Old Fort Snelling Part 11

[2] To the region lying on the upper waters of three great river systems--the Mississippi, the St. Lawrence, and the Red River of the North--the writer has applied the name "Upper Northwest" to distinguish it from the "Old Northwest" and the "Pacific Northwest".

[3] For a summary of the French explorations see Folwell's _Minnesota_, pp. 1-29. Thwaites's _France in America_, p. 74, contains an excellent map of the French operations in the West.

[4] The report of Louis Antoine Bougainville, written in 1757 and based on the reports of Canadian officials, shows the extent of French commerce at the close of the period of French control. At Green Bay (La Baye) trade was carried on with the Folles-Avoines, Sacs, Foxes, Sioux, and other tribes, the annual output being from five to six hundred packages of furs. In the North, extending westward along what is now the international boundary to the Lake of the Woods and then along the lakes and rivers of the Lake Winnipeg system, was the territory of the post known as "The Sea of the West". This included seven forts and produced a yearly supply of from three to four hundred packages. "These regions are everywhere vast prairies; this is the route to take for the upper Missouri."--_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XVIII, pp. 167-195.

A picturesque account of the life of the French traders is given in Neill's _The History of Minnesota_ (Fourth Edition), pp. 115-119.

[5] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XVIII, p. 251; Turner's _The Character and Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin_ in the _Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science_, Vol. IX, pp. 584, 585.

[6] Thwaites's _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, Vol. VII, p. 373. In 1792, Peter Grant built a trading house on the site of St. Vincent, Minnesota, on the east bank of the Red River, and in 1800-1801 the fort of Pembina was erected by the great traveller, Alexander Henry, the younger.--_South Dakota Historical Collections_, Vol. I, p. 138.

[7] _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, Vol. I, p. 684.

[8] Thwaites's _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition_, Vol. I, pp. 227, 228. Traders of the Hudson's Bay Company also frequented the spot. Sergeant John Ordway records in his journal for December 1, 1804, that "a Scotsman who is tradeing at the Mandens came to visit us. he belonged to the hudson bay company.... he brought over Tobacco Beeds & other kinds of Goods. & traded with the Mandens for their furs & buffalow Robes. they bring Some Guns to trade for horses &.

C. this hudsons bay comp^y lay Garrisoned near the N. W. Comp^y....

Eight or 10 days travel by land a North course from this."--_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XXII, p. 169.

[9] Chittenden's _The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West_, Vol. II, p. 556.

[10] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, pp. 279, 280.

[11] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, p. 286.

[12] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, p. 280.

[13] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, p. 156.

[14] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, p. 171.

[15] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, p. 252.

[16] Wilkinson's instructions to Pike are printed in Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. II, pp. 842-844. Before the founding of Fort Snelling the Minnesota River was called by the French voyageurs the "St. Pierre". When the Americans were established on its banks they anglicized this name into "St. Peter's". The fort, the agency, and the fur traders' establishment are commonly referred to in early literature as "St. Peter's". By a joint resolution of Congress on June 19, 1852, the name Minnesota was ordered to be used in all public doc.u.ments in which the river was mentioned. This was the Indian name for the river.--_United States Statutes at Large_, Vol. X, p. 147. In mentioning this river use is made in this volume of the modern name, except when quoting.

[17] The account of the treaty is given in Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, pp. 83, 84. The treaty itself is printed on page 231 and Pike's speech on pages 226-230. Article I contains the land cession: "That the Sioux nation grant unto the United States, for the purpose of establishment of military posts, nine miles square at the mouth of the St. Croix, also from below the confluence of the Mississippi and St. Peters up the Mississippi to include the falls of St. Anthony, extending nine miles on each side of the river, that the Sioux nation grants to the United States the full sovereignty and power over said district forever." The meaning of all this is extremely vague.

[18] _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, Vol. I, p. 798.

[19] _Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Doc.u.ments Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812_, pp. 11, 13.

[20] A pet.i.tion of the London merchants to the English government stated that before the war the annual export of furs from Canada amounted to 250,000. Upd.y.k.e's _The Diplomacy of the War of 1812_, p. 204.

[21] _Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Doc.u.ments Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812_, pp. 72, 73.

[22] _Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Doc.u.ments Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812_, pp.

66-69. The figures are given on page 69.

[23] _Publications of the Canadian Archives, No. 7, Doc.u.ments Relating to the Invasion of Canada and the Surrender of Detroit, 1812_, p. 184.

[24] The best account of the ma.s.sacre at Fort Dearborn is given in Quaife's _Chicago and the Old Northwest_, 1673-1835, pp. 211-231.

[25] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XIX, p. 323.

[26] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, pp. 120, 194.

[27] _Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections_, Vol. XV, p. 219. It must be stated that the British in no way sought intentionally to use the Indians for the purpose of ma.s.sacreing the whites. The instructions to d.i.c.kson declared that he "should restrain them by all the means in your power from acts of Cruelty and inhumanity". On March 16, 1813, d.i.c.kson reported to the military secretary at Quebec that he had taken steps to redeem the soldiers, women, and children of the ill-fated Fort Dearborn garrison, who were still captives.--_Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections_, Vol. XV, pp. 258, 259.

[28] _Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections_, Vol. XV, pp. 321, 322.

[29] There is a summary of d.i.c.kson's activities in the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XII, pp. 133-153.

[30] _Niles' Register_, Vol. VI, p. 176.

[31] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XIII, p. 10; _Niles'

Register_, Vol. VI, p. 242.

[32] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XI, pp. 254-270.

[33] _Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of America and other powers since July 4, 1776_, pp. 404, 405.

[34] _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, Vol. II, pp. 10, 11; Chittenden's _The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West_, Vol. II, p. 561.

[35] These treaties were concluded: on July 18th with the Pottawattomies and Piankashaws; on July 19th with the Tetons and Sioux of the Lakes, Sioux of St. Peter's River, and Yankton Sioux; September 2nd with the Kickapoos; September 8th with the Wyandots; September 12th with the Osages; September 13th with the Sacs of the Missouri; September 14th with the Foxes; September 16th with the Iowas. The treaties are published in Kappler's _Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties_, Vol. II, pp.

110-123. The reports of the commissioners and also the treaties are printed in the _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, Vol. II, pp.

1-11.

[36] _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, Vol. II, p. 9.

[37] For these migrations see the _Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections_, Vol. XXIII, pp. 97, 443; Kingsford's _The History of Canada_, Vol. IX, p. 69; _Report on Canadian Archives_, 1896, p. 157.

During the negotiations at Ghent the British commissioners had sought to have established a permanent Indian territory to be a barrier state between the two powers.--Upd.y.k.e's _The Diplomacy of the War of 1812_, p. 204.

The Indians felt they had been abandoned by the English. Hence the liberality in gift distribution was an attempt to appease them.

[38] See the reports of W. H. Puthuff in the _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XIX, pp. 430-433, 472-474.

[39] Schoolcraft's _Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes_, p. 19.

[40] Irving's _The Sketch-Book_ (Hudson Edition), p. 489.

[41] Carr's _Missouri_, p. 121.

[42] _Niles' Register_, Vol. VIII, p. 436, August 19, 1815.

[43] _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, Vol. II, p. 86.

[44] _United States Statutes at Large_, Vol. III, p. 332. John Jacob Astor of the American Fur Company has received the credit for the pa.s.sage of this law.--Folwell's _Minnesota_, p. 54; Coman's _Economic Beginnings of the Far West_, Vol. I, pp. 344, 345. This is neglecting the fact that there was a unanimous outcry against foreign traders--one of the signs that the War of 1812 marks the rise of American nationality. The legislation of April 29, 1816, was not wholly satisfactory to Astor. "I have seen a letter", wrote William H. Puthuff, Indian agent at Mackinac, "addressed by J. J. Astor to a Mr. Franks a British trader now at this place in which Mr. Astor expresses surprise and regret at the pa.s.sage of a law forbidding British subjects from trading with Indians, within the American limits etc."--_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XIX, p. 423. What Mr. Astor wanted was the prohibition of trade by American private citizens as well as by British private citizens. If his American Fur Company were given a monopoly as he desired, he also wanted to be free to employ such persons--American or British--as he needed.

[45] Or, more correctly from the point where a north and south line drawn through the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods would intersect this parallel.--_Treaties and Conventions concluded between the United States of America and other powers since July 4, 1776_, p.

416.