Eau Claire County, Wisconsin - Chapter 5: Tpie Red Man, 1914

Chapter 5: Tpie Red Man

Etlmologists are slowly agreeing that the North American Iridiaa existed on this continent before 1000 A. D., that he is of Asiatic origin and that all the families found here are inter-related and originally came from one source. Historical evidences are multiplying as to the truth of these assertions. In 1615, Champlain, visiting the Huron tribe of the St. Lawrence valley, drew a map of the country which they said lay to the west of their land. They told him of a lake called Kitchi Gummi, which he named Grand Lac. This lake was visited by Allouez in 1666 and called Lake Tracy. Hennepin saw it in 1680 and called it Lake Conde. Schoolcraft was upon its waters in 1819 and left it with the title Lake Algona. It is now known as Lake Superior; and Champlain's rough map is one of the first evidences given to white men, not only of its existence, but of the great stretch of land south and west of its shores, known now as the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The French explorers touched the northern belt of what is now called the Northwest many decades before others of their kind penetrated the land since divided into Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. Marquette and Joliet did not ascend the Mississippi to the mouth of the Illinois until 1673. It was 1679 before Port Crevecoeur Avas built on the Illinois river. The ancient white villages of Kaskaskia, Cahoki and Prairie du Rocher were not set on the banks of the Mississippi until after 1683. But it is due to the honor of France that during the years of the seventeenth century, when England was content to upbuild her colonies on the Atlantic coast, when Spain, by moral law, was being eliminated from the northern haLC of the western continent, the fleur de lis should be implanted in what is now the center of western thought, western activity and agricultural development of the United States of America. Two separate movements of Gallic explorers - one along the shore lines of Lake Superior and west- ward to the Mississippi; the other via Lake Michigan to what has since become the Pox, Rock and Wisconsin rivers - confronted at the outset a remarkable group of Indian families. The dominion of these families extended from the Platte and Missouri rivers on the west to Lake Superior and Lake Michigan on the east; from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi, on the south, to the Lake of the Woods and what is now the Canadian border, on the north. Within this area, which amounted to nearly 480,000 square miles, or one-ninth of the total area of the United States, to the time of the late Spanish-American War, were living about 500,000 red men. The census taker was unknown and the figures can only be estimated from ancient memoranda and the traditions of the Indians themselves. But today, so swift are the mutations of Time, in this same area there are living, sinew of a great commonwealth, 12,000,000 white men and women and their children, while of the Indians, lords of the land 250 years ago, but 48,800 are now to be found there. Three great Indian families occupied this Northwestern prairie and timber land when the French first came. The most important of these, so far as history is concerned, was the Siouan, or Sioux, composed of twelve tribes. Second in importance M'as the family of the Algonquins, composed of eleven tribes. The third, and the one to be first extinguished in the wars waged between the trio, was the Iroquois, who occupied the Great Lakes. All history, as to the relation between the white men and the Northwestern Indians during the seventeenth century, bears evidence that they acted with much fairness toward each other. It was not until after the advent of the English, who disputed the right to the territory with the French, and then the incoming of the Americans, who drove out French, English and Indians, that the record of savage warfare begins - stained with powder and blood from the knife of massacre. It is useless to say which was wrong. Since the formation of the United States Government, the American people have paid to the Indians an average of $1,000,000 per year for the land taken. The Indian, in his turn, when treated with the same honesty, the same decency, that characterizes the ordinary relations of two white citizens, responded with a loyalty equal to that of his white brother. Each race, as temptation came, was treacherous, bloodthirsty, cruel. Each paid the penalty for its wrongdoing. But that the earliest settlers recognized the Indian as an equal is evidenced by the first treaty ever made with a tribe (the Delawares) in which they were conceded to be citizens entitled to representation in Congress. Unfortunately, this good intent never passed in etl'ect beyond the writing in the treaty. The land was fair to look upon when Joliet, Marquette and Hennepin came with the sign of the cross to make converts of the aboriginals. But the narratives of the explorers into the Northwest between 1600 and 1700 contained no reference to the marvelous bread-giving capacity of the land they found, no hint that a granary of the world had been found - only descriptions of half-explored waterways, plentiful game, unfound gold and silver and diamond mines. They were eager to take possession for the honor of France and for the financial gain that might come to them. Little did they know of greater blessing in the earth than that found in silver and gold, of the rich quality of soil which would produce luxuriant vegetation, of the water power and the pine forests that would draw hither the might and the money of the east for its development.

The Chippewa And Sioux Indians

When Jean Nicolet was sent by Champlain, governor of New France, to find the long-sought western route to China, he found on the shores of Green Bay the Menomonies, at the head of the bay the Winnebagoes, going on to the Fox river he met the Mascoutens, the warlike Sacs and Foxes, and still further west were the Kickapoos. Along the shores of Lake Superior he found the Chippewas, and to the southwest of these, on the St. Croix, were the Sioux. Powell said of this tribe, "By reason of their superior numbers the Sioux have always assumed, if not exercised, the lordship over all the neighboring tribes with the exception of the OjibAva (Chippewa), who, having acquired fii-earms before the Sioux, were enabled to drive the latter from the headwaters of the Mississippi, and were steadily pressing them westward when stopped by the intervention of the United States Government. In warlike character the Sioux are second only to the Cheyenne and have an air of proud superiority rather unusual with Indians. The Chippewas were called by the French missionaries the bravest, most warlike, and at the same time the noblest and most manly of all the tribes. They were derived from the Algonquin race and the Jesuits spoke of the Chippewa language as the most refined and complete of any Indian tongue. In 1642 the Sioux possessed all the territory south of Lake Superior and west of Lakes Huron and Michigan, south as far as Milwaukee and west even beyond the Missouri river. About 1670 the Chippewas began their inroads upon the lands of the Sioux on the north and east, fighting their way south and west. The Sioux struggled to retain their hunting grounds, but were finally crowded back to the St. Croix. From that time there was unremitting war between the two great nations for a century or more, and their traditions tell of many bloody battles fought beneath the somber pines of the north. In the Chippewa tongue, Sioux means "the enemy." Meantime the Winnebagoes, a migratory tribe from Mexico to escape the Spaniards, came among the Sioux, who gave them lands and refuge. But Sacs and Foxes came from the south, took possession of the ground and were in turn crowded out by the Menomonies. In consequence of these predatory wars, the claims of the several nations to their respective territories became very complicated and caused incessant strife. To prevent this as much as possible the United States Government, in 1825, authorized a general treaty to be held at Prairie du Chien between all tribes within a district of 500 miles each way. This was signed on the part of the government by Generals William Clark and Lewis Cass, on the part of the Sioux by Wabashaw, Red Wing, Little Crow and twenty-three other chiefs and braves, and for the Chippewas by Hole-in-the-Day and forty chiefs. By this treaty the eastern boundary of the Sioux began opposite the mouth of the Iowa river on the Mississippi, runs back two or three miles to the bluffs, following the bluffs to Bad-Axe, and crossing to Black river, from which point the line described is the boundary between the Sioux and the Winnebagoes and extends nearly north to a point on the Chippewa river, half a day's march from Chippewa Falls. From this point on the Chippewa river, which was fixed on the mouth of Mud creek (near Rumsey's Landing), the line becomes the boundary between the Sioux and Chippewas and runs to the Red Cedar just below the Falls, thence to the St. Croix river at the Standing Cedar, about a day's paddle in a canoe above the lake on that river ; thence passing between two lakes called by the Chippewas "Green Lake" and by the Sioux "the lake they bury the eagles in," thence to the "Standing Cedar" that the Sioux split, thence to the mouth of Rum river on the Mississippi. The boundary line between the Chippewas and Winnebagoes was also defined as beginning at the same point (half a day's march below the Falls), thence to the source of the Eau Claire, thence south to Black river, thence to a place where the woods project into the meadows, and thence to the Plover Portage of the Wisconsin. Thus we see that the boundaries of the Sioux, Chippewas and Winnebagoes were brought to a point at the famous

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On July 29, 1837, a treaty was signed at Fort Snelling between Governor Dodge on the part of the government and the Chippewa chiefs, ceding a portion of these lands to the United States. On September 29 of the same year, at "Washington, D. C, a treaty was signed by Joel R. Poinsett on the part of the United States and Big Thunder and twenty other chiefs of the Sioux, at which the latter ceded to the United States their lands east of the Mississippi and all their islands in said river.

On October 4, 1842, at La Poiute, Robert Stewart on the part of the United States and Po-go-ne-ge-shik, with forty other Chippewa chiefs, held a treaty at which all the Chippewa lands in Wisconsin were ceded to the United States. But after the cession of the last named lands several bands of Chippewas became dissatisfied with the treaty and with the reservation set apart for them above Sand Lake, in Minnesota, and begged so earnestly to come back to Wisconsin that the government, in 1854, gave them several townships and half townships of the land on Court Oreilles and some other branches of the Chippewa, and established an agency there for the distribution of part of the annuities promised them. Guerrilla fighting had been the common mode of settling any difference of opinion among the tribes hitherto, but governmental interference had accomplished much and soothing measures Avere now in vogue. In 1841, as related by the historian Randall, "a large party of Sioux came up by invitation of the Chippewas to Eau Claire^ where they held a friendly meeting and smoked the pipe of peace. This was repeated in October, 1846, when 150 braves, all mounted on ponies, came up to the Falls, thence to Chippewa City, and held a treaty of peace with their hereditary foes. Among them were Wabashaw, Red Bird and Big Thunder. The writer was present, heard part of the reception address, and afterward learned from Ambrose - one of the interpreters - the substance of what was said on both sides. The Sioux remained mounted on their ponies during the entire interview. The Chippewa chiefs and braves were painted after the mode indicating peace and the head chief advanced with a large red pipe, made of stone from Pipe-stone mountain, in one hand, and in the other a hatchet, which was thrown with such force as to partly bury it in the earth ; then taking a whiff or two from the pipe he turned the stem toward the Sioux chief, presenting it for his acceptance. All this was done in silence; the Sioux chief re- ceived the emblem of peace, also in silence, smoked a few whiffs, bowed respectfully as he handed the pipe, reined his pony one step to the right, and waited the next salutation, the substance of which was, "Friends, we are glad you have come, we are anxious to make peace with the Sioux nation. As you have seen us throw down and bury the hatchet, so we hope you are inclined to make peace." The Sioux chiefs then threw down whatever arms they held and declared their purpose to maintain permanent peace. They said their great father, the President, with whom they had never been at war, had requested them to conclude a lasting peace with the Chippewa nation, and although they had sold their lands on the east side of the Mississippi they still wanted to hunt tliere, and were glad that in the future they could do so without fear. This was all done through interpreters, several of whom were present on each side, and closed every sentence they repeated with the expression, 'That's Avhat we say.' This meeting was at the Falls and the delegation met a still larger number of Chippewa chiefs and braves the next day at Chippewa City, where the ceremonies were still more imposing, and a dinner Avas served of which both parties partook."

After this interesting pageant of truce, a stead.y peace was well maintained between the nations, rarely disturbed by anything more than trifling quarrels soon settled by arbitration.