Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History
History
Old Rail Fence Corners: The A. B. C's. of Minnesota History
Frontier and pioneer life -- Minnesota; Minnesota -- Biography; Minnesota -- History, Local; Pioneers -- Minnesota -- Biography
One morning in the summer of '58 we heard firing on the river. Most of
the Sioux had gone to get their annuities but a few who were late were
camped near Murphy's. These had been attacked by a large band of the
Chippewa. The fighting went on for hours, but the Chippewa were
repulsed. That was the last battle between the Sioux and the Chippewa
near here.
I have often seen Indians buried on platforms elevated about eight feet
on slender poles. They used to put offerings in the trees to the Great
Spirit and to keep the evil spirits away. I remember that one of these
looked like a gaily colored umbrella at a distance. I never dared go
near.
Mary Sherrard Phillips--1854.
At the time of the Indian massacre in Minnesota, August, 1862, John
Otherday, who was married to a white woman, sent word to the agent's
wife to leave the Agency within an hour. This was at half past nine at
night. The trouble began at a small store a short distance from the
agent's house. The shooting and fighting could be heard from the house.
Otherday, with a party of sixty-two refugees, instead of taking them to
the fort, had them ford the Minnesota River and pass through the wild
country, avoiding the main traveled roads. He was never with them, would
be seen in the distance on a hill to the right, and then in the opposite
direction. They came to the river at Carver, where they re-crossed, then
to Shakopee, their old home, where I saw them.
When Major Galbraith was given the office of Indian Agent at Yellow
Medicine, most of his employees went with him. Mrs. Galbraith and her
three children, and Miss Charles, a teacher, went in a one-horse buggy.
They took this at the time of the outbreak and were in Otherday's party.
Part of the time they walked and let others ride to rest them. This
little band of fugitives could make only a few miles in twenty-four
hours. The Indians did not follow them, as they thought they would go to
the fort, and then they would attack them as they neared the fort. Mrs.
Galbraith and children came to father's house. They were a sorrowful
looking band. Dr. Wakefield and Maj. Galbraith were at the fort.
The women told us this story. The day before the outbreak, Mrs.
Wakefield and her two children, with George Gleason, started for Fort
Ridgely. They saw some Indians coming. Mrs. Wakefield said: "I am
afraid," but Gleason said, "They are our own Shakopee Indians, they will
not hurt us." Then as soon as they passed, they shot Gleason in the
back, and he fell out of the buggy, dead. They took Mrs. Wakefield and
the children captives. She was saved by one Indian taking her as his
squaw. For two days, he had them hid in a straw stack.
Mother asked Mrs. Galbraith if she saved any of her silver. She replied;
"When life is at stake, that is all you think of."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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