The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1923-04-04

larger territory than all of Europe
and Great Britain, and contended Tor
the possession of Minnesota.
There is record that British flags
waved from the peaks of Sioux In
dian tepees in the Minnesota valley
In the war of 1872, British army Of
ficers employed and directed MIME
sofa Indians in hostilities against the
United States,
Too Wild for White Men
There had been no successful at
tempt at white colonization, and IN
formation to congress indicated tna'
Minnesota was not a fit place 1ol
white men to 1--we.
It was seriously proposed In con-
gress to set aside Minnesota perman-
emily as an Indian territory and this
suited the fur trading interests But
before this plan was consummated
John C. Calhoun, then secretary OF
war, ordered an expedition to explore
the Minnesota valley, then officially
unknown. to mapmakers. The expe-
dition was under the command OF
Stephen HI. Long, an army officer and
engineer, and was accompanied oy
soldiers and a group OF scientists and
experts, geologist, a minerologlst.
an astronomer, topographer and
historiographer
Joseph Renville, the most competent
scout of that period, was one of It's
guides and interpreters. An Italian
explorer also accompanied the expe-
dition The results of the expedition
were printed in Italian, English and
French and were more widely pub
lished than any event of it's kind in
the west, although few persons in the
state today know that such an ex-
petition was made.
Indian Rights Forfeited
1t resulted eventually in the treaty
of Travers de Sioux, near ST. Peter,
in which 30,0O0,OOO acres of the choic-
est crop lands of the continent were
ceded to white possession. The Sioux
tribes were then gathered from wide
ly separated areas and moved to the
Redwood reservation and this was
quickly followed by the first great
white immigration into Minnesota.
In 1862 the Minnesota river from
near New Ulm to the Dakota border
had become a dividing line between
several thousand dissatisfied Indians,
seriously neglected by the govern
ment during the Civil War and a
rapidly increasing white population
on the north side of the river. A ter
rible outbreak followed
The most crucial engagement was
the siege of Fort Ridgely, the fort
narrowly escaping capture by the
Sioux warriors. The cause was a
hopeless one for, the Indians and for
the 500 white settlers killed they paid
the penalty of losing their rights to
Minnesota soil.
The Minnesota Historical society
has scheduled it's summer meeting at
Redwood Falls for the week of the
tour, a program for which is being ar
ranged by Scion j. Buck, superinten-
dent. An associated event will be the
publication of the second volume of
DR.. w. w. Folwell's History of Min
nesota. which will cover the early his
tory of the valley and of the state to
the end of the Civil war.
The following committee is in
charge of the tour: H. NJ Hitchcock,
Redwood Falls. chairman; Miss Grace
Kaercher, clerk of the supreme court,
secretary; Theodore G.. Blegen. assis-
tant superintendent Minnesota Histor
zeal society; John T. Mooney. presi-
dent Sioux Trail association, Granite
Falls. and Charles HOPKINS, secretary
of Fort Ridgeley society.