Winona County, Minnesota

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS

Pages 137-146 (excluding page 141-142)
From the book
"History of Wabasha County"
Published in 1884
Concerning Wabasha and Winona Counties in Minnesota

By treaty in 1805, through Lieut. Pike, the first representative of our government that visited this part of the "Louisiana purchase," this division of Sioux made the first sale of any of their lands. For the establishment of military posts the United States purchased from them a section of country nine miles square, on each side of the Mississippi, which included the Falls of St. Anthony and the present site of Fort Snelling. A section of country nine miles square, at the mouth of the St. Croix, was also secured for the same purpose. It was not until several years after that this purchase was utilized by government. The cornerstone of Fort Snelling was laid on the 10th of September, 1820, but it was not occupied by soldiers until the following year. The site was first taken possession of by Col. Leavenworth with a company of soldiers in 1819.

The transportation of troops, supplies, material., etc., for the fort was principally by keelboats, which at that time, and for some time afterward, were used in the navigation of the Upper Mississippi. The trip from St. ‘Louis to this point was a long and tedious one. The first steamboat that ever came up the Mississippi to Fort Snelling at the mouth of the Minnesota river was a stern-wheel boat called the Virginia, in 1823.

By treaty in 1830 government secured from this part of the Sioux nation the section of county known as the "Half-breed Tract," for the benefit or exclusive use of their descendants of mixed blood. This tract of land was on the west side of the Mississippi and Lake Pepin, fifteen miles wide, and extending down the river, from Barn Bluff, near Red Wing, thirty-two miles, to a point opposite Beef river, below the present village of Wabasha.

In 1837 a deputation of chiefs of this division of Dakotas was induced to visit Washington, where they made a treaty by which they "ceded to the United States all their lands east of the Mississippi river, and all of their islands in said river." This treaty was ratified by the senate on the 17th of July, 1838, when the Sioux removed all of their bands to the west side of the Mississippi.

Until 1851 the Mdaywakantonwan Sioux were the only division of the Dakota nation with whom the United States had made formal treaty stipulations for the sale of any part of their lands. They were the only branch of the whole Sioux confederacy who received annuities from the government. Under the treaty of 1837 they received annually, for twenty years from the date of the treaty, $10,000 in money, $10,000 in goods, $5,500 in provisions, and $8,250 "in the purchase of medicines, agricultural implements and stock and for the support of a physician, farmers and blacksmiths, and for other beneficial objects." In the first article of this treaty it was provided that a portion of the interest on the whole sum invested ~ $5,000 annually ~ was "to be applied in such manner as the president may direct." This occasioned some trouble, as it was proposed to expend this sum for the purposes of education, schools, etc., which the Indians strongly opposed. This fund was not used, but allowed to accumulate until the treaty of 1851 before settlement was effected and the amount paid over to them.

At that time these seven bands comprised a population of about 2,200 in number. The nominal head chief of the division was Wabasha, who was also chief of a band. His village was at Wabasha Prairie, and had a population of about 300. The Red Wing band ~ chief, Wakoota ~ numbered about 300; the Kaposia band ~ chief, Little Crow ~ had about 400; the Black Dog band ~ chief, Gray Iron ~ had 250; Cloud Man's band, at Lake Calhoun, 250; Good Road's band, about 300; Six's band ~ chief, Shakopee ~ about 450. The last four bands named were on lower part of the Minnesota river.

By treaties made in 1851 the Sioux sold their lands in what is now the State of Minnesota. The Sisseton and Wahpaton divisions in the west, called the "upper bands," signed the treaty at Traverse des Sioux, July 23, 1851, and the "lower bands," the Wahpakoota and Mdaywakantonwan divisions, signed the treaty at Mendota, August 5, 1851.

These treaties were amended by the senate at Washington the following year. The amendment was ratified by the "lower bands" at St. Paul, September 4, 1852. The treaties as amended were formally ratified by the president's proclamation, dated February 24, 1853.

By this sale the Dakotas relinquished possession of their lands in this vicinity ~ their title to it, held from time unknown, was extinguished for ever. Prior to this, occupancy of these lands by the whites was considered trespass, except by special permit or license from government.

After the treaty in 1851, and before its ratification, settlements were made or commenced by the whites, without action on the part of the government, and without much show of opposition from the Sioux. It was during this period that the first bona-fide settlements were made within the boundaries of what is now known as Winona county. Previous to this, however, Indian traders and government employees had located temporarily at different places along the Mississippi, some of whom remained and afterward became citizens of the county.

The Mississippi river is the eastern boundary of this county, and from time immemorial has been what may be called the grand highway between the north and the south, and, through its tributaries, the means of communication between the east and the west. Over its waters the savages paddled their canoes, and the Canadian voyageurs propelled their batteaux. It was the course over which the early traders carried on their traffic. Their goods, brought from the east by way of the great lakes, and down the Wisconsin river, were transported up the Mississippi to their trading stations in the north. The furs for which they were exchanged were returned over the same route. With the increase of this commercial business Prairie du Chien became the emporium of the fur-traders, and held its importance for nearly a century.

During this period French names were given by the traders and voyageurs to persons, places and things which were in common use, the names designative of localities which served as landmarks in their adventurous expeditions being the most important.

There are not more than one or two localities in this county that can now be identified by th4 names thus given, and in no instance has the name been preserved.

The most familiar, if not the only locality, is that of the prairie on which the city of Winona is now situated. This was designated as the "Prairie aux Aile," the literal translation of which is the "Wing Prairie." Its signification is unknown except as a matter of opinion.

This prairie and vicinity was the home of one of the most influential of the Dakota chiefs. It was the grand gathering-place of his once numerous warriors. The Dakota name of this chief was Wa-pa-ha-sa. It was hereditary. Besides being chief of his own band, he was the head chief of the bands along the Mississippi. These official positions were also hereditary. The early voyageurs gave him the name of Wa-pa-sa. The more modern traders and river men called him Wa-ba-shaw, and gave the same name to the prairie on which his village was located. It was known as Wabashaw prairie until the name was superseded by Winona, its present one. Winona (Wee-no-nah) is a Dakota name, signifying a daughter, the first-born child. It is a name usually given to the first-born child, if a daughter, and never conferred upon a locality by the Sioux. The name was selected by the early settlers on Wabasha prairie, as the name of the post-office established there, and was afterward adopted by the town proprietors for the village. When the county was created the same name was conferred upon it.

The following story in Neil's History of Minnesota gives another name to Wabasha prairie. The story is apparently founded on the Dakota legend of Maiden's rock, on the eastern shore of Lake Pepin. This is the only instance known where the name of "Keoxa" has ever been given to Wabasha's village on this prairie. It is indeed a query whether it is a Dakota name.

"In the days of the great chief Wapashaw there lived at the village of Keoxa, which stood at the site of the town which now bears her name, a maiden with a loving soul. She was the first-born daughter, and, as is always the case in a Dahkotah family, she bore the name of Weenanah. A young hunter of the same band was never happier than when he played the flute in her hearing. Having thus signified his affection, it was with the whole hears reciprocated. The youth begged from his friends all that he could, and went to her parents, as is the custom, to purchase her for his wife, but his proposals were rejected. "A warrior who had often been on the war-path, whose headdress plainly told the number of scalps he had wrenched from Ojibway heads, had also been to the parents, and they thought that she would be more honored as an inmate of his teepee. "Weenonah, however, could not forget her first love, and though he had been forced away, his absence strengthened her affections. Neither the attentions of the warrior, nor the threats of parents, nor the persuasions of friends could make her consent to marry simply for position. "One day the band came to Lake Pepin go fish or hunt. The dark green foliage, the velvet sward, the beautiful expanse of water, the shady nooks, made it a place to utter the breathings of love. The warrior sought her once more and begged her to accede to her parents' wish and become his wife, but she refused with decision. "While the party was feasting Weenonah clambered to the lofty bluff, and then told to those who were below how crushed she had been by the absence of the young hunter and the cruelty of her friends. Then chaunting a wild death-song, before the fleetest runner could reach the height she dashed herself down, and that form of beauty was in a moment a mass of broken limbs and bruised flesh. "The Dahkotah as he passes the rock feels that the spot is Wawkawn." The name of Wabasha rightfully belonged to this locality. Its alienation was not from premeditated design. Before Wabasha prairie was settled, or even a white settler had located in what is now Winona county, the settlement on the "half-breed tract" was called Wabasha. The first post-office along the river was established there and given the name of Wabasha post-office, although it was for a while at Reed's Landing. It having been thus appropriated, but little effort was ever made to reclaim it. But few of the settlers cared about preserving or adopting it in a second-hand condition. When keelboats and steamboats took the place of the canoes and batteaux in the navigation of the river, the names conferred on localities by the Dakotas and French were quite generally dropped, and less expressive ones usually substituted. Where Dakota or French names have been retained in this state, they have in very many instances been so modified by "Yankee improvements" that it is difficult to trace their derivation. In this county no distinctive name of locality or landmark given by the French has been retained. Neither is there a single instance where the name given by the Dakotas to mountain or stream, hill, valley or prairie, has been preserved and is now in use by the whites. Nothing designated by the Sioux, the immediate predecessors of the present generation, is now known by its Dakota name. It is not so much a matter of surprise that Indian names have not been retained, or that they are now unknown to the present inhabitants of the county, if the abruptness of the change of occupants is taken into consideration. When the Sioux relinquished possession of their lands here they at once left this vicinity. The white settlers found the country without a population. The two races were strangers ~ unknown to each other; no association or intercourse ever existed between them. There are two or three instances where the English interpretation has been substituted for the original Dakota. White Water is the name of a river which runs through the northern part of the county. It is the translation of the Dakota "Minne-ska," signifying "White Water." The village at the mouth of that stream in Wabasha county is called Minneiska. The name of Rolling Stone is another instance. This is an interpretation of the name given by the Dakotas to the Rolling Stone Creek, "Eyan-omen-man-met-pah," the literal translation of which is "the stream where the stone rolls." Its true signification is not known. It was called by the French traders of more modern times "Roche que le Boule." These names were obtained from O. M. Lord, who acquired them from Gen. Sibley. Wabasha and the most of his people left their homes on the Mississippi in 1852. Nothing marks the localities in this county as evidence of where, for so many generations, their race once lived. Even the old and deeply worn trails, over which they filed away toward the setting sun, are now, like the wakes of their canoes, obliterated and unknown. Some "old settlers" may perhaps from memory be able to point out the general course of these trails, over which they explored the country in their "claim hunting" excursions, and on which they were accustomed to traverse the country until the plow and fences of improvements debarred further use of them. The Sioux were, by the conditions of the treaty, transferred to a reservation on the head-waters of the Minnesota river. Here they were taught and encouraged to adopt a new system of life and become an agricultural people. It was supposed that some progress was made toward civilization, but, as in many similar philanthropic efforts, the ultimate results proved a failure. The Sioux massacre of 1862 originated with the bands of Wabasha's division, which had given the most encouraging prospects of their becoming "good Indians." The first outrages were perpetrated by some of Shakapee's band. A war party was at once organized with the bands of Gray Iron, Little Crow and detachments from other divisions. The band of Wabasha and the Red Wing band were compelled to participate in the proceedings, and the whole Dakota nation was soon involved in the affair. This chapter would perhaps be considered incomplete without mention of one of the chiefs of Wabasha's band who was more generally known to the early settlers of Winona county than any other of the Indians who originally claimed this part of the country. The most of the "old settlers" probably remember "Old To-ma-ha," the old one-eyed Sioux, who kept up his rounds of visitations to the settlements until about the time of his death, which occurred in 1860 at about one hundred years of age. When on his customary visits among the whites he was usually accompanied by a party of his own descendants and family relatives ~ from ten to twenty in number. His figure was erect and movements active, notwithstanding his advanced age. His dress on these occasions was a much worn military coat and pantaloons of blue cloth trimmed with red, and an old stove-pipe hat with the same color displayed. He always carried with him a large package of papers inclosed in a leather or skin pocket-book, and also a large silver medal, which he wore suspended from his neck in a conspicuous place on his breast. His large red pipe-stone hatchet pipe, with a long handle, was generally in his hands. It was his usual custom to attract attention by his presence and then allow the curious to examine his pipe and medal, when, if there appeared to be a prospect of getting money for the exhibition, he would produce his pocket-book and allow an examination of its contents, for which privilege he expected, and usually received, at least a dime, and perhaps from the more liberal a quarter of a dollar. This Indian was a historical character. His pocket-book contained his commission as a chief of the Sioux nation, given him by Governor Clark, of Missouri territory, in 1814, who at the same time presented him with a captain's uniform and a medal for meritorious services rendered the government as a scout and messenger. His papers contained testimonials and recommendations from prominent government officials and other persons. Mention is made of him in the reports of officials who had jurisdiction in the northwest territories, one by Lieut. Pike, who was sent by the government of the United States in 1805 to explore the northern part of the "Louisiana purchase," then recently acquired, and to make treaties with the Dakotas. In 1812, when the Sioux joined the English in the war with the United States, Omaha went to St. Louis and gave his services to fight against the British forces. He had the confidence of the military officers, and in all of the frontier difficulties on the upper Mississippi, where fighting was done, he was employed as scout and messenger. When his services were no longer required by government he returned to his Dakota home. When the Sioux left this vicinity and went to their reservation on the Minnesota river, Tomaha remained to die in the locality where he was born and where he spent his youth. He sometimes visited his friends on the reservation, but never made it his home. End of Chapter BACK NEXT HOME Graphics by