The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-11-27
FAMOUS INDIAN
DIES BITTER
Relative of President Franklin
Pierce Hated White
Race.
SC0RNED LINC0LN'S GIFT
Always Spoke With Sheer of the
Great White
Father.
SCORNED LINC0LN'S GlF

Pierre, s. D.. Nov. 26.-Old Joe La
Framboise is dead. and another link
between the present days of progress
and peace and that time of Serror and
massacre in the early days of Minneso-
ta'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 I'M
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 his
tory 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 Grow, 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 planned.
La Frambroise knew what it meant
and, prompted perhaps by the blood
or his civilized ancestors, carried the
warning to the agency at Yellow Med
icine. Here he gathered the fright
ened 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 settlers To death was upon
them.
MeaserIy Rewarded for Service.
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
service he dropped back into his old
life again.
But enough of the pride of the
white man remained i'm him SO that
when the rewards for the Indians who
had helped the whites in the outbreak
had run through the red tape of gov
eminent departments and Joe received
nothing but a few farming imple-
ments. he accepted them sullenly and
refused TO fight for what was his by
right. The gift OF these tools he al
ways considered as a personal insult.
one piece OF log chain he always
! etained. insisting that il was the per-
sOnal gift of Abraham Lincoln. This
chain, when he could be prevailed
upon to talk about the matter at all,
he 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 history
is rather hay. but this much is GER
tain. His grandfather, Joseph La
FrambOise, was a French fur trader, a
captain of the industry at Mackinaw,
in the early days. and the husband of
a full-bloOded 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
fish affairs in the west during the war
of 1912.
This Joseph had one sister, Josette
La FrambOise, VINO 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 person
al relationship to president.
An Interview With Him.
Shortly before Old Joe died, Doane
Robinson, secretary of the State His
torical society Of South Dakota, visited
him in his home near Veblin, in Mar
shall county, South Dakota This IS
Mr.. RObinsOn's account of the inter
view:
It found Old Joe smoking his pipe
in front of his cabin, and he motioned
me TO a seat by his side.
MY grandfather. La Frambroise,
was a 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 hees
prayers
"Old Joe smiled through his grizzled
beard which sparsely covered his thor
oushly Sioux features. and said: II
have not said my prayers. I not reesk
it.
zoe displayed not a little Gallo
pride in mis- ancestors. His conversa-
ton about his grandfather led him to
boast OF his relationship TO Franklin
Pierce.
How He Treated Wives.
"But domestic affairs far more i'm
mediate claimed his attention. His
two serawny old wives were preparing
dinner under a tree not far from the
cabin and a quarrel broke out. Joe
abruptly left me, and striding over TO
ter halves apart. He led one of them
on the other side. She went, submits
siVely and in silence.
1t is only way he said, when II