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

be charged to the Dacotas, and also that tho
presence of the Indians is sometimes very snnoy-
ing, especially to such persons as are afraid Of
them. 1t would be we'll for such to remember, that
there is scarcely any Sioux family, which has not
suffered more from the bad faith of the U. s. than
they, or any of their neighbors have suffered,
from the depredations of the Sioux. And it
would be valuable service to the community Il
you, Messrs. Editors, who are supposed to have
access to the laws of the U. S. and other sources
of information, not accessebly to most Of your
readers, would inform them whose fault it Is,
that the poor Dacotas linger among the whites
near their old homes. The Sioux never offered
to sell their lands but were persuaded and driven
to do so, asserting at the time that the price was
not an equivalent. Gov. German says in his re-
port to the commissioner of Indian Affairs, that
$275, 900 for the Sissetons and Wahpaton Sioux
and $4,000 for N1idawakontan and Wahpacooty
Sioux, which according to the treaties Of 1851,
should pc paid to the chiefs, as they in open
council should direct, ,oas not paid, but mostly
paid to their traders, against their protests and
remonstrances. Immediately subsequent to these
treaties, the whites began to take possession of
the lands ceded, and in them the Daeotas were
promised that the payments should commence
next July, and as they understood it, all be made
in July, and on their reservation. The first pay
ment was made at Traverse des Sioux in Novem-
Der, and but small part of the provisions prom
ised them being there, that was so issued as to
keep them there starving all winter. In May,
1853, when the Wahpatons were laboring hard to
put in their corn crop, they heard that a part Of
their provisions, due the summer or fall before,
had been brought to Red Wood. Ten or twelve
men, including one of their chiefs, and represen-
ting about fifteen or twenty families, went thith-
er, hoping to get food to sustain them till they
could get their corn planted. There they saw
$50 barrels Of -four, said to be good, in one pile,
exposed to the rain and sun, but not q barrel of
it could they get. A barrel of spoiled flour,
which had been lying by somewhere from the
year before, and few sacks Of corn, not as much
in all, as their hungry families could have eaten,
in the two days the men were going thirty miles
for it, and returning. This -four, with some
brought subsequently,, remained exposed to the
weather till it was spoiled that when issued to
the Sionx it caused dysentry which proved fatal
to many of the children and some adults. This
made the lower Sioux loathe to come to Red Wood
and caused them to return to the ceded lands as
soon as they could; and unwilling to eat such
food, has kept part of them away from their
reservation ever since. Some Of those who came
up in the spring found that the seed corn which
had been provided for them would not grow, and
the seed potatoes provided for them 600 bushels)
were not brought to their reservation till it was
too late to plant them with any prospect Of crop.
In consequence of the contractors neglecting to
forward these potatoes in due season, and of the
observation-disclosures being unable to get a sufi-
cheney of seed corn that would grow, there is not
on their reservation half food enough to sustain
them through the winter, consequently many of
them must again return to the white settlements
or to their old hunting grounds. 1t ought not
to be expected, in country where food is as
plenty as in Minnesota, that those who know where
it is and how they get it, will starve to death
for want of it. Respectfully Yours, @
THos. WILLIAMSON.