The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1891-03-14
THE SIOUX INDIANS.
BRIEF HISTORY OF A GREAT
ABORIGINAL NATION.
Their Original Domain was an I'M
mense Territory-Their Various
Uprising Against the Whites.

The Sioux Indians have long been the
most populous of the various aboriginal
nations of North America, and no amount
of fighting and bad treatment stops their
numerical increase. Seventy years ago,
although they had been at war for more
chan a century with the lIurous and Chip
pewas, they numbered about thirteen
thousand souls. Since that date they
have had many struggles with soldiers,
settlers, starvation, smallpox, Indian
agents and other tOrments, yet now
:hcy number about fifty thousand. The
French, the English, and later our own
hey held most of their territory until, a
part at time. it was obtained from
them by treaty and purchase on terms
which seldom were honorably adhered to
oy the whites.
The original domain of the Sioux was
indeed royal; it was larger than England,
France and Germany combined. More
than two centuries ago when the French
explorers and missionaries, moving west
ward on the lakes, first found them, the
Sioux, otherwise known as Dakotas. Oc-
cupied nearly all of what now is Mime
sofa, North and South Dakota, besides
much of Wisconsin and part of Iowa and
Nebraska. The nation then consisted
Of sixteen tribes. the names Of many of
which are still recognized by the nation.
The Chippewas pressed them slightly
southwark, but the Sioux found more
room in the West, reaching the head
waters of the Missouri. In 1887 they
eeded to the United States all their
lands east of the Mississippi, and in 1851
they made new treaty, which moved
their line about to the western border of
what was then the State of Minnesota,
in which they retained about 5000
square miles.
Up to this time the Sioux had made
the whites no trouble, but unfortunately
the Indian ring at Washington had been
gathering strength, and hunger and fail
dre of the government to keep its prom
ses caused so much bad feeling that
through quarrel over an attempted
arrest in 1854 an army officer and de-
tachment of troops were destroyed.
Hostilities on the border began at once
and within year General Harvey de-
feated the principal armed body of the
indians and compelled treaty of peace
One tribe of an Indian nation, however,
cannot bind another, and during sue
ceeding yeaEs there were many small
but bloody raids on the Minnesota Dor
der, although whites were rapidly fill
ing the State and feeling able to defend
themselves.
In 1862, while most of the regular
army were taking part in the civil war,
the Sioux rose in force and attempted to
retake all of their old hunting
grounds which had been coded to the
whites. The effects were most severely
felt in Western Minnesota, where many
settlements were destroyed, many whites
were captured and more than thousand
killed. Troops were promptly sent to
the border, however, and, under Gener-
ais Harvey and Sully, both famous
Indian fighters, compelled the Sioux to
cry quits and give up many of the white
women and children they had captured.
After the war ended many Of the Indians
| captured were tried for murder, and
/ about forty of them were hanged. The
moral effect of the defeats and executions
was so great that many of the Sioux
hurried northward into Canada, while
others hid themselves in the Black Hills,
always the favoritc resort of the nation.
! A year later all the reservation Sioux in
Minnesota were moved further West.
AS what now is Dakota was then
known as 1.-THE Country of the Bad
Lands" it was supposed that the Sioux
were permanently removed from contact
with whites other than soldiers and
hunters. But soldiers and Sioux could
never agree; the Indians protested
against forts being maintained in their
country, and some bands showed their
iisapprobation by occasionally killing
off small detachments of soldiers. In
1866 general treaty was made, and
there was an attempt made to persuade
the Indians to take to Agriculture and
other civilized ways. Success was at
tanned to the extent of all Indians wear.
ing trousers and hats when they could
get them, but the agricultural outfit sup