On June 26, 1838, the “Burlington” was again at Fort Snelling. Among the tourists on this trip was Mrs. Alexander Hamilton who had embarked at Galena where she had been visiting her son, W. S. Hamilton, who was connected with lead mining enterprises in Wisconsin. The fact that Mrs. Hamilton had been a belle in society during the time of George Washington, and the general sympathy felt for her ever since the tragic death of her husband in 1804, caused her to be received with more attention than was usually bestowed on tourists. At nine o'clock she was taken in a carriage to the Falls of St. Anthony, and when she returned to the fort in the afternoon the officers met her at the gate and led her to a chair placed upon a carpet in the center of the parade ground. After the troops had been reviewed she was entertained at the headquarters of the fort until the “Burlington” left that same evening.[467]
The extent of this tourist traffic is well illustrated in the newspapers of the time. Advertisements tell of the interesting features to be seen on a trip to the upper Mississippi, of the pleasures of steamboat travel, and promise that “A first rate band of music will be on board.”[468] An editor paused long enough in the exciting presidential “Log Cabin” campaign of 1840 to remark that “Pleasure trips to these Falls appear to be quite the go. Large parties of ladies and gentlemen have passed up on the steamboats Loyal Hanna and Malta. And we noticed in a late St. Louis paper, the advertisements of the Valley Forge, Ione, Brazil and Monsoon, all for ‘pleasure excursions to St. Peters’. We see also in the same paper, that the steamboat Fayette is advertised ‘for Harrison and Reform’—rather an extensive country we should think, at the present time.”[469] Even as far away as Louisville, Kentucky, steamboats were chartered for trips to the upper waters of the Mississippi River.[470]
The pleasures of such a journey, the scenery enjoyed, the people met, the events of the day spent at Fort Snelling are well illustrated by two letters written by the Right Reverend Jackson Kemper, who was the missionary bishop of the Northwest of the Episcopal Church.[471] In the month of August, 1843, he was the guest of Captain Throckmorton on the steamboat “General Brooke”; and he made the trip to Fort Snelling to confer with Rev. Ezekiel Gear who was the chaplain at the post. The first letter was dated August 25, 1843, and was written to his daughter.
“Here we are snug and almost dry on a sand bar and not more than 13 miles below St. Peters”, he wrote. “While the Captain and his men are using all kinds of methods to get us off—the chief of which is to put our freight into a large barge aside of us—I will write you a few lines. It is now past 8 o'c. P. M. We still hope to get to the fort before night (mid-night I mean). Then the Captain says he will give us an early breakfast tomorrow and send us off to see the falls (5 Miles distant) and we must return so as to start down the river by noon. This is too bad in many respects; but what can we do? I have not time to stay with Mr. Gear until the next boat arrives; that may not be for a week or two; so I will say to Mr. G. when I see him: Here I am, & I have come not to see the falls but you, and I am at your disposal as long as I am here. If you choose to take me to the falls, it is well; if you prefer that I should remain in your house I am content. It is still probable that I shall be at Potosi next tuesday Morning. To travel on Sunday, and particularly to do so without an opportunity of preaching, will be very hard. There will probably be only 4 passengers besides myself on the return. There was a little boat the other [day?] a-head of us, and I hoped she might be detained at the fort until Monday—but that prospect has vanished, for she has just past us descending to Galena.”
“It is supposed to be 500 miles from St. Louis to Prairie du Chien and 300 from there to St. Peters. We stopt at Prairie du Chien for some hours and a Judge Lockwood came on board who with his wife is an Episcopalian. He told me there are several in and about the town & he thought the prospect of organizing a church a fair one if a Missionary could be obtained (We are off the sand bar). From the prairie our voyage has been delightful. At the distance of a mile or two from the river on each side are ranges of lofty hills, in a great variety of shapes. Many of them appeared as if the river had flowed for ages near to their tops. Some of them looked as if they had been cut in two; and on the peaks of several were large blocks of rock. As we were woodding I spoke of going up to one of them but was told it was dangerous on account of rattle-snakes. There is a curious fact connected with that reptile. Cannon river flows into the Misi from the west—it is a long & narrow stream—nine miles above Lake Pepin. They are never found north of that stream, although they abound below it. One of the hills we saw yesterday had 3 or 4 large blocks of rock upon it, called the pot and kettles from their resemblance to those useful utensils. The prairies were frequent & some peculiarly attractive. On Wabasa's we saw a Sioux village—and a farmer's establishment—he being sent there by the U. S. to civilize the Indians. This morning we passed another village called Red Wings but saw very few of the inhabitants. The corn field was very … [illegible] and there were in it elevated frames where the boys are kept to scare away the blackbirds. I saw smoke near the frames, the boys having kindled a fire to roast ears of corn for their comfort. The Sioux have winter & summer houses. The latter are conical made of buffalo robes covering poles. The summer lodges looked something like poor log huts & are made of poles & elm bark. Near Red Wings village there is a Missy establishment from Switzerland.—Lake Pepin is a beautiful sheet of water thro wh the M. flows or is an expanse of the M. & is 25 miles by 3. It apparently abounded in large fish, for they were constantly jumping out of the water. Its banks you know are celebrated for agates—but we have not time to stop a moment.—The settlements above P. du Chien are very few—now and then a solitary dwelling & a wood yard. At one of these places the man told me his nearest neighbor was 20 miles off. In winter there is a good deal of travelling on the river in sleighs. About half way up Lake Pepin is the lover's rock of which you have heard, the Chippeway river enters from the East just below the commencement of the Lake, & its Mouth is 100 Miles below St. Peters. Up it & like wise up the St. Croix are saw mills, as that country abounds with Pine. The Mouth of the St. Croix is 30 miles below St. Peters. Here is a beautiful lake as large as L. Pepin thro' which the St. C. flows just before it joins the M.—We have a Mr. Akin on board whose trading establishment is 300 Miles north of the St. Peters & 60 west of Lake Superior. Then he has been among the Chippeways 33 yrs. He has been thro' Lake Superior 30 times to New York for goods & returned as often; and now for the first time he has traded with St. Louis. He knows perfectly all the languages around him. The most copious is the Chippeway. He says they have some what of a written language, and he has frequently seen an Indian write off a … [illegible] for another on a piece of bark. He thinks the characters are something like those of the Mexicans.—Now I suppose you would like to receive a letter with the S. Peter's post Mark; and if I ascertain it will not take more than a Month on its journey you shall receive this thro that channel; otherwise I will reserve it for the p. o. of P. du Chien”.[472]
The narrative is continued in a letter of August 29, 1843, written from Potosi, Wisconsin, to his son:
“Although you may not have a very high opinion of the West, yet I think you would have liked to be with me in my late trip to St. Peters. The weather was delightful and the scenery grand and very novel. You have probably seen my letter to your sister; I will therefore say, we arrived at the end of our voyage last friday night, and as the fog was very thick the next morning we could not see where we were until 8 oclock. Then the fort on a high hill, with its flag flying, had a fine appearance. Mr. Gear the chaplain soon called at the boat and appeared greatly rejoiced to see me. I accompanied him to his quarters and saw his family and some of the officers and ladies of the garrison, and then he and I rode out 8 miles to the falls of St. Anthony. Though very inferior to those of Niagara, they are still well worth seeing. The scenery is wild—there are many immense rocks in the river, evidently broken off from the precipice over which the water is dashed with considerable noise—the water in its fall is frequently broken—but even when it is not so, the height is not more than 17-1/2 feet. Returning we went to a hill from whence we could see the whole of the fall for there is an island in the middle of the river which hides one half of it when you are near. A mile or two further brought us to a most beautiful and lofty cascade on Nine Mile river. The quantity of water was not large, but it fell amidst the wildest scene, unbroken, over a ledge of rock which extended far beyond its foundation.—There were not many Indians. The few I saw were Sioux who looked much degenerated by their contact with the Whites. The families of the officers appeared very happy; the ladies told me they were like sisters. For months they have no visitors but wild Indians—Sioux or Chippeways. An old Scotchman who had been in this country 50 years told me that all the tribes to the North and West speak the Chippeway language or its dialects; that the Sioux is entirely different from it, but that a dialect of it is spoken by the Winnebagoes, with this difference that the Sioux language has not the sound of the letter R in it while almost every word of the Winnebago abounds with Rs. He thinks that a person knowing the two languages—the C. and S. could travel through the indian country from Mexico to the N. Pole and make himself understood.—We had to return to the boat by one oclock, and soon after we started down the river. Near the Mouth of the St. Croix—about 45 miles below St. Peters, I saw on a prairie a large stone painted a bright red, to which the Indians offer sacrifices of tobacco &c. and consider a Wa-Kon or Spirit.—As we were on our journey sunday afternoon I saw a bark canoe paddling towards us with great rapidity containing as I first thought an Indian and a white Man. The steamer was stopt, and soon the chattels (kettle, coffee-pot, &c) then the men afterwards the boat itself were on board. They proved to be a miner who had gone from Galena and a stout lad. Eight months ago a number of persons were induced by offers of land from Government to go to Lake Superior in search of copper; and a large party had lately been occupied in removing an immense block of copper from the bed of a river which empties into the Lake. This miner had been thus occupied; and he informed me that the task was done—that the block weighed three tons—that it was to be taken to New York &c. as an object of curiosity. A fortnight ago he had started from the spot—skirted the Lake to a certain river, ascended that to its source, then carried the canoe with its contents 2 or 3 miles on their shoulders until they met the head waters of the St. Croix, and descended that river to the Mississippi.”[473]
XII
THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837
The relations of the United States government to the Indians prior to 1871 shows a dual attitude. On the one hand, the Indians were the government's wards. By the ninth of the Articles of Confederation, Congress was given the right of “regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians who were not members of any of the states”[474] and by the act regulating Indian trade no cession of land could be valid unless made by treaty or convention.[475] On the other hand, these treaties were negotiated and proclaimed with all the pomp and ceremony which would appeal to the Indian's mind and impress him with his importance as a member of a sovereign nation. This was distinctly a “legal fiction”, but it continued as the customary method of procedure until the act of March 3, 1871, abolished the practice of considering the tribes as independent nations.[476]