Old Fort Snelling

. At various centers in the Indian country were to be established Education Families-groups of honest, industrious whites who were to have houses and farms, where the natives coul

n 1834, seven thousand, and wandered over southern Minnesota and South Dakota, near the lakes of Big Stone and Traverse.277 Major Taliaferro reported in 1834 that the number of Indians in his agency was 6721, and that they extended as far as the Sheyenne fork of the Red River.278 To one man, the agent, was given the task of civilizing these thousands of Sioux. While it was for this

above a frozen stream. There could be seen the smoke curling from the dingy tepee, the women dragging home wood for the ever-diminishing pile outside the door, and a few of the hardier men fishing through holes in th

preceding fall, the village divided-part going to the sugar bush, and part going to the prairie lakes and swamps for muskrats. In May they returned on the swollen streams with heavily freighted canoes to their villages of bark houses. During the summer there were many tasks-blue berries to be gathered in the woods, canoes to be built, tepees to be repaired, turnips to be dug, and pipestone to be brought

ndles, and horses and dogs dragging on two poles the provisions and the skins of the tepees. For more than two months the program was the same: the march through the drifts and across the icy rivers, the morning council about a blazing fire before scattering over the

f whiskey that had escaped the vigilant eyes of the soldiers, and when migrations to the Canadian posts were prompted by the hope that there they could obtain enough supplies to support them wi

nt of ceremony. Probably a whole band of Indians would come down from the headwaters of the Minnesota River. Their chiefs and braves

d by the Indians to their Father, the agent, as a proof that they abjure all cabal or alliance with the English. Pipes, or calumets and other little Indian presents, offered by the various tribes as pledges o

rit, or the sun, or the moon whose purity is equalled by that of his own heart, &c. &c. always finishing with a petiti

ar of these were the jews'-harps, which had their uses-in spite of the sarcastic invective delivered against them by Senator Benton in 1822 when the abolition of the Factory System was being considered. They were innocent, observed the Senator, and on that account precisely adapted to the purposes of the superintendent, in reclaiming

ccasions had probably as much effect in controlling the Indians as a like number of bullets would have had. Major Taliaferro has recorded one of the orations which he delivered to his listening wards. He referred to the presence of the Great Spir

s white ones to follow his good example-he knows this course to be best for all-we should endeavor to please him-for by doing so we shall

oming of something good from below and an appro

agent. There they became acquainted with white men other than traders, and when exploring and scientific expeditions came over the plains with a guard of soldiers, th

issued at the agency.286 It was during the winter months especially when starvation or suffering would otherwise result that this aid was given to the Indians. During the summer when other means of subsistence were present, all appeals for fo

ould from the public stores.290 The winter of 1842–1843 was particularly severe. On the first of November the ground was covered with snow which as late as April still lay from two to two and a half feet deep. No hunting was possible because of the drifts, and fishing through the ice was impracticable,

s saved all the remains from the tables and once a day the squaws and children were allowed to enter and receive these crumbs. The Indians who were away from the post were not neglected. Sixty bushels of corn and several barrels of pork were furnished by Major Dearborn to Mr. H. H. Sibley who sent them to d

of this Agency during the Month past-and all with Grieveances of Some Sort to redress, wrote Taliaferro on June 30, 1838.292 In all matters concerning lands, hunting, treaties, annuities, and the like, the Indian looked only to the agent for advice or explanation. Instigated by the traders, many

ine, a knife, four fish hooks, and six plugs of tobacco. If he were any respectable Individual he was sure of a knife, four fish hooks, and six plugs of tobacco.2

nd-I Sent my Interpreter up with other restoratives-she being delerious.296 On Saturday, June 28, 1834, there came to him a brave saying that both his son and daughter were ill. Sent a message to Doct Jarvis

y the disease spread. But Dr. Wood, the post's physician, was called upon by Major Taliaferro and at the end of five days three hundred and thirty Sioux had been vaccinated. It is intere

collected no less than thirty-six medals of George the Third, twenty-eight British flags, and eighteen gorgets.299 Some of these were presented to the agent as direct evidence of submission to American authority. In 1820 two employees of the Missouri Fur Company

devoted chief, their arms pinioned & large splinters of wood thrust through them above the elbows, intended as I understood to show us that they did not fear pain & were not afraid to die. the Murderer wore a large British medal suspended to his neck & both of the prisoners bore offerings of skins, &c. in thei

l over the Indians was assured. What chief was not proud to carry with him this certificate, even if he could not read it himself? The bearer The Whole in the day is a respectable Man, and wear

the government should be lavish in the distribution of presents. British influence and example, wrote Taliaferro to Clark in 1831, were not yet fairly purged of their baneful effects.303 Even as late as 1834 a few extracts from the reports of Major Bliss indicate that this feeling was still noticeable. The Sioux Indians expecting and fav

or the British than for the Americans.305 Except, however, along the border, among the tribes outside of the sphere of the agent at Fort

ntertained in the most delightful manner, and shown the most impressive sights. As crowds were always drawn together to see the Indians, the latter received a lasting opinion as to the numbers of

d seen was described amid the squalor of their home villages. The effect produced by the visit of their chiefs to Washington is wonderful, since their return, the power, wealth, and numbers of the American people have been their constant themes, many of their stories approach so near the marvellous as to be discredited, such for example is the account of casting a cannon w

from the Missouri & various sections of the Sioux country.312 During the entire winter of 1831, a party of Missouri River Indians encamped about Fort Snelling.313 The Indians on the prairies were wide travellers. There are a g

the commencement of our agency to its close, our frontier pioneers were never even molested in their homes, nor did they shed one drop of American blood.315 It was when this fr

ie, the pioneer Chicago trader, that the Sioux and Fox Indians were planning an attack on Fort Snelling. Lieutenant James Webb immediately volunteered to bring the news to Fort Armstrong on Rock

st. But he later found out that the Foxes had sent wampum and tobacco to the bands of Wabasha and Little Crow, asking them not to stand in the way of any movements they might make. Wabasha accepted the wampum but Little

s. Little Thunder and White Head, two Indians who had escaped from the jail at Mackinac by cutting through the log walls, met an American, George Johnson, at Lac du Flambeau. They were very inquisitive about the strength of Fort

n Lake Calhoun, and the Indian schools soon passed into the hands of the missionaries. After the making of treaties a blacksmith shop was added to the agency. In line with

-seekers destroyed the plan. The failure was to result in a great massacre in 1862. This much at least can be said for