SIOUX
19
SIOUX
result of this acquaintance the first Sioux (Yankton)
delegation visited Washington in the latter year.
At the same time, 1S05-6, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike
ascended the Mississippi on a similar errand to the
Santee Sioux and other tribes of that region. In this
he was successfid and on '23 Sejitember, 1S05, nego-
tiated the first treaty of the Sioux with the United
States, by which they ceded lands in the vi<'inity of
the present St. Paul for thc> (>stablishment of niiliiary
posts, at the same time giving up their English flags
and medals and accepting American ones. Up to
this period and for some years later the rapidly
diverging bands of the east and west still held an
annual reunion east of the lower James River in
eastern South Dakota. In 1807 Manuel Lisa, founder
of the American Fur Comjiany, "the most active and
indefatigable trader that St. Louis ever produced"
(Chittenden), established headquarters among the
Sioux, at Cedar Island, below the present Pierre,
S. D., later moving down to about the present
Chamberlain. Lisa was a Spaniard, and like his
P>ench associates, Chouteau, Alcnard, and Trudeau,
was a Catholic. At his several trading posts among
the Teton and Yankton Sioux, and the Omaha lower
down the river, he showed the Indians how to plant
gardens and care for cattle and hogs, besides setting
up blacksmith shops for their benefit, without charge,
and caring for their aged and helpless, so that it was
said that he was better loved by the Sioux than any
other white man of his time. ' Being intensely Amer-
ican in feeling, he was appointed first government
agent for the upper Missouri River tribes, and by his
great influence with them held them steady for the
United States throughout the War of 1812, notwith-
standing that most of the eastern, or Santee, Sioux,
through the efforts of Tecumtha and a resident Brit-
ish trader, Robert Dickson, declared for England and
furnished a contingent against Fort Meigs. Lisa
died in 1820. At the close of the war, by a series of
five similar treaties made 15 July, 1815, at Portage
des Sioux, above St. Louis, the various Sioux bands
made their peace with the United States and finally
acknowledged its sovereignty. Other late hostile
tribes made peace at the same time. This great
treaty gathering, the most important ever held with
the tribes of the Middle West, marks the beginning
of their modern history. In 1820 Fort Snelling was
built at the present Minneapolis to control the Santee
Sioux and Ojibwa, an agency being also establi.shed
at the same time. In 1825 another great treaty
gathering was convened at Prairie du Chien for the
delimitation of tribal boundaries to put an end to
inter-tribal wars, and clear the way for future land
ces.sions. At this period, and for years after, the
Sioux led all other tribes in the volume of their fur
trade, consisting chiefly of buffalo robes and beaver
skins.
With the establishment of permanent government relations regular mission work began. In 1834 the brothers Samuel and (lideon Pond, for the Congre- gationalists, located among the Santee at Lake Cal- houn, near the present St. Paul, Minn. In 1835 the same denomination established other missions at Lake Harriet and Lac-qui-Parle, Minn., under Rev. J. I). Stevens an<i Thomas Williamson respectively. In 1837 Williamson was joined by Rev. Stephen Higgs and his son Alfred. In 1S.J2 the two last-named mis- sions were removeil to the upper Minnesota in con- sequence of a treaty cession. All of these workers are known for their linguistic contributions as well as for their missionary .service. In 1837 a Lutheran mission was established at Red Wing and continued for .some years. The sucicssful establishment of these mi.s.sions was due chiifly lo the encouragement and active aid alTordcd by Joseph Renville, a remarkable halt-breed, who stood high in the respect and afTection of the Ciistern Sioux. Born in the wilderness in 1779
Clocd, a Famous Ch
Ogalala Sioux
From a Pliotograph
of an Indian mother, he had been taken to Canada,
when a small boy, by his French father, a noted
trader, and placed under the care of a Catholic
priest, from whom he acquired some knowledge of
French and of the Christian religion. The death of
his father a few years later and his consequent return
to the Sioux country put an end to his educational
opportunity, but the early impression thus made was
never effaced. On coming to manhood and succeed-
ing to his father's business he sent across the ocean,
probably through Dickson, the British trader, for a
French Bible (which, when it came, was Protestant)
and then hired a clerk who coukl read it to him. On
the establishment
of the post at
Prairie du Chien
he brought down
his Indian wife
and had her regu-
larly married to
him by a Catholic
priest, he himself
having previously
instructed her in
religion as well as
he could. When
the Congregation-
alists arrived he
welcomed them as
bringing Chris-
tianity, even
though not of the
form of his child-
hood teacher. He
died in 1846.
In 1841 Father August ine Ravoux began work among the Santee in the neighbourhood of Fort Snelling, near which lalh('r Cialtier had just built a log chapel of St. Paul, around which grew the modern city. Applying him.self to the study of the language, in which he soon became proficient. Father Ravoux in 1843 repaired to Prairie du Chien, and there with his own hands printed a small devotional work, "Katolik Wocekiye Wowapi Kin", which is still used as a mission manual. He continued with the tribe for several years, extending his ministrations also to the Yankton, until recalled to parish work. As earlv at least as 1840 the great Jesuit aiioslleof the North-West, Father P. J. De Smet, had visited the bands along the Missouri River, where Father Chris- tian Hoecken had preceded him in 1837, instructing adults and baptizing children. Father De Smet made several other brief stops later on his way to and from the Rocky Mountain missions, and in the sum- mer of 1848 spent several months in the camps of the Brule and Ogalala, whom he found well disposed to Christianity. In 1850 Father Hoecken was again with the Yankton and Teton, but the design to estab- lish a permanent mission was frustrated by his untimely death from cholera, 19 June, 1851. In the same summer Father De Smet attended the great inter-tribal gathering at I'^ort Laramie, where for several weeks he preached daily to the Sioux and other tribes, baptizing over fifteen hun<lred children. From thai period until his death in 1872 a large portion of his lime was given to the western Sioux, among whom his influence was so great that he wa.s several times called in by the Government to assist in treaty negotiations, notably in the great peace treaty of 1868.
In 1837 the Sioux .sold all of their remaining terri- tory east of the Mississippi. In the winter of 1837-8 sinalli)ox. introduced from a |)assing steamer, swept over all the trilies of the ujipcr Missouri River, killing perhaps 30,000 Imlians, of whom a large jiroportion were Sioux, .\bout the same time the war with the
