CHAPTER I

 

Throughout this paper the reader must bear in mind the distinction between the Dakota and the Siouan. The latter is the generic name for many tribes having a common origin and speaking a similar language. The former comprise an alliance of seven of the Sioux bands, closely related. These people have no reliable traditions of their origin. Most of their so-called traditions are mere inventions, varying from the prosaic to the fancifully poetic, according to the genius and inspiration of the inventor. Most of these relate to the miraculous birth of the first of their line upon or near to their present habitat, unless the interviewer is looking for a more remote origin, a hint of which will bring forward a tale of genesis in some far-off land. Naturally these conflicting stories have no ethnological value, and they have corrupted and ruined all of the older traditions, if indeed these primitive tales were not as well mere romantic fictions. In my own investigations upon this line I have found nothing which smacked of reliability as a genuine tribal tradition which predicated an origin elsewhere than about the lakes which feed the upper courses of the Mississippi. In this there is general agreement among all of the Dakota bands, and it is supported by tribal names and some recorded history. As to a more remote origin I have been told by a grave old man of one of the bands that the Dakotas come from the far-off land of the setting sun, and within the hour another equally reverend old romancer of the same band has informed me that they came from where the sun rises. No reliance whatever may be placed upon their inventions unless collateral matters may be found in substantiation.

There are, however, many interesting speculations, some of which have a more or less scientific basis, relating to an origin upon the eastern continent, though it must be admitted that each of these are reversible and tend to prove as fully that the Indian contention is correct, and that they are in fact the parent stock from which all of the peoples of the earth sprung, and that the emigration was from America to Asia and Europe instead of from those sections to this continent.   The most generally accepted theory is that the American Indians, including the Dakotas, are of Asiatic origin and that they reached this continent by skirting along the Asiatic coast to the Islands of the Alaskan archipelago and thence reached the American mainland. That they for a long period resided upon the Pacific coast, where families expanded into bands and tribes until economic reasons compelled an exodus across the mountains, whence the entire continent was sparsely peopled. In support of this theory attention is called to the fact that of the sixty lingual stocks among American Indians thirty-nine are found west of the coast range.  This argues almost nothing, however, for of the remaining twenty-one, sixteen are found east of the Alleghenies. 

Comparative study of the language of the Dakotas presents the most satisfactory conclusions of the Asiatic origin. In 1866 Professor Frederick L. O. Rhoerig came out to Fort Wadsworth (Sisseton) and spent some time in comparing the Dakota with the Mongolian dialects, and found some striking likenesses. These most nearly resemble the dialects of the Ural-Altaic tribes. Professor Rhoerig does not argue that he has established such relationship, but has found evidence which strongly suggests it. A few of the points of resemblance established by Professor Rhoerig are given: Grammatically the structure of the sentence in the Dakota and the Mongolian is the same, being a complete inversion of the order in which we are accustomed to think, beginning their sentences where we end ours. Likewise in neither the Dakota nor the Mongolian are there any prepositions, that convenient part of speech being used invariably as a post-position. In both languages there is a peculiar polysyllabic and polysynthetic tendency, by which, through an intricate blending of various parts of speech one huge word is produced. Probably the most striking resemblance, however, is in the reduplication of the initial syllable to add intensity to the thought expressed by it.  Here is an example in point:

Mongolian—Khara, meaning black; kap-khara, meaning very black.

Dakota—Sapa, meaning black; sap-sapa, meaning very black.

Another peculiarity is the changing of the form of a word from the masculine to the feminine, or to discriminate between strength and weakness, or distance and proximity, by changing the vowel without changing the consonant framework of the word, thus:

Mongolian—Ama, father; eme, mother; kaka, cock; keke, hen,
Dakota—Hepen, second son; hapan, second daughter; cinski, son; cunski, daughter; kon, this; kin, that.

There is, too, a distinct resemblance in very many words having the same meaning. This resemblance is quite as close as could be expected to be preserved in an unwritten language through a long period of time by members of the same stock in situations far remote from each other and without means of communication.   A couple of examples of this resemblance:

Mongolian—Tang, light, dawn, understanding.

Dakota—Tanin, visible, manifest, clear.

Mongolian—MeMe, the female breast.

Dakota—MaMa, the female breast.

These examples will indicate the strong resemblance and are really the strongest evidences anywhere found of the possible stock from which the Dakotas sprung.

There are many points of physical resemblance between the Dakotas and the Mongolians of the Ural-Altaic tribes, which adds something to the force of Professor Rhoerig's  suggestion of relationship.

The American ethnology assumes that the Siouan people originated on the American continent east of the Appalachian mountains, in the present states of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, where the Catawbas, and Tutelos, small tribes, were of the Siouan family, and adopt the theory that the buffalo several hundreds of years ago crossed the mountains by way of Cumberland Gap to the Catawba country, and that thence the Sioux followed them back to the plains. This suggestion seems rather far fetched, and is even more easily reversed than the theory of Asiatic origin. It certainly is equally probable that the small bands of the Sioux found on the Atlantic coast are off- shoots of the great western nations as that the mighty tribes of the west sprung from the insignificant people of the east. There really is no proof in support of either theory, and the reader is left to adopt the one which appears to be most reasonable. The weight of opinion among ethnologists, it must be admitted, is in favor of the view that the eastern Sioux were the parent stock and that they were "pinched out" of their homes across the mountains between the Iroquois and the Algonkins, and for the same reason it would have been impossible for a western people to have entered that land and established a foothold there against the more powerful tribes. It is quite possible, however, that the Sioux were carried there as prisoners and developed from a small stock thus transplanted. And, too, the fortunes of Indian tribes depend to a great extent upon health and the quality of armament. In the Missouri valley we have in historic times seen proud and arrogant tribes reduced to vassalage or entirely extinguished in a single season by an epidemic, and we have seen a superior force of Indians driven into exile by an inferior tribe who had come into possession of firearms. Thus it will be seen that all theories relating to the immigration of Indian tribes are futile when the inducing cause can not be known.

After all has been said it is only definitely known that when white men found the Dakotas a considerable number of them still resided in the lake country, where wild rice was a large element in their living, while the Tetons, the Yanktonais and the Yanktons had already left the shelter of the timber and become buffalo hunters of the great prairie stretches.

The name Dakota is derived from the word "koda," of the Santees, and "kola," of the Tetons, signifying "friend." Dakota means an alliance of friends. The root word is frequently come upon in the Siouan language, as in okodakiciye, meaning society, association, republic. The tribe consists of seven bands closely related, springing from one parent stock and still joined in alliance for mutual protection. According to all of their traditions they originated north of the Mississippi, about the Mille lakes of northern Minnesota, and abided there until their numbers became so great that they were compelled to scatter. When for economic reasons it was necessary for some of them to find other hunting grounds they broke off from the parent band, family by family, until they were divided into seven groups.  When emigration became imperative some old patriarch gathered his offspring about him and moved away into the wilderness. Two circumstances made all of these migrations tend toward the prairies. First, the woods above them were filled with their powerful enemies, the Chippewas, making a further  movement into their native woods impracticable; and again, the prairies afforded an abundance of buffalo, providing them a more certain subsistence than the chase after the timber game. The Dakota always resents the imputation that his people were driven out of the timber by the Chippewa, asserting that they came down "where buffalo was plenty." Nevertheless they did remain at their old lake home until the pressure of the Chippewa rendered it untenable.14 When these migrations began is lost in the mistiness of the remote past, but the last of them are matters of recorded history. The first to leave the shelter of the forest home were the Tetons, now residing west of the Missouri; the second migration was that of the two. Yankton bands, and finally the four bands of the Santees were compelled to find new homes in the open.

The first mention of the Dakotas which appears in any of the writings is in the letter of Paul le Jeune, written in September, 1640, to Vimont, in which he says Jean Nicolet, the discoverer of Wisconsin, had given him the name of a nation called the Nadouessi, who live near the Winnebagos, and indicates that Nicolet had visited the tribe in its own country, which, of course, is not probable, as Nicolet in his trip of 1634(?)-1639 did not go further than Green Bay. In the transactions of the Jesuit missions of the northwest we learn that in 1641 Fathers Charles Raynubault and Isaac Logues assembled 2,000 Chippewas at Sault Ste. Marie and from them learned of "a tribe called the Naduwessi, who lived eighteen days' journey to the west and beyond the great lakes."

Radisson, who visited the west in 1654-9, calls them Nadoneceronons, which is manifestly a corruption of the Chippewa name for them—Naduwessi. This latter word the French explorers pluralized Naduwessioux, whence comes the name yet popularly given to the tribe, but which they resent with indignation. Clearly at this primitive date Radisson found the Dakotas chiefly upon the prairies, for his first mention of them is in connection with the buffalo: "As for the buff," he says, "he is a furious animal. One must have a care of him, for every year he kills some Nadoneceronons." On this trip Radisson was accompanied by a party of Hurons, who were in mortal fear of the Dakotas and used their utmost exertions to keep the Frenchmen away from them, but later they came to them "near the lake where they lived," most likely Mille lake, and were treated kindly.

After this the French from Canada were in frequent communication with the Dakotas, and on July 15, 1695, LeSueur arrived at Montreal, accompanied by Teeoskahtay, a M'dewakanton, from Mille Lacs. This was the first Dakota to visit Canada. Up to this time from the first explorations the French had reached the Mississippi from Canada by way of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers. The Fox Indians, however, had become hostile to the French and closed the highway, and it was necessary to secure another road. It was therefore determined to bring their goods to the head of Lake Superior and thence reach

the Mississippi by way of the St. Croix. Here they also encountered difficulties, for, although all of the Indians of the region were friendly to the French, the Chippewas and the Dakotas were usually at bloody war, and passage through their country was in consequence extremely hazardous. Frontenac, governor of Canada, therefore sent out LeSueur as his ambassador to negotiate peace between the hostile tribes, and he found them at peace and in alliance, and Teeoskahtay and some of the Chippewas accompanied him to Montreal to assure the governor that they would be good. Frontenac, with great ceremony, gave them an audience. The programme was an impressive one.  Among other things 700 French soldiers in full uniform were reviewed. Teeoskahtay, with true Dakota audacity, had a little exhibition of his own to pull off. When it came his turn to speak he spread down some beaver skins, and, placing upon them twenty-two arrows, he named over twenty-two bands of the Dakotas. Then he wept violently. After his grief had made a sufficiently deep impression he dried his eyes and told Frontenac that if he would supply the Dakotas with guns they would be most obedient subjects and destroy all of the enemies of France. Frontenac promised that he would send LeSueur back to live with them, but before the return was undertaken Teeoskahtay died and LeSueur, contrary to Frontenac's intentions, set out for France to secure from the king license to mine west of the Mississippi.

When the emigration of the Sioux from the timber country began they state that they found their remote relatives, the Iowas, occupying the prairie country adjacent to the Mississippi and the Mahas farther west, so that they were compelled to move to the southwest and locate around Big Stone Lake. These emigrants were called Tetonwans—that is, people who live on the prairies.   The lake was called for this reason Teton Lake.

Mississippi into the Missouri country, according to tradition, hut at the beginning of the eighteenth century had found a resting place in western Iowa. Almost constantly the   Dakotas were at war with their powerful neighbors, the Chippewas, who year by year pressed upon them more resistlessly from the northeast. About 1760 is probably the date when the M'dewakantons left the home of their fathers and settled about the Falls of St. Anthony, where Carver found them six years later. These M'dewakantons are conceded to be the last remnant of the parent band. Their name signifies people of the sacred or spirit lake. They were preceded but a short time by the Wakpekutes, the people who shoot in the leaves—that is, hunt in the timber, who settled upon the Minnesota River about St. Peter, and the Wahpetons, meaning literally people of the leaf, probably signifying people who live in the timber, and also the Sissetons, the people who live in the swamp. Each of these names they brought with them from their former homes, which probably refer to their locations north of the Mississippi. This emigration necessitated a general re-arrangement of the locations of the various tribes occupying the northwest. The Chippewa victors, of course, came down and occupied the Mille Lacs country. The four bands of the Dakotas last above mentioned, called collectively the Santees from Isantee, or Knife Lake, at their old home were compelled to drive away the Hohas, or Iowas, from the Minnesota valley, while the combined Dakotas drove the Omahas from the Sioux to a new home south of the Missouri. Having cleared the valleys of the Sioux and the James, the Tetons claimed both valleys as their hunting grounds.

In the course of their enterprising forays the Tetons had learned that west of the Missouri deep snows rarely fell and that in consequence great herds of buffalo repaired there for the winter pasture, and they determined upon a new migration to this favored land. Without surrendering their claim to the lands they had for a long time occupied about Big Stone Lake, nor the newly conquered territory in the James valley they moved to the Missouri. The valley of the Missouri at this time was occupied by the Ree Indians. It is probable that the Rees had no settlement at the date of the Dakota invasion south of the Big Bend, while their principal seat was at Pierre, where they had a large settlement defended by strong forts at both the upper and lower ends of it. The coming of the Dakotas precipitated a thirty years' war between the two tribes, which resulted about 1792 in the complete discomfiture of the Rees, who were compelled to abandon their homes and seek a new location north of the Grand River.

A very short time after the emigration of the Tetons to the Missouri the Yanktons, having met with defeat in their Iowa home, came up the river to find a new location, and the Tetons fitted them out with a stock of horses and gave them the use of the James valley. The Sissetons moved in upon the abandoned grounds of the Tetons at Big Stone Lake. These several occupancies ripened into claims to the soil which subsequently resulted in embarrassment for both Indians and the government.

In the process of time each of the bands were sub-divided to a greater or less extent by the rising up of new patriarchal heads of families, but they still, except in the case of the Tetons, reckon tribal relations by the order in which they broke off from the parent stem at Mille Lacs. Two bands of the Yanktons emigrated from Mille Lacs at the same time and have ever since maintained a close alliance, traveling and fighting together and at the same time coming to settle in the Dakota country of the James valley. They brought their tribal names with them from the old home in the timber and are in the Siouan tongue E-hank-ton-wan, meaning the people of the further end, and E-hank-ton-wan-na, meaning little people of the further end. The first name white men have corrupted into Yankton and the latter into Yanktonais. There are various interpretations of these names, the most common being that they were given them to designate the place they occupied in the tribal councils. Another version is that they related to the location of their homes in the timber, which were at the further end of the lake. Dr. Thomas Foster, who was among these Indians in 1848, takes the latter view. The Assinoboins, who resided between Devils Lake and Lake Winnipeg, were undoubtedly of Dakota origin, and traditionally are Yanktonais, from whom they seceded, due to a quarrel between two young chiefs over a young woman. If so, the secession occurred at a very early period. As early as 1688 the Assinoboins were well established upon the river in Manitoba which still bears their name, as it did among the tribes at that time.

Community of interest was maintained among the seven bands of the Sioux after the migration of the Tetons to the Missouri until the white settlement interfered with the custom of a great annual reunion, which occurred at the Grove of Oakes (Armadale), on the James River.

Before the emigration of the Tetons from Big Stone Lake to the Missouri they had already undergone a process of subdivision, yet whether all of the present seven bands of Tetons had been organized cannot now be determined. At least the Oglalas, Minneconjous, Oohenopas and Uncpapas were known by these appellations before they  crossed the river, while the Sichangues, if, as they possibly were, a separate band before the immigration, received their present name after they reached their present home. The Oglalas were the first to cross the western country. The Minneconjous lived directly upon the banks of Big Stone Lake and planted there, hence the name, people who plant by the water. The Two Kettles—Oohenopas—lived upon the Coteau, and in a hard winter were at the point of starvation, when two kettles of corn were found at the Kettle Lakes, which preserved life until the weather moderated and they were enabled to secure game. The Uncpapas received their name from the fact that at one time when the tribe lived east of the river a jealousy arose between them and other members of the tribe over the honors in a fight with the Mahas, and in consequence this band withdrew and for a long time camped by themselves. The Brule Tetons received their name from the circumstance that the warriors of the band made a foray against the Arapahoes, but the latter upon their approach fired the prairie, catching the Dakotas in the flames so that many of them were severely burned. Their plight when they returned home was a source of great amusement to the balance of the tribe, who called them Sichangues (burned thighs), hence the French Brule. The other two bands of the Tetons are the Blackfeet and the Sans Arcs, but under what circumstances they received the names I have been unable to discover. They are supposed to be offshoots of the Uncpapas.

Reckoning from the independence of the United States in 1776, the Dakotas appear to have owned and possessed the country from the Falls of the Chippewa River down that stream to its mouth, thence down the Mississippi to about the north line of Iowa, thence across the northern part of Iowa to the mouth of the Sioux River, thence up the Missouri River, to the Niobrara and west from there along the Niobrara and the Platte to the Black Hills. Beginning again at the falls of the Chippewa the north line of the Dakotas' territory ran in a generally north of west direction, passing about thirty miles north of St. Anthony Falls and striking the Red River of the North at the mouth of the Sheyenne, thence up the Sheyenne to Devils Lake, thence in a line to the Missouri at the mouth of Heart River, thence up the Heart and across to the Little Missouri and up this stream through the Black Hills to the Platte. This embraced all of South Dakota, more than half of Minnesota, a large portion of North Dakota and portions of Wisconsin and Iowa, a goodly heritage, such as no other tribe of Indians upon the continent was ever able to claim and by prowess make the claim good. It must not, however, be assumed that at any time the Dakotas confined their operations strictly to the territory to which they claimed title. They were distinctly a ranging people, adventuresome and a bit given to meddling into the affairs of their neighbors, and their excursions took them anywhere from Hudson's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico and between the Alleghenies and the Rockies. This roving propensity accounts for much of the conflicting accounts of their location which are found in the earlier relations of the explorers. It may be fairly assumed that when they were still denizens of the big woods they did not confine themselves to the shades of the forests, but that they then, as later, made frequent excursions upon the prairies, returning to the woods for the winter, and it was probably when upon one of these summer excursions that the secession of the Assinoboins occurred.

The white race was largely, if not entirely, responsible for the emigration of the Dakotas from their native habitat on the lakes through the bringing to America of horses and the supplying of firearms to the Indians. The former made living by buffalo hunting much easier and surer. The exact time when the Sioux came into possession of horses cannot be definitely determined. Carver visited them in 1766 and makes no mention of finding horses among them, though he mentions the fact that they had wars with nations to the west who had many horses. This visit was about 250 years after the Spanish introduction of horses into America and it is highly probable that the Dakotas had horses prior to the date mentioned, for forty years later all of the Dakota tribes were abundantly supplied. It is probably a fair assumption that they began to acquire horses at about the time that the emigration from the timber began. The Chippewas were not so remote from the white traders as the Sioux, and earlier came into possession of firearms. From that time the Dakotas were somewhat at their mercy. It will be remembered that Teeoskahtay on his visit to Frontenac turned all of his eloquence and craft to an appeal for guns for his people. Five years later LeSueur returned to Minnesota and was visited by the relatives of the lamented Teeoskahtay and after expressing their grief for the untimely death of their emissary to the French government at once set up a piteous plea for firearms, powder and ball.

Gradually as the traders pushed their operations into the west the Dakotas were supplied with the coveted guns and then, supplied also with horses, they were not only able to withstand the encroachments of the Chippewa enemy, but, too, were equipped to hunt the buffalo with ease and success. This period, before the coming of white men in sufficient numbers to require the cession of the lands, and after their equipment with horses and firearms, is the time of the greatest prosperity the epidemics which swept many of their neighboring tribe, was the lot of the Sioux, and he Waxed strong and arrogant and was  not always an agreeable neighbor to his less fortunate kinsmen.

The removal from homes in the timber to the life in the open prairie country wrought some radical changes in the habits and customs of these people, who by this immigration exchanged a ration of wild rice, berries, fish and timber game for a very nearly exclusive  diet of buffalo beef; who gave up the canoe (which, by the way, is an Algonkin word; the Dakotas called a boat a watah), for the pony and exchanged the residence of poles, earth and bark for the light and transportable tipi of skins. It is not presumable that these changes were instantly adopted, but rather that they were developments of a considerable period, but it is quite certain that before the migration they were expert canoemen, while at this time the boat is practically unknown to them, though until recently the women did make a little tub-like vessel of a basket structure covered with a skin, in which they transported themselves and their stores, but the use of which the men dispised. Portable dwellings were, of course, of little value to them until the horse came to carry them, though prior to that event in their history the dog was made to carry some burdens: Of course the squaw was always available as a beast of burden, but manifestly a great skin tipi was beyond even her extraordinary power to transport for a day's journey.

 

 

CHAPTER II

 

Mention has already been made of the visits to the Sioux of Radisson and LeSueur. From the middle of the seventeenth century they were more or less under the influence of white men, and it is inferable that their habits, customs and manner of thinking were from that time modified by the white influence. It is natural that the advent of these wonderful strangers, with their firearms, scientific instruments and implements of iron, should have produced a profound impression upon the simple people of the wilderness, and it is most likely that this impression should extend much farther than to the immediate tribes visited, for the communication between remote camps of the Sioux was in those days, as later, frequent and rapid.  As we have seen, the first white man to secure and publish knowledge of the Dakotas was Nicolet, in 1639, and that two years later the Jesuit fathers obtained report of them at Sault Ste. Marie. The latter found the Pottawattamies flying   from the Dakotas, with whom they were at war. As we proceed we shall learn that from the beginning of the white knowledge of the Dakotas they almost constantly maintained their position by their prowess and that usually they were not the aggressors, while even the savages regarded them as more merciful to their vanquished foes than other tribes.  There is no real evidence that either the early Jesuits or Nicolet came into actual contact  with any of the Dakotas. The strong probability is that the first white man to set his eyes  upon a Dakota Indian was Peter Esprit Radisson, who left Montreal in the spring of 1654 and spent six years or more in the western wilderness and visited the Dakotas at the "lake where they live. In 1656, having "returned to Montreal, he made up a party of thirty Frenchmen, including two priests and a large number of Indians, and they started back  west, but were attacked by the Iroquois and the party was broken up. Radisson and his brother-in-law, Grosielliers, escaped and made their way to Green Bay and on through  the west. They found a party of Hurons who had fled from the east to escape the fury of the Iroquois, living under the protection of the Dakotas. The Dakotas then were living in five villages, having in all about 5,000 people. This is the first indication which comes to us of the primitive strength of the Dakotas. It is possible that at this time the Tetons and Yanktons had already emigrated to the prairies, and they mention the fact that the Assinoboins had already seceded. The return of these explorers to Canada in 1660 with a large quantity of rich fur excited the merchants to large enterprises in the Indian and fur trade and rekindled the zeal of the Jesuits, who in the next year, 1661, dispatched Father Rene Menard to establish a mission upon Lake Superior. He was received kindly by the Chippewa, and having learned from them of the Dakotas, determined to visit them. Some Hurons who had come to treat for peace with the Chippewas, consented to guide him through the Wisconsin wilderness to the Dakota country, and, accompanied by John Guerin, he set out upon the long journey. When somewhere near the head waters of the Black River, in northern Wisconsin, Guerin, being somewhat in advance of his companion, looked back and was distressed to discover that the aged priest had disappeared. Repeated firing of his gun brought no response, and a search, in which the Hurons joined, failed to reveal any trace of him. It is probable that he sank from sight in a quagmire, but it is possible that he was kidnapped and murdered by prowling Dakotas, for years afterwards his robe and prayer book were found in a Dakota lodge, where they were treated as great medicine. There is no evidence, however, that he was so murdered. The Dakotas may have found these articles where he sank in the swamp. Word of the death of Menard having reached Montreal, the Jesuits sent out Father Claude Allouez to take up his work. He left Montreal on August 6, 1665, with six Frenchmen and a large party of Indians, and on October 1st arrived at Bayfield, Wisconsin, where he found a party of the Hurons who had formerly lived under the protection of the Dakotas, but who had been driven away because, having a few guns, they taunted the Dakotas with their superiority. Now the Dakotas had received them kindly when they were outcasts flying from the Iroquois, and they were in no spirit to submissively bear the boasting of these mendicants, so they showed their prowess by killing very many of them and driving the rest away.  A trader had already been among the Dakotas and had pleased their savage tastes with a large number of small bells. When they made their onslaught upon the boastful Hurons they drove a large party of them into a swamp, where it was difficult to dislodge them. The Dakotas therefore resorted to strategem. They cut skins into narrow strips, which they tied together into a long string, which was stretched entirely around the swamp where the Hurons were concealed, and to this string at intervals they attached the bells, and then they retired. The Hurons waited until the coast appeared to be clear, when they made a dash for liberty, but, tripping upon the string, set all of the bells ringing. The Dakotas awaiting this signal fell upon them and scarcely any of the enemy escaped. The Hurons had induced the Chippewas to make war on the Dakotas, and as Father Allouez arrived they were just ready to set out upon this enterprise. A last grand council was being held, and to this the intrepid priest was admitted. In the name of the King of France he commanded them to maintain peace toward the Dakotas, at the same time directing their attention to the Iroquois, and pledging them the assistance of the French soldiers to subdue this fierce people who obstructed the highway leading from Canada to the west. The foray against the Dakotas was therefore abandoned. Shortly afterward, when upon a visit to the extreme western end of Lake Superior Allouez met a large party of Dakotas, and in speaking of this mentions for the first time the river upon which they lived as the "Messipi." He says: "They are forty or fifty leagues from here in a country of prairies abounding in all kinds of game. They live upon a species of marsh rice. They do not use the gun, but only the bow and arrow, which they use with great dexterity. Their cabins are not covered with bark, but with deerskins, well dried and stitched together so well that cold does not enter. In our presence they seemed abashed and were motionless as statues." Allouez after several years became convinced that his mission could not prosper without more assistance, and, finally becoming discouraged, abandoned the enterprise. On the 13th of September, 1669, he was succeeded by the renowned Father Marquette. Among the latter's earliest letters he pays the Dakotas this tribute: They are the Iroquois of this country, though less faithless, and never attack till attacked. They have false oats (wild rice), use little canoes, and keep their word strictly. Father Marquette did not visit the Dakota country, but sent messages and presents to them and induced them to visit him at Bayfield. He, however, confined his teaching to the Chippewa, Ottawa and Hurons. About 1672 the Dakotas, becoming again incensed at the conduct of the Hurons, who were the principal converts of Father Marquette at Bayfield, with characteristic chivalry, sent back to the priest the presents he had given them and be-

 

gan a vigorous warfare upon their enemies and sent them flying eastward, where they established themselves on the northwest side of the Straits of Macinac, where they were followed by Father Marquette, who abandoned the mission at Bayfield to attend his frightened flock." He set up a new mission, which he called St. Ignace, and from there he set out the next year with Joliet upon the trip across Wisconsin, in which the Mississippi was discovered. There is no record that he came in contact with the Dakotas on that trip, nor again during the remainder of his life, which ended May 19, 1675.

When LaSalle started west in 1679 upon the expedition which after great tribulations was to result in the exploration of the Mississippi from above the falls to its mouth, he was accompanied by Father Louis Hennepin, a priest of the Recollect order. Hennepin was a man with an abnormal curiosity, whose desire to see things led him to join the expedition. In no wise does he appear to have been an agreeable person, nor is his story altogether reliable. He was chosen by LaSalle to explore the upper Mississippi from the mouth of the Illinois, while the main party was to make the trip down the stream from that point. Hennepin was accompanied by Picard de Gay and Michael Ako, and they left LaSalle's fort on the Illinois on February 29, 1680, in a canoe, in which they carried a small quantity of merchandise for gifts to the Indians. On the nth of April they met thirty-three bark canoes loaded with a party of Dakotas going to war with the Illinois and Miamis. The Dakotas fired their arrows at the Frenchmen, but upon being shown a pipe ceased their hostile demonstrations. After a night of anxiety a chief presented a peace pipe and they all smoked. The Dakotas then indicated that they would return home with the white men and give up the war enterprise. When the priest undertook the offices of his profession the Indians cried "Wakan"—that is, medicine or mystery. They crowded around him and created great alarm, and Picard begged him to desist. He then thought he would withdraw and say his breviary in secret, but the Indians would not permit this, thinking it was his purpose to hide something of value. The Frenchmen were virtually prisoners. The Dakotas discussed what disposition to make of them, some being in favor of summarily scalping them, but the majority favored taking them home and so establishing relations with the j  French which would result in their securing firearms—"maza wakan," they called them—that is, iron mystery. They proceeded up the river and almost hourly developed some new trait of character which filled the priest with amazement. Aquipaguatin, the chief, adroitly worked a wily scheme to obtain merchandise. He had the bones of a distinguished relative which he preserved with great care in some skins, dressed and adorned with several rows of black and red porcupine quills. From time to time he assembled his men to give, it a smoke, and made us come several days to cover the bones with goods and by a present wipe away the tears he had shed for him and for his own son killed by the Miamis. To appease this captious man we threw on the bones, several fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives, beads and bracelets. We slept at the point of the Lake of Tears (Pepin), which we so called from the tears which this chief shed all night long, or by one of his sons, whom he caused to weep when he grew tired. The next day after four or five leagues of sail a chief came, telling them to leave their canoes, he pulled up three piles of grass for seats. Then taking a piece of cedar full of little holes he placed a stick into one, which he revolved between the palms of his hands until he kindled a fire."

"Having arrived on the nineteenth day of our navigation five leagues below St. Anthony's Falls, these Indians landed us in a bay, broke our canoe to pieces and secreted their own in the reeds. They then proceeded on the trail to Mille Lacs, sixty leagues distant (the distance is not nearly so great.) As they approached their villages the various hands began to show their spoils. The tobacco was highly prized and led to some contention. The chalice of the father, which glistened in the sun, they were afraid to touch, supposing it to be "wakan". After five days' walk they reached the Issati (Santee) settlements, in the valley of Ruin River. The three Frenchmen were here separated, Aquipaguetin taking Hennepin to his own camp. This was upon an island, and Aquipaguetin called into requisition five of his squaws with canoes, in which they conveyed them across the lake. The tramp through the woods had used the priest rather severely, and when he was finally deposited in the camp he was scarcely able to move, whereupon a kindhearted old Dakota placed him upon a bearskin before the fire and rubbed his legs and feet with the oil of wildcats. The son of the family was at once attracted by the priest's black robe, which he appropriated and strutted about the camp with it over his shoulders. Learning Hennepin's name and title, the young Indian called the robe Pere Louis' shinnan, the latter word signifying robe. To offset the loss of this black gown, however, the chief on the second day gave Hennepin a fine robe of beaver skins trimmed with porcupine quills.

"He set before me a bark dish full of fish, and, seeing that I could not rise from the ground, he had a small sweating cabin made, in which he made me enter naked with four Indians. This cabin he covered with buffalo skins and inside he put stones red to the middle. He made me a sign to do as the others before beginning to sweat, but I merely concealed my nakedness with a handkerchief. As soon as these Indians had several times breathed out quite violently he began to sing vociferously, the others putting their hands on me and rubbing me while they wept bitterly. I began to faint, but I came out and could scarcely take my habit and put it on. When he made me sweat thus three times a week I felt as strong as ever."

The mariner's compass was a constant source of wonder and amazement. The chiefs having assembled, the braves would ask Hennepin to show his compass. Perceiving that the needle turned, the chief harangued the men and told them the whites were spirits capable of doing anything. In the priest's possession was an iron pot with lions' paw feet, which the Indians would not touch unless their hands were covered with buffalo skins. The women looked upon it as a "wakan" and would not enter the cabin where it was. He set about at once to compile a vocabulary of Dakota words, in which work the children were his chief assistants. As soon as I could catch the word Taketchiabiahen (taku-kapi-he), which means 'what call you that?' became in a short time able to converse upon familiar subjects. At first this difficulty was hard to surmount. If I had a desire to know what 'to run' was in their tongue I was forced to increase my speed and actually run from one end of the lodge to the other until they understood what I meant and had told me the word, which I presently set down in my dictionary.

"The chiefs of these savages, seeing that I was desirous to learn, frequently made me write, naming all of the parts of the human body, and as I would not put on paper certain indelicate words at which they do not blush, they were heartily amused."

When he referred to his lexicon to learn words which he had set down in it they regarded it with wonder, saying: "That white thing is a spirit which tells Pere Louis all we say."

"These Indians often asked me how many wives and children I had and how old I was—that is, how many winters, for so these natives count. Never illumined by the light of faith, they were surprised by my answer. Pointing to our two Frenchmen, whom I was then visiting at a point three leagues from our village, I told them that a man among us could have but one wife, and as for me I had promised the Master of Life to live as they saw me, and to come and live with them to teach them to become French people; but that gross people, till then lawless and faithless, turned all I said into ridicule. 'How,' said they, 'would you have these two men with thee have wives? Ours would not live with them, for they have hair all over their faces and we have none there or elsewhere.' In fact, they were never better pleased with me than when I was shaved, and from a complaisance, certainly not criminal, I shave every week.

"As often as I went to visit the cabins I found a sick child, whose father was named Mamenisi. Michael Ako would not accompany me, Picard du Guy alone followed me to act as sponsor, or rather to witness the baptism. I christened the child Antoinette in honor of St. Anthony, of Padua, as well as for the Picard's name, which was Anthony Augelle. He was a native of Amiens and a nephew of the procurator general of Paris. The child died soon after, to my great consolation." This was undoubtedly the first baptism among the Dakotas, though it is possible that Allouez may have baptised some of

 

them at Ashland. He was informed that the Assinoboins were but seven or eight days journey away from the Dakotas. This is another evidence of the primitive date at which the separation took place.

In the summer time of 1680 Hennepin accompanied the Dakotas down to the Mississippi upon a buffalo hunt, and as they were returning up the stream they met Duluth, with whom they had had some previous communication through the Indians who had met him near Lake Superior. Duluth had with him five French soldiers and a quantity of merchandise, and was bound for the Dakota villages to trade. He at once engaged Hennepin as a guide and interpreter. It was July 25th when they met, and they proceeded to the villages at Mille Lacs, where they arrived 011 August 14th. At the end of September the Frenchmen announced that they must return to Canada to obtain more goods. There was some reluctance among the Dakotas, but Duluth managed the matter adroitly and finally at a great council they decided to let them go, and the head chief, whose name was Wazikute, made a map for them, showing them the route by way of the Mississippi, Wisconsin and Fox Rivers to Green Bay. They spent the winter at Michilimacinac and reached Quebec in the spring of 1681. Thence Hennepin hastened to France and never returned to America. He wrote a book telling of his adventures, which was rather boastful, and a later edition published at Utrecht fourteen years after was shamefully mendacious. For many years Hennepin was held responsible for the falsehoods of the later edition, and in consequence the truthfulness of the whole of his narrative was discounted, but in recent years John G. Shea and Bishop Ireland have given the subject much attention and have produced a good deal of evidence which indicates that the Utrecht edition was a forgery. So reliable and authoritative a historian, however, as Reuben Gold Thwaites, secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, holds Hennepin entirely responsible for the Utrecht edition and makes it the basis of his recently published work upon the subject.

In 1683 the Canadian government sent Nicholas Perrot and twenty men, including LeSueur. to the Mississippi to establish a peace between the Iowas and the Dakotas. They found the Dakotas at war with the Miamis, Foxes and Mascoutins, but oddly enough at this time the Dakotas were in friendly alliance with the Chippewa. That year Perrot and LeSueur built posts on the Mississippi at Lake Pepin and at the mouth of the Wisconsin. The Dakotas were on friendly terms with these Frenchmen and visited them at the post at Lake Pepin, where in a spirit of joviality they plundered the packs of some traders, but under threats from Perrot restored the goods. The next year the Senecas and Cayugas made war on the Dakotas, but how it eventuated is not recorded. In fact, the little wars with the weaker tribes were mere recreations with the strong Dakotas and cut very little figure in their general economic policy. Then, as two centuries later, they regarded it as one of their privileges and means of sport.  For the next four years we learn nothing about the affairs of the Dakotas except that in 1687 Perrot was called to Canada to assist in the wars of the French against the Iroquois, and he left his goods at the "Sioux post" on the Mississippi in charge of a few Courier des Bois, but in 1688 he was back among the Dakotas and from the post of the "Nadousossioux" at Lake Pepin he issued a proclamation in 1689 claiming the country formally for the King of France. This proclamation is witnessed by Augustine Legardeur and by Messrs. LeSueur, Hebart, Lemire and Blein. He particularly mentions in this proclamation that the M'dewakantons, Sissetons and a majority of the other Dakotas live northeast of the Mississippi. Perrot is probably the most competent witness upon the subject, as he had at this time been in the country of the Dakotas for most of the time for nine years, and constantly in trade with the Dakotas, and was no doubt well informed as to their habitat.

It is possible, indeed probable, that the trade at the Lake Pepin post was continued during the ensuing three years, for by 1692 trouble had arisen between the traders and the Fox and Mascoutin Indians, which rendered the road across Wisconsin by way of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers impracticable, and LeSueur was sent to Bayfield to cement the peace then existing between the Dakotas and the Chippewas. He went down to an island in the Mississippi, where he built a new post, "above Lake Pepin and below the mouth of the St. Croix." This post was intended as the center of commerce on the river and at the same time to serve as a barrier between the Dakotas and the Chippewas. In the summer of 1605 he went down to Montreal and took with him Teeoskahtay, as related above. At Macinaw he found the wife of a Dakota chief in captivity and purchased her and took her along to Montreal. She afterwards was restored to her people and carried to them the story of the death of Teeoskahtay.

LeSueur, instead of returning to the Dakotas as Frontenac intended, secured passage to Europe and set sail. It is probable that during his long residence in the west he had explored a good deal of the country between the Mississippi and the Missouri, at least he had obtained information relating to a mine, supposed to be of copper, existing upon the Blue Earth River near Mankato, Minnesota, and his mission to France was to obtain a license to open and work this mine. He secured the desired permission through the patronage of l'Hullier, the farmer general, and set out for Canada, but his boat was taken by the English and he was returned to London and finally made his way back to Paris. During the absence of LeSueur the Dakotas in 1696 went to war with the Foxes and the Miamis, and these latter tribes attempted an invasion of the Dakotas' country, but found the enemy entrenched and were compelled to retire. On the return trip they found a party of French traders en route to the Dakotas with goods, and a fight ensued, in which the Indians were defeated. They soon after met Perrot and took him prisoner and were about to burn him at the stake, but were prevented by some friendly Foxes. This circumstance coming to the ears of Frontenac, he concluded to withdraw all trade from the western Indians until the close of King William's war, then in progress, and, fearing that LeSueur would go to the Dakota country and supply some of the traders with goods, he induced the king to annul LeSueur's license to mine in the west.1 LeSueur, learning of this revocation of his license, and knowing that he would be unable to proceed through Canada, took passage with his relative, Pierre LeMoyne, better known as d'Iberville, founder of Louisiana, to the gulf, and in company with a party of twenty men, including Penticaut, the intelligent ship carpenter, proceeded with a large quantity of goods up the Mississippi. When he got into the Illinois country he was informed by a note from Father Marest, who had previously been with the Dakotas, but who now was ministering to the Illinois, that the Dakotas and Iowas were at war with the Sacs, Foxes, Kickapoos and Mascoutins, and that in a recent battle the Dakotas had been victorious, and that the eastern Indians were at that time away to avenge themselves upon the Iowas for the whipping they had received, being too much afraid of the Dakotas to attack them. The object of the note was to warn LeSueur against these war parties, whom the good father declared were utterly faithless. When somewhere near St, Louis on the 30th of July, 1700, he met seventeen Dakotas in seven canoes going down to get even with the Illinois for having killed three Dakota prisoners, but he prevailed upon them to turn back. On the 19th of September he entered the Minnesota river, and on October 1st reached the Blue Earth near Mankato, where his mine was supposed to be. At the mouth of the Blue Earth he met a party of Sioux, who gave him some valuable information as to the territory of the several tribes at that time. They said that section belonged to the Iowas and the Ottocs and the Tetons (Sioux of the west), and that the territory of these Indians extended to the Mississippi, and they therefore begged him let return to the mouth of the Minnesota and establish his post upon the Mississippi, where the Dakotas could also trade with him upon their own land. They told him that at that time the Tetons had about one thousand lodges, and that they did not use canoes nor gather wild rice, but lived entirely by the chase on the prairies between the Mississippi and

 

 

 

the Missouri. They said that they made their lodges of buffalo skins and carried them about with them wherever they went. That they were remarkably expert with the bow and arrow, and had been known to kill ducks on the wing. They also mentioned that polygamy was common with them, and, too, that they had a curious habit of swallowing the smoke of the tobacco or of holding it in the mouth and blowing it out through the nose. These facts are interesting and valuable, as they arc the first historical statements relating to the habitat and habits of the Tetons. LeSueur set at work at once, and by the 14th had completed the post, which he named Fort l'Hullier in honor of the French fanner general, and he sent out emissaries to the neighboring bands to invite them to come in and establish camps around the post for the winter trade. As early as the 3d of October they were visited by a party of Dakotas under a chief named Wakantape, whose home was probably on the Mississippi near Redwing. He and all of his party of sixteen persons were near relatives of Teeoskahtay, the Indian whom LeSueur took to Canada in 1695, and who had died there, and after weeping for some time for their relative they made a strong appeal for powder and bullets. This seems to have been a weakness in the Teeoskahtay family. On the 24th a party of Oglalas appeared at the fort and thereafter he was in constant communication with both the Tetons and the Santees. and was also in communication with the Malias on the Sioux River, whom he believed to be vastly the strongest tribe of the section, placing their strength at 12,000. The next spring he opened his copper mine, and, loading his boat with the mineral, which was worthless, he returned to d'Iberville at the gulf and took passage with him to France. He classified the Dakotas as "the Sioux of the east and the Sioux of the west." and noted seven bands of the former and nine of the latter. Only a few of the distinguishing names employed by him are still recognized. From the misunderstood and worse spelled names used by him we can, with something of a stretch of imagination, figure out M'dewakantons, Wakpekutes, Wahpetons and Sissetons among the bands of the east, while the Wahpetons and Wakpekutes are also included with the bands of the west. We are only able to recognize the Oglalas among the bands of the west as a name still familiar. In his report to d'Iberville he recommended that the Dakotas be induced to settle upon the Missouri, where their trade would be accessible to the French from Louisiana, a jealousy already having grown up between the Canadian and Louisiana traders. His men remained at Fort l'Hullier until the spring of 1702, when, having disposed of all of their wares and having no means of replenishing the stock, they abandoned the post and returned to the gulf.

The foregoing comprises the record of white contact with the Dakotas down to the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it will appear that for fifty years at least they had been in constant, or very nearly constant, association; that the eastern Dakotas at least had learned the use of firearms and of many articles of white manufacture, including the much prized domestic utensils, and that in consequence the practices of these people were already undergoing a change. It is probable, too, that the French had brought to them a smattering of their religious beliefs, and that the aboriginal ideas upon this momentous subject had been modified by these views. As no record was kept of the primitive views of these savages upon the subject of a spiritual life it is manifest that anything learned since that remote time upon the subject will have been influenced by the teachings of the whites, so that we are left to the merest speculations as to what they originally believed upon the vital topic.

During this period of fifty years we find the Dakotas at war one or more times with the Chippewas, Foxes, Mascoutins, Sauks, Miamis, Illinois, Senecas, Cayugas, Pottawattamies, Iroquois, Hurons, Crees, Assinoboins and Iowas, and probably with other unnamed western tribes. In the fullest modern sense they lived the strenuous life. LeSueur suggests that no sooner did the Santees come into possession of firearms than they asserted a mastership over the Tetons.