The winter of 1861-62 was unusually severe. When spring opened food was scarce in all the villages. The Sissetons had eaten all their horses and dogs. The farmer Indians had in the previous summer been so badgered by the unregenerate of their own bands, and by the visiting Yanktonnais of the plains, that their industry had relaxed, and they had but little food to spare. The “payment” was accordingly looked to with unusual eagerness. According to custom it should come as soon as the grass of the prairies should be fit for pasture. Spring ripened into summer, but the agents’ runners did not bring the welcome summons to the villages. The upper Sioux, tired of waiting, came in to the agency at Yellow Medicine in the middle of July to the number of four thousand, and with them came one thousand Yanktonnais, literally on the edge of starvation. The agent supplied some flour, pork, lard, and sugar and told them to go home. He would call them when he was ready. But the savages did not depart. In a fortnight they had consumed the rations and were again hungry. The agent declining to furnish more, an armed mob of several hundred warriors surrounded the government storehouse, surprised the little guard of infantry, broke the locks and bolts, and carried off one hundred sacks of flour. Making a virtue of necessity, the agent, after a talk in council, agreed to issue all the provisions and annuity goods, on condition that the Indians would depart and stay away till called. Trouble with the upper Sioux was thus tided over, but their respect for the Great Father’s power was not increased by the forced compliance of his agent. There was less want of food in the villages of the lower Sioux, but there was enough to cause distress and desire for an early payment. The agent had no advices. He could give no reasons for the delay of the money. The traders assumed to know more than he, and with a fatal blindness teased the Indians with suggestions that the Great Father had spent all his money and had none left for his red children. As the Indians were heavily in debt to them, they began refusing further credits. Among the rumored reasons for the delay of the money, the one most accepted was that the government officials were allowing friends to use it in speculations on supply contracts. The fact was that the Indian appropriation of 1862 was not passed in Congress till July 5. The gold was drawn from the treasury on August 11, and was at once dispatched to the west. It was brought to Fort Ridgely at noon on August 18.