The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-11-27
FURTRADER
STOPPED MASSACRE
Only This Saved Joe La
Framboise from Going to
Grave Unmourned.
HE HATED WHITE RACE
In 1862, Overheard Plans for
Attack by Sioux on
Sixty-two Settlers.

Pierre, S. D., Nov. 26.--Old Joe La
Framhoise is dead, and another link
between the present days of progress
and peace and that time of terror and
massacre in the early days of Mime
sofas history-days which are rapidly
being dimmed by the passing of the
men who participated in them-ls
gone.
But for one act of his life, Old Joe
would now be resting in his grave un-
mourned and remembered no more
than those of his mixed breed COM
panions who preceded him to the
happy hunting grounds" But that one
act has won him place in history and
in the hearts of all who knew of his
deed
1t was on August Is, 1862 that Old
Joe saved his name from oblivion by
saving sixty-two white persons from
an inevitable and horrible death by
torture at the hands of the Sioux.
Fired by the eloquent tongue of
Little Crow, their head war chief. the
savage humor of the Sioux and Yank-
tonians ran rapidly through the sue
cession of fear and doubt into hatred
The ti-yo-ti-pi, or war dance. was held
and the massacre was planned.
La Framboise knew what it meant
and, prompted perhaps by the blood
of his civilized ancestors. carried the
warning to the agency at Yellow
Medicine. Here he gathered the
frightened pioneers in the stone ware
house for the night and in the morn
ing saw them safely across the river
before the storm OF savage fury which
carried hundreds of settlers to death
was upon them.
There is nothing in the meager his
tory of Old Joe which shows that he
felt any close attachment for the
whites and after that one day OF serv-
ice he dropped back into his old life
again.
But enough of the pride of the white
man remained in him so that when the
rewards for the Indians who had
helped the whites in the outbreak, had
run through the red tape of govern
ment departments and Joe received
nothing but few farming implements,
he accepted them sullenly and refused
to fight for what was his by right The
gift of these tools he always consid-
cred AS a personal insult
One piece of log chain he always re-
tanned, insisting that it was the per-
sonal gift of Abraham Lincoln. This
chain, when he could be prevailed up
~, Tn toll h. l..
always exhibited with infinite scorn as
| the gift of the great white father for
his services to his white children.
For the most part, Old Joe's his
tory is rather hazy. but this much is
certain. His grandfather, Joseph La
F'ramboise was a French fur trader, a
captain of the industry at Mackinaw,
in the early days, and the husband of
fullblooded Ottawa squaw. His
father. whose name was also Joseph,
after burying four Sioux wives, set
tied down as the son-in-law of Major
Robert Dickson the manager OF Eng
| lish affairs in the west during the war
of 1912.
This Joseph had one sister, Josette
La Framboise, who married BENJAMIN
Pierce, whose brother. Franklin Pierce
later became President of the United
States. Through this connection, Old
Joe, the son Of one of the four unfor-
tunate Sioux women, claimed a per-
sonal relationship to President
Shortly before Old Joe died, Doane
Robinson, secretary Of the State His
torical Society of South Dakota, visit
ed hi min his home near Veblen. in
Marshall county South Dakota. This
is Mr.. Robinson's account of the inter
| view:
Il found Old Joe smoking his pipe
in front of his cabin, and he motioned
me to seat by his side.
My grandfather La Framboise
| was very nice man said Old Joe In
the course of the conversation: very
nice man: very religious man He
| Was shot in his tepee while saying
| hoes prayers
old Joe smiled through his grizzled
beard which sparsely covered his thor.
oughly Sioux features and said: L
have not said my prayers / not reesk
/ it
| Joe displayed not a little Gallo
pride in his ancestors. His converse
1 tion about the grandfather led him to
/ boast of his relationship to Franklin
/ Pierce
/ But domestic affairs far more i'm
! mediate claimed his attention. His
/ two sc.awny old wives were prepar-
! ing a dinner under tree not far
from the cabin, and quarrel broke
out. Joe abruptly left me, and strid-
I ing over to the scene of battle. shook
lis two better halves apart He led
one of them little way and pointed
to her cabin on the other side. She
/ vent, sub-nissively and in silence
It is the only way, he said, when
he returned. Have house for each
wife. Some men have all wives to
gether-always trouble
Joe picked up the bit of log chain
/ which he said was gift from Liz.
coin. then threw ii down and kicked ii
until its heavy links ratified
/ Abe Lincoln he sneered with the
utmost disdain, .heem give it me
Heem Publican: me heap Democrat
There. was q great deal of sarcasm,
and bitterness in joe Perhaps the