The Saint Paul globe., 1904-05-22

MOT so long ago most everybody
in st. Paul was an Indiana
genuine copper -colored pagan
Sioux Indian. Auguste L. Larpenteur,
the oldest male resident of this city,
who is not an old man compared with
the patriarchs of Eastern communi-
ties-Mr. Larpenteur, who is only
eighty-one, looks to be no more than
sixty-f1ve, and has fewer wrinkles than
many man of fifty-this active, hap
py-hearted veteran said yesterday at
his picturesque home, Dale and Rondo
Streets
why, when I arrived here Sept.
10, 1S43, on the steamboat Otter, Capt.
Harris, we were received at the foot
of the hill which was going to be
Jackson street, by practically all the
inhabitants of st. Paul-5O0 or 900
Sioux Indians, braves, squaws and
papooses, wearing moccasins, blankets
and breechclouts and complexion.
That day the 500 were inhabiting ST.
Paul, but they usually formed a part
OF the much larger village of Kaposia
down the river, where the stock yards
are now located at South St. Paul.
After we had struggled through this
crowd OF red folks, all extending their
hands and remarking How very
pleasantly, we discovered some of the
white inhabitants. There might have
been "a score of them all told
When the Indians would leave
town st. Paul was such a lonely ham
let those days that almost any night
we could hear the roar of the water at
st Anthony falls-now MINNEAPOLIS
zen hlltes up the river, and nearly al
ways we could hear the evening gun
hred out at old Fort Smelling.
me indians came from Kaposia,
winch was the headquarters of Big
Thunder's band, and contained about
1,5O0 people. Their chief Wa-kin-yan-
ton-ka, was the father of his sue
ceSsor, Little Crow, who was after
wards the leader Of the Sioux out
break Of 1862 and was killed in 1863.
Six years before 1 came here the
Chlppewas and Sioux had ceded to
the government all their lands east of
the Mississippi But in 1S43, and for
some time later, all the land on the
east bank, including, of. course, the
site OF St Paul, was still government
land, and the Indians ranged all over
II, hunting, fishing and doing much as
they pleased. So long as they let US
alone We few whites had no desire to
interfere with our red neighbors.
All Indian Land on West Side.
But across the river the whole
country, except the reservation around
Fort Smelling, was still Indian land
when l came here in 1S43, and it re-
mained Indian land for the next nine
years. The Sioux lived there undis-
turbed at Kaposia. A few families
of them were generally camped in
tepees over on West Side bluffs over
looking what is now South Wabasha
street. Between Kaposia and St. Paul
and between st. Paul and the fort the
Indians were constantly travelling back
and forth in their canoes. Most of the
time there was lot of the Sioux stay
Ing on Raspberry and Harriet islands.
OF course we had no bridge across the
river then; our red friends went over
In canoes, the squaws doing all the
padding. Athletics for ladies was
quite the thing among the Indians.
If anybody supposes that the Sioux
In those days were half starved, mis-
erable savages, he makes a great mis-
take. The Indians lived like kings.
This whole country was full of game.
You could get all the deer you wanted
no farther away than Bald Eagle lake