A Thrilling Narrative of the Minnesota Massacre and the Sioux War of 1862-63: Graphic Accounts of the Siege of Fort Ridgely, Battles of Birch Coolie, Wood Lake, Big Mound, Stony Lake, Dead Buffalo Lake and Missouri RiverConnolly, A. P. (Alonzo P.)
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A Thrilling Narrative of the Minnesota Massacre and the Sioux War of 1862-63: Graphic Accounts of the Siege of Fort Ridgely, Battles of Birch Coolie, Wood Lake, Big Mound, Stony Lake, Dead Buffalo Lake and Missouri River
Connolly, A. P. (Alonzo P.)
Dakota Indians -- Wars -- 1862-1865
"I am a young man, but I have always felt friendly toward the whites,
because they were kind to my father. You have brought me into great
danger without my knowledge of it beforehand. By killing the whites, it
is just as if you had waited for me in ambush and shot me down. You Lower
Indians feel bad because we have all got into this trouble; but I feel
worse, because I know that neither I nor my people have killed any of the
whites, and that yet we have to suffer with the guilty. I was out buffalo
hunting when I heard of the outbreak, and I felt as if I was dead, and I
feel so now. You all know that the Indians cannot live without the aid of
the white man, and, therefore, I have made up my mind that Paul is right,
and my Indians will stand by him. We claim this reservation. What are
you doing here? If you want to fight the whites, go back and fight them.
Leave my village at Big Stone Lake. You sent word to my young men to come
down, and that you had plenty of oxen, horses, goods, powder and lead,
and now we see nothing. We are going back to Big Stone Lake and leave you
to fight the whites. Those who make peace can say that Standing Buffalo
and his people will give themselves up in the spring."
They kept their word, and would have nothing to do with Little Crow.
Standing Buffalo was killed in 1863 by an accident.
Other Day, a civilized Indian, in addressing the council at this time,
said:
"You can, of course, easily kill a few unarmed whites, but it would be a
cowardly thing to do, because we have gained their confidence, and the
innocent will suffer with the guilty, and the great Father at Washington
will send his soldiers to punish you, and we will all suffer. I will not
join you in this, but will help defend these white people who have always
been our friends."
Other Day was a true friend of the whites; he looked it. He was a
full-blood Indian, it is true, and the Indians respected and feared him,
but his desire to forsake the barbarous teachings of his father inclined
him towards the unsuspecting settlers.
In 1863 he was General Sibley's most trusted and confidential scout. In
the early outbreak Other Day manifested his loyalty to his white friends
by risking his life in their defense, piloting sixty people through the
river bottoms during the nights to a place of safety. He traveled with
his charge in the night, and hid them in underbrush during the daytime.
He was a true-hearted, kind man, with a red skin, who has gone to his
reward in a land where there are no reds, no blacks, but where all are
white.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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