Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858

CHAPTER I

Carver's Travels through the Interior Parts of North-America, pp. vii, viii.

To the region lying on the upper waters of three great river systems--the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the Red River of the North--the writer has applied the name "Upper Northwest" to distinguish it from the "Old Northwest" and the "Pacific Northwest".

For a summary of the French explorations see Folwell's Minnesota, pp. 1-29. Thwaites's France in America, p. 74, contains an excellent map of the French operations in the West.

The report of Louis Antoine Bougainville, written in 1757 and based on the reports of Canadian officials, shows the extent of French commerce at the close of the period of French control. At Green Bay (La Baye) trade was carried on with the Folles-Avoines, Sacs, Foxes, Sioux, and other tribes, the annual output being from five to six hundred packages of furs. In the North, extending westward along what is now the international boundary to the Lake of the Woods and then along the lakes and rivers of the Lake Winnipeg system, was the territory of the post known as "The Sea of the West". This included seven forts and produced a yearly supply of from three to four hundred packages. "These regions are everywhere vast prairies; this is the route to take for the upper Missouri."--Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, pp. 167-195. A picturesque account of the life of the French traders is given in Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), pp. 115-119.

Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVIII, p. 251; Turner's The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin in the Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, Vol. IX, pp. 584, 585.

Thwaites's Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Vol. VII, p. 373. In 1792, Peter Grant built a trading house on the site of St. Vincent, Minnesota, on the east bank of the Red River, and in 1800-1801 the fort of Pembina was erected by the great traveller, Alexander Henry, the younger.--South Dakota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 138.

American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 684.

Thwaites's Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Vol. I, pp. 227, 228. Traders of the Hudson's Bay Company also frequented the spot. Sergeant John Ordway records in his journal for December 1, 1804, that "a Scotsman who is tradeing at the Mandens came to visit us. he belonged to the hudson bay company.... he brought over Tobacco Beeds & other kinds of Goods. & traded with the Mandens for their furs & buffalow Robes. they bring Some Guns to trade for horses &. C. this hudsons bay comp^y lay Garrisoned near the N. W. Comp^y.... Eight or 10 days travel by land a North course from this."--Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XXII, p. 169.

Chittenden's The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West, Vol. II, p. 556.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, pp. 279, 280.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 286.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 280.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 156.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 171.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 252.

Wilkinson's instructions to Pike are printed in Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. II, pp. 842-844. Before the founding of Fort Snelling the Minnesota River was called by the French voyageurs the "St. Pierre". When the Americans were established on its banks they anglicized this name into "St. Peter's". The fort, the agency, and the fur traders' establishment are commonly referred to in early literature as "St. Peter's". By a joint resolution of Congress on June 19, 1852, the name Minnesota was ordered to be used in all public documents in which the river was mentioned. This was the Indian name for the river.--United States Statutes at Large, Vol. X, p. 147. In mentioning this river use is made in this volume of the modern name, except when quoting.

The account of the treaty is given in Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, pp. 83, 84. The treaty itself is printed on page 231 and Pike's speech on pages 226-230. Article I contains the land cession: "That the Sioux nation grant unto the United States, for the purpose of establishment of military posts, nine miles square at the mouth of the St. Croix, also from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters up the Mississippi to include the falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river, that the Sioux nation grants to the United States the full sovereignty and power over said district forever." The meaning of all this is extremely vague.

American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. I, p. 798.

Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, pp. 11, 13.

A petition of the London merchants to the English government stated that before the war the annual export of furs from Canada amounted to L250,000. Updyke's The Diplomacy of the War of 1812, p. 204.

Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, pp. 72, 73.

Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, pp. 66-69. The figures are given on page 69.

Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Documents Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812, p. 184.

The best account of the massacre at Fort Dearborn is given in Quaife's Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835, pp. 211-231.

Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIX, p. 323.

Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, pp. 120, 194.

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XV, p. 219. It must be stated that the British in no way sought intentionally to use the Indians for the purpose of massacreing the whites. The instructions to Dickson declared that he "should restrain them by all the means in your power from acts of Cruelty and inhumanity". On March 16, 1813, Dickson reported to the military secretary at Quebec that he had taken steps to redeem the soldiers, women, and children of the ill-fated Fort Dearborn garrison, who were still captives.--Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XV, pp. 258, 259.

Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XV, pp. 321, 322.

There is a summary of Dickson's activities in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XII, pp. 133-153.

Niles' Register, Vol. VI, p. 176.

Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIII, p. 10; Niles' Register, Vol. VI, p. 242.

Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XI, pp. 254-270.

Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of America and other powers since July 4, 1776, pp. 404, 405.

American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 10, 11; Chittenden's The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West, Vol. II, p. 561.

These treaties were concluded: on July 18th with the Pottawattomies and Piankashaws; on July 19th with the Tetons and Sioux of the Lakes, Sioux of St. Peter's River, and Yankton Sioux; September 2nd with the Kickapoos; September 8th with the Wyandots; September 12th with the Osages; September 13th with the Sacs of the Missouri; September 14th with the Foxes; September 16th with the Iowas. The treaties are published in Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 110-123. The reports of the commissioners and also the treaties are printed in the American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, pp. 1-11.

American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 9.

For these migrations see the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Vol. XXIII, pp. 97, 443; Kingsford's The History of Canada, Vol. IX, p. 69; Report on Canadian Archives, 1896, p. 157. During the negotiations at Ghent the British commissioners had sought to have established a permanent Indian territory to be a barrier state between the two powers.--Updyke's The Diplomacy of the War of 1812, p. 204.

The Indians felt they had been abandoned by the English. Hence the liberality in gift distribution was an attempt to appease them.

See the reports of W. H. Puthuff in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIX, pp. 430-433, 472-474.

Schoolcraft's Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes, p. 19.

Irving's The Sketch-Book (Hudson Edition), p. 489.

Carr's Missouri, p. 121.

Niles' Register, Vol. VIII, p. 436, August 19, 1815.

American State Papers, Indian Affairs, Vol. II, p. 86.

United States Statutes at Large, Vol. III, p. 332. John Jacob Astor of the American Fur Company has received the credit for the passage of this law.--Folwell's Minnesota, p. 54; Coman's Economic Beginnings of the Far West, Vol. I, pp. 344, 345. This is neglecting the fact that there was a unanimous outcry against foreign traders--one of the signs that the War of 1812 marks the rise of American nationality. The legislation of April 29, 1816, was not wholly satisfactory to Astor. "I have seen a letter", wrote William H. Puthuff, Indian agent at Mackinac, "addressed by J. J. Astor to a Mr. Franks a British trader now at this place in which Mr. Astor expresses surprise and regret at the passage of a law forbidding British subjects from trading with Indians, within the American limits etc."--Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XIX, p. 423. What Mr. Astor wanted was the prohibition of trade by American private citizens as well as by British private citizens. If his American Fur Company were given a monopoly as he desired, he also wanted to be free to employ such persons--American or British--as he needed.

Continue reading Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858 free in the Wunder reader →