Minnesota weekly times. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1854-1859, 1854-10-24
THE SIOUX INDIANS.

Some time since we published an article on the
stealing and numbering propensities of the Sioux
Indians, having derived our information from an
old Indian trader. In reply to that article,
Thomas S. Williamson, ESQ.,, who has lived
among the Indians for many years, writes us as
follows. We certainly have no desire to do in
justice to the Red Men, as we think they have
been sufficiently wronged by the whites already,
and we most cheerfully, therefore, publish any
we'll authenticated information regarding them,
in hope that it will tend to better their condi-
tion, and place them more favorably before the
civilized world. Mr.. Williamson says:
The Indians-Their Propensi.ies-IIow Treated.
PEJUTAzEE, Sioux RESERVATION,
Sept. 9th, 1854.
MEssRs. EDTroRs,-In the Weekly Times of
Aug. 18th, which has just reached us, l observe
an article on the Sioux Indians which l think
does them injustice. That many of them when
pressed with hunger, will steal food, if they
can't get it in no other way, and that some of
them appropriate to their own use, other small
articles, Of which they suppose they have more
need than the owners, cannot be denied. But
after residing among them for most twenty
years, am of the opinion, that in this respect
they are not SO bad as the white people in like
circumstances. They have at all times had free
access to our home by day, and rarely have our
doors been fastened by night. We have felt as
secure among them as we would in st. Paul, and
not very unfrequently have permitted from one to
half dozen of them to occupy, a room in our
house, where they had free access to whatever
about our house they would be most likely to
steal, and seldom have we had reason to suspect
them Of taking from it, any thing more valuable
than pair Of scissors, or case knife. have been
here with family of women and children for a
month at a time, without another white man
nearer than thirty miles, surrounded by hungry
Sioux, who knew we had food and yet did not Of
fer to molest US. Until within the last two
months there has been no white man except the
man have had hired living nearer than Red
Wood, some % or 30 miles distant. The two past
summers we have cultivated three and five acres,
in potatoes, turnips, squashes, melons &C., sur
rounded only by slight post and rail fence,
without dog to bark at them if they should come
at night, and though twenty families Of Sioux
have lived thcpast summer in sight of our door,
the most remote not a mile distant, and though
the boys, who are just as fond of such things as
white boys, were daily playing about our house
and field, and had no melons of their own, from
a small patch we have had as many as we wish
ed to eat for more than a month, and some to
give to our friends, and though some melons,
squashes, turnips, &C., may have been taken
from the field, the quantity is so small that we
can scarcely miss them.
might mention other facts like the above, but
though it should be proved that the Sioux are not
more ferocious, nor worse to steal, than the white
people, the fact remains that they do sometimes
steal, and sometimes others steal hoping it will