Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/42

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20


SIOUX


Ojibwa on the eastern frontier broke out again with greater fury than ever. In a battle near the present Stillwater, Minn., in June, 1839, some 50 Ojibwa were slain and .shortly afterward a Sioux raiding party surprised an t)jibwa camp in the absence of the war- riors and brought away 91 scalps. In 1851 the var- ious Santee bands sold all their remaining lands in Minnesota and Iowa, excepting a twenty-mile strip along the upper Minnesota River. Although there were then four missions among the Santee, the major- ity of the Indians were reported to have "an invete- rate hatred" of Christianity. In March, 1857, on some trifling provocation, a small band of renegade Santee, under an outlawed chief, Inkpaduta, "Scar- let Point," attacked the scattered settlements about


risons and the general unrest consequent upon the Civil War also encouraged to revolt. The trouble began 2 August with an attack upon the agency store- house at Redwood, where five thousand Indians were awaiting the distribution of the delayed annuity supplies. The troops were overpowered and the commissary goods seized, but no other damage attempted. On 17 Aug. a small party of hunters, being refused food at a settler's cabin, massacred the family and fled with the news to the camp of Little Crow, whore a general massacre of all the whites and Christian Indians was at once resolved upon. Within a week almost every farm cabin and small settle- ment in Southern Minnesota and along the adjoining border was wiped out of existence and most of the


COUNTRY OF THE SIOUX INDIANS As defliied by Treaties in 1825,

with Sloiix RescrvudoDS ai EsblinE in 1S90 1 feJ;>Si Sioux Territory | | Ojibwa. Territory •itory conquered from the Sioux btj


the Ojibwa i



Spirit Lake, on the Iowa-Minnesota border, burning houses, massacring about fifty persons, and carrying off several women, two of whom were killed later, the others being rescued by the Christian Indians. Inkpaduta escaped to take an active part in all the Sioux troubles for twenty years thereafter. In 1858 the Yankton Sioux sold all their lands in South Dakota, excepting the present Yankton reservation. The famous pipeslone quarry in south-western Minne- sota, whence the Sioux for ages had procured the red stone from which their pipes were carved, was also permanently reserved to this Indian purpose. In 1860 the first Episcopalian work was begun among the (Santee) Sioux by Rev. Samuel D. Hin- nian.

In 1862 occurred the great "Minnesota outbreak" and massacre, in^■olvinR nearly all the Santee bands, brought about by di.s.<alisfaotion at the confiscation of a large proportion of the treaty funds to satisfy traders' claims, and aggravated by a long delay in the annuity issue. The weakening of the local gar-


inhabitants massacred, in many cases with devilish barbarities, excepting such as could escape to Fort Ridgely at the lower end of the reservation. The mis- sionaries were saved by the faithful heroism of the Christian Indians, who, as in 1857, stood loyally by the Government. Determined attacks were made under Little Crow upon Fort Ridgely (20-21 August) and New Ulm (22 August), the latter defended by a strong volunteer force under Judge Charles Flandrau. Both attacks were finally repulsed. On 2 Sept. a force of 1.500 regulars and volunteers imder Colonel (afterwards General) H. H. Sibley defeated the hos- tiles at Birch Coulee and again on 23 September at Wood Lake. Most of the hostiles now surrendered, the rest fleeing in small bands beyond the reach of pursuit. Three hundred prisoners were condemned to death by court martial, but the number was cut down by President Lincoln to thirty-eight, who were hanged at Mankato, 26 December, 1862. They were attended by Revs. Riggs and Williamson and by Father Ravoux, but although the other missionaries