Marcus Lee Hansen

“ What sort of a life did the soldier live in the barracks and on the parade ground, and in the world of prairies, rivers, and woods that lay about him? No person who was ever quartered within the walls of Old Fort Snelling seems to have left an account of what was included in the tasks and recreations of a day. ”

“ With the Indian trade left to the private traders, great trading companies developed, since the fur trade easily lent itself to the corporation system. Coöperation in the marketing of furs and in the buying of goods eliminated many of the difficulties which a single individual would meet. The American Fur Company, so long guided by John Jacob Astor, had a practical monopoly of the trade during the time that Old Fort Snelling was in existence. Mendota was the headquarters of a vast region which extended from the Mississippi to the headwaters of the streams flowing into the Missouri. ”

“ Women and children with tomahawks and knives cut deep gashes in the poor dead bodies, and scooping up the hot blood with their hands, eagerly drink it; then, grown frantic, they dance, and yell, and sing their horrid scalp songs, recounting deeds of valor on the part of their brave men, and telling off the Sioux scalps, taken in different battles, until tired and satiated at last with their horrid feast, they leave the mutilated bodies—festering in the sun.326 At evening the bodies were thrown over the cliff into the river below. ”

“ In the agency building the United States officers, with the roll of the Sioux nation before them, called the names of the individuals, who one by one stepped up, touched the pen of the secretary, received the money, and deposited it in the box of his band. Outside was the typical Indian group—squaws, children, dogs, and braves smoking their pipes and talking of past achievements. ”

“ To this alliance the Indians gave willing ears. Their interests lay with the British rather than with the Americans. The economic stability of Canada rested upon the fur trade, which in turn could survive only if the free life of the hunt and the chase, which the Indians loved so well, was left them. But with the Americans were associated the making of treaties and the ceding of land. The Indians preferred to see upon their rivers the canoe of the trader rather than the flatboat of the pioneer.20
The coming of hostilities was received joyfully by all the inhabitants of the Northwest. ”

“ How, in its origin, Fort Snelling became part of a comprehensive system for the protection of the frontier, has been detailed. The events of the forty years that followed indicate very clearly the wisdom of the men who chose the site. Every phase of frontier duty was performed by the troops stationed at the mouth of the Minnesota River; and although these tasks often took them hundreds of miles from the post, and although they often coöperated with men from other forts, yet these expeditions may well be considered as part of the history of Fort Snelling. ”

“ Your Great Father, he said, has had much to do with war—but his heart is changed for peace & he wishes all his red children as well as his white ones to follow his good example—he knows this course to be best for all—we should endeavor to please him—for by doing so we shall please the Great Spirit also—You will see your children growing up around you and your wives smiling as you approach from your days hunt. ”

“ Sheer walls of stone rising from the Mississippi could prevent invasion; and the fur trading business could be regulated, as all boats entering or leaving the Indian country must use one or the other of the two rivers.
A bower was constructed of sails, and on September 23rd Pike spoke to the Sioux Indians there assembled concerning the transfer of Louisiana, the futility of their wars with the Chippewas, and the evils of rum. He asked them to cede to the United States lands for military posts, and dwelt on the value of these posts to the Indians. ”

“ Big Thunder, chief of the Kaposia village, wanted to raise more corn. But by using the customary Indian method of hoeing up the ground before planting, it was impossible to get much land under cultivation. At Fort Snelling were oxen and a plow, but there was no one to do the plowing or teach the art to the Indians. Accordingly Samuel Pond volunteered to take charge of the proposition.
The plow was taken down the river in a canoe, while the oxen were driven by land. But the warriors were reluctant about touching the plow until Big Thunder, chief of the band, had seized the handles himself. ”

“ In council with the agent, Strong Earth, a chief of the Chippewas, complained of the lack of protection: Father: You know that two [122] Summers ago we attended a Great Council at Prairie du Chien, when by the advice of Our White Friends, we made Peace with the Sioux—We were then told, that the Americans would Guarantee our Safety under their Flags—We have Come here under that Assurance. But Father, look at Your Floor it is stained with the blood of our people shed while under Your Walls. If you are great and powerful why do You not protect us? ”

“ The soldier who sought freedom by stealthily climbing over the stone wall of Fort Snelling and appropriating some canoe drawn up on the river bank, left monotony and discipline behind him; but in doing so he faced many dangers. There was no settlement nearer than Prairie du Chien—a military establishment. Indians were not afraid to injure those whom they knew to be deserters. A certain man by the name of Dixon who deserted was captured by Indians who brought him back to Fort Snelling and received a reward of twenty dollars. ”

“ There were only the extremely old people and the invalids to wave good-bye as the procession set out over the prairie—old men who could scarcely walk, bands of shouting children, hunters already on the alert, women with their bundles, and horses and dogs dragging on two poles the provisions and the skins of the tepees. ”

“ From time to time a solitary Indian on a business [111] visit to the trader would drop in to chat with the Father. Here he could make any complaints which he had to offer and be sure of a sympathetic if not satisfactory answer. I have had more than fourteen hundred Indians on visits from all Sections of this Agency during the Month past—and all with Grieveances of Some Sort to redress, wrote Taliaferro on June 30, 1838.292 In all matters concerning lands, hunting, treaties, annuities, and the like, the Indian looked only to the agent for advice or explanation. ”

“ In 1821 a ship full of Swiss sailed for Fort York on Hudson's Bay, and late in the fall the party reached the Red River after a toilsome journey up the Nelson River and across Lake Winnipeg. Being artisans and city-dwellers they were unable to endure the rough agricultural labors in the bleak north. Cold, floods, grasshoppers, and uncongenial neighbors rendered the location unpleasant.504
Travellers from the south brought news of a better locality, and towards this place there soon began a movement which, while not great in any one year, was long continued. ”

“ In order that a treaty might be satisfactory it was necessary that all factions be consulted; and the braves who gathered often numbered into the hundreds. Thus, in planning the negotiations a satisfactory place and an opportune time must be selected, while the red men must be supported while away from home and protected from lurking enemies. It was in these phases of treaty-making that the military posts showed their importance. ”

“ Americans, Scotch, Sioux, and French could all find within his breast, they said, a kindred spirit, and they bestowed upon him the name of Four Hearts because of the impartiality of his actions to all nationalities.178 In June, 1858, a number of Sioux chiefs were in Washington and came to see him. My old Father, said Little Crow, we have called upon you; we love you; we respect you.... Since you left us a dark cloud has hung over our nation. We have lost confidence in the promises of our Great Father, and his people; bad men have nearly destroyed us.... ”

“ With all his duties it is no wonder that the agent was anxious to receive the help of the missionaries, and although he was himself a Deacon in the Old School Presbyterian Church,416 his basis for aiding the red men, as he expressed it in a report, was that he had endeavored to impress all missionaries with the true fact that Christianity must be preceded by civilization among the wild tribes. I hazard nothing in this, for an Indian must be taught all the temporal benefits of this life first, before you ask him to seek for eternal happiness ”

“ The British flag was borne in triumph to wave from the flagstaff of Fort Ticonderoga after it had been evacuated by the colonial patriots during the dark days of 1777; but never was a foreign flag borne into Fort Snelling except to be burned in the sight of awestruck Indians. The guns of Fort Sumter announced the opening of the Civil War; never were the cannon at Fort Snelling fired at a foe. Mackinac was successively garrisoned by French, English, and American soldiers; whenever occupied by troops Fort Snelling flew the stars and stripes. ”

“ In June, 1848, the company of infantry stationed at Fort Snelling received an urgent call to come to Wabasha's Prairie—near Winona, Minnesota. The Winnebago Indians were being transferred from their former home in the Turkey Valley region in Iowa to a new reservation obtained for them from the Chippewas. But when the Prairie was reached, the Winnebagoes visited with Wabasha and he sold it to them for a home. When Captain Seth Eastman arrived from Fort Snelling he was put in charge of the military forces which had been hastily brought together to force the Winnebagoes to continue their march. ”

“ While lying here, knowing not whether his companions were dead or alive, expecting himself to be a victim of either the cold or hunger or both, Chief Cloud Man resolved that if he ever returned to the vicinity of Fort Snelling he would not depend entirely upon the hunt for his living, but would also engage in farming under the direction of the Indian agent. ”

“ The diverting of the trade of these natives, who would naturally have come down the Missouri where American traders could meet them and be benefited, was noticed by President Jefferson, who, on January 18, 1803, wrote to Congress: It is, however, understood, that the country on that river is inhabited by numerous tribes, who furnish great supplies of furs and peltry to the trade of another nation, carried on in a high latitude, through an infinite number of portages and lakes, shut up by ice through a long season. ”

“ Late in the fall Lieutenant Oliver had left Prairie du Chien with supplies in a keel boat. But the river froze and the boat was unable to progress farther than the vicinity of Hastings, Minnesota. Here it was necessary to keep a guard all winter to protect the food from the Indians and the wolves. The Indians refused to sell them game; no vegetables could be purchased; and the bread was two inches in the barrels thick with mould.74 With such food it is no wonder that scurvy, the dreaded disease of all frontier posts, broke out among the troops. ”

“ The speeches of the Indians seemed interminable. From day to day action was postponed as they were waiting for other bands to arrive.
To prolong the council as long as possible was satisfying to the appetite of the Indian. The rations issued by the commissary at Fort Snelling were not to be eagerly exchanged for the fare of a Chippewa lodge in the northern woods. But at first the menu was not satisfactory. Nadin (the Wind) complained on July 24th: You have everything around you, and can give us some of the cattle that are around us on the prairie. ”

“ Interest in Old Fort Snelling is not primarily in the logs and stones which made up its building, but in the men and women who lived within its walls. Many were the lives influenced by a residence in its barracks. Characters were formed by the stern rigors of frontier service. Far from busy cities, in the tiresome routine of army life, men were being trained who were to be leaders in the political and [055] military life of the Nation. Others never rose to a higher position ”

“ Twice a year hundreds of Red River half-breeds—bois brulés—left their homes on the British side of the international boundary to hunt buffalo on the American plains which bordered on the Missouri River. Here they came into contact with Indians who naturally resented this intrusion upon their hunting grounds. During the summer of 1844 a half-breed had been killed by a party of Yankton Sioux, and the invaders had retaliated by killing eight Sioux of another band. ”

“ Major Woods urged the American Indians and half-breeds to prevent by force the invasions, promising that the United States would support them. But it would be useless, he reported, to build a fort at Pembina unless at least two hundred fifty men were stationed there. It would be better to concentrate a large force at Fort Snelling, from whence expeditions could be made into the Indian country in all directions as necessity might arise. ”

“ If the Indians had been left in peace by covetous land-seekers, their civilization might in time have been accomplished.
There was practically no hostility manifested against the garrison by the surrounding Indians. In January, 1822, Colonel McNeil, who was in command at Fort Dearborn, received word from John Kinzie, the pioneer Chicago trader, that the Sioux and Fox Indians were planning an attack on Fort Snelling. Lieutenant James Webb immediately volunteered to bring the news to Fort Armstrong on Rock Island, from whence it could be sent to the upper post. ”

“ The post which could have successfully resisted the attack of Indian warriors, or even the siege of a civilized enemy was to fall before the invasion of the pioneers. The frontier had suddenly leaped far to the westward. In 1858, when the troops were withdrawn, there was no need of an establishment such as had existed during the first forty years. It was the passing of Old Fort Snelling which for so many years had been the remotest outpost of American law. ”

“ The veteran missionary, S. W. Pond, in recalling early days wrote that Scott Campbell no longer sits smoking his long pipe, and conversing in low tones with the listless loungers around the old Agency House; but who that resided in this country thirty or forty years ago can pass by the old stone houses near Fort Snelling and not think of Major Taliaferro and of his interpreter?197
And who can pass the Old Round Tower without thinking of those men who as officers at Fort Snelling ruled supreme over a vast region, and who left the fort for places of greater trust and greater influence? ”

“ Pike objected to many of the evident signs of British sovereignty: the British flag flying above the headquarters of the department of Fond du Lac was shot down;13 many of the Indians were induced to give up their British medals and flags;14 and Hugh M'Gillis, agent of the company for the district, in response to Pike's letter of complaint, promised in the future to refrain from displaying the British flag, presenting medals, or talking politics to the Indians.15 But his promises were no more seriously given than those of his brethren on the Missouri. ”

“ No hunting was possible because of the drifts, and fishing through the ice was impracticable, the wind blowing the holes full of snow as soon as they were cut. The Indians living about Lac qui Parle, about two hundred miles up the Minnesota River, came with the missionary Dr. Thomas Williamson to winter on the site of old Camp Cold Water, knowing that only from the fort could they obtain relief. ”