The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-09-13

| the Chipeway and Hawk rivers and
| the Medewakanton and Wahpekuta
bands were to receive like reserva
| tion of the same width continui ng
down the Minnesota to north and
south line drawn through the mouth
| of Rock river by Ft. Ridgley.
Most of the money items designated
for the chiefs were really to pay the
claims of traders, and were SO APP
piled in accordance with the written
| stipulation made as we stated, at the
| same time as the treaty.
1t was assumed that at the expiration
, of the fifty years period the Dakotas
would all be sufficiently civilized so as
to need no further annuities, and the
trust funds aboye mentioned, were
then to revert to the government.
| When the treaty came to be consid-
cred by the senate on July Goth, 1862,
the articles giving the tracts described
dams were modified, making them
temporary, and promising to pay ten
cents an acre for them when other
reservations should be designated.
| The treaties as thus amended were
returned to Gov Ramsey to be re-
signed by the Indians. The lower
bands at first objected, but finally, on
Saturday, September 4th, 1862, signed
the amended articles. at Gov. Ram
sey's residence in st. Paul and on the
following Monday at the same place,
the chiefs of the upper bands, also
signed.
The treaties as amended were finally
proclaimed by the senate on February
z4th, 1868.
Subsequently the senate seems to
have re-considered the matter, and by
act of July 31st, 1854, the treaties were
| allowed to stand as originally made.
AS soon as the amended treaties were
signed by the Indians, the money for
the first payment was forwarded to
Gov. Ramsey, who repaired to Ira
verse Des Sioux to pay the upper bands
on Nov. 18th, 1862, in company with
Agent Mclean, Maj. Joseph R.
Brown, interpreter, II. 81. Sibley, DR..
Foster, Hugh Tyler, Benjamin Thomp-
| SOD. Q. d. Fillmore, brother of Pr esi-
dent Fillmore, who was then lum Der
| agent for Minnesota, and number of
traders, among others: 81. l.. Douse-
man, Alexis Bailey and Martin Nc
F! Cloud. He found the Indians in an
ugly mood, because some 1920, 900 of
their money was to be paid to traders
and half breeds under the written
agreement signed at the time of the
treaty. The Indians, however, repudi-
ated this agreement, claiming that it
was base fraud. That they were told
and believed at the time, the paper
they signed was only another copy of
the treaty, and that they did not dis
cover its real import and the trick
played upon them, until long after
wards.
The agitation against the payment
of these claims was instigated mostly
by the whites, and came from three
sources: Traders who were jealous
because they were allowed no share in
the spoil, politicians of opposite faith
to the party in power, which nygoti-
ated the treaty, and persons who hon
estly believed from the reports circu-
| lated, that the Indinas were wronged.
The leader of the opposition On the
part of the whites, was one Madison
Sweetzer of Fl. Wayne, Ind, and on
the part of the Indians, Red Irun, a
Sisseton chief of the Traverse Des
Sioux band. Red Iron organized his
band of braves into soldiers lodge,
and for few days after the arrival of
! Gov. Ramsey for the payment, affairs
assumed threatening aspect at The
Crossing" The governor promptly
sent for troops to Fit. Smelling, ana on
Nov. 10th, Capt. James Monroe arriv
ed with forty infantry and five dra-
goons, and Red Iron was at once ar
rested and put in Jail until his soldiers
lodge was broken and the payments
allowed to proceed.
The opposition then carried their
case into the United States senate,
which being now Democratic, was not
averse to airing any short comings in
the late administration of their Wing
opponents. An Investigating COM
mittee was appointed and the evidence
fully sifted before Richard NJ. Young of
Illinois.
The result was that while some of
the Indians might not have fully I'M
derstood the traders paper which they
signed and while some of the traders
had doubtless padded their claims, the
commissioners had acted with the ut
most honesty and good faith in the
matter, and they were fully exoner-
ated even by senate politically hos
tile to them.
In 1858, a question was sraised as to
the Sioux's title to their reservations
because of the senate's peculiar action
in passing on that article of the
treaty. The query was instiga ted
mainly by Joseph r. Brown, who
had located on large tract of this
Sioux land north of the Minnesota.
Through his mediation an agreement
was finally made at Washington by the
chiefs on June 18th, 1868, whereby the
portion of their reservations south of
the river was confirmed to them, with
a further provision added that all so
desiring should have eighty acre
farms allotted to them in severalty
with government aid in erecting suit
able buildings and procuring neces-
sary cattle and machinery, and to
further induce the Indians to take up
with this agricultural life, they were
to be paid wages for their labor in ad-
dition to what produce they raised.
The portion of the reservations
north of the river was ceded to the
government for consideration to be
paid to the Indians, provided the
senate found their title thereto valid,
which it did by act of June 9th, 1860. !
The main result of this 1858 agree
ment was, as Maj. Brown evidently
anticipated, the opening to white set !
Element of one half of the Sioux reserv-
ations.
Thus matters stood until the sudden
crash of the awful massacre of 1862, |
in the act of February 18th, |
1868, whereby all the rights and
claims of the Sioux under these |
treaties not contaminated, were abro-
gated and annulled, their reservations
decreed to be sold and themselves de-
ported forever beyond the confines of |