Show little crow has taken the war I 1 by ELMO SCOTT WATSON FIVE years ago this summer was a gloomy time for the people of the united states of america they were still smarting under the stinging defeat of popes army at the second battle of bull run and still despondent from the depressing influence of mcclel lans ians seven days retreat when even worse news came out of the west little crow has taken the warpath karpath war path was the word which flashed from the minnesota frontier and this was followed by an account of such bloody massacre of men women and children as the nation had not known since the days of the ottawa or weatherford the creek what made the tragedy seem all the more unbelievable was the fact that this ruthless destruction was the work of dakota indians whom they had taken pride in calling g a fast civilizing and christianizing hristian izing race after the he h glowing reports of their progress I 1 sent back by the missionaries it seemed impossible PC possible to realize that these ark 0 converts to the white mans ans faith had reverted to savagery and had given up the bible and the hymnal for the he tomahawk and scalping knife chife surely the hand of providence Is s laid heavily upon the american people in these troublous times said the pious minded but there were others who assigned the out break of the sioux to a more mundane reason secretly and with insidious craft the enemies of the united states have crept to 0 the frontier and incited the RK v 4 v 4 chief little crow savages to this awful crime in which the weakness of women land children are to be made the victims they said and because atrocity stories about the conduct of confederate soldiers were already beginning to be whispered about many a man in the north believed that rebel intrigue was responsible for the minnesota minnesota massacres not an I 1 iota of evidence to support that belief has ever been uncovered iby historians but in 1862 it was I 1 not difficult for Norh northerners erners to believe that tale i if they had taken the trouble to examine the origins of the outbreak more closely they might have found them closer at home lin fact they might have made the dismaying discovery that the hands of some of their politicians dyed red with the blood of minnesota settlers quite as much as were the hands of little crows fierce warriors causes of the war for among the basic causes of the minnesota outbreak were the very same ones which have been responsible for most of our I 1 indian n wars the greed of the white man his contempt for the red man and his determination to possess the indians land by fair means or foul along with these causes were the contributing factors of the ineptitude of a new nev administration in washington in dealing with the indian problem as well as other problems of government ern ment delay in carrying out treaty provisions relating to the payment of annuities to th the e sioux so because of dissatisfaction with the treaties of mendota an and d traverse des sioux made some ten years earlier with the eastern or santee sioux the the the and the year 1862 found the indians ripe for trouble there was still another reason for the precipitation of the outbreak in that year the mix treaty of 1858 which provided tor for the sale of the portion of the lower reservation north of the minnesota river had been engineered by little crow chetan chelan mani man the sacred pigeon hawk which comes walking hereditary redi tary chief of the naposia division of the when the lower bands discovered that this sale still further limited their land rights little crow became very unpopular with a large faction of his people he resolved to take the issue to the people the result was an exciting political campa camp campagna agn n which culminated in an election held at a council on august 3 1862 little crow traveling hail and big eagle were candidates for the chieftainship little crow w was a s overwhelmingly defeated a and n d traveling hail was elevated to the chieftainship which had been held by little crows forefathers for more than a century enraged by this defeat little crow resolved to take action which would restore him to the esteem of his people and regain his hereditary redi tary chieftainship regardless of the result of the election the best way to do this he decided was to make war on the whites and regain for his people the land they had lost events played into his hands for the annuity payments which were due the sioux on july 1 were delayed indefinitely a and n d their agents turned deaf ears to the appeals of the destitute indians for food the outbreak begins on sunday august 17 occurred the incident which marked the opening of the outbreak four young of chief little dixs band appeared at the home of a settler named baker where were present a mr webster and his wife besides baker his wife and a baby a mr jones and his wife and their two children the warriors proposed that they engage in target practice which the three white men foolishly consented to do As soon as their guns were empty the young braves opened fire and killed jones baker webster and mrs jones then they hurried to the jones home where they killed and scalped scalded a girl who had been left there that night the four warriors reached little dixs vili village age and told him what they had done he immediately hurried them to the camp of little crow two miles above the agency the chief sat up in his bed to hear their story immediately he saw his opportunity the time has come for war he declared blood has been shed the payment will be stopped the whites will take a terrible vengeance because the women were killed the chiefs and head warriors were assembled in a council at once some of them tried in vain to prevent further bloodshed but they were outvoted by the hostile element kill the whitest kill the cut hairs christian indians who will not join us I 1 they shouted little crow gave orders to attack the agency at sunrise and to kill the traders first during the night warriors mounted on swift horses were speeding in every direction to rally the hostiles ho stiles for the attack more than whites were slaughtered in and around the agency meanwhile small parties of warriors were sweeping through the surrounding settlements attacking the farms as they came to them killing the men and children and carrying the women off as captives the exact number of whites who were massacred during the minnesota outbreak will never be known but it is certain that more than 1000 citizens and soldiers perished As soon as news of the out break was carried by terror stricken refugees to fort ridgely 15 miles from the lower agency its commander capt john S marsh of the fifth minnesota regiment acted promptly he had only 46 men but he be marched at once for the agency untrained in indian fighting marsh was ambushed by a for force ce of 0 of little crows warriors bors and more than halt half of his soldiers killed marsh himself escaped the hail of indian bullets only to be drowned in the swift current of the river the next morning mornin brought more refugees to fort ridgely but it also brought reinforcements from fort snelling until there were about soldiers in the fort although they were mostly raw recruits I 1 saved by a miracle on the morning of august 20 the dreaded attack by little crow was launched the defenders were greatly outnumbered and for a time it looked as though the savages would sweep over the walls and kill every man woman and child in the post but among the few veterans in the fort was an old artillery sergeant named jones who had varied the monotony of garrison life by drilling some of th the e infantrymen in in the use of several old cannon left from the time fort ridgely Allan sion Jf tw se y kaat li li aj Z defoil HAA fla f cocea kat iltha iL tHU st fiffy l ic 7 4 axa oxa woj z etli arla cr lA e firt W ka oti oAS iii f hi 37 Ss AGil aJi cf a aei bof 11 chui t tn t t t tasu w 4 ati 47 ba oy 7 a m buat fco A tf fa ta S A u o tay 4 aaa A et y Z d tiro ar a A a r A 4 va 46 MO M O i f 1 adv k ajo hjo ff J s ct haa fa US 7 a of c aap 4 t 4 dx L 73 A 1 l 9 i A ch a az AV A f bauo ia V nw faw JA ig AO A ko O aco ej vw v w KA A y M t ayt ise tn fl A jf UA V am f jbf lie cay W S W J JJ an v oy jt si ti J i jara 1 thi fj 4 ff hw fht ars A fl efm y rt a K ams y a cc 0 o T sy ca caa baz X t A tyl w AC fam oa o a ir 1 x clicc esq from an D old wood vom cut A part of 0 the order given by president lincoln for or the execution ot of sioux indians convicted of murder during the minnesota massacres wenty twenty three names have been omitted from between no 24 and no had bad been an artillery post just as little crows maddened warriors were about to break the line of the soldiers which had formed on the parade ground jones and his men opened fire with the cannon the indian advance halted dismayed by the hail of 0 iron that swept across the parade ground A second blast from these wagon guns sent them scurrying for cover and a third caused them to flee in a panic jones and his artillerymen artilleryman artillery men had not only saved fort ridgely but he had also dealt a severe blow to little crows hopes but little crow was not through yet there were still settlements tle ments in other parts of the state which could be raided so he withdrew his forces into the wilderness taking with them the prisoners and the plunder which they had taken during the first week of the outbreak meanwhile A A 0 sioux indian camp captured by general sibley the white man was gathering his strength to strike back at his red foe sibley takes command col henry H sibley was placed in command of the 1400 volunteers raised to crush the sioux with his raw undisciplined troops he reached fort ridgely on august 28 23 where he was hailed as a savior by the people who had taken refuge there the next day he moved to the lower agency and from there sent maj J R bro brown wn with a force of men farther up the river to hunt for the hostiles ho stiles and to bury the dead brown camped at birch coulie on the night of september I 1 and early the next morning he was attacked by a large force of sioux led by little crow the battle which followed was one of the hottest of the whole war and only the prompt arrival of colonel sibley with the main body of the army saved browns force from suffering the fate that had been marshs marahs Mars hs sibley then retreated to fort ridgely and opened negotiations with little crow for the release of the hundreds of prisoners mostly women and children held in the indian camp which came to naught then he marched against the sioux and on september 23 inflicted a crushing defeat upon them at the battle of wood lake after this battle little crow tried to have the captives killed but his influence was waning rapidly and other chiefs who saw that defeat was inevitable and wished to soften the punishment that would be meted out to them prevented him from carrying out his bloody intentions release of the captives through some of the christian indians sibley got in touch with these chiefs and offered them favorable terms of surrender if they would return their prisoners to him unharmed As a result the afternoon of september 26 saw the delivery to him of miserable white men women and children who had endured all the horrors of indian captivity soon afterwards he rounded up 1500 af pf of the sioux and placed them in in prison at fort snelling and mankato mancato Man kato next a military commission set about the task of singling out those who should be punished punish ed for the outbreak and of them were placed on trial for murder of these were sentenced to death and 16 sentenced to prison but president lincoln commuted the death sentences of all but 39 who had been guilty of such cruelties cruel ties that t there herb was no possible excuse for showing them any mercy on december 23 these 39 paid the penalty on a special gallows built for the wholesale execution with their deaths the great sioux outbreak of 1852 1862 was over there remained however one final act in the drama of that outbreak little crows followers had deserted him and he became a fugitive flitting from place to place in constant fear of betrayal by some of his people on july 3 1863 he and his son were picking berries in a thicket not far from the town of Hutch hutchinson irison they were discovered by a settler named nathan lampson and his son chauncey Chaunc cy who immediately opened fire on them the chiefs son escaped but little crow fell dead D western newspaper union |