Old Fort Snelling, 1819-1858

by Marcus Lee Hansen

• Catlin's Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Condition of the North American Indians, Vol. II, p. 592.
• [439]
• Merrick's Old Times on the Upper Mississippi, p. 187. The following description was given by Philander Prescott, a fur trader:
• “The Indians say they had dreamed of seeing some monster of the deep the night before, which frightened them very much. It appears they did not discover the boat until it had got into the mouth of the St. Peter's, below Mr. Sibley's. They stood and gazed with astonishment at what they saw approaching, taking the boat to be some angry god of the water, coughing and spouting water upwards, sideways and forward. They had not courage enough to stand until the boat came near them. The women and children took to the woods, with their hair floating behind them in the breeze, from the speed they were going, in running from supposed danger. Some of the men had a little more courage, and only moved off to a short distance from the shore, and the boat passed along and landed. Everything being quiet for a moment, the Indians came up to the boat again, and stood looking at the monster of the deep. All at once the boat began to blow off steam, and the bravest warriors could not stand this awful roaring, but took to the woods, men, women and children, with their blankets flying in the wind; some tumbling in the brush which entangled their feet as they ran away--some hallooing, some crying, to the great amusement of the people on board the steamboat.”--Quoted in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. III, p. 104, note 1.
• [440]
• Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 199.
• [441]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 191–193.
• [442]
• Beltrami published an account of his travels in French in New Orleans in 1824. The English version is entitled A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, leading to the Discovery of the Sources of the Mississippi and Bloody River, and was published in London in two volumes in 1828. It is composed of twenty-two letters addressed to “My Dear Countess” and dedicated “to the Fair Sex”.
• [443]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 101.
• [444]
• The story of this exploration was published under the title of Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, Etc. performed in the year 1823, by order of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, under the command of Stephen H. Long, U. S. T. E. It was written by Professor Keating from the notes of the party. An English edition appeared in London in 1825. The references given are to this publication.
• [445]
• J. C. Calhoun to Major Long.--Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 41.
• [446]
• Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Vol. I, p. 324, Vol. II, p. 112.
• [447]
• Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Vol. I, pp. 306–310.
• [448]
• Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Vol. I, p. 356.
• [449]
• Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 241.
• [450]
• Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 414.
• [451]
• “My head was covered with the bark of a tree, formed into the shape of a hat and sewed with threads of bark; and shoes, a coat, and pantaloons, such as are used by Canadians in the Indian territories, and formed of original skins sewed together by thread made of the muscles of that animal, completed the grotesque appearance of my person.”--Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 481. For a short summary of Beltrami's work see the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 183–196.
• [452]
• Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Vol. II, p. 200.
• [453]
• Catlin's North American Indians, Vol. II, pp. 599–602.
• [454]
• Catlin's North American Indians, Vol. II, pp. 602–607. This quotation is from page 607.
• [455]
• Senate Documents, 1st Session, 24th Congress, Vol. IV, Document No. 333.
• [456]
• Featherstonhaugh's A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, Vol. I, p. 262.
• [457]
• Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 246.
• [458]
• Featherstonhaugh's A Canoe Voyage up the Minnay Sotor, Vol. I, pp. 261, 266, 288.
• [459]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, pp. 187, 188.
• [460]
• Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. II, Document No. 52, p. 53.
• [461]
• Brower's The Mississippi River and its Source which comprises Vol. VII of the Minnesota Historical Collections. See p. 162.
• [462]
• Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 242–245; Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 189.
• [463]
• In his reminiscences John C. Frémont has left a very interesting account of these two expeditions.--Frémont's Memoirs of My Life, Vol. I, pp. 30–54.
• [464]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 183.
• [465]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 129, 133, 134.
• [466]
• Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), pp. 914, 915.
• [467]
• North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser, June 26, 1840.
• [468]
• North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser, June 5, 1840.
• [469]
• Louisville Journal quoted in the North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser, June 14, 1838.
• [470]
• Jackson Kemper was appointed missionary bishop of the Northwest in 1835 and held the position until 1859 when he accepted the bishopric of Wisconsin. His papers and diaries are in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society. For an account of his work see Tiffany's A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, pp. 448, 493.
• [471]
• Kemper Papers, Vol. XXVII, No. 113.
• [472]
• Kemper Papers, Vol. XXVII, No. 116.
• [473]

CHAPTER XII

• Journals of Congress, Vol. III, p. 589.
• [474]
• United States Statutes at Large, Vol. I, p. 138.
• [475]
• United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 566.
• [476]
• Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1890, p. xxix.
• [477]
• These figures are taken from an account of the proceedings of the council published in Niles' Register, Vol. XXIX, pp. 187–192. Taliaferro gives the number of his party as being 385 “Sioux and Chippewas, including the interpreters and attendants.”--Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 206.
• [478]
• The text of the treaty is printed in Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 250–255.
• [479]
• These are the reasons given by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in his report on December 1, 1837.--Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 25th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 526, 527.
• [480]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 129.
• [481]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 131; Vol. VI, p. 214.
• [482]
• For an account of the life of Flat Mouth see Coues's The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike, Vol. I, p. 169, note 10.
• [483]
• Sketches of the life of Hole-in-the-Day are given in The Spirit of Missions, Vol. VIII, p. 461, December, 1843; North Western Gazette and Galena Advertiser, August 3, 1839; Prairie du Chien Patriot, June 8, 1847.
• [484]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. V, p. 353.
• [485]
• The names of the witnesses of the treaty are given in Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, p. 493.
• [486]
• A contemporary account of the proceedings of the council published in the Iowa News (Dubuque), Vol. I, Nos. 11 and 14, is reprinted in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 408–433.
• [487]
• The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, p. 420.
• [488]
• Dodge to Harris, July 30, 1837.--Indian Office Files, 1837, No. 226.
• [489]
• Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. III, Pt. 2, Document No. 5, p. 985. The Indians desired whiskey at the councils. In order to prove that it was not refused because of stinginess, two barrels were opened at Prairie du Chien and the whiskey allowed to run on the ground. The old Indian Wakh-pa-koo-tay mourned the loss: “It was a great pity, there was enough wasted to have kept me drunk all the days of my life.”--Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. V, p. 124.
• [490]
• The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 409, 410.
• [491]
• The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 424–426.
• [492]
• The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 416, 417.
• Taliaferro was violently opposed to granting any funds to the traders.--Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 215, 216.
• [493]
• The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. IX, pp. 431, 432.
• [494]
• The text of the treaty is to be found in Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 491–493.
• [495]
• Niles' Register, Vol. LIII, pp. 81, 82; Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 493, 494.
• [496]
• See an account of the payment in 1849 at Fort Snelling in The Minnesota Pioneer, September 27, 1849.
• [497]
• Post Returns, November, 1852, October, 1853, October, 1854, in the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C.
• [498]

CHAPTER XIII

• Turner's The Significance of the Frontier in American History in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association, 1893, p. 211.
• [499]
• Beltrami's A Pilgrimage in Europe and America, Vol. II, p. 202.
• [500]
• Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 453; Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. I, p. 468.
• [501]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. III, p. 319.
• [502]
• Keating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Vol. II, p. 60.
• [503]
• Much has been written on the founding of this colony and the romantic events connected with the struggle between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company, in which many of the colonists were the innocent victims. Interesting accounts are given in Kingsford's The History of Canada, Vol. IX, pp. 108–150; Bryce's The Remarkable History of the Hudson's Bay Company, pp. 202–257; Bryce's Lord Selkirk in The Makers of Canada, Vol. V, pp. 115–206; Laut's The Conquest of the Great Northwest, pp. 113–202; Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 75–89.
• [504]
• There is a summary of the early trading relations of the Red River Colony with the American settlements in the Collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Vol. IV, pp. 251, 252. The arrival of these people at Fort Snelling is noted in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 124, 127; VI, p. 350.
• [505]
• “Two families of Swiss emigrants who arrived here yesterday were robbed of almost everything they possessed”.--Snelling to Taliaferro, October 19, 1824, in Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 50. See also the story of the Tully children in Van Cleve's “Three Score Years and Ten,” Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, pp. 49–61.
• [506]
• The facts concerning the migrations of these Red River refugees are taken from the reminiscences of Mrs. Ann Adams who was herself one of the travellers.--Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, pp. 75–95. See also Chetlain's The Red River Colony. This is a small pamphlet written by the son of one of the refugees.
• [507]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XIV, p. 84.
• [508]
• Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, pp. 70, 71.
• [509]
• Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, p. 16.
• [510]
• Renville to Sibley, February 22, 1835.--Sibley Papers, 1830–1840. A story is told of a certain “Simple-hearted, honest fellow” named Sinclair. “One time he was sick, at Mendota, and Surgeon Emerson, at the fort, sent by some one, a box of pills, for him to take a dose from. N. W. Kittson called on him a little while after this, and found that Sinclair had not only swallowed all the pills, but was then chewing up the box!”--Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, p. 123.
• [511]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, pp. 127, 129.
• [512]
• Snelling to Taliaferro, October 19, 1824.--Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 50.
• [513]
• Taliaferro's Diary, July 13, 14, 1834; Indian Office Files, 1834, No. 239.
• [514]
• Taliaferro's Diary, July 21, 1834.
• [515]
• Indian Office Files, 1837, Nos. 448, 447, 445.
• [516]
• The Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VI, p. 231.
• [517]
• Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, pp. 14, 15.
• [518]
• Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, pp. 16, 17.
• [519]
• Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, pp. 18, 23.
• [520]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 136; Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, pp. 66, 67.
• [521]
• Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, pp. 23, 24.
• [522]
• Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9, pp. 26, 27.
• [523]
• The Spirit of Missions, Vol. V, p. 335, November, 1840. A recent sketch of Fort Snelling states that there were “no white neighbors except traders, agents of fur companies, refugees from civilization and disreputable hangers-on.”--Hammond's Quaint and Historic Forts of North America, p. 272. Many of the evicted settlers can not be classed among these.
• [524]
• This order is published in Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, p. 94.
• [525]
• For the expulsion of the settlers see Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, pp. 99, 100; also, Neill's The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 459. Williams (p. 100) says that in 1849 and 1852 memorials were presented to Congress by those who had been expelled, in which they stated that “the soldiery fell upon them without warning, treated them with unjustifiable rudeness, broke and destroyed furniture wantonly, insulted the women, and, in one or two instances, fired at and killed cattle.”
• Father Galtier, who was there at the time, wrote: “Consequently a deputy marshall from Prairie du Chien was ordered to remove the houses. He went to work, assisted by some soldiers, and, one after another, unroofed the cottages, extending about five miles along the river. The settlers were forced to seek new homes.” He makes no mention of personal violence.--Acta et Dicta, Vol. I, No. 1, p. 64.
• [526]
• Williams's A History of the City of Saint Paul, p. 111.
• [527]
• See the description of St. Paul in 1849 in Seymour's Sketches of Minnesota, the New England of the West, pp. 94–100.
• [528]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, January 30, 1850.
• [529]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, January 23, February 27, June 27, 1850.
• [530]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, November 27, 1851.
• [531]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, April 17, 1851.
• [532]
• Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XV, p. 534; Post Returns, July, 1855, in the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C.
• [533]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, February 20, 27, 1850.
• [534]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, February 6, 13, 1850; Minnesota Chronicle and Register, February 10, 1851.
• [535]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, February 13, 1850.
• [536]
• Bishop's Floral Home; or, First Years of Minnesota, pp. 152–163.
• [537]
• The Minnesota Pioneer, August 23, 1849.
• [538]
• These two treaties were the treaty with the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux at Traverse des Sioux, July 23, 1851; and with the Mdewakanton and Wahpakoota bands of Sioux at Mendota on August 5, 1851.--Kappler's Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 588–593.
• [539]

INDEX