THE CHIPPEWA TREATY OF 1837

The relations of the United States government to the Indians prior to 1871 shows a dual attitude. On the one hand, the Indians were the government’s wards. By the ninth of the Articles of Confederation, Congress was given the right of “regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians who were not members of any of the states"; and by the act regulating Indian trade no cession of land could be valid unless made by treaty or convention. On the other hand, these treaties were negotiated and proclaimed with all the pomp and ceremony which would appeal to the Indian’s mind and impress him with his importance as a member of a sovereign nation. This was distinctly a “legal fiction”, but it continued as the customary method of procedure until the act of March 3, 1871, abolished the practice of considering the tribes as independent nations.

As the nation increased in strength and the agricultural and commercial forces of the country were pushing westward and coming into contact with the distant tribes, the treaties increased in number and importance. Urged by the cries of hungry land-seekers the cession of land by the natives gradually became the most important phase of all treaties; and in order that the new settlements might be protected from vengeful Indians the title to the land rested on legal cession rather than on conquest. It is stated on the authority of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs that “Except only in the case of the Sioux Indians in Minnesota, after the outbreak of 1862, the Government has never extinguished an Indian title as by right of conquest; and in this case the Indians were provided with another reservation, and subsequently were paid the net proceeds arising from the sale of the land vacated."

The negotiation of a treaty was not an easy affair. There were no recognized representatives of the tribe. In order that a treaty might be satisfactory it was necessary that all factions be consulted; and the braves who gathered often numbered into the hundreds. Thus, in planning the negotiations a satisfactory place and an opportune time must be selected, while the red men must be supported while away from home and protected from lurking enemies. It was in these phases of treaty-making that the military posts showed their importance.

The first important treaty with which the tribes living about Fort Snelling were concerned was that made at Prairie du Chien in 1825. The little frontier village presented a gala appearance during the month of August when the great convocation was held. There were Chippewas, Sioux, Sacs and Foxes, Menomonies, Iowas, Winnebagoes, and a portion of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Pottawattomie tribes living on the Illinois River gathered to consult with Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan and General William Clark, the government’s commissioners. Of the 1054 drawing rations on the last day, 386 were of the delegation of Sioux and Chippewas gathered by Major Taliaferro at Fort Snelling and brought down in safety to make a triumphal entry in true Indian style with flags flying, drums beating, and guns firing.

Although there was no cession of land, distinct progress was made in that the territories of the various tribes were defined, thus making negotiations easier for the future. Of especial importance was the Sioux-Chippewa boundary line, which made clear the territory of each tribe, so that when the year 1837 arrived and treaties were made to obtain the lands east of the Mississippi, the areas with which each was concerned were clearly understood.

By the year 1837 many conditions called for the cession of these lands. The forests, the water-power, the mines of lead and other ores aroused the desires of speculators. Settlers were thronging to Wisconsin, and it was felt that if the land could be purchased and the Indians removed, the people would be safe from any attacks, and the Indians would be removed from the contaminating influence of many of the undesirable whites. There were also the traders who for years past had given credit to many worthless Indians who had never brought back from the hunt furs sufficient to pay for the goods advanced them; and they hoped that in the payment for the lands certain sums would be reserved for the liquidation of these debts.

In the early summer of 1837 Major Taliaferro was ordered to organize a delegation of Sioux Indians who could be taken to Washington, where the Sioux negotiations would take place. At the same time orders were issued to summon the Chippewas of the upper Mississippi to a council to be held at Fort Snelling. To both of these groups the subject of the purchase of the Indian lands east of the Mississippi would be broached.

Miles Vineyard, who was the sub-agent at Fort Snelling, was immediately sent to the villages of the Chippewas. Early in July the red men began to arrive, and by July 20th about a thousand men, women, and children had pitched their tepees near the fort. Many were the notable chiefs gathered there with their warriors. With the Pillager band from Leech Lake was Chief Flat Mouth, who had twenty-five times been on the warpath without receiving a wound, who had delivered his English medal to Pike in 1806, and whose band had been attacked by the Sioux under the walls of Fort Snelling in 1827. The most famous of the Chippewa chiefs, he was still living in 1852, being then seventy-eight years old.

The chief of the bands from Gull Lake and Swan River was Hole-in-the-Day. Energetic, brave, and intelligent, he gained a great influence over the Chippewas of the upper Mississippi. His name, which literally meant a bright spot in the sky, is often written Hole-in-the-Sky. He was a frequent visitor at Fort Snelling and came to his death at that place in 1847 when he fell from a wagon, breaking his neck and dying instantly. His brother Strong Ground or Strong Earth was also present at the council. He had been a member of Flat Mouth’s band at the time of the massacre in 1827. Thirty-six eagle plumes waved from his head-dress at the time of his death, each of them representing the scalp of an enemy. The first of these he obtained when as a small boy he dashed into the ranks of the Sioux during a conflict and scalped a fallen warrior. Chiefs and warriors from the St. Croix River, Mille Lac, and Sandy Lake, with their followers, were also encamped near the fort.

There were also notables among the white men gathered there. The United States commissioner was Henry Dodge, known as an Indian fighter, and at that time Governor of Wisconsin Territory. General William R. Smith of Pennsylvania, who had been appointed by the President to serve as a commissioner with Governor Dodge, was unable to come. Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian agent, was busied with many duties connected with the safety of the visitors. Four hundred Sioux hovered about, and these had to be kept at a safe distance to avoid conflicts. Verplanck Van Antwerp, the secretary of the commission; J. N. Nicollet, the explorer; H. H. Sibley; and many other fur traders watched the negotiations and put their names to the treaty as witnesses.

The council began on July 20th. It was with the chiefs that Governor Dodge parleyed, but the warriors and braves felt that they also should have some part in the proceedings. On one occasion several hundred of them, streaked with their brightest paint, waving their tomahawks and spears and carrying the war flag of the Chippewas, together with the flag of the United States, interrupted the council with their whoops and drums; and when they had approached the chair of the Governor, paused while two of the warriors harangued the crowd on the kindness of the traders and the debts owed them.

The negotiations were carried on in a bower near the house of the agent. The chiefs were assembled daily; the peace pipe was smoked; and the red men, dressed only in leggings and breech cloths, with their long hair hanging over their shoulders under the eagle feathers upon their heads, and medals dangling from their necks, spoke of lands, of the traders, and of wars. The speeches of the Indians seemed interminable. From day to day action was postponed as they were waiting for other bands to arrive.

To prolong the council as long as possible was satisfying to the appetite of the Indian. The rations issued by the commissary at Fort Snelling were not to be eagerly exchanged for the fare of a Chippewa lodge in the northern woods. But at first the menu was not satisfactory. Nadin (the Wind) complained on July 24th: “You have everything around you, and can give us some of the cattle that are around us on the prairie. At the treaty of Prairie du Chien, the case was as difficult as this. The great Chief then fed us well with cattle." Evidently this hint was acted upon, as the old records show that by July 30th ten beeves weighing 6123 pounds had been furnished the Chippewas who were assembled to the number of 1400. The amount of supplies used on such an occasion is indicated by instructions given to Alexander Ramsey and John Chambers who in 1849 were commissioned to treat with the Sioux Indians at Fort Snelling. They were authorized to obtain from the commissary at Fort Snelling 15,000 rations of flour, 10,000 of pork, 10,000 of salt, 10,000 of beans, and 5000 of soap.

At the first meeting Governor Dodge spoke to the Chippewas of the purpose of the council. Their lands east of the Mississippi, he informed them, were not valuable in game and were not suited for agricultural purposes. They were said to be covered with pine trees, which the white men were eager to obtain, and accordingly the government was willing to pay the Chippewa nation for them. Thus, by selling the land they could obtain money for that which actually was of little value to them.

There evidently was no intention on the part of the Indians not to sell the lands, but the council was protracted, pending the arrival of other bands. Not until July 27th did they make any movement to close the deal. On that day, Ma-ghe-ga-bo, a warrior of the Pillager band, dressed in his most fantastic costume, covered a map of the land in question with a piece of paper, remarking that when the paper was removed the land would be considered sold. He added a final request: “My father, in all the country we sell you, we wish to hold on to that which gives us life the streams and lakes where we fish, and the trees from which we make sugar.”

Finally he asked all the chiefs who agreed to sell the land to rise. About thirty arose at his word. Immediately Ma-ghe-ga-bo raised the paper from the map and seized the hand of Governor Dodge. The sale was made. There remained only to agree upon the terms of the cession.

During the negotiations, reference had been made continually by the Indians to the traders and the payment of the debts owed them. Pe-she-ke said: “I have been supported by the trader, and without his aid, could not get through the winter with naked skin. The grounds where your children have to hunt are as bare as that on which I now stand, and have no game upon them.... We have not much to give the traders, as our lands and hunting grounds are so destitute. Do us a kindness by paying our old debts.” That he was coached to make the remark is evident from his statement that “No-body no trader has instructed me what to say to you."

On July 29th the terms were finally agreed upon, and while the secretary was writing out the treaty the braves of the Chippewas held a dance under the walls of Fort Snelling. This indicated not only their satisfaction at the successful conclusion of the council, but was also intended as a compliment to the commissioner. Three hundred warriors circled about in their gaudy costumes, recounting during the pauses of the dance the deeds of bravery they had done and the number of Sioux scalps they had obtained. At a distance a great number of Sioux looked upon the scene, not daring to interfere when the troops of the fort were so near.

By this treaty the Chippewas ceded an immense tract of land east of the Mississippi. In return the United States agreed to pay annually for twenty years $9500 in money, $19,000 in goods, $3000 for blacksmiths, $1000 for farmers, $2000 in provisions, and $500 in tobacco. One hundred thousand dollars was to be paid to the half-breeds, and $70,000 was set aside to pay the claims of the fur traders. The privilege of hunting, fishing, and gathering wild rice along the lakes and rivers of the ceded territory was reserved for the Indians.

This cession of land by the Chippewas had its counterpart in a treaty concluded by Sioux chiefs on September 29, 1837, in Washington, whither they had been taken by Major Taliaferro. All their lands east of the Mississippi the land between the Black River and the Mississippi River as far north as the Sioux-Chippewa boundary line was given up for various considerations amounting in total to almost one million dollars.

By these two treaties all the lands east of Fort Snelling were opened to settlement and commercial exploitation. As soon as the news of their ratification came, developments immediately began developments which had an important bearing upon the future history of Old Fort Snelling. The days when the Chippewa treaty was being drawn up are important, not only because they present an interesting sight of the picturesque features of an Indian council, but also because they show how Fort Snelling was assisting in the opening up of the rich timber lands and fertile prairies that border the Mississippi River.

For many years the payment of annuities that had been promised the Sioux was an annual reminder of these treaties. It was necessary that each Indian receive his portion of the goods and money in person in order to prevent fraud. In the late summer of each year all the warriors of Red Wing’s and Wabasha’s villages would leave their homes for the fort. In the agency building the United States officers, with the roll of the Sioux nation before them, called the names of the individuals, who one by one stepped up, touched the pen of the secretary, received the money, and deposited it in the box of his band. Outside was the typical Indian group ­squaws, children, dogs, and braves smoking their pipes and talking of past achievements. And in order that the Indians might always be conscious of the presence of the soldiers of the “Great Father”, the band of the fort played patriotic and thrilling airs.

With the transfer of the Indians to reservations higher up on the Minnesota River the payment of these annuities became a task which could no longer be performed at the fort. But the guarding of the funds was a necessity. Captain James Monroe spent the latter half of the month of November, 1852, at Traverse des Sioux with one subaltern and forty-seven men of the dragoons and infantry, protecting the money from bandits and Indians. William T. Magruder was ordered on October 23, 1853, to proceed in command of a detachment of troops to escort the money being sent to Fort Ridgely; and exactly a year later, an officer and thirteen men were detailed to perform a similar task.