The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1912-05-17

FairmOnt Sentinel: EhOmaS Hughes
Esq, of Mankato delivered a very
interesting address Sunday night at
the Congregational church, his sub,
ject "The Conquest of the Sioux He
showed himself very familiar with
the early history of Minnesota and
especially that portion of it which
deals with the Sioux Nation and the
great massacre of 1862, and the war
which followed, when the Sioux as
persed. "..f
| Mr.. Hughes at the opening said he
was not prepared to make set
| speech on the subject but would
merely relate the events as they had
come to his understanding through
personal contact and study of the
question. He did not attempt to de-
scribe the massacre or the war in
detail, but merely to outline the
cause and the effects upon the In
uldnS IHSIIlSelNCS.
! The Hughes family settled near
! New UIm in 1855 and at that time
! the Indians were very numerous,
their teepes dotting the parties and
nesting in the shady groves and
! heavy timber. One could not go far
without meeting Indians either rid.
ing their ponies or marching along
| in single file. They were honest and
not given to stealing and were not
quarrelsome among themselves or
with the whites. He gave as an in.
stance of their quiet and peaceable
nature the fact that when they made
a treaty with the government COM
mission ceding away the greater
assembled to consider the question
with the white men and remained a
month. Although there was not a sol
der or policeman about and the few
white men had no protection what
ever, there was not case of stealing
or assault during the month. Could
as much be said for as many white
people assembled together for a
month?
At that time the Indians had ac,
vices and had not learned the taste
of the white mans whisky.
The Indians had great provoca.
ton for the war of 1862. The whites
had crowded in and the game
had become very scarce; he was
cheated and defrauded upon every
hand by the traders and the govern
ment officials; the payments for their
lands was long over due and they
were practically starving; when Lin
coin was elected president with the
change of administration there was
an entire replacing of democratic
officials by republicans and many
of the Indians With the change
came a new Indian agent who was
totally unfit for the place except
that he had been the corrupt tool
of politicians: besides he was a
hopeless drunkard. The day of the
outbreak he was off on big spree
with no one at the agency to look
after the things, with the Indians
starving and in very ugly mood.
The opportunity for the massacre
was the great Civil war which had
drawn so many able bodied men to
! the south, and drunken Indian
agent absent from his post of duty.
high tribute was paid the mis-
sionaries and their work. Many OF
the Indians had been converted and
were rapidly learning the ways OF
the white man and were becoming
successful as farmers. These Chris
tian Indians refused to join in the
raids and thus the Indians were di-
vided. Had the Sioux nation been
united the results would have been
more horrible and disastrous for the
whites. The Christian Indians saw
ed many white people from mass
acre, and at the great battle OF
/ Wood Lake where the power of the
Indians was finally overthrown, the
Christian Indians rallied about the
! hundreds of white captives and pre-