The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1932-09-30
TALES
OF THE
CHIEFS
BY
Editha
L.
Watson
JOHN OTHERDAY


miles from Wilmot, s. D., there is a
lonely grave
There is no headstone to tell who
lies here. There are no lovingly-plant-
ed flowers to brighten the spot. Two
or three small stones mark the loca-
tion-stones which child could roll
down into the creek which flows by.
Yet in this little-noticed, unkept
grave lies the dust of John Otherday,
hero.
He was a Wahpeton Sioux, born at
the beginning of the Nineteenth CEN
fury, and his early manhood was not
what we would expect from heroes.
Passionate and revengeful, he killed
several of his tribesmen in drunken
RACES. Here, surely, was not the ma
terial from which good citizens are
made.
| Bravery, however, was a virtue
which Otherday always possessed. In
one of the fierce battles between those
lifelong enemies, the Sioux and the
Chippewa, he carried a severely
wounded tribesman from the field, and
later in the day saved the life of an
other. Thus the scales might be said
to balance, for though he killed on one
hand, he heroically saved on the other.
do not know what changed Other
day into the man he became. At any
rate, when he decided to become as
nearly like white man as an Indian
could, he went at the task with the
intensity he showed in everything. He
became devout church member, and
dressed in white mans clothing.
This, perhaps, was not unusual in
itself, but the spirit Lake massacre"
proved Otherday to be sincere friend
of the white man. Inkpaduta, hos
tile, renegade Sioux, with his follow
ers killed the settlers at Spirit Lake,
S. D., and carried off two white wom-
en-, Abigail Gardner Cater Mrs. Sharp
and Mrs. Noble. Otherday and anoth-
er Sioux, chief, offered to attempt
a rescue, and followed the dangerous
band at the risk of their own lives.
Mrs. Noble died before the friendly
| pair won through to them, but Miss
Gardner was released.
Otherday was fifty-six years old at
this time. The exciting events of his
life, especially this latest exploit, were
enough for one person to have expert
enced, surely. He had married a white
woman, and lived comfortably in a
house built for him by the agent of
his reservation. It is unlikely that he
expected further adventures-he had
certainly earned peaceful life for
his later years-and it is doubtful If
he ever longed for other deeds Of valor
to perform.
But his service was not over; in
fact, it may be said to have scarcely
| begun. The Sioux outbreak of 1852, in
which hundreds of Minnesota settlers
were tortured and killed, aroused the
entire region. Somthing must be done,
and done quickly.
John Otherday, Sioux, one Of the
very tribe whose anger had famed
forth in such dreadful might, heard
the call again. He was sixty-one
years old, but he knew that he must
| answer. There was a wilderness be-
tween the besieged settlers and Saint
Paul, where they would be safe. The
| people needed a guide, lest they be-
come lost and die as they fled.
Sixty-two white persons were gath
cred by Otherday. He led them
through to Saint Paul safely, and then
turned back to the frontier to offer
every aid at his command.
General Sibley and his troops hav-
ing been ordered to quell the uprising,
| Otherday became attached to them as
a scout, fighting against his tribesmen.
1t Is said that "no person in the field
compared with him in the exhibition
Of reckless bravery" He dressed all
| In white, and it was his custom to go
| SO far in advance of the troops that
they often fired at him, mistaking him
| for an enemy.
Remember the age of John Other
day; it seems incredible that he could
kill several younger men, Sioux war
riors, and take their horses. but man
who had lived through adventures
enough to fill several lives, found this
feat not so difficult.
J At the close of this war, the valiant
old Sioux was granted the sum Of
$500 by congress. He bought farm,
and tried to succeeded at agriculture,
but it was too late for the war horse
to begin drawing a pillow. Finally he
moved to the Sisseton and Wahpeton
reservation, where he lived only
short time, dying Of tuberculosis, and
was buried on the land which he had
hoped to some day own.
There is monument at Morton,
Mimi, erected in honor of Otherday
and the three other Christian Indians
who showed their loyalty so heroically
| during the Sioux uprising. But only
now, more than sixty years after his
death, movement has begun to mark
the grave in fitting manner.
| I suggest an epitaph for the stone:
"Here lies the body of an Indian,
which enclosed the soul Of white
man."
| 10 1872 Western Newspaper Unionl