Barker did not return to following the trail of minks and foxes, but like the Fergusons broke up the virgin prairie to raise wheat and corn. When he grew too old to walk behind the plow, he gave his farm to his boys, Bill and Tim, who, a few years later, carried him to his last resting-place on the bluff overlooking the winding Minnesota River.
Tatanka, with some other friendly Sioux, was assigned land on the Redwood River, where his descendants live to this day.
The great war in the South, and the bloody tragedy of Minnesota are seen to-day through the mellow light of history. There is no longer bitterness and hatred between white men and red men, between North and South.
On the Fourth of July, the bright Stars and Stripes float over North and South, over the Indian settlement on the Redwood, and over the white men’s towns around them. The tomahawk has been buried forever, but the Indian youths meet the white lads from farms and towns, all armed with bats and mitts, in the great American national game, the game that is destined to conquer the world with the gospel of vigor and good will.
The Minnesota, Sky-tinted Water, and the Mississippi, the Everywhere River, wind their way to the Gulf as of yore, in beauty and grandeur.
And here ends our tale of two wars and of the Lure of the Great River.
THE END.
ON THE TRAIL OF THE SIOUX
The Adventures of Two Boy Scouts on the Minnesota Frontier
By D. LANGE