canoe paddled by eight men, and reached that point about noon on Monday and commenced a log cabin. Steele and Maginnis remaiiied here, while the others, dividing into two parties, one under Fitch, and the other under Russell, search¬ ed for pine land. The first stopped at Sun Rise, while Russel went on to the Snake River. About the same tiino Robbinet and Jesse B. Taylor came to the Falls in the interest of B. F. Baker who had a stone trading house near Fort Snelling, since destroyed by fire. On the fifteenth of July, 1838, the Palmyra, Capt. Holland, arrived at the Fort, with the official notice of the ratifica¬ tion of the treaties ceding the lands between the Saint Croix and Mississippi.

She had on hoard C. A. Tuttle, L. W. Stratton and others, with the machinery for the projected mills of the Northwest Lumber Company at the Falls of Saint Croix, and reached that point on the seventeenth, the first steamboat to disturb the waters above Lake Saint Croix. The steamer Gypsy came to the fort on the twenty-first of

Women In The Valley Of The Saint Croix

October, with goods for the Chippeways, and was chartered for four hundred and fifty dollars, to carry them up to the Falls of Saint Croix. In passing through the lake, the boat grounded near a projected town called Stambaughville, after S. C. Stambaugh, the sutler at the fort. On the afternoon of the 26th, Uie goods were landed, as stipulated.

The agent of the Improvement Company at the falls was Washington Libbey, who left in the fall of 1888, and was succeeded by Jeremiah Russell, Stratton acting as millwright in place of Calvin T uttle. On the twelfth of December, Russell and Stratton walked down the river, cut the first tree and built a cabin at Marine, and sold their claim.

The first women at the Falls of Saint Croix were a Mrs. Orr, Mrs. Sackett, and the daughter of a Mr. Young. During the winter of 1838-0, Jere¬ miah Russell married a daughter of a respectable and gentlemanly trader, Charles II. Oakes.

Among the first preachers were the Rev. W. T. Boutwell and Mr. Seymour, of the Cliippeway Mission at Pokeguma. The Rev. A. Brunson, of Prairie du Chien, who visited this region in 1838, wrote that at the mouth of Snake River he found Franklin Steele, with twenty-five or thirty men, cutting timber for a mill, and when ho offered to preach Mr. Steele gave a cordial assent.

On the sixteenth of August, Mr. Steele, Living¬ ston, and othera,left the Falls of Saint Croix in a barge, and went around to Fort Snelling.

The steamboat Fayette about the middle of May, 1839, landed sutlers' stores at Fort Snell¬ ing and then proceeded with several persons of intelligence to the Saint Croix river, who settled at Marine.

The place was called after Marine in Madison county, Illinois, where the company, consisting of Judd, Ilone and others, was formed to build a saw mill in the Saint Croix Valley. The mill at Marine commenced to saw lumber, on August 24, 1839, the first in Minnesota.

Joseph R. Brown, who since 1838, bad lived at Chan Wakan, on the west side of Grey Cloud Island, this year made a claim near the upper end of the city of Stillwater, which he allied Dahkotah, and was the first to raft lumber down the Saint Croix, as well as the first to represent the citizens of the valley in the legislature of Wisconsin.

Until the year 1841, the jurisdiction of Craw¬ ford county, Wisconsin, extended over the delta of country between the Saint Croix and Missis¬ sippi. Joseph R. Brown, having been elected as representative of the county, in the territorial legislature of Wisconsin, succeeded in obtaining the passage of an act on November twentieth, 1841, organizing the county of Saint Croix, with Dahkotah designated as the county seat.

At the time prescribed for holding a court in the new county, it is said that the judge of the district arrived, and to his surprise, found a claim cabin occupied by a Frenchman. Speedily retreating, he never came again, and judicial proceedings for Saint Croix county ended for several years. Phineas Lawrence was the first sheriff of this county.

On the tenth of October, 1843, was commenced a settlement which has become the town of Still¬ water. The names of the proprietors were John McKusick from Maine, Calvin Leach from Ver¬ mont, Elam Greeley from Maine, and Elias McKean from Pennsylvania. They immediately commenced the erection of a sawmill.

John II. Fonda, elected om the twenty-second of September, ns coroner of Crawford county, Wisconsin, asserts that he was once notified that a dead body was lying in the water opposite Pig's Eye slough, and immediately proceeded to the spot, and on taking it out, recognized it as the body of a negro woman belonging to a certain captain of the United States army then at Fort Crawford. The body was cruelly cut nnd bruised, but no one appearing to recognise it, a verdict of " Found dead," was rendered, and the corpse was buried. 8oon after, it came to light that the woman was whipped to death, and thrown into the river during the night.

The year that the Dahkotahs ceded their lands east of the Mississippi, a Canadian Frenchman by the name of Parrant, the ideal of an Indian whisky seller, erected a shanty in what is now the city of Saint Paul. Ignorant and overbear¬ ing he loved money more than his own soul. Destitute of one eye, and the other resembling that of a pig, he was a good representative of Caliban. Some one writing from his groggery designated it as " Pig's Eye." The reply to the letter was directed in good faith to" Pig's Eye"

" Edmund Brisette, a clerkly Frenchman for those days, who lives, or did live a little while ago, on Lake Harriet, was one day seated at a table in Parrant's cabin, with pen and paper about to write a letter for Parrant (for Parrant, like Charlemagre, could not write) to a friend of the latter in Canada. The question of geog¬ raphy puzzled Brissette at the outset of the epistle; where should he date a letter from a place without a name ? lie looked up inquir¬ ingly to Parrant, and met the dead, cold glare of the Pig's Eye lixed ui>on him, with an irresist¬ ible suggestiveness that was inspiration to Brisette."

In 1842, the late Henry Jackson, of Mahkahto, settled at the same spot, and erected the first store on the height just above the lower landing, Rol)erts and Simpson followred, and opened small Indian trading shops. In 1840, the site of Saint Paul was chielly occupied by a few shanties owned by " certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," who sold rum to the soldier and Indian. It was despised by all decent white men, and known to the Dahkotahs by an expression in their tongue which means, the place where they sell minne-wakan [supernatural water].

The chief of the Kaposiabaml in 1840, was shot by his own brother in a drunken revel, but sur¬ viving the wound, and apparently alarmed at the deterioration under the infiuence of the modern harpies at Saint Paul, w'entto Mr. Bruce, Indian Agent, at Fort Snelling, and requested a mis¬ sionary. The Indian Agent in his report to gov¬ ernment, says :

"The chief of the Little Crow's band, who re¬ sides below this place (Fort Snelling) about nine miles, in the immediate neighbourhood of the whiskey dealers, has requested to have a school established at his village. lie says they are de¬ termined to reform, and for the future, will try to do better. I wrote to Doctor Williamson soon after the request was made, desiring him to take charge of the school. He has had charge of the mission school at Lac qui Parle for some years; is well qualified, and is an excellent physician." practices, he felt a kindly interest in the whites of Pig's Eye, which place was now beginning to be called, after a little log chapel which had been erected at the suggestion of ltev. L. (ialtier, and called Saint Paul's. Though a missionary among the Dahkotahs, he was the first to take steps to promote the education of the whites and halfbreeds of Minnesota. In the year 1847, he wrote to ex-Governor Slade, President of the National Popular Education Society, in relation to the condition of what has subsequently become the capital of the shite.

In accordance with his request, Miss II. E. Bishop came to his mission-house at Kaposia, and, after a short time, was introduced by him to the citizens of Saint Paul. The first schoolhouse in Minnesota besides those connected with the Indian missions, stood near the site of the old Brick Presbyterian church, corner of Saint Peter and Third street, and is thus descrilied by the teacher :

-'The school was commenced in a little log hovel, covered with bark, and chinked with mud, previously used as a blacksmith shop. On three sides of the interior of this humble log cabin, pegs were driven into the logs, upon which boards were laid for seats. Another seat was made by placing one end of a plank between the cracks of the logs, and the other upon a chair. This was for visitors. A rickety cross-legged table in the centre, and a hen's nest in one corner, com¬ pleted the furniture."

Saint Croix county, in the year 1847, was de¬ tached from Crawford county, Wisconsin, and reorganized for judicial purposes, and Stillwater made the county seat. In the month of June the United States District Court held its session in the store-room of Mr. John McKusick ; Judge Charles Dunn presiding. A large number of lumbermen hail been attracted by the pineries in the upper portion of the valley of Saint Croix, and Stillwater was looked upon as the center of the lumbering interest.

The Rev. Mr. Boutwell, feeling that he could be more useful, left the Ojibways, and took up his residence near Stillwater, preaching to the lumbermen at the Falls of Saint Croix, Marine Mills, Stillwater, and Cottage Grove. In a letter speaking of Stillwater, he says, " Here is a little village sprung up like a gourd, but whether it is to perish as soon, God only knows."

Names Proposed For Minnesota Territory

WlMMaain Slat* Boaodaric* - rint Bill (or Um OrjaoltaUao of Nlnnaaota Terri¬ tory, A. D. !M6 - Chanc* rf Wtoooraln Boaadary - Manorial of Saint Cfoti elUa*na - Tarioua bum* propeMd for Uw Now Torrllory - Ooanatto* at Stillwator - H. H. BiUojr oloeUd Dola«aU to Conjrooa. - Derlraltoo of word Minneaota.

Threo years elapsed from the time that the territory of Minnesota was proposed in Congress, to the final passage of the organic act. On the sixth of August, 1846, an act was passed by Con¬ gress authorizing the citizens of Wisconsin Ter¬ ritory to frame a constitution and form a state government. The act fixed the Saint Louis river to the rapids, from thence south to the Saint Croix, and thence down that river to its junction with the Mississippi, as the western bonndary.

On the twenty -third of December, 1846, the delegate from Wisconsin, Morgan L. Martin, in¬ troduced a bill in Congress for the organization of a territory of Minnesota. This bill made its western boundary the Sioux and Red River of the North. On the third of March, 1847, per¬ mission was granted to Wisconsin to change her boundary, so that the western limit would pro¬ ceed due south from the first rapids of the Saint Louis river, and fifteen miles east of the most easterly point of Lake Saint Croix, thence to the Mississippi.

A number in the constitutional convention of Wisconsin, were anxious that Rum river should be a part of her western boundary, while citizens of the valley of the Saint Croix were desirous that the Chippeway river should be the limit of Wisconsin. The citizens of Wisconsin Territory, in the valley of the Saint Croix, and about Fort Snelling, wished to be included in the projected new territory, and on the twenty-eighth of March, 1848, a memorial signed by II. II. Sibley, Henry M. Rice, Franklin Steele, William It. Marshall, and others, was presented to Congress, remon¬ strating against the proposition before the. con¬ vention to make Rum river a part of the bound¬ ary line of the contemplated state of Wisconsin.

On the twenty-ninth of May, 1848, the act to admit Wisconsin changed the boundary line to the present, and as first defined in the enabling act of 1846. After the bill of Mr. Martin was introduced into the House of Representatives in 1846 it was referred to the Committee on Terri¬ tories, of which Mr. Douglas was chairman. On the twentieth of January, 1847, he reported in favor of the proposed territory witji the name of Itasca. On the seventeenth of February, be¬ fore the bill passed the House, a discussion arose in relation to the proposed name. Mr. Wintlirop of Massachusetts proposed Chippewa as a substitute, alleging that this tribe was the prin¬ cipal in the proposed territory, which was not correct. Mr. J. Thompson of Mississippi disliked all Indian names, and hoped the territory would be called Jackson. Mr. Houston of Delaware thought that there ought to be one territory named after the " Father of his country," and proposed Washington. All of the names pro¬ posed were rejected, and the name hi the original bill inserted. On the last day of the session, March third, the bill was called up in the Senate and laid on the table.

When Wisconsin became a state the query arose whether the old territorial government did not continue in force west of the Saint Croix river. The first meeting on the subject of claim¬ ing territorial privileges was held in the building at Saint Paul, known as Jackson's store, near the corner .of Bench and Jackson streets, on the bluff. This meeting was held in July, and a convention was proposed to consider their posi¬ tion. The first public meeting was held at Still¬ water on August fourth, and Messrs. Ste.ele and Sibley were the only persons present from the west side of the Mississippi. This meeting is¬ sued a call for a general convention to take steps to secure an early territorial organization, to assemble on the twenty-sixth of the month at the same place. Sixty-two delegates answered the call, and among those present, were W. D. Phillips, J. W. Bass, A. Larpenteur, J. M. Boal, and others from Saint Paul. To the convention a letter was presented from Mr. Catlin, who claimed to be acting governor, giving his opinion that the Wisconsin territorial organization was still in force. The meeting also appointed Mr. Sibley to visit Washington and represent their views; but the lion. John II. Tweedy having resigned his office of delegate to Congress on September eighteenth, 1848, Mr. Catlin, who had made Stillwater a temporary residence, on the ninth of Octol)er issued a proclamation ordering a special election at Stillwater on the thirtieth, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation. At this election Henry II. Sibley was elected as delegate of .the citizens of the remaining portion of Wisconsin Territory. His credentials were presented to the House of Bepresentatives, and the committee to whom the matter was referred presented a majority and minority report; but the resolution introduced by the majority passed and Mr. Sibley took his seat as a delegate from Wisconsin Territory on the fifteenth of January, 1849.

Mr. H. M. Rice, and other gentlemen, visited Washington during the winter, and, uniting with Mr. Sibley, used all their energies to obtain the organization of a new territory.

Mr. Sibley, in an interesting communication to the Minnesota Historical Society, writes : " When my credentials as Delegate, were presented by Hon. James Wilson, of New Hampshire, to the I

House of Representatives, there was some curi¬ osity manifested among the members, to see what kind of a person had been elected to represent the distant and wild territory claiming representation in Congress. I was told by a New England mem¬ ber with whom I became subsequently quite inti¬ mate, that there was some disappointment when I made my appearance, for it was expected that the delegate from this remote region would make his debut, if not in full Indian costume, at least, with some peculiarities of dress and mamieis, characteristic of the rude and semi-civilized i>eople who had sent him to the Capitol."

The territory of Minnesota was named after the largest tributary of the Mississippi within its limits. The Sioux call the Missouri Minneshosliay, muddy water, but the stream after which this region is named, Minne-sota. Some say that Sota means clear ; others, turbid ; Schoolcraft, bluish green. Nicollet wrote. "The adjective Sotah is of difficult translation. The Canadians translated it by a pretty equivalent word, brouille, IHuhaps more properly rendered into English by blear. I have entered upon this explanation be cause the word really means neither clear nor turbid, as some authors liave asserted, its true meaning l>eing found in the Sioux expression Ishtah-sotah, blear-eyed." From the fact that the word signifies neither blue nor white, but the peculiar appearance of the sky at certain times, by some, Minnesota has lieen defined to mean the sky tinted water, which is certainly poetic, and the late Rev. Gideon II. Fond thought quite correct.