Chapter III
See Miss Gallaher’s article on The Military-Indian Frontier 1830–1835 in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XV, pp. 393–428. 88
Langham to Taliaferro, August 19, 1820.—Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 62. 89
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 117. 90
Neill’s The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), p. 901. 91
Marsh to Taliaferro, June 26, 1827.—Taliaferro Letters, Vol. I, No. 76. 92
This was the opening of the Winnebago War, often called the “Red Bird War”. Accounts of it are given in William Joseph Snelling’s Early Days at Prairie du Chien in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. V, pp. 144–153; and State Papers, 1st Session, 20th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 150–163. 93
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. II, p. 118. 94
For the movement of troops see State Papers, 1st Session, 20th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 150–163. 95
Taliaferro to Cass, October 4, 1832.—Indian Office Files, 1832, No. 226. 96
Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 439, 440, 459; Neill’s The History of Minnesota (Fourth Edition), pp. 483–487. 97
For an account of the Winnebagoes and their many migrations see Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor, pp. 218–256. 98
Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. III, Pt. 2, Document No. 5, pp. 1028, 1029; The Minnesota Pioneer, September 13, 1849. 99
The Minnesota Pioneer, November 28, December 12, 1849. 100
Executive Documents, 1st Session, 32nd Congress, Vol. II, Pt. 3, Document No. 2, p. 421. “The recent arrival at Fort Snelling of a company of dragoons, so long wanted, will greatly assist in intercepting the migration southward of this discontented people.”—Report of Alexander Ramsey, October 21, 1850, in Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 31st Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 81. 101
This reservation was agreed upon by the treaty concluded at Washington, D. C., on February 27, 1855; Kappler’s Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 690–693. 102
Senate Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 316, 423. 103
Bryce’s The Remarkable History of the Hudson’s Bay Company, pp. 365–372. A description of a hunt, written in French by Rev. M. Belcourt, is given in Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, Document No. 51, pp. 44–52. 104
Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, Document No. 51, p. 4. 105
This was during the period that Professor William A. Dunning describes as “The Roaring Forties”. “And the far flung interests of the British Empire need no more striking illustration than the fact that in whatever direction the Americans sought to expand their bounds, whether on the Atlantic or on the Pacific, in the Gulf of the tropics or under the Arctic circle, they found subjects of the Queen, with vested rights, opposing the movement.”—Dunning’s The British Empire and the United States, pp. 96, 97. 106
Captain Sumner’s report is printed in the Executive Documents, 1st Session, 29th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 2, pp. 217–220. It is reprinted with explanatory notes in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XI, pp. 258–267. 107
The report of Major Woods is printed in Executive Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. VIII, Document No. 51. It contains fifty-five pages. Accompanying the expedition was John Pope, Brevet Captain of the Topographical Engineers. His report is published in Senate Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. X, Document No. 42. There is an excellent map attached to the report. 108
Colonel Smith’s report is printed in the Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Pt. II, Document No. 1, pp. 426–454. 109
Ansel Briggs to the Secretary of War.—Indian Office Files, 1849, No. 206. The petition was dated Washington, Iowa, July 31, 1849.—Indian Office Files, 1849, No. 208. 110
Major Woods’s report is found in the Indian Office Files, 1849, No. 174. 111
The Minnesota Pioneer, April 3, 1850. 112
The Minnesota Pioneer, May 16, 1850. 113
See the letter of William Hutchinson, who was one of the party. It is published in The Minnesota Pioneer, June 13, 1850. “Iowa City looks as it did five years ago”, he wrote. “A few houses were built since that time; but evidently were not the capitol located at this place, it would be no great shakes, though in time it is bound to come out. Some years since, Uncle Sam erected expensive bridges for the good citizens of Iowa, betwixt Dubuque and Iowa City; and strange to say the people are suffering them to rot down without covering them. Iowa City has grown in ten years as large as Saint Paul, which is not 2 years old. Steamboats often get up to this place, but all will not suffice.” 114
Report of Major Woods.—Indian Office Files, 1850, No. 363. 115
The Iowa Star (Fort Des Moines), July 18, 1850. 116
The Annals of Iowa (First Series), Vol. VII, pp. 284, 285. “Part of Company D. 1st regiment of U. S. Dragoons under command of Lieut. Gardner passed through here on their way to the Missouri river. We understand they intend to pay a visit to the Indian tribes on the upper Missouri and from thence across Minnesota Territory to their quarters at Ft. Snelling.”—Quoted from the Fort Des Moines Gazette in the Miners’ Express (Dubuque), September 4, 1850. The return of the troops to Fort Snelling is noted in The Minnesota Pioneer, October 3, 1850. 117
Executive Documents, 1st Session, 32nd Congress, Vol. II, Pt. 3, Document No. 2, p. 284. An account of the journey is printed in The Minnesota Pioneer, February 12, 1852. 118
Asa Whitney, a New York merchant, petitioned Congress in January, 1845, for a franchise and a grant of land to make this dream a reality.—Congressional Globe, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, pp. 218, 219. 119
Act of March 3, 1853.—United States Statutes at Large, Vol. X, p. 219. 120
Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Document No. 91, pp. 1, 13, 74. 121
Executive Documents, 1st Session, 36th Congress, Document No. 56, p. 36; Post Returns, May, 1853, in the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C. 122
A brief account of the expedition is given in Paxson’s The Last American Frontier, pp. 197–203. The reports of all the surveys were published by the government. That of Governor Stevens consists of 651 pages, added to the report of the Secretary of War, published in Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Document No. 91. In 1859 Governor Stevens submitted a Narrative and Final Report, published in two parts in the Executive Documents, 1st Session, 36th Congress, Document No. 56. The various reports of all the explorers are bound in a set of twelve volumes, in which Governor Stevens’s first account may be found in Vol. I, and the later narrative in Vol. XII, Pts. I and II. 123
Order No. 7 stated: “It is considered of great consequence that the several trains should not be intermingled; and the dragoons attached to the several parties will continue with them, camping and working with them, receiving their orders only from their particular chiefs, even when the whole force is brought together.”—Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 33rd Congress, Document No. 91, p. 46. 124
Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 28th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 2, p. 112. 125
Kappler’s Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, p. 566. 126
Kappler’s Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 567–570. 127
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. X, Pt. I, p. 181. 128
Executive Documents, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, p. 161. 129
Senate Documents, 1st Session, 31st Congress, Vol. I, Document No. 1, pp. 180–183. 130
The Minnesota Pioneer, July 19, 1849. 131
The Minnesota Pioneer, September 6, 1849, July 11, November 21, 1850. 132
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. X, Pt. I, pp. 193, 199. 133
Kappler’s Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, Vol. II, pp. 588–593. 134
Holcombe’s Minnesota in Three Centuries, Vol. II, pp. 327, 328; Annals of Iowa (First Series), Vol. VII, p. 290; Post Returns, March, April, 1853, in the archives of the War Department, Washington, D. C. 135
For Colonel Smith’s expedition see above, Note 109. For the building of Fort Abercrombie see the Collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, Vol. II, Pt. II, p. 7. 136
Reports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Report No. 351, pp. 10–12. 137
Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Pt. III, p. 2595. 138
For the sale of Fort Snelling see Dr. Folwell’s paper on The Sale of Fort Snelling, 1857, in the Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. XV, pp. 393–410. 139
The report of the committee may be found in Reports of Committees, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Vol. II, Report No. 351. 140
Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Pt. III, p. 2614. 141
Congressional Globe, 1st Session, 35th Congress, Pt. III, p. 2618. 142
Minnesota Historical Collections, Vol. VIII, p. 431. 143
For papers relating to the readjustment see Executive Documents, 3rd Session, 40th Congress, Vol. VII, Document No. 9. 144