The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1859-10-21
The Necessity Of Fort at st. Joseph.

The Necessity Of Fort at st. Joseph.
The Government is so familiar with the
language of appeals for military protection
from the settlements of our extensive from
tier, and has so often been seduced by false
or exaggerated pretexts into useless and
extravagant expenditures, that it has learned
to see even in the most clamorous calls for
assistance, and in the most alarming men.
aces of danger, only conspiracy of con-
tractors and town-site spectators to in.
duce appropriations of the public funds for
some ones private benefit. Fortunately
the amount of money necessary for the con-
struction and maintenance of a military
establishment on the Pembina river, is not
large enough to tempt the cupidity of the
mercenary bands of contractors and lobby
agents, while the situation is too remote
from the sphere of real estate operations to
afford any suspicion that the demand for
Government appropriations is simply to
lend Importance to some town-site. In
conceding Fort Abercrombie to the clamors
of these men, the. Government may now feel
itself at liberty to provide for the real
necessities of defence on the Red River.
1t is impossible without visit to the
settlements on Pembina river to estimate
the extent of these necessities. The colony
first formed at Pembina, and composed for
the most part of half-breed descendants of
the French voyageurs, and the Gems hbres
of the old Northwest Company, was an off,
shoot of the settlement at Fort Garry, and
most of its people have at one time or other
been in the service of the Hudson Bay Com
pany. The establishment of the interna-
tional boundary line in 1915 and again in
1874 gave these people, always disconnected
with the rule of the Company, an agreeable
refuge from its oppressive regulations. The
colony was formed upon the model of that
of Selkirk comfortable houses we're built
upon strips of land fronting on the river
some attention was paid to agriculture
their cattle and horses fattened upon the
fertile plains around, and when Mr.. KIT.
SONS post was established there in l845,
the settlement was already large and pros
porous, especially that upon the elevated
table land at st. Joseph, which had been
formed in consequence of the occasional
overflow of the river at Pembina, and the
inhabitants on the American side soon
numbered thousands, chiefly at st. Joseph.
A serious drawback, however, upon the
prosperity of the settlement soon began to
discover itself, and the settlers soon found
that in retiring from the protection of the
Hudson. Bay Company, they had purchased
freedom at the expense of security.
Descended on. the maternal side generally
from the Chippewas and Crees, the ancient
and inveterate enemies of the Sioux, those
bold warriors of the plains, the Yanktonnais,
into whose country the half breeds were
annually led by the chase of the buffalo,
visited upon them all the relentless hostility
they felt for their more savage kindred.
Their Journeys on the plains were often
interrupted by recontres with these Zero.
cious Indians, and in the expeditions, which
since l84S have been frequent up the valley
of the Red River to st. Paul, they were
often attacked by Indians.
At the same time they were annoyed by
the depredations Of British halfbreeds upon
the buffalo ranges in American Territory,
upon which they mainly relied for their own
subsistence. When, therefore, the Terri
tory Of Minnesota was organized in 1849,
and they found themselves under the NOM
inal guardianship Of civil laws, whose prac.
tical operation, however, never extended
to them, the first use they made of their
rights as citizens was to petition the Gov
ernor of Minnesota to give them civil
administration and military defence. The
Legislature of Minnesota responded by q
memorial to Congress in their behalf in
1850, and again in 1853. Of the little
appropriation made for them in 1855, and
Col. SMITHS commission thereupon, and
the fate of these preparations, we have
already given the history.
And every year since these poor people
have been deluded with the promise that
next year the United States Government
would do something for them-and although
the practice of agriculture has been aban
doned by them, and their cattle and horses