The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-07-11
Burying tho Hatchet.

Burying tho Hatohet.
Men are still living who as pioneers be-
gan, forty and fifty years ago, to turn tho
sod and SOW wheat on the Minnesota prai- |
rles. Their eyes must have opened wide
the other day when they heard that the
feud between the Sioux and
the %Chippewas Is at an end; that those In
dians have smoked the pipe of peace, held a
barbecue and love feast, buried the Ratchet.
witnessed the happy nuptials Of a Sioux
brave and a fair daughter of the C~hippewas,
and sworn to live in amity forever more.
What vivid memories that six days re-
union OF the old Indian enemies at White
Birch must have revived among the white
pioneers! In the early days those farmers
often heard the shooting Of these hostile
bands. The timber on their farms, the very
fields they were %ploughing, were some
times the scenes of scalping, although
there was no danger for the whites, they
being friendly with both tribes. But RAM
sey and Hennepin counties, where st. Pau
and Minneapolis have risen. and the Min
nesota River Valley were the ~favorite
ranges Of the Sioux. 1t was there our stall.
wart young farmers had driven their cattle.
Here they began to tame the prairie, and
the peace and industry they introduced
were rudely disturbed every year by the
war cry of the painted Chippewa bands who
dashed in on their ponies on q scalping
tour against the Sioux, and then dashed
out again to their hunting grounds, only
fifty to a hundred miles away.
So long as they secured scalps neither
Sioux nor Chippewas cared whether their
victims were men, women, or children. No
man on either side could be 4 brave unless
he had one scalp to his credit and every
additional scalp meant another feather in
the proud victor's hair. The farmer boys
used to count the feathers worn by the
Sioux whom they met trudging to their
tepees or traps, and shout to them: "Ah,
you've killed so many Chippewasr' Many
o farmer rushed from his field to the bluffs
to see what wa going on when he heard
the firing at Shakopee in the spring of
1883. 1t was the last pitched battle be-
tween these hereditary foes in the Mime
sofa Valley, and it occurred within twenty
miles Of St. Paul.
These Chippewa incursions brought not
only intense excitement, but often keen
anguish and sorrow to the white settlers.
Many Incidents of the sort might be men,
toned, and the following occurred within
q quarter OF q mile Of the boyhood home
OF a present member OF THE Suns staff.
Everybody in tho new township of Bloom
ington knew little SUSAN, an eight-year-
old Sioux girl who had been adopted by
MARTIN WHALEN and his wife. One day
WHALEN went to the adjoining farm Of
ORyILLR AMEs to help him in the wheat
field, and Mrs. WHALEN, with her baby
and SUSAN, went over to visit Mrs.
AMEs. Six Indians passing on the
road saw SUSAN in the doorway and
they hitched their ponies and entered the
yard. One OF them entered the house. The
Sioux made much Of the children of their
race who lived with the whites, and moth
Ing was thought Of 1t when this Indian
took SUSAN on his knee, stroked her hair
and talked to her In broken English. Then
the Indian asked II the child might take
some water to his comrades. Presently
SUSAN appeared in the doorway with a pail
and dipper, and just as she crossed the
threshold six guns were levelled at her
the child was riddled with bullets and her
scalp was torn off, as the Mortified women,
their babies clasped in their arms. ran
shrieking to the field. A party of farmers
followed the Chippewas for many miles, but
could not overtake them. The whites could
not tell a Chippewa from a Sioux. When
1t was reported that the Chippewas were on
the warpath. Sioux girls and boys who
were living with the farmers were always
kept indoors for days.
The Sioux, of course, sent their war par
ties to the Chippewa country, but no white
families were there to be frightened out Of
their wits by these savage forays and In
few years the raids ceased entirely, for they
were impossible when settlements multi
piled. government was established, and the
telegraph connected the towns.
The Indians themselves could not SAY
how or when their feud began, but whites
who were fated to witness some of 1t car
testify that men never hated their KIND
more bitterly than Sioux and Chippewa
hated ono another. If their ammunition
held out, no Sioux and Chippewa coult
meet and both escape alive. But thil
month, instead of sending one another t
the happy hunting grounds, forty of thu
best hunters of both tribes nave Joined In
two days quest Of terrestrial deer.
If full Justice was done, there were pres
emit at the weeks m~erry-making some o
the white pioneers who quaked in thei
boots for months and years for fear thei