CHAPTER III

By this time a new element had entered into the life of the Dakotas, the influence of which cannot he measured, but which certainly very materially changed their views of life and methods of living. From the records we are able to trace the movements of the leaders in trade and in religion who penetrated into the wilds of the west, bearing baptism and barter to the natives, but we get no more than a hint of the character of the men who accompanied them, yet we know it was rare for either missionary or merchant to go out single-handed. Usually they were accompanied by from two or three to a hundred helpers. In the trade the leaders were as a rule retired military officers and the descendants of a decayed French nobility, men of worldly wisdom, polished manners and imperious temper, who found in the wild new land opportunity to surround themselves with a sort of dependent community over which they were absolute monarchs. It was not difficult for them, by a self-gratifying exhibition of temper and tinsel, to secure the adulation of the savages, and they found a fascination in the wild life that surpassed the attractions of the fashionable society of France. These men established central |posts from which the trade of their section was conducted, as was the case of Perrot at Lake Pepin, and in a smaller way of LeSueur at Fort L'Hullier. From these posts clerks, usually French Canadians, having learning enough lo enable them to conduct trade and account for the proceeds, were sent out to the camps of such Indians as could not conveniently come in to the central post, and the clerks were accompanied on their expeditions by a still lower class of French Canadians, men uneducated and rough, who packed the goods through the timber and returned with the furs, and for that reason they were called coureurs des bois, that is runners of the woods. They were as a rule expert canoe men. inured to hardships, of happy, mercurial temperament, and in their tastes very little above the aborigines. Every Frenchman in the wilderness, the priests only excepted, considered it his first privilege to obtain an Indian wife, so that from the bourgeois of the posts down to the last of the coureur des bois. half Indian families sprung up wherever their camps were pitched. Though ignorant, these wood rangers were imbued with the traditions and the superstitions of the whites, and with some idea of the Christian religion, and these traditions and superstitions were inevitably communicated to their children. The offspring of these alliances were called "bois brules," that is burnt woods, owing to the dark color of the half-breeds, possibly keeping in mind also the relation to the woods rangers. It is now more than two hundred and fifty years since these intimate relations between the whites and the Dakotas began, and from that time have been maintained, so that not only the stock of first alliances, but constantly added new marriages between the traders, trappers and Dakota women have, it is fair to presume, left very little of the pure Dakota blood in the land, and absolutely nothing of the primitive Dakota view of life.

Near the close of the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eighteenth century several maps of the northwest were published, and from them something of the location of the Dakota tribes may be inferred. The first of these is known as Marquette's map, and is supposed to have been drawn in 1673 and to have been published in 1681.  It is certain that most of the facts exhibited on this map were obtained from the Indian and not from the observation of white men.

Next comes the map of Coronellis, made in 1688. It is from the information obtained by Duluth. and locates the Dakotas at Mille Lacs.

The third map in point of time is the Hennepin map of 1698. It calls Mille Lacs the Lake of the Issati (Santees), and locates the Wahpetons and Sissetons northeast of that lake.

The fourth map is that by William Delsle, made in 1703 from the notes of LeSueur. It divides the Dakotas into the Sioux of the east and Sioux of the west, according to the classification in LeSueur's list of tribes, those of the east being about Mille Lacs and those of the west about Big Stone Lake, which is called Lake Tinton. The Yanktons are located down in western Iowa opposite the mouth of the Platte. A revision of this map by Jeffreys was published in 1760.

The recorded history of the Dakotas during the eighteenth century is very meager indeed, and there is very little in their traditions which adds to the limited record. We learn that in 1700 the Dakotas were engaged in a war with the Sauks and Foxes, in which the former were victorious, but fourteen years later, when the French made war on the Foxes for obstructing the road to the Mississippi, the latter made an alliance with the Dakotas, and upon the approach of the French army of 800 men the Indians entrenched themselves and for the first time were subjected to cannon fire. This speedily brought them to terms, and they gave hostages for their good behavior and sent emissaries to Montreal to make a treaty of peace and friendship, but by the spring of 1717 the Dakotas and Foxes were again leagued in a war with the French. These troubles were due to the withdrawal of the coureur des bois from the west, which cut off the Dakotas' opportunity to obtain arms and utensils. In 1726 a new peace was made and the Canadians entered into an agreement to send two traders to reside with the Dakotas, as well as a priest to establish a mission for their evangelization.  The Foxes, it appears, did not observe this treaty and made arrangements with the Tetons to find a haven with them in the west in case the French pressed them too hard.

 

In pursuance to the treaty made with the Dakotas, as well as to influence the action of the Foxes, the Canadian government in the spring of 1727 sent an expedition from Montreal, which readied Lake Pepin on September 17th, and it was resolved to build the post there, at a point nearly opposite Maiden Rock. The expedition was under the command of Pierre Boucher. and was accompanied by traders and two missionaries, the latter being equipped among other things with a case of mathematical instruments, a universal astronomic dial, a spirit level, surveyor's chain and stakes and a telescope. The post was the most elaborate one yet built in the west, and had a stockade 100 feet square, in which were three comfortable and commodious buildings. They did not appreciate the liability of Hoods on the river and occupied too low ground, so that the next spring the floor of the fort was covered with water. Very early in the season the Poxes drove the entire party away. Because of the conduct of the Poxes the government started an army of 400 soldiers and 800 Indians west in June under command of DeLignery. The Indians were smart enough to keep out of his reach, and he accomplished nothing but to chase them from one deserted camp to another. Apparently the Lake Pepin post was not again occupied until 1730. when St. Pierre, accompanied by Father Guignas. went there with traders and found the Dakotas very friendly.

About 1725 the peace which for thirty years had existed between the Dakotas and Chippewas was broken, and for forty years thereafter they carried on a relentless war, in which in the end the advantage was with the Chippewas.

About 1737 Verendrye, a French officer, was commissioned by the king to explore a way across America to the Pacific. His route was by way of the lakes, Rainy Lake, Lake of the Woods, the Assinoboin and Missouri rivers. While in the lake region of northern Minnesota the expedition was attacked by the Dakotas and a son of the commandant killed and their goods stolen. Verandrye in the course of his  explorations reached the western mountains, and returning reached a point near the center of South Dakota, and may have come into contact with the Tetons there, but it is most likely that the latter tribe had not yet crossed the Missouri. At this time Father Guignas appears to have conducted a mission among the Dakotas.

 

Again in 1745-6 the government resolved to withdraw the coureur des bois from the Dakotas, because they were obtaining their goods irregularly from the English and down the Mississippi and were not paying the royalty which Canada exacted. DeLusigan was dispatched to the west to call them in. He went as far as Big Stone Lake and found some of the traders, but was powerless to bring them to Macinaw, where they were to be arrested and tried for the violation of the revenue laws. While at Big Stone Lake the Dakotas brought to DeLusigan nineteen of their young men, bound with cords. They had killed three Frenchmen in Illinois. He released the young men and succeeded in making a peace between the Dakotas and Chippewas, which was immediately broken when he was gone.

About 1760, defeated by the Chippewas in the "forty years' war," the Santee Dakotas moved down from the Mille Lacs and took up their home upon the Mississippi and Minnesota. And at about the same time the Tetons removed from Big Stone Lake to the Missouri.

In June, 1766, Jonathan Carver, a native of Connecticut, who had done good service for the colonies in the just closed French and Indian war, left Boston to explore the northwest. He reached the Mississippi at the mouth of the Wisconsin about the middle of October, and passing up the river in a canoe, accompanied by only one white man and a Mohawk Indian, he made the acquaintance of the M'dewakantons at the mouth of the St. Croix, and notes that they were still engaged in a fight with their hereditary enemies, the Chippewa. He learned that there were eleven bands of them, three of whom he designated as river bands, and the remaining eight as "Naduwessis of the plains." The ice became troublesome at the mouth of the Minnesota, and he left his canoe there about the middle of November and walked up to St. Anthony Falls, which he describes very graphically. In about ten days he returned to his canoe. He had conceived a notion that somewhere in the vicinity he would find a western branch of the Mississippi which would take him out to the mountains and make an easy highway to the Pacific, and he resolved to explore the Minnesota River. It was one of those delightful open autumns, and resuming his canoe he rowed, as he reckoned, 200 miles up the stream, not finding his way blocked until the 7th of December, where he spent the winter with a large band of the Dakotas, probably the Wahpetons. He remained with them until the river opened in April, when more than 300 of his hospitable friends accompanied him to the Mississippi. After Carver's death his heirs produced a paper purporting to be a copy of a grant of a large tract of land, made by two Dakotas, Hawhopawjatin and Otohtongoomlisheaw. The tract described extends from St. Anthony Falls to Lake Pepin, and east from the lake 100 miles, and from that point in a direct line to the falls, making a wedge-shaped piece. They never were able to produce the original, nor to show that the Indians mentioned were authorized to convey the land in question, nor that the Dakotas owned the land. Carver himself makes no mention in his book of having obtained such a grant. The heirs had the claim before congress for many years, but it  was never recognized, and doubtless was a forgery.

About this time the Yanktons and Yanktonais were driven out of western Iowa by the Ottoes and came up and settled in the James valley.

At about this time, the date is not definitely fixed, but it was within a few years of the cession of Canada to the English, a trader located at the mouth of the Minnesota, and he quarreled with a Dakota named Ixatape, and watching his opportunity the Indian shot the trader as he sat quietly smoking in the cabin. This led to the withdrawal of trade from the Dakotas, who by this time had come to place great dependence upon this method of obtaining supplies, and a hard winter coming on, they suffered extreme hardship. On the opening of spring the Dakotas held a council and determined to take the guilty Ixatape and go down to Quebec and turn him over to the authorities. Accordingly they made up a party of 100 and started by way of the Wisconsin River. Old Wapashaw was at the head of the expedition. Before they reached Green Bay more than half of the party had deserted, and there all but six came away, taking the prisoner with them. Wapashaw, undaunted however, with his five companions kept on their way, and when they arrived at Quebec Wapashaw, with a heroism rarely equaled, offered himself as a vicarious sacrifice for his tribe in lieu of the escaped prisoner. His generosity impressed the English and they gave him every consideration. He gave them a clear understanding of the organization of the Dakota tribes and the subdivision into seven bands, and they gave him a medal for each of the bands. It was by this time winter, and they remained at Quebec until spring, and they were attacked by smallpox and only Wapashaw survived, but he succeeded in restoring trade for his people.

Wapashaw was loyal to the English throughout the Revolution, and with his braves rendered effective service upon the frontier in protecting trade, but did not go east, as some of the tribes did, to fight the colonists in the war. After the treaty of peace and the cession of the northwest to the colonies the English still held possession of the country and the Dakotas continued to give their allegiance to the English; indeed it was nearly forty years before they finally acknowledged the United States authority.

During this period of uncertainty as to the sovereignty over the northwest we find little of record relating to the Dakotas' relations to white men. Trade for the region centered at Macinaw, primarily, with a secondary base at Prairie du Chien.

Toward the end of the century the French began to creep up the Missouri from St. Louis, and by 1796 had two and perhaps three posts for trade with the Dakotas in the South Dakota country.

 

CHAPTER IV

Though defeated and driven from their grand villages at Mille Lacs and Knife Lake, which had promptly been occupied by their enemies, the Dakotas did not propose to give up their old haunts without one more grand struggle for their possession. Consequently in 1768, having somewhat recuperated from the defeat which had dispossessed them, with the united force of their nation they set out to drive back the conquering invaders. How large their force really was it is now impossible to estimate. Warren, the historian of the Chippewas, thinks there were not more than 500 warriors, but the Dakota tradition is that there were many more. They were perfectly familiar with the entire country, and it was their plan to pass around the Chippewa and reach the headwaters of the Mississippi, and coming down that stream destroy the Chippewa villages in detail. They succeeded in reaching the upper river by making a grand circuit by way of Gull, Leach, Cass and Winnepegosish lakes, and in the first instance had good success. They captured thirty young women who were out on a huckleberry party, and picked off a number of isolated families. They found the warriors of the Chippewas in a drunken carouse, but the women, realizing the situation, brought their lords to their senses by ducking them in the lake until they were aroused from their drunken stupor, and they made a really gallant defense and drove the Dakotas off, though not without the loss of some men. The Dakotas with their captives then set off down the river, apparently satisfied with what they had accomplished, though just how they hoped to profit by the enterprise unless they crushed and drove away the enemy does not appear. Their satisfaction, however, was of short duration. A party of Chippewa hunters had discovered the passage of the Dakotas into the Chippewa country and rightly divining that it was their intention to return by the Mississippi, they arranged an ambush upon that stream. Just below the mouth of Crow Wing River there is a sharp bend where the whole force of the channel is thrown against the east shore, which rises almost perpendicularly to a height of fifty feet, and canoes passing down the river are drawn by the current immediately under this bank. With an eye to these advantages the Chippewas selected the point for the ambuscade. They dug several holes along this bank large enough to accommodate eight or ten men each, from which they were invisible to passing enemies, while they completely commanded the channel.

Warren thus relates what followed: "One morning after their preparations were complete, one of their scouts who had been sent about a mile up the Mississippi and who was watching on the bank for the first appearance of the Dakotas, descended carelessly to the water's edge to drink. While lapping the water with his hand to his lips, looking up the river he perceived a canoe suddenly turn a point of land above him. Instinctively he threw himself flat upon the ground and gradually crawled back unperceived. When out of sight he looked back and saw the whole bosom of the river covered with war canoes of those of whose coming he had been sent to watch. Seeing that he had not been noticed he flew back to his comrades, who now fully prepared for the conflict by putting on their war paints and ornaments of battle.

"Opposite the main mouth of the Crow Wine and in plain view of their ambuscade, they saw their enemies disembark and proceed to cook their morning meal. They saw the large group of female prisoners as they were roughly pushed ashore and made to build the fires and hang the kettles. Amongst them doubtless were their wives, daughters and sisters. They saw the young warriors of the enemy form in a ring and dance, yelling and rejoicing over the scalps they had taken. With difficulty the leader restrained his younger and more foolhardy warriors from rushing out and attacking their enemies while engaged in their orgies.

"The Dakotas having finished their morning meal and scalp dancing, once more poured into their canoes. They floated down the current in a compact mass, holding on to each others' canoes while filling and lighting their pipes and passing them from one to another, to be alternately smoked. Above them, dangling from the ends of poles, were the scalps they had taken. In the foremost canoes were the war leaders, and planted before them were the war ensigns of feathers. After smoking they united in the cry which they utter after killing an enemy. The drums began beating, accompanied by yells and songs of triumph. Still moving in a compact flotilla, the current at length brought them immediately under the deadly ambuscade.  At the sound of their leader's war whistle they (Chippewa) suddenly let fly a flight of bullets and barbed arrows into the serried ranks of the enemies, picking out for death the most prominent and full plumed figures amongst them. The confusion amongst the Dakotas at this sudden and unexpected attack was immense. The captives overturned the canoes they were in, and the rest running against one another and those in the water struggling to re-embark, and the sudden jumps of those who were wounded, caused many of them to overturn, leaving their owners struggling in the deep current. Many were thus drowned, and as long as they remained in range of their enemies' weapons the Dakotas suffered severely. Some dove and swam ashore on the opposite side, then running down the bank joined those of their fellows who still floated about a mile below the place of attack, where they all landed and collected their upturned canoes and such of their articles as floated past. Many of their captives made their escape by swimming to their friends. Some were dispatched at the first onset, and the few that still remained in their hands the Dakotas tied to tree to await the result of the coming struggle, for smarting under the loss of their bravest men, and having noticed the comparatively small number of the Chippewas. they determined to go back and fight the battle anew and revenge the death of their relatives. They bravely made the attack, but the Chippewas were so strongly and securely posted that they sustained the attack until night without losing any of their men, while the Dakotas suffered severely, being obliged to fight from open ground without shelter. The fight lasted until night, when the Dakotas retreated. They encamped where they had landed and within plain view and hearing of their enemies, who during the night distinctly heard their lamentations for their relatives who had been slain during the day's fight. In the morning the Dakotas, still burning for vengeance, returned to the attack. Acting with greater caution and wariness, they approached the Chippewa defenses by digging counter holes or making embankments of earth or logs before them to shield them from their missiles. The ammunition of the contending parties failing them, the Dakotas dug their hiding holes so close to their foes that large stones were easily thrown from hole to hole. In this manner the late noted Chippewa chief, Sweet, then a young man, received a stunning blow on his face which broke his jaw bone. Some of the bravest warriors fought hand to hand with clubs and knives, and the Chippewas,. lost one of their number. They fought so obstinately, however, that the Dakotas were compelled to retreat, and fearing retaliation the M'dewakantons removed finally from the Rum River country, never again to occupy that section."

The first intimation which the women and children of the Dakotas, who were assembled about the Falls of St. Anthony, received of this terrible catastrophe was brought to them by the river in the floating debris, among which were recognized articles of tribal property and occasionally the mutilated body of some of their relatives. Their story of the grief which this brought to them is among the most pathetic tales which history has preserved to us.

The next year the Chippewas resolved to invade the new country of the Dakotas and punish them for their conduct of the previous year, and under the leadership of old Noka, a well known chief of that period, they descended the Mississippi to the mouth of Crow River, thirty miles above the falls, where they hid their canoes and struck across country to the Minnesota at the village of old Shakopee, the father of the Shakopee of 1812. The attack resulted in a drawn battle, both parties taking scalps and claiming the victory. The Chippewas were, however, compelled to withdraw to their own country without inflicting especial damage. This was in the year 1769, and is notable as the first year in which the Chippewas ever advanced so far into the Dakota country. Some years later, probably in 1772, it at least was prior to 1775, when through English influence a peace was made which lasted for a long time, Big Marten, another well known Chippewa, gathered up another war party of 120 men and started to make war on the Dakotas. At the same time Little Crow the elder had started upon an invasion of the Chippewa country with about 100 warriors. The two parties met on the bank of the Mississippi just north of the mouth of Elk River. The Chippewas were first to discover the presence of the enemy and were the strongest party, so that in every way they possessed an advantage. The Dakotas were on an open below a heavily wooded bottom, from which the Chippewas attacked them. They returned the fire, both parties being well armed with muskets. The warriors of both parties jumped continually from side to side to prevent their enemies from taking sure aim; and as they stood confronting one another for a few moments on the open prairie, exchanging quick successive volleys, their bodies in continual motion, the plumes on their heads waving to and fro, and uttering their fierce, quick, sharp battle cries, they must have presented a singular and wild appearance. For a short time only were the Dakotas able to hold their own, when they were compelled to drop their blankets and fly down the river, turning occasionally to fire back at their pursuers. In this way a running fight was kept up for three miles, when the Dakotas to their great joy met a large party of Shakopee's warriors who had come across from the Minnesota to join in the foray against the Chippewas. They promptly turned upon the enemy, and it was now the Chippewas' turn to run. Hard pressed the Chippewas started up Elm River, and when exhausted from the enforced race sheltered themselves by a grove of oaks, where they made a stand. The fight at the grove was a desperate one. The Dakotas dug rifle pits and in this way approached very close to the Chippewas, but with all their efforts through several hours they were unable to dislodge them. It was the early spring, just as the grass was starting, and the prairie in the vicinity was covered with a heavy coat of last year's grass, to which the Dakotas set fire. A high wind was blowing and the Chippewas were soon seeking safety in flight. The best runners among them could only keep away from the flames, while the old and the weak and wounded were soon overcome and perished. Such Chippewas as escaped reached the Mississippi and plunged into its flood and took refuge upon an island. The Dakotas followed them to the water's edge, but did not care to attack them upon the island retreat, and both parties returned to their respective countries.

The next year, probably 1773, Big Marten started out again to fight the Dakotas and get even for the disaster of the previous campaign. That he could muster but sixty warriors at this time is suggestive of the havoc of the loss of the previous year. Reaching the battlefield at Elk River he found it occupied by Little Crow, Redwing, Shakopee, Wapasha and at least 400 warriors. The Chippewas again had the advantage of first discovery and entrenched themselves before the enemy could attack. The Dakotas, too, were enabled to fight from cover, and all day they watched each other and picked off any warrior who had the temerity to show his head. Big Marten was killed by a Dakota bullet, and at night his warriors escaped under the cover of the darkness. This was the last engagement between the tribes prior to the English made peace incident to  the Revolutionary war.

From all the accounts the fighting at this period, when the Dakotas were struggling for their homes at the lakes and the Chippewas were establishing themselves in the conquered territory, was the fiercest and most sanguinary in the history of these tribes. It is not recorded that another time did they seek battles in the open and manfully stand up and fight to the death as they did upon the occasions just narrated.

There does not appear to have been any more fighting between the tribes until 1783, when the Revolutionary war being over, the Indians returned to their homes and their hereditary occupations. A French trader had set up a post at the junction of the Partridge River with Crow River for the Chippewa trade and had gathered about him about forty Chippewa hunters, when in February they were attacked by about 200 Dakotas from the prairie, probably Yanktonais, armed only with bows and arrows. All of the Chippewas had guns and the post was stockaded. The Dakotas soon exhausted their arrows without reaching any of the Chippewas, while the latter with their muskets had reached and killed several of their assailants. The Dakotas therefore carried off their dead, which they dropped through holes cut in the ice, and retired from the country.

At this period and for many years thereafter the favorite hunting grounds of the Sissetons and Wahpetons were about Long Prairie and Alexandria, and in the progress of time the Chippewas began to resort to the same locality, and these meetings were usually attended by more or less bloodshed, though it happened more than once when the enemies were about of equal strength that they made a peace and hunted quietly together the game, which in the timber surrounding this prairie abounded in greater abundance than elsewhere. These peace treaties, however, were frequently but a cover for treachery upon the part of one or both signatories. Under the terms of one of these armistices in the year 1785 Yellow Hair, the father of old Flatmouth, whose wife was a Dakota, fell in with and became a very great friend of a Wahpeton chief, and they spent the winter together in great comfort. The next spring after the Wahpetons had left the camp a party of Dakotas fell upon Yellow Hair's camp and killed some of his children and scalped his eldest son, a lad of twelve years, and sent him to his people alive. Yellow Hair at once took his family and the corpses of his children to his village at Leech Lake, and then with five warriors set out on the trail of the Wahpetons. On the headwaters of Crow River, 200 miles from his home, he found a Dakota camp of but two lodges, and he promptly opened up hostilities at the peep of day, the first announcement of his presence being his warwhoop and the discharge of his guns. It proved to be the camp of his Wahpeton friend of the winter's hunt, who was entirely innocent of his wrongs, the children probably having been killed by the Cut Heads from the prairie, but he did not hesitate upon that account, but ruthlessly shot down the friend and his family. The Wahpeton begged for mercy, and  Yellow Hair, lighting his pipe, said that he would like to adopt a child from the Dakotas in place of the child he had lost. The Wahpeton took his little daughter and decking her out in all her finery sent her out to Yellow Hair, who seized her in sight of her parents and scalped her alive and sent her shrieking back to them. At this act of horrible brutality the wounded Dakota renewed the fight and succeeded in killing one of Yellow Hair's men, but not a single inmate of the two Wahpeton lodges was left alive.

From the Revolution until about 1810 the warfare between  the Chippewas of northern Wisconsin and Wapasha's and Redwing's bands was almost continuous. The battle grounds were upon the Chippewa and Menomonee rivers in western Wisconsin. In 1795 a war chief named Big Chippewa from Lake Flambeau came down to revenge the loss of some relatives upon Redwing's people. His party consisted of twenty-three picked warriors. From the mouth of the Chippewa they could see a war party dancing and preparing to leave Redwing's village on the opposite side of the river, and rightly surmising that they intended crossing to the east shore and probably to go up the Chippewa, they laid an ambush on the banks of the Chippewa and awaited events. At daybreak the next morning they saw 200 Dakotas enter  their canoes and paddle across and enter the mouth of the Chippewa. It was the sheerest folly for twenty-three men, even with the advantage of an ambush, to attack such an army, but the stubborn chief would not listen to any other course, but fired upon the flotilla and picked off several of the head men. They then started upon a rapid retreat, hoping that the confusion of the Dakotas would give them such a start that they could escape, but Big Chippewa was so named because he was exceedingly corpulent and unable to run fast or far, and he soon became exhausted. His warriors gathered around him, assuring him they would fight to the last man, but he would not have it, but sent them along, telling them that he was good for nothing else than to hold the enemy back to let them escape. The Dakotas, in hot pursuit, soon came upon him seated in a clump of tall grass and quietly smoking. They stopped in astonishment and began leaping from side to side to distract his aim, but he paid no attention to them. The whole Dakota force arrived, but hesitated to go closer, believing he was trying to decoy them into an ambush. They gradually and cautiously surrounded him, and when after the loss of much time they became convinced that he was entirely alone fired upon him. At the first shot he fell forward as if dead. The Dakotas rushed forward to scalp him, but he sprang to his feet and shot the leader dead and killed another with the stock of his gun and wounded several others with his knife before they dispatched him, a Dakota catching him by the scalp lock and completely severing his head from his body. The other Chippewas effected their escape.

In 1798 another battle occurred at Prairie Rice Lake, forty miles north of Chippewa Falls, in which but a few lives were lost, but among those were the wife and child of one of the Dakota chiefs. In the entire series of fights the casualties were but trivial. At this period, too, near the end of the eighteenth century, there were a number of battles between Little Crow's band and the Chippewas of the St. Croix, though like the others but few were killed upon either side and neither party seems to have secured any advantage. In fact after the Chippewas had become thoroughly established upon the Santee Lakes and the Dakotas had accepted the conquest as final, there does not appear to have been any other motive in their wars than to gratify revenge. No thought of territorial conquest seems to have been in their minds. A Chippewa was killed and his friends determined to take it out of the Dakotas, and having taken a single Dakota life in repayment that settled the matter until the Dakotas made another raid. Naturally the Dakotas, who had been driven away from their homes, were the most vindictive, and never let the opportunity to strike a Chippewa escape when the conditions were in any manner favorable. For all of the stories of the wars subsequent to the conquest of the Dakotas above related we are indebted to Warren's History of the Chippewas, modified somewhat by the stories of other writers throwing additional light upon the same events, and to a few corroborative details supplied by John B. Renville and Solomon Twostars.

 

 

CHAPTER V

 

When Lewis and Clark left St. Louis for their celebrated expedition over the Missouri to the Pacific Ocean in the spring of 1804, they engaged as interpreter to the Dakota Indians Pierre Durion, a French trader who had had long experience among the Indians and whose home was at Yankton. Durion  was in all probability the first white man to make his home in South Dakota, antedating Garreau of the Arickaras, to whom the honor is generally attributed, by several years. Durion's wife was a Yankton woman, and his half-breed son was a man and engaged in trade when Lewis and Clark arrived at the James River in August, 1804. This predicates the fact that Durion must have been among them and taken a wife there at least as early as 1780. This Dakota born, half Indian son of the guide to Lewis and Clark became the guide to the Astoria party six years later.

It was the 27th of that summer month when the explorers first came in contact with the Dakotas at the mouth of James River, and sent an invitation to the tribe to visit them at Green Island, across the river from the present Yankton, where on the 28th and 29th a grand council was held, and the Yanktons acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States, and the captains in turn recognized the chiefs of the tribe and fitted them out with gaudy officers' uniforms, with cocked hats and red feathers. They learned that the Yanktons originally resided on the Mississippi and were a part of the people of the Spirit Lake. Taken at that early day, this is important testimony as to the former history of the Yanktons. In relation to the manner of living of the Yanktons at that date they say: "The camps of the Sioux are conical in form, covered with buffalo robes painted with various figures and colors, with an aperture in the top for the smoke to pass through. The lodges contain from ten to fifteen persons, and the interior arrangement is compact and handsome, each lodge having a place to cook detached from it." After the captains had informed them of the change of sovereignty following the Louisiana purchase and had given them the presents, the Yanktons retired and engaged in a protracted council, deliberating upon the reply they were to make to the strangers. The next morning they returned and seating themselves in a row indicated a place for the captains to be seated, and after smoking a pipe which was passed from mouth to mouth until each had taken a whiff, when the head chief, whose name they set down as Weucha (Shake Hand), arose and said: "I see before me my great father's two sons. You see me and the rest of our chiefs and warriors. We are very poor; we have neither powder or ball nor knives, and our women and children have no clothes. I wish that as my brothers have given me a flag and a medal, they would give something to these poor people, or let them stop and trade with the first boat that comes up the river. I will bring chiefs of the Pawnees and Mahas together and make peace between them; but it is better that I should do this than my great father's sons, for they will listen to me more readily. I will take some chiefs to your country in the spring, but before that time I cannot leave home. I went formerly to the English, and they give me a medal and some clothes. When I went to the Spanish they gave me a medal, but nothing to keep it from my skin; but now you give me a medal and clothes. But still we are poor and I wish you would give us something for our squaws."

Mahtoree, the White Crane, said: "I have listened to what our father's words were yesterday, and I am glad today to see how you have dressed our old chief. I am a young man and do not care to take much. My fathers have made me a chief. I lad much sense before, but now I think I have more than ever What the old chief has declared I will confirm and do whatever you please; but I wish you would take pity on us, for we are very poor."

Struck by the Pawnee made a similar talk, and Half Man varied the character of the begging by modestly requesting a supply of the "great father's milk," meaning whisky.

During the night a child was born to a Yankton woman, and Captain Lewis asked that it might be brought to him, saying he proposed to make an American of it, and wrapped it in the Stars and Stripes. That child was Strike the Ree, and all of his life he boasted of his Americanism, and probably to that fact more than to any other was due his position of loyalty to the whites in the perilous times of 1862. It was due to his influence that the Yanktons refused to join in the outbreak, and the preservation of the settlement at Yankton is doubtless due to his prudent action.

Old Durion was left with the Yanktons for the purpose of conducting a delegation of them down to Washington the next spring, a mission which he accomplished during the next two years. They were the first Dakotas to visit the president.

While with the Yanktons Lewis and Clark learned of a society of young men who had taken a great oath never to turn back before any danger or to give way to their enemies. Originally there were twenty- two members of the band, but adherence to their rash oath had reduced the number to four. As an illustration of their fanaticism it is mentioned that in crossing the Missouri in the winter a large hole in the ice lay directly in the course, which might have been easily avoided by turning a short distance to either hand, but the leader rushed directly into it and was drowned.

Leaving the Yanktons on September 1st the party moved on further into the Dakota country, passing the Pawnee House built by Trudeau in 1796 on September 8th, and on the 22d Loisel's post on Cedar Island, which was the oldest post in the Dakota country, but they did not come in contact with any Indians until the 23d, when a short distance below the mouth of the Teton River (Fort Pierre) three Dakota boys swam out to their boats and told them two bands of Dakotas were camped on the Teton, having respectively sixty and eighty lodges. They were sent back with an invitation to the chiefs to meet them in council the next morning. They met five other Indians that day, and camped that night at the mouth of the Teton.

The Dakotas who met them here were, according to the journal of the captains, Teton Okandandas, which undoubtedly was their misunderstanding of Oohenopa. It does not appear possible that they could so have misconstrued the word, but when in the same paragraph we find "Tatanka Sapa" written Untongasabaw, and the next name in the list, "Tatonka Wakan," written Tartongawaka, we can realize that it was not much of a feat for the captains to convert "Oohenopa" into Okandandas. The fact is it is very difficult to catch the phonic spelling of any unfamiliar word, even among persons speaking our own tongue, and we can realize how much more difficult it is to catch an alien word upon first hearing it. Having left Eurion, the interpreter, at Yankton, the captains were compelled to rely upon the assistance of a Frenchman who spoke neither English or Dakota with any facility. They went through a similar ceremony to that at Yankton, giving to Tatonka Sapa (Black Buffalo) a medal, a flag, a laced uniform and a cocked hat and feather, and after showing them the working of the swivel and air gun and other curiosities, they gave to each a part of a glass of whisky, which they liked very much, but they found great difficulty in getting rid of them. Captain Clark finally succeeded in getting them ashore, but they were intent upon mischief. Three Indians seized the cable by which the boat was moored and one put his arms around the mast. Tortohonga, the second chief, told them that they had not received presents enough and that they could not go on. A quarrel followed and personal violence was threatened, but Captain Clark drew his sword and the men rushed to his assistance, when they withdrew opposition and held a council. The captains moved their effects over to the island, where they spent the night, and the next day the Indians were very humble and implored the white men to go to their camp a mile or two up the river, where they might be feasted and entertained. The captains were received at the landing by ten young men each, who carried them to the camp upon highly decorated buffalo robes, where they were placed beside the chiefs in the council circle. The council lodge consisted of three-quarters of a circle, covered at the top with neatly dressed skins. Seventy men sat in the council. Before the chief was placed the Spanish and American flags. In the center of the circle the pipe of peace was elevated on two forked sticks and under it a quantity of swansdown was scattered. After a good deal of talking the old chief took the pipe and first pointing it to heaven, then to the earth and then to the points of the compass, he lighted it and presented it to the visitors. After this followed a feast of dog and buffalo meat. At dark the chamber was cleared for dancing and a fire kindled to light up the scene. "The orchestra consisted of about ten men, who played a sort of tamborine formed of skin stretched over a hoop, and made a jingling noise with a long stick to which the hoofs of deer and goats were hung; the third instrument was a skin bag with pebbles in it. These, with five or six young men for the vocal parts, made up the band. The women then came forward highly decorated, some with poles in their hands upon which were hung the scalps of their enemies; others with guns, spears or other trophies, taken in war by their husbands, brothers or connexions. Having ranged themselves in two columns, on either side of the fire, as soon as the music begun they danced toward each other till they met in the center, when the rattles were shaken and they shouted and returned to their places. They have no step, but shuffle along the ground; nor does the music appear to be anything more than a confusion of noises, distinguished only by hard or gentle blows upon the buffalo skin; the song is perfectly extemporaneous. In the pauses of the dance any man of the company comes forward and recites in a sort of low gutteral tone some story or incident, which is either martial or ludicrous, or, as was the case this evening, voluptuous and indecent. This is taken up by the orchestra and the dancers, who repeat it in a higher strain and dance to it. Sometimes they alternate, the orchestra first performing, and when it ceases the women raise their voices and make a music more agreeable, that is less intolerable than that of the musicians. The dances of the men, which are always separate from those of the women, are conducted very nearly in the same way, except that the men jump up and down instead of shuffling, and in the war dances the recitations are all of a military cast. The harmony of the entertainment had nearly been disturbed by one of the musicians, who thinking he had not received a due share of the tobacco we had distributed during the evening, put himself into a passion, broke one of the drums, threw two of them into the fire and left the band. They were taken out of the fire, a buffalo robe held in one hand and beaten with the other by several of the company supplied the place of the lost drum or tamborine, and no notice was taken of the offensive conduct of the man. We staid until 12 o'clock at night, when we informed the chiefs that they must be fatigued with all these attempts to amuse us, and retired, accompanied by four chiefs, two of whom spent the night on board with us." The next morning these guests as a matter of course carried off the blankets upon which they had slept. This is to this day the Indian custom. The writer recalls being present at a great feast several years ago at the Cheyenne River agency, given by the Indians of that agency to visitors from many of the other reservations. The spread was a bountiful one and at its close the visitors gathered up all of the remnants, including many unbroken packages of provisions, and unconcernedly carried them away.

These Dakotas were dressed entirely in skins, and the captains minutely describe the outfits of both the men and women. The only domestic utensils mentioned were water-bags of the paunches of deer and other animals and wooden bowls, but whether the latter were of domestic or white make is not stated. They also had platters and horn spoons. The pipe, then as now, was made of pipestone with a stem of  ash wood about three feet long. A police regulation of the tribe is carefully described:

"While on shore today we witnessed a quarrel between two squaws, which appeared to be growing every moment more boisterous, when a man came forward, at whose approach every one seemed terrified and ran. He took the squaws and without any ceremony whipped them severely. On inquiring into the nature of such summary justice, we learnt that this man was an officer well known to this and many other tribes. His duty is to keep the peace, and the whole interior police of the village is confided to two or three of these officers, who are named by the chief, and remain some days, at least until the chief appoints a successor. They seem to be a sort of constable or sentinel, since they, are always on the watch, to keep tranquility during the day and guarding the camp at night. The short duration of their office is compensated by its authority; his power is supreme and in the suppression of any riot or disturbance no resistance to him is suffered; his person is sacred and if in the execution of his duty he strikes even a chief of the second class he cannot be punished for this salutary insolence. In general they accompany the person of the chief and when ordered to do any duty, however dangerous, it is a point of honor rather to die than to refuse obedience. Thus when they attempted to stop us yesterday, the chief ordered one of these men to take possession of the boat; he at once put his arms around the mast, and, as we understood, no force except the command of the chief would have induced him to release his hold. Like the other men, their bodies are blackened, but their distinguishing mark is a collection of two or three raven skins fixed to the girdle behind the back in such a way that the tails stick out horizontally from the body. On the head, too, is a raven skin, split into two parts and tied so-as to let the beak project from the forehead."

On the second night the captains attended another dance given in their honor, and upon returning to the boats at midnight they mismanaged to let two of the vessels come together in such a way as to break the mooring line of one of them and it floated into the stream. This created some commotion and the chiefs set up a hullaboloo which brought all of the warriors from the camp to the shore, ostensibly to repel an attack from the Manas, but really because they thought the party intended to steal a inarch on them and get away in the night. It was manifestly the intention of the Indians to detain the explorers there.

The tribe had just returned from a war with the Mahas and had a party of about fifty women and children captives of the enemy tribe, which upon request of the captains Black Buffalo promised to restore to their own people.

When on the morning of September 28th they were finally ready to take their leave black Buffalo remained on the boat and a party of young men sat on the cable and refused to let them off. The captains trained the swivel upon them, when Black Buffalo interposed and said that they only wanted some more tobacco. Rather than to incur trouble they gave them a little tobacco, and by a personal appeal to the old chief to use his power as a chief to compel his men to let them go in peace they got away, but for two days the Tetons followed along the banks begging for gifts. Black Buffalo enjoyed his voyage very much until the third day, when the boat in which he was riding struck a sawyer and came near to capsizing. He was much alarmed, and when they landed to right the boat he seized his gun and said that he had now conducted them safely out of the country of the Tetons and would return to his people. On October 2d they passed the trading hut of John Valle at the mouth of the Cheyenne. He was expecting a large number of Dakotas from the north to come and trade with him. That afternoon they encountered a party of Yanktonais, but did not council with them, and for a day or two were concerned for their safety by the proximity of prowling Indians and dared not send their hunters out, but they were not molested. Upon the map made by Captain Clark to illustrate the first official publication of their journal in 1814 a tribe of the Sioux (Dakotas) called the Saones is located about where Fort Yates now stands, but they did not encounter any Dakotas there, or north of the Cheyenne, either in going out or returning.

On the return trip in 1806 they did not find any Indians in the Fort Pierre region, but came upon some of Black Buffalo's people down near Fort Randall. This time they spell his name Tahtackasabah. Near Bon Homme Island they came upon eighty lodges of Yanktons, who treated them kindly, and they passed out of the Dakota country.

 

CHAPTER VI

 

No sooner was the Louisiana purchase ratified than Jefferson undertook to procure its thorough exploration with a view to gaining knowledge of its geography, climate, resources and population. We have seen that even before the purchase Lewis and Clark were dispatched up the Missouri. In the summer of 1805 the renowned Zebulon M. Pike was commissioned to explore the Mississippi to its headwaters. Pike arrived at Prairie du Chien on September 4th, but there is no record that he met any of the Dakotas until he arrived at Lake Pepin, where he met Redwing, with a small band of Dakotas. He told him of the purchase, gave him some presents, and passed on to the mouth of the Minnesota, where he arrived on the 21st of September, and camped on the island, where he was visited next day by Little Crow, the second of that name, whose home was at Kaposia (St. Paul), and on the 23d, Monday, made the first treaty ever entered into between the United States government and the Dakota Indians, by which the M'dewakantonwan band relinquished to the government a tract nine miles square at the mouth of the St. Croix for military purposes, and another tract extending from one league south of the mouth of the Minnesota up the river to one league above the Falls of St. Anthony, and nine miles wide on both sides of the river, this, too, to be occupied for military purposes, the erection of a fort and trading post. The Indians reserved the right to occupy and hunt over the lands ceded, and for the concession they were paid $2,000.  He made a very long speech to the Dakotas and undertook to enforce a complete prohibition of all liquor traffic among them. Little Crow signed the deed and retired to his camp. The next morning bright and early he came rushing back, carrying the United States flag, and expecting to find Pike's party massacred. In some way the flag had been lost from the boat during the night, and Little Crow had found it floating down the river. Pike proceeded up the river and built a temporary post at the mouth of Pine Creek, but himself with a few companions spent the entire winter in exploring the headwaters of the Mississippi, going as far as the divide between the Mississippi and the waters of the lakes. While still at his post on the Mississippi he was visited by Robert Dickson, the trader to the Sioux who a few years later had charge of the British interests in the west during the war of 1812. He met the Chippewas and formed a very poor opinion of them as compared to the Dakotas. He was unable to persuade any of the Chippewas to accompany him to Washington.

In the spring he returned to the falls and held a council with the Sissetons who had come in to trade, and invited them to send a representative to Washington. He urged them to keep the peace with the Chippewas, with whom the old feud was raging at the time hotter than ever. They made good promises, but kept on fighting. At the St. Croix he met Little Crow, who admitted that it was beyond his power to keep the young men from going to war against their hereditary enemies. He learned here that Joseph Rolette and Murdoch Cameron were disregarding his orders and were selling whisky, and he resolved to prosecute Cameron, against whom he learned from the Yanktons had carried liquor to them and defiantly sold it, after informing them of the prohibition. He was compelled to wait some days with Little Crow until the ice went out of Lake Pepin. He again visited Redwing, who made a bombastic speech and offered to gather up a thousand Dakotas for the service of the United States. At Winona Wapasha, who lived there, was away from home on a hunt and he did not get to see hint. As he passed down the river he had invited all of the bands to send delegations to a general council to be held at Prairie du Chien, and soon after he arrived there a large number representing all of the eastern Dakotas and other tribes of the Mississippi met him there. He gave them much good advice. Among others whom he met there was Red Thunder, chief of the "Yanctongs." This man was a Cut Head Yanktonais. The concensus of opinion seemed to be among the Dakotas that Little Crow was the most capable man among them, and Pike in consequence recognized him as the head chief of the Dakotas. He describes a game of lacrosse which was played while he waited at Prairie du Chien, between the Winnebagoes and Foxes on one side against the Dakotas. This occurred on Sunday, April 30th.

"This afternoon they had a great game of the cross on the prairie, between the Sioux on the one side and the Puants and the Reynards on the other. The ball is made of some hard substance and covered with leather; the cross sticks are round, with net work, and handles three feet long. The parties being ready and bets agreed upon, to the amount of some thousands of dollars, the goals were set up on the prairie at the distance of half a mile. The ball is thrown up in the middle and each party strives to drive it to the opposite goal, and when either party wins the first rubber, which is driving it quick around the post, the ball is again taken to the center, the ground changed and the contest renewed, and this is continued until one party wins four times, which decides the bet. It is an interesting sight to see two or three hundred naked savages contending on the plain which shall bear off the palm of victory. He who drives the ball around the goal is much shouted at by his companions. It sometimes happens that one catches the ball in his racket, and depending on his speed endeavors to carry it to the goal, and when he finds himself too closely pursued he hurls it with great force and dexterity to an amazing distance, where there are always flankers of both parties ready to receive it. It seldom touches the ground, but is sometimes kept in the air for hours before either party can gain the victory. In the game I witnessed the Sioux were victorious, more, I believe, from their skill in throwing the ball than by their swiftness, for I thought the Puants and Reynards the swiftest runners. 

In the final council the tribes acknowledged the sovereignty of the United States and delivered up their English medals and flags, and on April 22d Pike set out down the river. From the foregoing it will be seen that the purchase had been proclaimed to all of the tribes of the Dakotas, both on the Mississippi and the Missouri, and all of the tribes had given a nominal acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the United States, and one band at least had in writing acknowledged the new government by relinquishing a portion of land to it.

Manifestly the relations between the Santees and Tetons had been less intimate than formerly for a long time, and now their trade relations were established along entirely different lines, the Santees still trading with the old French frontiersmen, most of whom had become English in their sentiments, as well as with a large number of Scotchmen, who had more recently come into the western trade. These were entirely British in their allegiance and sought in every way to keep the Dakotas away from the American influence. On the other hand the Tetons were supplied with goods on the Missouri from St. Louis, and all of the traders were American in sentiment and impressed that view to a greater or less extent upon their swarthy customers. For convenience in the progress of this history, unless a more specific definition is given, the Dakotas of the Mississippi and Minnesota will be designated as Santees and those of the Missouri as Tetons. although strictly speaking the Yankton tribes are not Tetons. The diverse lines of trade were soon to possess a very deep political and economic significance to the country, as well as to the Indians.

The trade of the Mississippi at once fell into the hands of Robert Dickson and Murdoch Cameron, who utterly disregarded the rules established by Pike for the government of trade and conducted affairs to their own pleasure, particularly in the matter of dispensing liquor, and their liberality in this behalf was a strong point in their favor and an influence against the Americans. The Dakota Indian loved his toddy and freely gave his affections to the men who catered to his appetite, so it came about that a strong pro-English sentiment grew up among the Santees. Outside of these matters of trade very little of record appears relating to the Santees from the departure of Pike until the year prior to the opening of the second war with England.

On the Missouri, however, there was continual activity. The next spring after the return of Lewis and Clark Manuel Lisa and Pierre Menard of St. Louis went up river, supplying the post at Cedar Island with goods, but leaving no other record of dealings in the Sioux country. Shortly afterward Sergeant Pryor and Pierre Chouteau, Sr., came up. returning to the Yanktons the party which Pierre Durion had conducted down to see President Jefferson, and attempting to restore Big White, the Mandan chief whom Lewis and Clark had taken to Washington, to his people. They got through the Dakota country without incident, but when they reached Arickara they were stopped by the Rees and a fight ensued, in which some of their men were killed, and they were compelled to turn back. In this engagement the Rees were assisted by a party of Dakotas from the Teton River under the leadership of Black Buffalo, the chief of the band which entertained and detained Lewis and Clark upon their upriver voyage. Black Buffalo and his men attempted to cut off the passage of Pryor and Chouteau at a point on the river where the channel carried them near the west bank, below Arickara, when they were retreating, and the chief was picked off by a riverman's rifle and fell seriously wounded, but recovered. The Dakotas then withdrew and the party returned to St. Louis without further difficulty. At this time the Dakotas did all they could to encourage traders to come among them, though they were not pleased to have goods carried by them to the upper tribes.

In 1808 Manuel Lisa returned from his upriver adventure, but there is nothing of record that he had any intercourse with the Dakotas. At St. Louis he organized the St. Louis Missouri Fur Company, in which most of the traders of that city joined, and the next year this company under agreement from the government safely conducted Big White to his home. During all of this time it appears that trade was kept up with the Sioux at the Loisel post on Cedar Island, which passed into the hands of the Missouri Fur Company, but both there and at Yankton the relations were evidently pleasant, for there is no note of any disturbance. The next year the Loisel post burned, together with $15,000 worth of furs which had been accumulated there through trade with the Dakotas. This was probably the entire winter's trade and is an indication of the volume of business done there. It is probable that these furs were equivalent to fully one-half of the business done in South Dakota at that time.

In 1811 the Dakotas of South Dakota came into contact with two historic expeditions through their country. These were the Astoria and the Missouri Fur Company parties, the latter under Manuel Lisa. The Astorians anticipated great difficulty in passing through the Dakota country, but were really very little troubled and not at all delayed. The fact probably is that the Dakotas who interrupted them had no more hostile intention than to beg for tobacco and other presents, though the timid and cautious Mr. Hunt magnified their actions into open hostility. At this date, as had been the case for many years prior and for several subsequent seasons, the Tetons were at war with the Rees.

On the morning of May 31st, as they were approaching the Big Bend, above Chamberlain, a party of Dakotas of the Yanktons and Tetons, among whom was Black Buffalo, appeared on the east side of the river, the expedition being camped on the west shore. They declared they would not allow arms carried to the Mandans and Rees, with whom they were at war, but upon explanation that the party was enroute to the Pacific, and after Mr. Hunt had made a demonstration of strength and fired the swivels to let them hear how loud they could bark, opposition was withdrawn and the party proceeded.

 

CHAPTER VII

 

As has been noted, as soon as Lieutenant Pike left the upper Mississippi, Dickson, Campbell and the other British traders set out to poison the minds of the Indians against the Americans. At this time it was  the American proposition to establish great factories, as they were called, where all sorts of goods would be supplied to the Indians by the government at cost. These factories were to he located at convenient points in the Indian country, and their success of course meant ruin to the traders. This was the secret of the traders' opposition to the Americanization of the Indian country, and they were tireless  in their efforts to unite all of the Indians in common cause with the English to keep the Americans out. Robert Dickson was given a commission from the governor of Canada as western agent and superintendent of the Indian department and was clothed with extraordinary powers. He was said to be the only officer in the British empire who was permitted to expend money at will without an accounting. He heaped presents upon the Indians with unstinted hand, and having the field to himself, for the Americans made no attempt to occupy it or to hold the good will of the Indians, he soon had them heartily favorable to the English cause. At this juncture an incident occurred which was taken advantage of by Dickson and other British agents, which made a profound impression upon the Indians and favorable to the English. Tecumseh and The Prophet, his brother, Shawnees of Indiana, whose chief village was at Tippecanoe, attempted to league all of the tribes of the northwest in opposition to the whites. Tecumseh was a great warrior and The Prophet was a noted medicine man, and it is assumed that they were instigated to the movement by the English, but that fact is not demonstrated. However, as stated, the English were temporarily to profit by it. The Prophet proclaimed that he had been told by the great spirits that it was the will of the gods that the Indians should live independently of the whites and return to the primitive uses of the race. The flint and steel were to be disregarded and fire obtained as in the old days by the friction of two sticks. They were to discard firearms, but not until after the whites were disposed of. He claimed the power to resuscitate the dead and promised great blessings to those who believed and followed him. He sent messengers painted as black as ebony to all of the tribes. By 1809 they had penetrated to the Wisconsin tribes. When Manuel Lisa returned to St. Louis from his trip to Arickara in the summer of 1811 he informed Governor Clark that "the wampum was carrying by British influence along the banks of the Missouri and that all of the nations of this great river were excited to join the universal confederacy then setting on foot, of which The Prophet was the instrument and British traders the soul." It was one of those ghost dance crazes which swept the Indian country like a contagion. The Mississippi Dakotas were in full sympathy with it, and after General Harrison, then governor of Indiana, had marched his militia against Tecumseh in the summer of 1811 and defeated him and destroyed his village at Tippecanoe on the 7th of November, they readily accepted the claim advanced by Dickson that the English had been sent by the great spirit to drive off and destroy the Americans, after which they would retire to their own country and leave the Indians in possession of the land. In addition to the influence which Dickson had acquired through his liberality in dispensing British presents, he had established an especial tie with the Dakotas by marrying a Dakota woman, the sister of Red Thunder, a prominent chief of the Cut Head Yanktonais. Dickson therefore had no difficulty in enlisting the Mississippi Dakotas in his cause, but the American influence from St. Louis permeated the Missouri River bands, and after a period of indecision they cast their lot in with the Americans, and kept the Mississippi brethren busy looking out for expected attacks from their own people in the west. The Prophet craze, however, may have had something to do with the spirit of hostility which the Astorians claimed to have encountered among the Missouri Dakotas in 1811, for that was at the very juncture when the excitement was at its greatest heat.

Immediately upon the declaration of war in 1812, Dickson sent Joseph Renville, a half-blood M'dewakanton Dakota, who was his official interpreter, to gather up Dakotas to assist the English. Renville brought down to Green Bay about 150 Dakotas, accompanied by Little Crow and Wapashaw. They were present on the 17th of July, at Macinac, when that post surrendered to the English, but of course, as there was no fighting, their part in it was nothing more than to add to the impressiveness of the numbers which overawed the Americans and induced them to capitulate. After a season of feasting at British  expense they returned home for the winter to recruit additional forces for the campaigns of the next year. They were successful in raising a large number. Chiefly they were M'dewakantons of the bands of Little Crow and Wapasha. but all of the other eastern hands were represented, including the Yanktonais.

When Renville visited the Sissetons at Lake Traverse, upon his recruiting mission, he found visiting there Red Thunder, known to the Chippewas as Shappa, the beaver, the Yanktonais chief who visited Bike at Prairie des Chien in 1806. He was the brother of Dickson's wife. His son Waneta, a lad of 17, was with him. and they at once decided to go to the British. Whether other Yanktonais accompanied them is not recorded, but twenty-two Sissetons did go. The remainder of the Dakota volunteers, numbering 200 in all, were made up from the bands of Little Crow, Redwing and Wapasha. but Wapasha himself was suspected of holding views in sympathy with the Americans. He held on to the flags and medals given him by Pike and absolutely refused to go to the Canadian frontier, but did send his nephew, Itasappa, to represent him, and the latter was  the head chief of the expedition. They went by way of Macinac and early in May were present and took part in the siege of Fort Meigs, but their value to the British is very questionable.  After the arrival of the Kentucky recruits compelled the English to raise the siege of Fort Meigs, Dickson gathered up his Indians and started to attack Fort Stephenson, before Sandusky, intending to proceed down the Mauniee (river of the Miamis) to its mouth and then skirt along the shore of the lake until in the vicinity of the fort, but when he arrived at the mouth of the river and landed with all of his other Indian allies, of all the western tribes Itasappa and his Dakotas refused to land, but pulled sturdily along toward Detroit. In hot haste Lieutenant Fraser and Colin Campbell were dispatched to call them back, but without avail. Itasappa's conduct was contagious and all of the other bands took the same course; only Little Crow of the Dakotas and sixteen warriors remained to help the English out. To this desertion of Itasappa Colonel Dickson attributed the "disaster that befell our (British) fleet, the loss of Amherstburg and Detroit and the subsequent capture of General Proctor's army.'" After this the Dakotas with all speed returned to the Mississippi. With Little Crow remained Red Thunder and his son Waneta, and the latter won the highest renown for his valor in the fight before Fort Stephenson, and because of his fearless fighting in the open received the name he bore with honor to his grave, which means "he who charges his enemies."

All of the allies returned to the west in the fall, and Little Crow and Redwing and Waneta continued to serve the English cause to the great satisfaction of the officers, but Wapasha was not at any time in good standing. One sub-band of his camp, known as the Fireleaf band, was openly "American," and Wapasha undoubtedly shared in its sentiments until after the shooting of its head man by order of a court martial, when he professed a change of heart and surrendered his American flag and medals.

On the 10th of February, 1814, Wapasha and Little Crow, with 200 other Indians of the various tribes, visited Macinac in company with Colonel Dickson, to beg for soldiers and ammunition to protect them from the Americans, whom they feared would reach them and injure their families by way of the Mississippi. As usual, both of the old chiefs indulged in a speech, each manifesting the greatest devotion to the English cause and the greatest abhorrence of the Americans. They appear to have remained at Macinac until the Americans actually did appear and establish a post at the mouth of the Wisconsin, when they hurried back with Dickson and the English soldiers and remained on the Mississippi until the end of the war; kept on the survive by the pernicious activity of Manuel Lisa in keeping the Missouri River Dakotas in a threatening attitude towards them, though adroitly managing to prevent open warfare. Almost immediately after the Americans had built their Fort Shelby at Prairie du Chien the British came down from Macinac and dispossessed them and named the post Fort McKay. In the events of the remaining year of the War the Dakotas are but an incident. Dickson was inclined to show them every favor in preference to the eastern Indians. He held himself superior to the military and answerable only to the governor, Sir George Prevost, and he was in constant wrangle with Captains Anderson and Bulger, who successively were in command at Fort McKay.  By this time Dickson had added to his title, "Agent and superintendent of the western Indian department," the words "and of the conquered countries." He was a splendid trader and well up in all of the tricks of the business, and he applied his commercial knowledge to the situation at the expense of military authority. Joe Rolette had the beef contract for the fort, but Dickson was determined to ruin him and so, by means of his liberality with the English presents, cornered the market and secured all of the meat that was brought in by the Indians, the only source of supply. Rolette, at his wits' ends to meet his contract, conceived the plan of going out on the Minnesota prairies and supplying the disaffected Fireleaf band of Wapasha's Dakotas with ammunition and in return securing from them a supply of buffalo beef from a source outside the influence of Dickson. Consequently Rolette in December, 1814, sent Antoine Dubois and Louis Champagney to carry ammunition to this band, who ranged somewhat back from the river, probably through the Owatonna country.

They accomplished their mission, but while returning to the fort in company with an Indian of the band named Chunksah (probably Shunka), the latter secured their rifles while they were asleep and shot them both. Champagney died immediately, but Dubois managed to reach the fort, about twenty-four miles distant, where he related the circumstance, and then died. This band of Dakotas to whom the murderer belonged, in their opposition to Little Crow, had expressed sympathy with the Americans and had been denounced by the authorities as "Americans," and were therefore not to participate in the distribution of presents and ammunition, and Rolette had knowledge of this prohibition. Here, then, was Dickson's opportunity. He promptly denounced Rolette for supplying Americans with ammunition, and had him courtmartialed. Rolette was acquitted, as he had no disloyal intentions. Captain Bulger, however, at once marched a force of eighty men against the rebellious Dakotas to secure and bring in the murderer. He had fled further west and could not be secured, but they brought in the chief of the band as a hostage.  One of the men murdered was a half-breed nephew of Wapasha, and the boy's father had also been killed the previous year, presumably by the same Indian, and Wapasha and Little Crow applied for permission to go out and destroy the entire band of rebels, but this permission was withheld. On the 6th of January, 1815, about one month after the murder, the Fireleaf band (the rebels) brought in Chunksah, and he was at once tried by a general court-martial and shot on the spot, as the sentence of the court. Captain Bulger of course had no legal power to call a general courtmartial, nor to execute the sentence of one without submitting the finding to his superiors, but a little irregularity of that kind did not count upon the upper Mississippi ninety years ago, especially where there was nothing more important than the life of a Dakota Indian at stake.

When Lieutenant Pike explored the upper river in 1806 he met at St. Paul an Indian named Tamaha, the Rising Moose, better known among the whites as "the one-eyed Sioux." Pike was particularly pleased with the intelligence and friendliness of this man and speaks of him as "my friend." He was one of the signers of the treaty by which the M'dewakantons relinquished the Fort Snelling military reservation secured by Pike on that occasion. Little Crow and all of the others soon were seduced away from the allegiance to the Americans which they pledged to Pike, by the whisky and presents of Dickson, but Tamaha remained constant and boasted that he was the only American in his tribe. When Renville and Dickson went east with a band of fighting Dakotas to make war on the United States, Tamaha made his way to St. Louis and offered his services to Governor Clark as a scout and messenger. In 1814 Tamaha accompanied Manuel Lisa up the Missouri to the mouth of the James River, whence he made his way across country to Prairie du Chien. Just what his mission was is not certain, but it is probable that Lisa intended he should return after obtaining what information was desirable, though it is quite possible that the wily Spaniard only intended that he should carry such information to the Mississippi as would lead them to think the Missouri River Indians were hostile to them and so hold them in the west. The latter, upon the whole, is the more probable theory, for there is nothing to indicate that he carried any dispatches, or was really expected to return. Be that as it may, when Tamaha arrived at Prairie du Chien he was not very amicably received by Dickson, who snatched his bundle from his shoulder and searched it for letters, and failing to find any, demanded information of the Americans' movements down; the river. This information Tamaha refused to give, where upon he was thrown into the guardhouse and threatened with death if he refused to divulge what he knew of the Americans' purposes. Finding that he could not be intimidated, Dickson released him, and he went to his home on the upper river, where he spent the winter. In the spring he returned to Prairie du Chien just as the English were abandoning that post in conformity to the treaty of peace. They had set fire to the fort and abandoned it, first having raised an American flag over it to be destroyed. Seeing this, Tamaha rushed into the fort through the flames and smoke and rescued the flag. Only one other M'dewakanton was loyal to the Americans during the war, a friend of Tamaha's named Haypedan. Before the close of the war Dickson's conduct had become so obnoxious to Captain Bulger that he was deposed and sent to Macinac in disgrace. Almost at the time of the peace the western authorities were ordered by the English to go among the Indians and inform them that all of the other differences between the English and Americans had been settled except the restoration of the lands to the Indians, and that the king was now carrying on the war solely in behalf of the Indians. When the peace was actually made, as has been seen, the English burned the post on the Mississippi, and leaving the Indians to square themselves with the new order in the best way possible, abandoned the country. The war practically destroyed the fur trade for the time being, both by cutting off the market and by distracting the attention of the Indians from the hunt. Manuel Lisa, however, pushed the business of the Missouri Fur Company with some success. He was intensely American in his sentiments, and in 1814 Governor Clark rewarded his activity in the public interest by making him agent for all of the Missouri River Indians above the mouth of the Kansas and conferred upon him large powers and responsibilities. His policy, as has been before indicated, was to retain the friendship and confidence of his own Indians and keep them well in hand, at the same time allowing the impression to get out that they were American and likely at any time to strike the tribes on the Mississippi. As earnest of this intention he let a party of Yanktons and Omahas make a foray against the Iowas, who were English allies, and kept up a line of communication carrying "scare stories," which had the desired effect and kept the Mississippi Dakotas close to their own camp fires. Meanwhile he supplied his own Indians with regular trade, and induced them to hunt. He carried to them vegetables and assisted them in gardening, so that vegetables became a good part of their living. They were regularly cultivating pumpkins, beans, corn, potatoes and turnips. He set up blacksmith shops and manufactured for them, free of charge, knives, hatchets and all of the curious contrivances of their own invention. He was particularly careful of the comfort of the old and decrepit, and made his trading establishments asylums for this class of people. He had a large establishment at Council Bluffs, and another at the interior of South Dakota, but whether at Cedar Island at the site of the old Loisel post, which was burned in 1810, or upon American Island at Chamberlain, is not now known. It was likely the latter location. These posts were equipped with all sorts of domestic animals, like horses, cattle, hogs and poultry. From all of the evidences he possessed the affections of the Dakotas in a greater degree than any other white man of his period.

At the close of the war, therefore, the condition of the Dakotas of the Missouri contrasted most favorably with that of their brethren of the Mississippi. While the American Dakotas were cheerfully and industriously hunting and planting upon their own land and enjoying the legitimate fruits of their industry, the British Dakotas of the Mississippi were left without trade or employment, gloomy, despondent and ill-tempered, deserted by their allies and suspicious of the advances of the Americans.