The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1900-06-22

lsota bank only to encounter more
serious obstacle. The KasOta prairie
opposite LIE Blat's trading post was
covered this winter with a large
Indian village belonging to the Sis
seton tribe, who claimed the region
about the mouth of the Blue Earth
as their ancient patrimony.
A tragic incident, which had oc-
Cured over thirty years before and
which time will not allow me now to
relate, had caused them to harbOr an
ugly feeling towards the whites, and
at the late treaty their head chief,
Sleepy Eye, had evinced the most de-
termined opposition to it's consum-
nation. Red Iron, another chief, and
Santumadutah, a sub-chief of these
bands, were also opposed to the
treaty. No sooner, therefore, had our
travellers crossed the river than they
were stopped by number of Indian
braves. Mr.. johnson repaired to
Sleepy Eyes tent, where a council
was convened. A half-breed son of
LIE Blat, who had married daughter
of the chief, acted as interpreter
johnson argued that as the Indians
had sold the land to the whites they
had no further right therein, but the
willy chief replied that the Indians
had seen no money yet, and until
paid for, the lands belonged to them.
He also claimed that his young men
were much attached to the country
about the mouth of the Blue Earth
and their big sugar camp was
located there.
IL was useless to argue and to force
their way through so many warriors
was out of question. In his load,
johnson had quite a lot of pork,
which young LIE Blat, the interpreter,
very much coveted, and Johnson see
ling his interest said that had he and
his party been permitted to go to the
mouth of the Blue Earth, he would
have been very glad to have had him
go with them with his pony and
sleigh to carry part OF this load and
would have given him good share
of the pork in pay. This suggestion
worked like charm and madeyoung
LIE Blat Johnson's firm ally and he
at once went to his father-in-law and
told him that johnson was his
special friend and begged that he
might be allowed to settle at the
mouth of the Blue Earth. The final
upshot was that the old chief con-
sented upon johnson giving him q
written order on Jackson for a liber-
al allowance of pork. This order,
wrapped carefully about stick, an
Indian brought to Jackson a year or
two afterwards. when it was re-
deemed.
Johnson and his party now passed
on under the guidance of young LIE
10 nj
east bank of the Blue Earth on the
south side of the mound. This
mound was known by it's present
had maintained a trading post there;
and even as late as 1850, when the
steamer Yankee visited the spot,
pied the place.
Finding that the west MankatO
flats were subject to overflow from
the river, Mr.. Johnson and his party
spent the forenoon of the next day
looking for a site for their proposed
city and finally decided on the mar
row strip of prairie lying along the
river between the big slough and the
stone quarry plateau. 1t was natur-
ally a pleasant spot. The snow had
melted and luxuriant growth OF
tall dead grass waved in the breeze
like field of ripened grain, dotted
here and there with clumps of hazel
bushes and small trees.
On one side lay the river, with a
convenient place for a steamboat
landing, on the other dense forest,
almost touching Front street at
Warren's creek but receding TO Third
street as you went north, and ex-
tending back in a dense mass over
the hills to the LeSueur. On
the forests edge and extending
from where the Theatre and Mr..
Phillips barn now stand to
the vicinity of the City Hotel was
pond four to five feet in depth, in
which the Indians and our pioneers
often shot ducks and our pioneer
boys had many sailing adventure,
and some of them, including Mr..
Graf, the present chairman OF our
county board, had narrow escapes
from a watery grave, and in which
Mr.. Schlingerman, | believe had one
of his horses drowned as late as the
sixties.
Around the margin OF the pond
grew a fine grove of tall white poplar
trees with willow underbrush. The
pond was fed by two large springs,
the largest called the sulphur spring
by the old settlers, gushed from the
ground in a big rivulet near where
the oil mill plant now stands, and
the flow was little affected by
drOuths of summer or the frosts OF
| winter.
The only indications OF human oc-
cupation were a few tepee poles, a
trail zigzaging the whole length OF
the prairie nearly in the line of Front
street, q few Indian dead wrapped in
blankets and tucked into the branches
OF some trees overlooking the river
near the present pumping station
and in the oak grove across the
slough where Mrs. James Hanna
afterwards lived, and the remains OF
an Indian sugar camp in the vicinity
of the Episcopal church, being near
the center of the fine maple grove
which Chief Sleepy Eye claimed his
young men SO highly valued.
The first night Saturday Feb. 7, 1881