The story of Minnesota

Preface

This book aims to place before the children of the state the romantic tale of the wilderness conquered, of brave men and patient organizers, of faith in the midst of hardship, and of the final triumph that has made Minnesota a commonwealth in which her citizens are proud to live. In relating the story of the development, it has been necessary to include some matters that are hard to associate in an interesting manner ; but it is presumed that the modern pupil, as well as the modern teacher, knows how to make every subject yield interest. To assist discussion there have been appended to each chapter a few suggestive questions. The tables of statistics are intended to be used as illustrations, and for occasional reference only. The author dares to hope that he has transmitted some of the enjoyment with which he has read the accounts of adventure, exploitation, pioneer struggle, political contest, and earnest endeavor, that are the sources of his information ; if he has, he is rewarded for his pains.

Thanks is given to Mr. Warren Upham and his assistants in the library of the Minnesota Historical Society for their constant courtesy; to Mr. Albert J. Lobb and Miss Amanda Sundean, of the West High School, for much helpful criticism ; to Mr. Edward Bromley, for his care in selecting pictures for the book ; and to Mr. Charles W. Jerome. To him in appreciation for years of friendly sympathy, "The Story of Minnesota" is

gratefully dedicated.

E. D. P.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Radisson's Journeys into Minnesota ... 9

II. Other French Explorers 18

Chapter I

Theories of early discovery. — In 1908 a stone marked with pecuHar characters called runes was dug up on a farm near Kensington, Minnesota. According to some people this stone proves that the Norsemen, who used to mark their journeys by this means, visited there, and perished among the Indians four hundred years before Columbus arrived at San Salvador. Others insist that Welshmen made their way through the thick woods of the southland and up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to the Dakota plains. There, mingling with the Dakotas, or Sioux, they became the ancestors of the Mandans. The latter historians base their assertion upon similarities between the Welsh and Mandan languages, and upon the superiority of the Mandan civilization to that of the Sioux.

If these Welshmen did reach Dakota, they probably hunted buffaloes within the present state of Minnesota, but both theories remain to be proved, and it is certain that the second never will be. Indeed, there is no evidence that a white man stepped within the borders of Minnesota before the time of Radisson ^ and Groseilliers.^

lO RADISSON'S JOURNEYS INTO MINNESOTA

Radisson's account typical. — He who reads Pierre Radisson's account of his hfe knows something of the trials of the pioneers in Minnesota. Radisson's life is the opening tale of nearly two centuries of conquest. That conquest completed, Indian and trapper and boatman had passed forever ; but they had beaten pathways over a tract of land large enough to provide every man, woman, and child in the United States, Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippine Islands a half acre. It is a tale of sacrifice and endurance on the part of pioneers, until beaver and buffalo and bear gave way to cattle and hogs and horses ; until " the bread and butter state " became a commonwealth where the fine arts find a ready welcome.

Radisson captured. — From Radisson's account we learn that when he was about eighteen years old the Iroquois Indians descended upon his home in Ontario and captured him, together with a score of others. He was put to the most severe tortures. He was bound to a pole, in order that the thunderstorm, mosquitoes, the red-hot iron, .and the firebrand might fully test his endurance. His fingers were bitten, his nails were torn out with pincers, and some of his teeth were knocked out. All this was done so that a chief, who had taken a fancy to him, might win for him the right to sit by the council fire, where only brave men were allowed to sit.

For a year the French lad remained with the chief who had adopted him. His squaw " mother " and his dusky " sisters " became very fond of him. They were proud of his ability as a hunter and a fighter, — for he had to go to war with his tribe. In fact, he found it not altogether easy to leave them. However, his love for his own people triumphed, and one day he escaped and returned home.

II Radisson and Groseilliers with the Indians

He goes west again. — Radisson was, however, ready to plunge again into unknown dangers. We read with interest of his inducing his brother-in-law, Medard Groseilhers, to accompany him on a long journey after valuable furs, to a Frenchman what the gold of Eldorado was to the Spaniard.

Meeting the Indians. — In 1655 the two Frenchmen left what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. They traveled by way of the Fox, Wisconsin, and Mississippi rivers to Prairie Island near Red Wing. On this island Groseilliers taught the Ottawa Indians, who had fled thither from their Iroquois pursuers, the mystery of corn growing, as he had learned it from the Hurons. From this island Radisson went forth to hunt. In the late spring of 1656, the two here convened a great council of Dakotas, or Sioux, the " nation of the beef," as the white men called them, perhaps eight hundred in all. They earnestly pleaded that the Dakotas make the

pilgrimage to Montreal, there to enter into a trading alliance with their French brothers.

The result was that a hundred and fifty canoes of valuable furs bought of the western Indians for a few pounds of powder and shot, a few baubles, and a great many gracious words, passed down the rivers and over the portage to the French capital of Canada. They were accompanied by some of the " Iroquois of the West," the fierce Nadouissioux or "enemies," as they were called by other Indians.

Famine. — Four years later the two Frenchmen again met the Indians, — the Chippewas, Crees, and Ottawas in northern Wisconsin, the Dakotas near Mille Lacs. At this meeting they still further advanced the cause of trade.

The agonies they endured in that winter of 1659, Radisson has left indeUbly impressed on the pages of Minnesota history. A time of famine followed a period of biting cold. It left five hundred Indians stretched dead in the snow, and forced the survivors to eat stale bones, ground and boiled to obtain the marrow ; to strip the bark from trees and the moss from rocks, and even to burn the fur from filthy beaver skins and boil these for soup. What horror of travel through the swamps and brush of dismal forests ! Radisson fell through a hole in the ice and nearly froze his feet, but he stumbled on, until rescue was at hand. We turn from the record feeling that although Minnesota

Fur traders and Indians.

was only visited, not developed by such men, we may well be stirred by their bravery and endurance.

Indian tribes. — Radisson found in Minnesota the tribes of Indians that were to be studied later by scientists and missionaries. The Sioux, who, until the whites dispossessed them, remained enemies of the Chippewas or Ojibwas, ranged the prairies in search of buffaloes during the summer and sought the shelter of the timber during the winter. They did not penetrate farther north than the Mille Lacs country, nor farther east than the timber line that parallels the Red River. They had relatives, however, the Assiniboins, along the lower Red and Assiniboine rivers. Through the great forest country proper, the Chippewas, now confined to two reservations, hunted and fished. Radisson tried to make peace between these two nations, so that they would continue to furnish the French the coveted beaver skins, but, like later diplomats, he made little impression upon them.

A hunter's paradise. — Radisson found Minnesota a hunter's delight. He speaks of seeing '' three hundred bears together from the forest," and great herds of eland (moose). He remarks interestingly upon the buffalo, or

buff," as he terms it, saying :

The horns of a buff are as those of an ox, but not so long, but bigger and of a blackish color ; he has a very long blackish tail ; he is reddish, his hair frizzed and very fine. They come not up to the upper lake but by chance. It is a pleasure to find the place of their abode, for they turn around compassing two or three acres of land, beating the snow with their feet ; and coming to the center they lie down and rise again to eat the boughs of trees they can reach."

He speaks of killing '' several other beasts, — stags, wild cows, caribou, fallow does and bucks, mountain cats, child of the devil." He made his first snowshoes, which he calls " rackets," in order to follow this game. '' In a word," he says, '' we lead a good life."

Radisson's house. — He took great pleasure in his home at Fond du Lac, the harbor of which he describes thus : '' It is like a great portal ; by reason of the beating of the waves the lower part of the opening is as big as a tower and grows bigger in the going up.

Near Fond du Lac, on the south shore of Lake Superior, he built a house, the door of which faced the lake.

In the middle was his fire and on the right side his bed. All about the house were some boughs of trees " laid one across another."

Besides these boughs he had " a long cord tied with some small bells." This protection against attack was reenforced by an armament of '' 3 musquetons, 3 fowling-pieces, 3 paire of great pistollettes, a paire of pocket ones, and every man his sword and dagger." He defends this care with the observation that " distrust is the mother of safety, and the occasion makes the thief." Thus fortified, Radisson and his companion made some *' creatures whistling like goslings, thinking to frighten them," hear " another music than theirs," and " caused the life " of a great many foxes

Radisson's house.

i6 to whom they declared themselves enemies. Radisson says that they felt ^' like Caesars," there being " no one to contradict " them.

Meeting the Dakotas. — Before returning from this second visit the two Frenchmen held a great council with the '' nation of the beef," or Dakotas, Mr. Warren Upham

thinks somewhere in Kanabec County. They offered presents of kettles, hatchets, knives, and a sword blade. They made a feast, to suggest that the Dakotas strengthen themselves with the French, of whose greatness they spoke long.

They shrewdly gave the Indians needles with which to make the beaver robes coveted by the French. Radisson says in this connection that " among such a rowish people a gift is much." To enforce the alliance, remembering his experience among the Iroquois, Radisson adopted a family for his own. The Frenchmen threw powder into the lire, which, flashing up, made a " magical flame " that frightened the simple children of the forest. These things, with dancing and games which included climbing a greased pole and playing at war, made intercourse with the beefeaters easy. That the strain of entertainment and sociability was not too great for the Frenchmen we learn from

Indian tepee.

Radisson's exclamation: ''What is it that a man cannot do when he sees that it concerns his Hfe that one day he must lose?"

Result of the journey. — During that year of 1660, twenty years before Hennepin saw the falls, the two sturdy Frenchmen made their way in safety back to the settlements. Later they entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company. They had pointed out a way whereby much wealth in furs could be carried from Minnesota to Montreal, and they had proved once more the ability of Frenchmen to manage Indians for commercial gain.

Radisson's story of his trip to Minnesota is important. It shows the character of the man.

It shows the hardships that the explorer suffered. It gives a vivid picture of the Indians as they appeared to the French.

1. How does the character of Radisson differ from that of Groseilliers ?

2. How did Radisson make friends with the Indians?

3. What qualities, other than bravery, are required for the work that Radisson performed?

My Friend the Indian. — Major James McLaughlin.

Voyages. — Pierre Radisson.

Minnesota in Three Centuries. — Warren Upham.

Groseilliers and Radisson, the First White Men in Minnesota. —

Warren Upham, Minnesota Historical Society Papers, Vol. 70. Pathfinders of the West. — Agnes Laut Minnesota, the North Star State. — William W. Folwcll.

Chapter II Other French Explorers

Sioux and Chippewas. — After Radisson and Groseilliers left, the wilderness of Minnesota knew once more only its native Chippewas and Sioux. It was many years before another white man ventured so far westward. The Chippewas were confined largely to what is now known as northern Minnesota. West of them were the Assiniboins, or ^' Sioux of the Woods/' who, aroused by some affront to their dignity, had turned away from the main body of their people. In that portion of the state south of a line drawn through Brainerd, the Sioux proper, or Dakotas as they called themselves, held sway. They were divided into five bands, each with its individual character but ready to intermarry with another band, and all allied against the common foe, the hated and despised Chippewas, or Ojibwas, of the north. They were the Mdewakanton,^ Wahpekute,^ Wahpeton, Sisseton, and Yankton tribes.

Beyond these bands, riding the prairies stretching away to the Missouri, was another Sioux division that sometimes visited Alinnesota territory, the Tetons. The Dakotas of the district we are discussing had dispossessed the lowas and Omahas of lands beyond the Minnesota River. When the French began to communicate with the Dakotas, they were supreme over the entire southern half of the state,

^ m'da wa' kaN Ion' 2 ^a,h pe ku'te the Mdewakantons and Wahpekutes holding the eastern part.

When, however, the Chippewas had mastered the white man's firearms, they were more than a match for even the fierce Dakota arrow, which could sink its flint point into a buffalo's heart while the brave behind it was riding full speed alongside the animal, or pass through a man's neck

Buffaloes, from an old picture.

at more than a hundred paces. The arrow was made with infinite pains. The head, hammered into perfect shape with incredible skill, was fastened on a carefully chosen shaft with the sinew of a muskrat's tail. It was crowned with feathers to guide its flight to the mark. The lead bullet, however, chewed to fit the gun as the Indian walked, was not to be diverted from its course by branches of trees, and was much cheaper than the arrow.

Therefore Mille Lacs, the hereditary home of the eastern bands, was lost to the Dakotas forever, and by' 1840 the Minnesota River had become their northern boundary Hne. Just one hundred years earUer the Lake Minnetonka country had been their stronghold. But although the Dakotas claimed the land to the present Iowa border, fear of the Sacs kept them close to the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.

Pond's views on the Dakotas. — Mr. Samuel W. Pond, the missionary, has left an account of the Dakotas which is probably more reliable than any other, for the author was a man of strict truthfulness and was actuated by no motive save to give information. He tells us that far from being an idler the Indian was a stalwart workman, laboring to provide his family meat and clothes and shelter, in all weathers and under great adversity.

When game was scarce or shy, the hunter was forced to endure terrible rigors before he filled his bag. Or his enemies might appear in the midst of a busy season and force him to leave his work. He could not keep clean, because the pressure of his life left him no opportunity to change his clothes or choose his food. He could not be provident, because he had no method of keeping meat. The supply of wild rice and fruit and vegetables was limited. His range was so wide that he could carry only the essentials of his life, — tent, weapons, and robes. He expected his squaw to cut wood, care for the tent, and carry the baggage, for the same reason that a white man often expects his wife to do washing and other housework, — simply because his daily business forbids his helping her. except occasionally. Of course there were lazy Indians, as there are lazy white men, but these were looked upon by the tribe as contemptuously as are the drones of civilization.

The Dakotas' morals. — As to conduct, it was perhaps as strict among Indians as it is among white people. The things forbidden by the Ten Commandments were forbidden by the Indians. Sometimes a wealthy Indian had more than one wife ; but until the white man taught him to be dissolute and drunken, the Indian was noble in his manhood physically and morally, even if he did wage a relentless and savage warfare against the enemy of his tribe. He fought under the protection of the Great Spirit. He believed himself bound to take as many scalps as possible, with as little damage as possible to himself. Those who could not obey this tribal law were made outcasts. The Dakotas were generally considered braver and nobler than the Chippewas, although some travelers, especially those critics who were victimized in the great Dakota rebellion of 1862, are not disposed towards this view.

GilfiUan's judgment of the Chippewa. — Of the Chippewas, Rev. James Gilfillan, a missionary among them for twenty years, speaks with enthusiasm. He says that he considers their men the most intellectual he has ever met. They have the ability to see through a new matter quickly, and to make an explanation of it or to express an opinion about it logically. He, too, has a high regard for the home life of the Indian. He considers it remarkable that people living as they did when he knew them, could manage to train their children so well. He asserts that the Chippewa mother was a good cook, that he had never met a white woman who could cook, fish especially, as well. The hospitality which admitted the stranger to the family circle, and fed and clothed the needy, moved him to admiration no less than the rigor of the labors of the Chippewas to withstand famine and cold.

Dr. Eastman's account. — It may be well to include with these witnesses Dr. Charles Eastman, himself a full-blooded Dakota, son of a warrior who died fighting the whites in 1862. He declares that in becoming civilized he has lost

the benefit of certain virtues which he does not see practiced among the whites as much as they were among his own people. He mentions the strict honesty with which all tribal property was used ; the virtue that guarded young people ; and the reverence that made the father and mother real leaders of their children, and the old men the head of the Indian state.

Whether these men are prejudiced in favor of the Indians or not, it is refreshing to read their testimony, after studying the bloody and treacherous characters given to Indians by the men who were interested chiefly in conquering them.

Hennepin's discovery. — The French appreciated the trade with these first Minnesotans too much to forget them. So we find La Salle in 1680 setting out to establish

Dr. Charles Eastman.

French power on the Mississippi, to make an entrance to the Indian country. With him was the famous Father Hennepin. La Salle sent Father Hennepin and two other Frenchmen up the river. They had not gone far when they met a war party of Dakotas who took them in charge.

These Indians treated them rather roughly, for they took the clothing of the Frenchmen and made them walk overland, from a point below St. Paul to Mille Lacs. Yet the presents made by the priest assuaged their anger and stilled the whispers of those who wanted to ^' kill the white man."

The Frenchmen survived the scoffs, the torture of the long walk, and even the hot baths and rubbing given them on their arrival ; and they were allowed to depart the following spring. On the way down the river Hennepin gave the name St. Anthony to the famous falls which have made the metropolis of our state out of '^ a few coarse cabins about a mudhole," — the city of Laughing Water.

Monument to La Salle, in Lincoln Park, Chicago.

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Du Luth meets Hennepin. — When Father Hennepin was returning to La Salle, to follow his own statement, he was overtaken by Du Luth. According to Du Luth, on the other hand, we learn that the latter rescued the priest from the Indians. Whatever the truth, we can feel sure that the adventurous priest was overjoyed to talk with a fellow countryman ; and the fact that Du Luth turned so far out of his way to find him is sufficient to prove his own desire.

The Sieur Du Luth had come to Fond du Lac the year before, and had traded there with both Chippewas and Dakotas. In his journal he writes, " On the second of July, 1679, I had the honor to display His Majesty's arms in the great village of Izatys on Mille Lacs, where never had a Frenchman been."

At a conference held here the Assiniboins as well as the Dakotas were present. Du Luth's journal gives a fascinating account of his dealing with the Indians, and proves his right to be remembered in the city that has sounded his name over all the earth.

Settlements on Lake Pepin. — The next point of interest in the early history of the territory that we call Minnesota centers about Lake Pepin. No one, be he ever so widely traveled, passes that magnificent water without exclamations of delight. The Indians themselves were not insensible to its charms, and came long distances to gather on its shores. On a point of the Wisconsin shore near the upper extremity we find Nicholas Perrot,^ in 1685, building Fort St. Antoine. The fort was constructed to guard the French boatmen whom he expected to send home to Canada, laden with the furs so cheap to the

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Nicholas Perrot at Lake Pepin.

Indians, and so valuable to society. These were chiefly beaver skins stitched together in robes, although the bear and the buffalo were levied upon for great numbers of hides. For a few baubles, a drink or two of the new " fire water," a little tobacco, and the priceless powder and lead, the Indians would send a man away rich beyond his dreams. The Indians would return to the toilsome life in the Minnesota forests, to fight the weather and their hunger until the gay Frenchman should once more feed them and dazzle them with gifts.

Perrot was recalled to fight the Senecas. He returned four years later with forty men, and took formal possession of the upper Mississippi region. He established also the fort which developed into Prairie du Chien, later the capital and metropolis.

Le Sueur's men digging the green earth.

Le Sueur's work. — -In 1695 Pierre Le Sueur, ^ a companion of Perrot, made his way from Lake Superior southward to an island above Lake Pepin, near the present town of Hastings. In his party was Monsieur St. Croix, after whom the river which forms part of the eastern boundary of the state was named. Le Sueur returned to Montreal with the first Dakota chief who had ever visited that place. He interested certain people in Paris by his statement that he had discovered copper in the Dakota country.

Copper mining. — Here begins another interesting movement in Minnesota exploration. Some of Le Sueur's

^ le soor'

Paris trioiuls procured lor ]\\u\ tho opiH>rtiinit)" to accompan\- Sicuir d'lbcM\ilK\ the first i;o\oriu>r of Louisiana, to thr Ha\ of Hiloxi. rhciuc with liis liistorian. Ponicaiilt,^ ami twonty inon, Lo Sueur traveled up the Mississii>}>i Ri\er in a trade vessel propelled by mirs and sails. On September u), 1700, he reaehed the nunith o\ the Minnesota River. From this pou\[ he aseended the Minnesota to the Blue Karth, and eontinued uj^ the latter ri\er about three miles to the stream now ealled Lesueur. There, aeeording to IVnieault. he built a fort, the outlines of whieh Mr. Thonuis Hughes, of Mankato. has reeenth' traeed.

From the bank oi the Hlue l^arth Ri\ er. Le Sueur's men dug tons oi green, not blue, earth. Vouv thousaml j)ounds were loaded into a shallop and shi}>ped to I'ranee. to be tested for eoi^jHM-. There it was designated by its true name, - i::reen earth.

Destruction of the fort. Le Sueur went with the shallop, leaving twehe men at the fort, whieh was ealled L'Huillier.- The men were soon driven away by the Fox Indians, who destroyed the fort. The attemj^t to hold the count rv for the king of France had failed.

Penicault's report. If only for Penicault's journal the expedition was worth all it cost, lie tells us that the Minnesota River froze up late in September, gi\ing the party the impression that Minnesota was a frigid country. In one day four lunulred butTaloes were killed, and each man ate six pounds of meat and four bowls of soup. The Sioux brought four hundred beaver robes, each one of nine skins. The French sold their wares to the Indians at a good price, for they reckoned a pound worth one hundred crowns, and charged ten crowns for two horn-handled

'p^n' I CO *le wcl' lya r/niKR FRKXCJf KXI'LOKFORS knives or for four leaden bullets. I'he journal wen rc-jiays readinj^.

Fort Beauharnois. In i 727 another trading exj^edition unrJer La lY-rriere ^ made the journc-y from (ire(;n Hay to the Mississij)pi and up to i^ake Pej>in. A fort was built ujjon its bank, near the })res(*nt steamboat lanrling at Frontenac, and named in hon(;r of (^ejieral Beauharnois, of the French army. The shouts of thf men echoed through the woods, and joyfully they bent I0 the task of building houses. They were sur- I^rised, the following Aj^ril, to find that the water flooded their homes.

Failure of the French. — Even French adroitness could not kecj) the peace between the various tribes of Indians.

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As we have said, the Sioux were continuously at war with the Chippewas on the north and the Foxes and Sacs on the south. These tribes hated the Winnebagoes, cousins to the Sioux, and the Chippewas as well. It was the business of the traders to keep peace so that the Indians might bring them the coveted beaver robes. But the Indians were so troublesome that after a few years the post was abandoned. It was later reopened for a time, then was deserted finally in 1 745. In 1 766, Jonathan Carver observed the ruins, where, he writes, "It is said the Captain St. Pierre carried on a great trade with the Indians, before the reduction of Canada."

Verandrye's journey. — Before we leave the period of French exploration we must notice the brave journey of Captain' Verandrye, who penetrated westward to the Rocky Mountains. His route was along the present northern boundary of Minnesota. He built Fort St. Pierre on the Minnesota side of Rainy Lake in 1732, and farther along the river. Fort St. Charles, a house of four rooms surrounded by palisades fifteen feet high. , In 1735 he constructed Fort Maurepas ^ on Lake Winnipeg.

His partners at Montreal kept back his provisions, so that his party was reduced to one ration a day. By the spring of 1736, still receiving no provisions, he was forced to feed his little band on parchment, moccasin leather, roots, dogs, and whatever else he could scrape together. To add to the sorrows of Verandrye, the Sioux killed his son, Jean, and some men detached by the captain to go for help. But with wise moderation Verandrye kept the Crees from waging war in his behalf, and persisted in pushing westward to the Rockies. On the way he built two more forts,

1 m6r' pa'

one on the present site of Winnipeg, and one on the Assiniboine River near by. From these forts the first bugle call was sounded over the prairies of the west.

On December 3, 1738, Verandrye was entertained in the circular hut of the Mandan chief, and was welcomed into protection from the common enemy, the Sioux. From there he returned to Montreal by the route over which he had come, assured that there was no way open to a western sea. He had, however, blazed a path over which the Hudson's Bay Company afterwards sent its voyageurs to the Pacific. On the return his party constructed other forts at the forks of certain Canadian rivers, forts which the French had to surrender when the treaty concluding their war with England was signed, in 1763. Verandrye must not be forgotten in an estimate of the services of the explorers of Minnesota.

What the French accomplished. — What was the net result of this century of exploration by the French ? We have seen their forts left to decay, and their soldiers and boatmen withdrawn. They had, it is true, won many a load of castor or beaver skins, but not a settlement marked their occupation when the English obtained possession of the country. They had,