Fifty Years In The Northwest: With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And NotesFolsom, William H. C. (William Henry Carman)
History
Fifty Years In The Northwest: With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes
Folsom, William H. C. (William Henry Carman)
Minnesota -- History; Wisconsin -- History
The Chippewas of the St. Croix had been invited by the officer in
command at Fort Snelling to a council, the object of which was to
effect a treaty of peace. Two hundred and fifty or three hundred
Chippewas, including their women and children, passed down the St.
Croix in canoes, rested in fancied security in the ravine near the
present site of Stillwater, and made a portage thence to Fort
Snelling, where, under protection of government soldiers, the council
was held. The pipe of peace had been smoked and the Chippewas were
quietly returning home, and had encamped a second time in the ravine,
expecting to re-embark the next morning on the waters of the St.
Croix. Just at the dawn of the ensuing day, and while they were still
asleep, a large body of Sioux, who had stealthily followed them, fell
upon them suddenly, and with wild yells commenced an indiscriminate
slaughter. The Chippewas rallying, drove the Sioux from the ground,
thereby retaining possession of their dead, to the number of about
thirty. After the smoke of peace at Fort Snelling it was reported that
a Sioux had been killed. This incensed them so that they followed in
two parties, one party pursuing the St. Croix band and another the
Mille Lacs band up Rum river. The latter party overtook the Chippewas
at the point where Princeton is now located, and slew sixty of their
number. It was afterward ascertained that the Sioux killed near Fort
Snelling was killed by a Pillager of the Upper Mississippi, an Indian
of a band that was not in the council. The Sioux and Chippewas, it is
true, are bitter, relentless, hereditary foes, but this slaughter
occurred through a grievous mistake. The Chippewas, on their return,
rested at the Falls. Capt. Frazer gave them medicine, dressed their
wounds and fed them. The Indians gave way to the wildest grief at
their losses, and when they heard of the sixty killed of the Mille
Lacs band, their mourning cries and moans baffled description.
THE FIRST LOGGERS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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