1863

Bolstering New Ulm's Defenses. "Many years were to pass before settlers in the Minnesota Valley failed to take alarm at the rumor of Indians in the area. In 1863 Roos continued to bolster New Ulm's defenses and to ask for cannon and ammunition. New Ulm is one of the most exposed frontier Towns, he told Sibley on January 17, 1863, adding that 9 Blocks forming the present Town including the Hill in the rear of the Post office were fortified with 12 log houses and wall and ditch, entire circumference about 6000 feet, two cannons posted on Corner of the Hill command the whole plateau and the Town. Two days later Roos wrote Cyrus Aldrich, one of the state's representatives in Congress, requesting his assistance in securing weapons and ammunition from the War Department without delay because we will have an early spring and we must be prepared for a good defense and should have a little practice. Regarding local measures at New Ulm, Roos continued: Today we organized one Artillery Comp [any] consisting of 33 men...Captain Richard Fischer." Charles E. Flandrau and the Defense of New Ulm, pp. 61-62

Removal of the Sioux and Winnebago Indians. "Most Minnesotans were so enraged over the Indian war that they were not satisfied even by the mass hanging of thirty-eight Sioux. They demanded that the Indians who had escaped to roam the prairies of Dakota Territory be pursued and punished and that all the captured Sioux be banished from the state -- the 1,700 or so peaceful Indians, mostly women and children, confined near Fort Snelling as well as the 800 or more men imprisoned at Mankato who had been convicted by the commission but not executed.

"Incited by a resentful press, white Minnesotans were not disposed to distinguish between hostile and friendly Indians. A further indication of this unreasoning attitude was the concerted effort to remove the peaceful Winnebago Indians from their reservation in Blue Earth County to some place beyond the state's borders. The Winnebago had taken little or no part in the Sioux War and had already suffered several removals in the past. The fact that they lived on choice farm lands coveted by the whites raises a presumption that the settlers may well have been prompted by economic motives, coupled with fear and prejudice, in wanting to get rid of the unfortunate Winnebago.

"Political leaders echoed (and at times fanned) demands for Indian removal. As early as September 9, 1862, Governor Ramsey had declared that The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State. He also called for abrogating all Sioux treaties and using annuity money due the Indians to reimburse white victims of the Dakota War. Congress eventually accepted this suggestion, appropriating $200,000 in an act passed on February 16, 1863, and an additional $1,170,874 in 1864. A commission was set up to distribute Indian money for claims, many of which were criticized for being extravagant. Thousands of dollars, for example, were claimed for damage to rutabagas in the fields. One factor among many difficult to assess was the extent of damage done to abandoned farms by plundering white men and women for which the Indians received the blame.

"But many people in the 1860s were more concerned about Indian relocation than about depredations. On December 16, 1862, Minnesota Senator Morton S. Wilkinson and Congressman William Windom introduced bills for the removal of both the Sioux and the Winnebago. The Winnebago act became law on February 21, 1863, and the Sioux act on March 3. Worded in general terms, the acts specified that the Indians were to be relocated on unoccupied land well adapted for agricultural purposes but beyond the limits of any state and that money derived from the sale of their old reservation lands should be invested for the tribes' benefit.

"Congress appropriated only about $50,000 to transfer the Sioux and a like amount for the Winnebago. Acting for the president, Dole, commissioner of Indian affairs, and John P. Usher, new secretary of the interior, decided to locate both tribes on the Missouri River within a hundred miles of Fort Randall in Dakota Territory. This site could be supplied by river and would permit the Fort Randall garrison to guard and contain the Indians. Specific arrangements were left to Clark W. Thompson, superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern district, which included Minnesota. Like Agent Galbraith before him, Thompson was a Republican political appointee." The Sioux Uprising of 1862, p. 76

Concentrating the Chippewa Reservations. "The gathering of scattered bands of Indians into a tribal group and the placing of them on a single reservation was a policy adopted in early times and followed with some consistency in the West. As the reader knows, the Dakota were segregated on their ill-shaped reservations along the upper Minnesota River under the operation of the treaties of 1851, and in 1855 the scattered bands of Winnebago were finally located on their Blue Earth Reservation. The Indian office and friends of the Indians believed that the concentration of the Chippewa bands residing on the eight reservations assigned to them in 1855 would be desirable. A concentration treaty was negotiated at Washington on March 11, 1863, in which the Mississippi bands agreed to abandon their five scattered reservations in exchange for a single greater reservation surrounding the three reservations occupied by the Pillagers and allied bands at Cass, Leech, and Winnibigoshish lakes. The Chippewa were represented at the negotiation by Henry M. Rice, who had finished his term in the United States Senate on March 3." A History of Minnesota, Vol. IV, pp. 192-93

The Sioux Prisoners at Mankato. "When navigation opened on the Mississippi River in the spring of 1863, the first Dakota people to be transported from Minnesota were the prisoners at Mankato. During the winter the prison was one great school, said missionary Riggs, because he and the convicts who had attended mission schools helped the other prisoners learn to read and write in their own language. The prison also was an active church; Dr. Williamson and others conducted frequent services and prayer meetings. Lacking access to their medicine men, the Sioux became praying and hymn-singing Christians. Missionaries Williamson and Gideon H. Pond baptized more than 300 prisoners, 274 of them on one day, February 8, 1863

The Sioux at Fort Snelling. "Meanwhile, Superintendent Thompson had arranged with Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and Company of St. Louis to transport the Sioux being held at Fort Snelling as well as the Winnebago in Blue Earth County to their Dakota Territory destinations for twenty-five dollars a head and subsistence at ten cents each per day. Like the Sioux imprisoned at Mankato, the larger body at Fort Snelling had experienced a widespread revival of learning and religion during the winter. Working among them were such missionaries as Father Ravoux, Samuel Hinman (who had served at the Lower Sioux Agency and escaped), and, most notably, John Poage Williamson, the eldest son of Dr. Williamson. The younger Williamson had spoken the Dakota language since childhood, had begun building a church in 1862 when the uprising interrupted his work, and had rejoined the Dakota when they were sent to Fort Snelling. He was to spend the rest of his life as a missionary among them.

"Quite a few Sioux captives died during the winter and early spring in the cold, inadequate encampment near Fort Snelling. For those who remained, concern about their fate added to their frustration. A bleak picture began to unfold for them in early May, 1863, when the Indian office prepared to ship them off like so many cattle, as historian Folwell put it. Immediate arrangements were in the hands of special agent Benjamin Thompson, brother of the superintendent. To be deported were slightly more than 1,300, of whom only about 125 were men capable of bearing arms. On May 4 some 770 Indians, accompanied by the Reverend Hinman and forty men of Company G of the Tenth Minnesota as an escort, boarded the river steamer Davenport, which was only 35 feet wide and 205 feet long, for the trip down the Mississippi to St. Louis.

"During a half-hour stop at St. Paul for the steamer to take on cargo, several Indian women on the boiler deck were injured, some severely, by stones thrown by an ugly mob that gathered at the levee. The escorting soldiers had to threaten a bayonet charge to stop the gross outrage, as the St. Paul Weekly Press called it. The Davenport reached St. Louis on May 8. Its crowded passengers were then transferred to the steamer Florence, and on May 9 the Dakota started their long voyage up the Missouri River.

"On May 5 a second cargo of 547 Sioux at Fort Snelling, accompanied by John Williamson and Benjamin Thompson, boarded the steamboat Northerner for an uneventful trip down the Mississippi to Hannibal, Missouri. There they were herded into railroad freight cars, sixty to a car, and taken overland to St. Joseph on the Missouri River. When the Florence, already swarming with Sioux Indians, landed at St. Joseph, the second group was also jammed on board. For the remaining eight-hundred-mile trip up the shallow, tortuous Missouri, the steamer was horribly crowded with 1,300 Indians, many of whom got sick drinking filthy water and eating musty hardtack and briny pork." The Sioux Uprising of 1862, pp. 78-79

The Winnebago Indians Also Moved to Missouri River. "And what of the Winnebago Indians in Blue Earth County? Their agent, another political appointee named St. Andre Durand Balcombe, had the unpleasant task of informing them that they would be moved to the Missouri River. By May 9 about a thousand had been reluctantly congregated at Camp Porter in Mankato, where they held scalp dances in protest. Before arriving, some members of Little Priest's band had killed and scalped two Sioux, perhaps in the hope of winning favor with the whites and, more certainly, because they blamed the Sioux for their troubles. This act was later to create considerable tension.

"On May 9 and 10 three river packets took about 1,200 Winnebago down the Minnesota to Fort Snelling. From there they were transported down the Mississippi on the Canada and the Davenport to Hannibal. Like the Sioux, they then rode railroad cars to St. Joseph and, after a similarly slow voyage up the Missouri, arrived at Crow Creek on June 8 aboard the regular packet West Wind.

Little Crow Returns To Minnesota. "Conspicuously absent from the trials and punishment of the Sioux in 1862 was the leader of the uprising, Little Crow. After the battle of Wood Lake he fled to the Dakota prairies. With about 150 followers, he is believed to have wintered near Devils Lake in present-day northeastern North Dakota.

Sibley's Expedition to Dakota Territory. "While defense measures were being reorganized in Minnesota, some eight hundred Lower Sioux and perhaps four thousand Upper Sioux roamed about Dakota Territory. The latter left their villages near Lakes Traverse and Big Stone because they had little faith in Sibley's promise of safety if they surrendered. Also on the plains were thousands of Yankton and Yanktonai, who were thought to have joined the Minnesota Sioux still at large.

"General Pope was convinced that these Indians would attack the Minnesota frontier during the coming summer. He therefore decided early in 1863 to send a two-pronged punitive expedition into Dakota Territory. One column, led by Sibley, was to be made up largely of infantry; it would march northward from near Fort Ridgely to the Devils Lake area. The other would be a cavalry unit headed by General Alfred Sully, who had fought in Civil War battles in the East. Sully would move up the Missouri River Valley from Fort Randall and then meet Sibley near Devils Lake. The Indians, it was hoped, would be caught in this pincers movement.

"In June, 1863, Sibley concentrated about 3,300 men at Camp Pope, near present-day Redwood Falls. The chief units represented in his command were the Sixth, Seventh, and Tenth regiments, the First Minnesota Mounted Rangers, and the Third Battery of Light Artillery commanded by Captain Jones, the hero of Fort Ridgely. In addition there were a hundred men from the Ninth Minnesota and seventy Indian and mixed-blood scouts. The Eighth regiment stayed at home to guard settlers and protect the all-important supply line between St. Cloud and Fort Abercrombie from such posts as Sauk Centre, Alexandria, and Pomme de Terre.

"As Sibley's expedition moved out from Camp Pope on June 16 it formed a column five miles long. Over two hundred wagons carried enough provisions for ninety days." The Sioux Uprising of 1862, p. 87-89

The Death of Lars Olsen Rindahl. When the editor visited the Norseland Luthern Church cemetary on March 16, 1981, he found a tombstone with the following inscription:

Lars Olsen Rindahl
Foill paa Gaarden
Rindahl Faaberg I
Norge
August 11, 1812
Dode
Juni 29, 1863

This tombstone marks the grave of Lars Olsen Rindahl who was one-year younger than his sister, Anne Olsdatter (Rindahl) Ronne -- the writer's great-great grandmother (on his father's side). Lars Olsen was born on August 11, 1812, on the Rindahl farm in Faaberg parish, a few miles north of Lillehammer (lower Gudbrandsdal Valley).

The Norseland Lutheran Church historical sketch says "Lars Olsen" was a charter member of the church; he apparently was among the "31 families present at the Odegaard home that memorable day of June 6, 1858, just a few weeks after Minnesota became a state. They came from Norwegian Grove, beyond Rush River, in Sibley county, from Swan Lake and some from the vicinity of St. Peter." 100th Anniversary, Norseland Lutheran Church, pp.4-5

Lttle Crow Killed While Picking Berries. "During June and early July several murders were committed in the Big Woods area, where warriors of Little Crow's party were operating. Among the victims were Captain John S. Cady, leader of a detachment of the Eighth Minnesota Regiment, which was ambushed on June 11,1863, near Lake Elizabeth in Kandiyohi County; four members of the Amos W. Dustin family, killed while moving in an open wagon from one part of Wright County to another; and James A. McGannon, shot on July 1 near Fairhaven in southeastern Stearns County. Whether Little Crow's braves were guilty of all these murders is not definitely known.

"For Little Crow himself, the raid into Minnesota ended in tragedy. On the evening of July 3, according to various and sometimes contradictory stories, the chief and his son were picking berries some six miles northwest of Hutchinson. They were seen by two residents of McLeod County -- Nathan Lamson and his son Chauncey -- who were out hunting. Although the Lamsons did not know who the Indians were, they attacked them. Unseen by Little Crow and his son, Nathan Lamson crept up behind a tree close to the berry patch and shot the chief just above the hip. Before Lamson could retreat to cover, Little Crow returned the fire, slightly wounding his assailant in the shoulder. The farmer immediately dropped to the ground, crawled out of the line of fire, and attempted to reload his rifle. At that instant, Chauncey and Little Crow exchanged shots. The Sioux chief fell mortally wounded by a ball that penetrated his breast.

"Thinking that his father was dead and fearing other Indians might be near, Chauncey hurried to Hutchinson for help. There several citizens and soldiers from the fort organized a party and, led by Lamson's youngest son, Birney, set out to investigate. As daylight broke, they reached the site of the shootings and found the body of an Indian, neatly laid out with a pair of new moccasins and the murdered McGannon's coat on or near it. The only sign of the elder Lamson was his discarded white shirt. When members of the party returned to Hutchinson, he was among the first to greet them. Lamson explained that he had waited quietly until the Indians' moaning and talking ceased. He then slipped away to town after nightfall.

"The dead Indian was taken to Hutchinson, where the scalp was removed and the corpse mutilated before it was buried disgracefully in a pile of offal. Several persons who saw the body declared it to be that of Little Crow. When their statements were ridiculed, these people pointed out that the corpse had a double set of teeth and displaced wristbones on both arms just as Little Crow had. The death of the chief was not positively confirmed until twenty-six days after the shooting when the half-starved Wowinapa, who had stayed with his father until he died and then fled, was captured by Sibley's soldiers near Devils Lake. The boy readily told them how the white men had shot Little Crow near Hutchinson.

"Wowinapa was tried by a military commission and found guilty of participation in the uprising and of attempted murder and horse stealing. Though sentenced to be hanged, he eventually was released. In 1864 Nathan Lamson received from the state five hundred dollars as a reward for killing Little Crow, who had become the symbol of Indian resistance to white authority. Chauncey, who actually fired the fatal shot, collected a bounty on Little Crow's scalp.

"A state monument erected near Hutchinson in 1929 marks the site of the demise of the chief who led the uprising. In 1971, some 109 years after his death, Little Crow received a decidedly delayed but more fitting burial when some of his bones that had long been held by the Minnesota Historical Society were returned to his family. The remains were buried at Flandreau in a simple, dignified ceremony attended by relatives of the chief, including his grandson Jesse Wakeman (the son of Wowinapa) who was then eighty-eight years of age. We did not want any publicity on the burial, said Jesse. ...We decided Ta-o-ya-tedutah [Little crow] should be buried among his own with only his own on hand." The Sioux Uprising of 1862, p. 83-86

The Battle of Big Mound. "...After a month's march, made tedious by dusty prairies, alkaline lakes, locusts, and heat, the command reached a point about forty miles southeast of Devils Lake, where a field base called Camp Atchison was established. Learning that six hundred lodges of Sioux had left Devils Lake and were heading toward the Missouri River, Sibley prepared to take out after them.

"Early on July 20 about 2,300 men set out from the base camp, and four days later Sibley's scouts reported many Indians on the prairie and a large encampment not far distant. Sibley halted the column, and while camp was set up many Sioux watched from a range of hills about a mile away. A sizable group was stationed on the summit of the highest peak, called Big Mound, in what is now Kidder County North Dakota. Some of these rode toward Sibley's camp -- not, as the general hoped, in a show of friendship, but to warn him of the Indians' intention to fight. The battle of Big Mound was suddenly touched off when a young Indian, unmindful of the consequences, shot Dr. Josiah S. Weiser, surgeon of the Mounted Rangers. The outnumbered Indians (some 1,500 of them) fought until late afternoon before giving up the battle and retreating westward.

The Battles of Dead Buffalo and Stoney Lakes. "The Sioux were similarly routed in encounters at nearby Dead Buffalo Lake on July 26 and two days later at Stony Lake northeast of present-day Driscoll, North Dakota, where, Sibley reported, there took place the greatest conflict between our troops and the Indians, so far as the numbers were concerned. In each instance, Sibley's soldiers fought not against a war party but against a body of hunters whose major concern was to delay the expedition while their women and children crossed the Missouri River to safety. Although only one soldier was killed in all the battles, Sibley estimated the Sioux deaths at from 120 to 150. The Indians also suffered great losses of utensils and equipment in their hasty retreats.

Sibley's Command Returns to Fort Snelling. "On July 29, the day following the fight at Stony Lake, Sibley's command reached the Missouri's eastern bank. There, in the vicinity of present-day Bismarck, North Dakota, he waited for General Sully. Two days passed without a sign of Sully and, because his supplies were running low, Sibley decided to return home. His main column reached Fort Snelling on September 13." The Sioux Uprising of 1862, pp. 89-90

Norseland Lutheran Church Installs Rev. Thomas Johnson. "August 6, 1863, was the date of the installation of Rev. Thomas Johnson.

"On June 17, 1863 this devout man was ordained to the ministry at St. Louis by Rev. H. A. Preus, president of the Norwegian Synod, being the first Norwegian graduate of this school. On June 24, 1863, he was united in marriage to Miss Sahlgaard in Wisconsin. It was a great day for the Norseland congregation on Thursday, August 6th, when he was installed and when he brought his bride to their new home. The congregation had secured the use of the newly built Swedish Lutheran church of Scandinavian Grove for the occassion. Rev. Muus installed the new pastor and delivered his farewell sermon." 100th Aniversary, Norseland Lutheran Church, pp. 5-6

"During Rev. Muus' period of service, he baptized 50, confirmed 1, married one couple, buried 2, and administered communion to 339. It was during his pastorate that the Indian massacure occurred in August, 1962, when many Norwegian families of the Norwegian Grove vicinity and Swan Lake lost their all. They fled to St. Peter for refuge, but when the terrors had subsided they returned again to their homes to carry on." 100th Aniversary, Norseland Lutheran Church, p. 56

"Rev. Thomas Johnson, the third pastor to serve this flock, spent his entire life following his ordination, a period of 43 years, in serving this congregation and is recognized by all as the father of the church. This beloved man was born in Glidre, Valders, Norway, April 27, 1837, son of John Anfindsen and Joren Gjermundsdatter, the youngest of nine children. At the age of five years he was an orphan. In 1851, he came to America with three of his brothers and began working for farmers for his board and room. During the winters he attended school. In 1859, Rev. Koren took notice of this sincere and diligent young man and persuaded him to enter the ministry, offering to help. He received private instruction for a time from Rev. Koren in the latter's home, and in the fall of 1859, studied for a time at Concordia college at Fort Wayne, Ind. The school was moved the following year to St. Louis and he journeyed thither to finish his education in 1863." 100th Anniversary Norseland Lutheran Church, p.

Sulley's Expedition Charges the Indians at Whitestone Hill. "Sully, delayed by low water in the Missouri and other difficulties, had not left his advance base near Fort Pierre (South Dakota) until August 21. About a week later he reached the Bismarck area and learned that Sibley's forces were on their way back to Minnesota. He then turned to the southeast to track down some Sioux hunting near the headwaters of the James River. After three days of rapid marching, his troops arrived at Whitestone Hill, now a North Dakota state park. There one of his forward battalions suddenly came upon a large group of unsuspecting Indians and immediately formed a battle line. The main force of the expedition came up about two hours later and found the Indians breaking camp. Sully ordered his men to advance and charge through the center of the Indians, who made a very desperate resistance. Darkness put an end to the engagement, in which Sully lost twenty killed and thirty-eight wounded. He set the Indian losses at between 150 and 200, including women and children.

"On November 13, 1863, Samuel J. Brown, nineteen-year-old interpreter at the Crow Creek agency on the Missouri, wrote a letter to his father, Joseph R. Brown, that presents the Indian side of Whitestone Hill and puts something of a cloud over Sully's victory. I don't think he ought to brag of it at all, wrote Samuel, because it was, what no decent man would have done, he pitched into their camp and just slaughtered them, worse a great deal than what the Indians did in 1862, he killed very few men and took no hostile ones prisoners, he took some but they were friendly Yanktons, and he let them go again . it is lamentable to hear how those women and children were slaughtered it was a perfect massacre, and now he returns saying that we need fear no more, for he has 'wiped out all hostile Indians from Dakota,' if he had killed men instead of women & children, then it would have been a success, and the worse of it, they had no hostile intention whatever.

"For two days following the battle of Whitestone Hill the expedition spread over the countryside destroying everything the enemy had abandoned, dispersing small bands of Indians, and capturing others. Sully returned to his base on the Missouri with 156 Sioux men, women, and children as prisoners. The 1863 expeditions had driven the main body of Sioux farther from the Minnesota border but had failed to kill or capture many of the Indians' fighting men. It was not long before the Dakota were again back across the Missouri hunting buffalo."The Sioux Uprising of 1862, pp. 90-91

The Fourth Chippewa Cession. "A fourth great Chippewa cession took place when a tract of about six thousand sections of land in the northwestern corner of the state was acquired from the Red Lake and Pembina band by a treaty of 1863..." A History of Minnesota, Vol IV, p. 191

"On October 2, 1863, a treaty was made by a government commission at the Old Crossing of the Red Lake River. It provided for the cession of Indian rights over some three million acres in the extreme northwest corner of Minnesota and a large adjacent area in the northeast corner of North Dakota. There was no mention of houses or cattle or farming implements and nothing explicit about schools.

"In the winter following, the Red Lake chief, who had refused to sign the treaty because there was no provision for houses, cattle, or schools, walked ahundred and fifty miles to lay his troubles before Bishop Whipple." A History of Minnesota, Vol. IV, pp. 476-77

Evangelical Lutherans in Nicollet Township. "The Evangelical Lutherans began holding services [in Nicollet township] in 1863, under Rev. John Smith; the society organized in 1866; in 1878 a church was built in the village of Nicollet, at a cost of $1,500. Rev. William Oehler has charge, and the church has some thirty-five members." History of the Minnesota Valley: Nicollet County, p.676

Two Railroad Companies Complete Forty-Six and One-Half Miles. "Late in the fall of 1863 two companies had completed forty-six and one-half miles of road..." A History of Minnesota, Vol. II, p.330