The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1930-10-01

held so many important Of
fetal positions in the United States,
or have received greater recognition
in Great Britain, than this Minnesota
born Sioux Indian, Ohiyesa, "The
Winner" the most noted for his
achievements of any North Ameri-
can Indian and known to US as DR..
Charles A. Eastman.
Ohiyesa, the great grandson of
Cloud Man, direct descendent of the
chief in whose family Father Hen
nepin was a member by adoption,
whose life with the Sioux and his
official research into their family
and tribal history has supplied him
with the most intimate knowledge OF
the federated native groups who oc-
cupied Minnesota when Father Hen
nepin came, will assist in the ami
versary fete of the discovery of st.
Anthony Falls on October II when
Minneapolis will celebrate the event
of $50 years ago when Ohiyesa's an
cester aided Louis Hennepin in giving
this locality its first important place
in history.
There are two remarkably different
periods in DR.. Eastman's life, each
of them rare story In itself.
His earliest home and playground
was in the picturesque, wood val
leys of the upper Minnesota and
lower Redwood, then in tepees along
other steams and by lakes and In
deep forests of more remote portions
of the Northwest.
At the time of the Indian Outbreak
of 1862, when he was four years old,
his family were widely scattered.
His mother had died, his fathers
brother and his Indian grandmother
took Ohiyesa with them as they fled
beyond the white settlements, in the
wilds of western Canada.
He now tells of his first sight of
a white man. His own race are fort
unately not encountered with a beard
and his first vision of profusely be-
whiskered frontiersman so alarmed
him that he vigorously yelled war
whoop and escaped as rapidly as his
little limbs would carry him.
Until he was nearly full grown he
had the discipline and instructions,
the adventures, hardships and privi-
leges of the primitive American
childhood and youth which developed
the physical and mental alertness for
the foundation of his success in the
later and present period of his life.
His father, Ite-wakandi-ote, MANY
Lightnings" descendant from Sioux
chiefs, and a full blood Sioux who
had been head councillor to Chief
Wabasha during the early years of
Fort Smelling, adopted the name of
Jacob Eastman and was one of the
first farmers in the Redwood reser
walton.
After the Indian campaigns of
1S62-63 and ga in Minnesota and Da-
. kota he prevailed with a group of
his Indian friends to remain away
from government reservations and he
became their leader in establishing
the first independent, self-supporting
farm colony in Dakota, near Flan-
dreau, with school and church. These
Indians secured paper for full Unit
ed States citizenship.
After a separation of eleven years
Jacob Eastman found his youngest
son in Canada and placed him in his
own neighborhood school where the
boy began to understand and speak
and read and write and think in the
English language. The next year he
travelled afoot and alone $50 miles
across a frontier he had never seen
before to attend the government
school in Nebraska. He then worked
his way as student in two western
colleges, graduated at Dartmouth and
from the medical department of Bos-