Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858

by Marcus Lee Hansen

Constant watching of the hunting parties and admonition as to their conduct were among the duties of the agent. “Sent my interpreter up the Mississippi among the Indians”, he writes, “to see how they are progressing in their hunts and as to the present hunting grounds of the Chippeways.” Eight days later record is made of the fact that “the Rum River Chippeways left for their camp this morning—Sent word to their people to hunt on their own Lands & not by any Means to intrude upon the Soil of the Sioux.” When the interpreter returned he reported that everything was quiet between the two tribes.[340] The sending of “runners” to the camps was a frequent occurrence during the winter of 1831, the region covered being eighty miles to the east and two hundred miles to the north.[341]

In the treaty of Prairie du Chien of 1825 a dividing line between the two tribes, beyond which neither should pass, was agreed upon.[342] But this provision was for many years a dead letter. As long as the line was unsurveyed the natives could urge indefiniteness of territory as an excuse for murder and depredations—claiming that the other party was the trespasser. When Schoolcraft met the chiefs of the Chippewas in council at Leech Lake in 1832, the latter complained that the provisions of the treaty had not been carried out. “The words of the Long-knives have passed through our forests as a rushing wind, but they have been words merely. They have only shaken the trees, but have not stopped to break them down, nor even to make the rough places smooth.”[343] As a result Mr. Schoolcraft urged upon the Secretary of War the necessity of marking the line.[344]

Seven thousand dollars were appropriated by the act of June 26, 1834, for the purpose of running this line,[345] and the next spring Major J. L. Bean, accompanied by Duncan Campbell, the Sioux interpreter of the agency, commenced the survey.[346] Later an escort of troops from Fort Snelling was sent him under the command of Lieutenant William Storer, with the result that the reduced garrison was unable to enforce order.[347] When the survey had been completed from the Chippewa River to Otter Tail Lake the return of the military escort put an end to the work, but the agent was of the opinion that the most important part had been marked.[348]

Efforts were made by the government to keep down the warlike spirit of the tribes. Thus, when Captain Gale allowed the Indians to come into the fort and dance the scalp dance in June, 1830, his act was disapproved of, and he had to stand trial.[349] Likewise peace conferences were fostered in order to put the seal of the authority of the government upon the transactions. During the winter of 1831 truces were made between several of the bands through the efforts of Agent Taliaferro.[350] On August 2, 1843, a great gathering of the two nations was held at the fort, where a treaty of peace was drawn up under the auspices of the civil and military authorities.[351] During the first year it was kept inviolate, “if we except two or three individual cases of outrage.”[352]

Even as late as June, 1850, an assemblage of both tribes was called together by Governor Ramsey. The Chippewas were encamped north of the fort on the bluff above the Mississippi. In front of them a detachment of infantry was drawn up. Within the fort the artillery was in readiness. When word was sent to the Sioux that all things were ready, they approached, about three hundred strong, on horseback, all armed and painted, their whoops mingling with the jingling of their arms, ornaments, and the bells of their horses. Making a feint as if to rush around the soldiers, they suddenly wheeled to one side and became quiet; while the Chippewas on the other side of the line of infantry continued to dance and wave their weapons. It was amid such stirring war-like scenes that attempts for peace were made.[353]

The earliest policy of the government had been to interfere as little as possible, and to allow retribution to be made by one tribe on another. But such inactivity did not appeal to a red-blooded officer like Colonel Snelling, who wrote after the trouble in 1827: “I have no hesitation in Saying that the Military on this frontier are useless for want of discretionary power, and that if it is not intrusted to the Commander, Men of Straw with Wooden Guns and Swords will answer the purpose as well as a Regt of Infantry.”[354]

But later the policy was adopted of confining in the “Black Hole” of the fort any culprits who were captured. Thirteen of the Sioux who participated in a massacre at Apple River were imprisoned;[355] and on one occasion Little Crow's band performed the scalp dance near Fort Snelling in commemoration of the murder of two Chippewas, while the murderers themselves languished in the fort.[356] Probably this method of dealing with the problem would have been adopted earlier; but “the force at this point”, wrote an officer, “has been too small to send a sufficient force to take the offenders, even should an order to that effect be issued.”[357]

To determine how influential Fort Snelling was in maintaining order is impossible. As was the case with the liquor traffic, conditions were bad but could have been worse. From time to time there were events that indicated some success. After a peace had been concluded on the fourth of June, 1823, a small quarrel almost precipitated a general conflict on the sixth. Much to the chagrin of the Italian traveller, J. C. Beltrami, who was then a guest at the fort, the officers were successful in preventing bloodshed. “Everything conspired against my poor notes”, he wrote, “I had already perched myself on an eminence for the purpose of enriching them with an Indian battle, and behold I have nothing to write but this miserable article!… I almost suspected that the savages were in a league with the gentlemen of the fort to disappoint me.”[358]

Peace was maintained during the winter of 1831 on a line of three hundred and forty miles above and below Fort Snelling, and on one occasion there occurred the pleasant sight of Sioux and Chippewas departing in company for their hunting grounds on the Sauk River.[359] Man-of-the-sky, who was chief of the Lake Calhoun band of Sioux, boasted that although he was only twenty-five years old at the time, he had already killed six Chippewas when Fort Snelling was erected, and added: “Had it not been for that I should have killed many more, or have been myself killed ere this.”[360] It is interesting to note in connection with the sacredness of these treaties the comment of Major Taliaferro that “much more reliance is to be placed in the good faith of the Chippeways than in that of the Sioux.”[361]

These spasmodic successes at least acquainted the Indians with governmental restraint. A paragraph from the manuscript diary of the agent refutes the argument that Fort Snelling intensified rather than alleviated these struggles. “From January 1833 up to this day”, wrote Taliaferro, “there has been no difficulty between the Sioux and Chippeways—I once kept these tribes at peace for two years and Six Months lacking 15 days. And this between the years 1821 & 1825 till June 8th of the latter year. Colonel Robert Dickson remarked to me that Such a thing had never occurred before even when he headed the tribes against Us in the War of 1812.”[362]