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CHAPTER VIII

Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858 · Marcus Lee Hansen — chapter 8 of 13 · ~1,161 words · public domain

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Morse's A Report to the Secretary of War of the United States on Indian Affairs, p. 28.

Kellogg's Early Narratives of the Northwest, 1634-1699, p. 50.

Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 209.

Baker to Taliaferro, May 19, 1829.--Indian Office Files, 1829, No. 64.

Speech of Flat Mouth, May 27, 1827.--Indian Office Files, 1827, No. 14.

Indian Office Files, 1827, No. 9.

From Mrs. Van Cleve's reminiscences in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. III, p. 80.

The information upon which the entire incident is built is contained in the letter of Snelling to Atkinson, May 31, 1827, in Indian Office Files, 1827, No. 10; the letter of Taliaferro to Clark, May 31, 1827, in Indian Office Files, 1827, No. 12; Neill's The History of Minnesota, pp. 391-394; Reminiscences of Mrs. Ann Adams in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 107-110; A Reminiscence of Ft. Snelling, by Mrs. Charlotte O. Van Cleve, in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. III, pp. 76-81; Running the Gantlet by William J. Snelling (the son of Colonel Snelling) in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, pp. 439-456.

The last mentioned account was originally published as a magazine article, and much of it is undoubtedly the product of the author's imagination. It is from this that the writer drew the story of Toopunkah Zeze. The article by Mrs. Van Cleve is full of errors and there are some mistakes in Mrs. Adams's reminiscences. For the facts of the attack the writer depended upon the two reports in the Indian Office Files. In a letter written from Prairie du Chien the next winter Joseph Street says that a hostage, an innocent man, was among the Sioux who were executed.--Street to Dr. Alexander Posey, December 11, 1827, in the Street Papers, No. 7.

Of those who were shot, says Sibley in his reminiscences, all recovered.--Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 475. On the other hand Flat Mouth complained to Schoolcraft in 1832 that four of the number died.--Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lake, p. 85.

Indian Office Files, 1829, No. 63.

Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 135. As here given the mother's speech is partly direct, and partly indirect discourse. The writer has changed it all to the direct discourse.

The attack on Hole-in-the-Day's band is narrated in the letter of Plympton to General Jones, August 13, 1838.--Indian Office Files, 1838, No. 618. See also Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 134-136; Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotas, pp. 136, 137.

The particulars of the encounter in 1839 are given in a letter written by the Right Reverend Mathias Loras in July 1839, and published in Acta et Dicta: A Collection of historical data regarding the origin and growth of the Catholic Church in the Northwest, Vol. I, No. 1, pp. 18-21; and Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotas, pp. 139-147.

"Instead of lessening the disasters of Indian warfare, the building of Fort Snelling in the heart of the Indian country and upon the line dividing the ranges of the Dakotas and the Chippewas, had the direct effect of vastly increasing the horrors of that warfare. Depending upon the protection of the military, both tribes brought their women and children into the disputed territory, where before the coming of the soldiers they would never have dared to expose them, and it soon developed that the fort afforded no protection to the children of the forest against the savagery of their hereditary enemies, who made treaties of peace only to thereby gain better opportunity for butchery."--Robinson's A History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians, p. 154. This is Part II of the South Dakota Historical Collections, Vol. II.

At the forks of the Chippewa River in 1838, eleven Sioux were killed while asleep, by Chippewas whom they were entertaining. The mission at Lake Pokegama was attacked in 1840. In 1842, a battle was fought at Pine Coulie near the Indian village of Kaposia. In 1850, on Apple River in Wisconsin, fourteen Chippewas were scalped. See the article by Rev. S. W. Pond on Indian Warfare in Minnesota in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. III, pp. 129-138. As late as 1854, D. B. Herriman, the Chippewa agent, reported that during the preceding year nearly one hundred Chippewas had been killed and scalped by the Sioux. But none of these massacres took place at the fort.--Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Vol. I, Pt. 1, Document No. 1, p. 260.

Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, Document No. 51, p. 31.

Taliaferro's Diary, January 23, 1831.

Taliaferro's Diary, June 4, 1831. For other occasions during the winter and spring of 1831 when the agent records the presence of both Sioux and Chippewas see the diary under date of January 31, March 5, May 2, June 15.

Taliaferro to Clark, July 6, 1831.--William Clark Papers, Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 231.

Speech of Taliaferro to the Sioux.--Taliaferro's Diary, February 19, 1831.

Report of J. N. Nicollet in Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. II, Document No. 52, p. 66.

Taliaferro's Diary, January 10, 18, 26, 1831.

Taliaferro to Clark, February 8, 1831.--William Clark Papers, Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 121.

The text of the treaty is printed in Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 250-255. The treaty was signed on August 19, 1825.

Missionary Herald, Vol. XXX, p. 223, June, 1834. Reverend W. T. Boutwell accompanied Mr. Schoolcraft on this journey, and his account of it is published in the religious paper.

Schoolcraft's Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper Mississippi to Itasca Lake, p. 265.

United States Statutes at Large, Vol. IV, p. 684.

Taliaferro to William Clark, May 31, 1835.--Taliaferro Letters, Vol. III, No. 234.

Taliaferro to Herring, July 16, 1835.--Taliaferro Letters, Vol. III, No. 238.

Taliaferro to William Clark, September 2, 1835; Taliaferro to E. Herring, September 20, 1835.--Taliaferro Letters, Vol. III, Nos. 251, 252.

Taliaferro to William Clark, May 26, 1831.--William Clark Papers, Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 195.

Taliaferro's Diary, January 25, 1831.

Senate Documents, 1st Session, 28th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 269.

Senate Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 490.

The Minnesota Pioneer, January 2, 1851.

Snelling to Atkinson, May 31, 1827.--Indian Office Files, 1827, No. 10.

The Minnesota Pioneer, May 16, 1850. Other occasions when Indians were imprisoned for similar causes are mentioned in The Minnesota Pioneer, September 23, 1852, April 20, 1854.

The Minnesota Pioneer, October 14, 1852.

Report of Agent A. J. Bruce, September 1, 1846.--Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 4, p. 246.

Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, pp. 233, 234.

Taliaferro's Diary, January 31, 1831; Taliaferro to Captain W. R. Lovett, June 30, 1831, in Taliaferro Letters, Vol. II, No. 150.

Pond's Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotas, p. 138.

Taliaferro to Clark, October 4, 1830.--William Clark Papers, Correspondence, 1830-1832, p. 68.

Taliaferro's Diary, June 29, 1834.

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