The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1897-08-20
THE SCALPING KNIFE.
If Was Let Loose in the minnesota
Valley Thirty-Five Years Ago
Today rf....
a Few Incidents of the Struggle Now
More Than Generation in the
Past.
From Wednesdays Daily.

GuU. III was one vi VIC otOOuASSO hhNS
sacres in the history OF Indian
troubles in this country. Looking out
today upon the peaceful and fruitful
fields OF the Minnesota valley, 1t IS
hard to realize that only a generation
ago, the red man was abroad With
scalping knife and tOmahawk strik-
ing terror into the hearts of the
families of the scattered settlers
through this section Of the state. The
old settlers who were here at that
time, DO not need to be reminded OF
the scenes and times that followed
the uprising of Little Crow and his
blood thirsty band of red devils. To
them time has not in the least etfaced
the vividness Of picture that made
the blood Of man run cold. They
well remember the days OF
panic-stricken flight and the
nights of terror that followed
the uprising of the Indians. Memory
brings to them again the war parties
that swept the prairies clean, burned
houses, barns and other out buildings,
destroyed all crops, ran off cattle, and
massacred hundreds of men, women
and children, while several hundred
women and children were taken into
captivity worse than death.
While the war only lasted two
months, desOlation and ruin stalked
along the frontier. A thousand lives
were lOst--a sacrifice to savage cruelty.
The aWfulneSS of those times can in
these days of enjoyment of every COM
Tort of modern civilization, only be
realized by those who were on the
ground during those memorable days
Of 1862, though one may imagine some
what the terrible nature Of the con-
flict by pouring over 1.-THE records OF
Slaughter of fathers and children and
the cruel captivity of women;of babies
Drained in their mothers presence, OF
fathers killed before their families, OF
the outrage of women and the tor
lures of children" Ali this was in
:augurated in this beautiful valley
thirty-five years ago today. Doubt
less one of the best accounts of this
conflict is given in the history of the
Welsh Of Southern Minnesota, re-
Gently published, and will furnish the
future historian of the northwest the
fullest details of those stirring times.
On the part of the Indians the claim
was made that they had provocation
for the war, but there never was
provocation that would justify such
murderous assault. Back in 1851 eX-
Gov. Alexander Ramsey and Luke
Lea as special Indian commissioners,
negotiated treaties with the Sioux
tribes then residing in Minnesota, by
which for certain annual payments
they agreed to cede to the United
States all their claims to lands in
Minnesota, except limited reserva-
tion, strip of land twenty miles
wide on each side of the Minnesota
river, from a point little below Fort
Ridgely to the head-waters Of the
river. In an account Of the war, a
writer in the Minneapolis Journal
says: t.-....
s'Ihe Indians had not lived on their
limited reservations very long before
they became restless and discontented.
They realized that they had surren-
,dered an empire for almost nothing.
The feeling of irritation was much in
creased by the delay in the payments
due them in June and July, 1862.
Still the whites had no knowledge OF
the temper of the Indians, and had
not the faintest suspicion that there
was any danger of a revolt. On Aug.
II, however, few irresponsible In
dams perpetrated number of muir
ders in the Acton settlement. The
news of this massacre reached the up
per agency early the next morning,
and to the bloodthirsty warriors it was
as the match that fires the powder.
Almost instantaneously the Ratchet
was dug up, and before the unsuspect-
ing people at the agency dreamed of
harm, death was upon them. At the
two agencies twenty-four persons were
killed, and their bodies were mangled
in the most horrible manner. The
missionaries near the upper agency
were warned by loyal Indians in time
TO make good their escape"
The news of the uprising was at
once carried to Fort Ridgely, and
Capt. John F. Marsh started at once
FOR the scene with forty-tive men. He
was ambushed at the ferry opposite
the lower agency by Little Crow and
his warriors, and all but fifteen of his
men were killed, and the Captain was
drowned id the Minnesota while at
tempting to cross it two miles below
the scene of the ambuscade: After
this battle, says the Journal writer,
practically all-of the 5000 Sioux Tn
dams in Minnesota were in open hos
tility. They had, perhaps, 1900 or
rriorc opa thau xuara ri