The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-12-02
RELATIVE OF U. s. PRESIDENT
PIERCE HATED WHITES BUT
PREVENTED MASSACRE.
Ne sCORNED L|NCOLN'S GIFT
Gid Joe La Fran.boise Always Spoke
With q Sheer of Great White
Father in Washington.

progress and peace and that time OF
terror and massacre in the early days
Of Minnesota's history--days which
are rapidly being dimmed by the
passing OF the men who participated
In them-is gone.
But for one act of his life old Joe
would now be resting in his grave
unmourned 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 for him place III
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 obli-
WON, by saving sixty-tWo white per-
sons from massacre 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
Yanktonians, ran rapidly through the
succession of fear and doubt into
hatred: The ti-yo-ti-pi, or war dance
was held and the massacre planned.
la Framboise knew what it meant
and prompted perhaps by the blood
OF his civilized ancestors, carried the
warning 10 the agency at yellow
Medicine. Here he gathered the
frightened pioneers in the stone
warehouse for the night, and in the
morning saw them safely across the
river before the storm of savage
fury which carried hundreds OF set
tiers to death was upon them.
There is nothing in the meagre
history of Old Joe which shows that
he felt any close attachment for the
whites, and after that one day of
service 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
outbreak had run through the red
tape Of the government departments
and Joe received nothing but a few
farming implements. he accepted
them sullenly and refused to fight Tor
what was his by right. The gift of
these tools he always considered as
a personal insult.
One piece of log chain he always
retained, insisting that it was the
personal gift Of Abraham Lincoln.
This chain, when he could be pre-
vailed upon to talk about the matter
al all. he always exhibited with in
finite scorn as the gift OF the great
white father for his services 10 his
white children.
For the most part. Old Joe's his
tory is rather haZy, but this much is
certain. His grandfather, Joseph
La Framboise, was a French fur
trader, a captain of the industry al
Mackinaw, in the early days, and the
husband of full-blooded Ottawa
sauaw. His father, VINO also was
named Joseph, after burying tour
Sioux wives, settled down as the
son-in-law of Major Robert Dickson
the manager of English affairs in the
west during the war of 1912.
This Joseph had one sister, Josette
La Framboise, who married benJa
min Pierce, whose brother, Franklin
Pierce, later became president OF the
United States. Through this connec
ton Old Joe is the son OF one OF the
unfortunate SouN women, ard alst
claimed personal relationship t
a president.
Shortly before Old Joe died, Doan'
Robinson, the secretary OF the stat
Historical society Of South Dakota
visited him in his home near Vebhn
IN Marshall county, South Dakota
This is Mr.. Robinson's account 0
the interview:
II found Old Joe smoking his pip
IN front of his cabin, and he motion
ed me to seat by his side.
.'My grandfather La Framoolse
was very nice man. said old Joe, Il
the course Of the conversation; yer
nice man: very religious man; n
was shot in his teepee while sayln
hees prayers.
"Old Joe smiled through his grl2
zled beard, which sparsely covere
his thoroughly Sioux features, an
said: 4 have not said my prayers.
not reesk it,
Joe displayed not little Gain
pride in his ancestors. His converse
ton about his grandfather led hi
to boast about his relationship
Franklin Pierce.