Part 26 (1/2)

KEEWAYDIN CHAPTER

Minneapolis

MISS MARION MOIR

Mrs Gideon Pond--1843

On the twenty-third day of August, 1842, I wasto come to the Northwest as an assistant missionary in the Dakotajourney fro, sent out by the American Board

We came down the Ohio and up the Mississippi in a stea ti Sunday there We reached Fort Snelling in May after a tedious journey Fro we started up the Minnesota River in an open boat propelled by oars At night we camped on the banks and cooked our supper In the party were Mr and Mrs Steven Riggs and their two children and his wife's brother Dr Riggs was just returning from the east where he had had soue

We also had three men to row the boat We suffered much from the myriads of mosquitoes We baked our bread each day It was si pan before a s camp fire It was very distasteful to ht bread I had soht yeast cakes were then unknown I soaked one of them in a pail of river water, stirred in soht yeast I mixed a loaf of bread and set it where the hot sun would keep it warht it was ready to be baked and I used a little Dutch oven which was on the boat to bake it in The oven was like a black iron kettle flat on the botto We placed coals under the oven and a thick iron cover heavier than any you ever sae heated in the fire and placed over the oven to bake the bread on the top, while to bake it on the sides we turned the oven around I attending the baking of reat solicitude and care

While it was baking an Indian man came into the camp and sat down by the fire I paid no attention to him but attended to my loaf, just as I would have done if he had not been there Mrs Riggs said, ”You should not have let that man see your bread” I said, ”Why not,” and she answered, ”He ht was preposterous In theI fried soround and went to get one So the breakfast had to wait until I could mix some of the bread I disliked so ht ”So this is the kind of people I have co”

At the point called Traverse de Sioux we left the river and made the reons which had been sent from the mission at Lac qui Parle to meet us A new station was to be started at Traverse and Mr Riggs and two of the men remained there to build houses for us

We were four or five days going fro adventures Dr Riggs had been east a year and had taken with hiht see and learn so with us on their way to their hoo ahead on foot and reach their friends, as they could go faster so, than in wagons The other, being sick, remained with us We had an extra horse and later he was told that he ht ride on toback He excitedly told us that his only brother had come to meet him and had been murdered by ambushed Ojibway Indians

We soon caht across the road The ently to one side and covered it with a canvas In a short tie numbers of Indian men armed and very hbor and friend I could not understand a word they said, but their gestures and words were so fierce that I expected to be killed

They fired at our team and one of the horses was so seriously injured that we had to stop Mrs Riggs and I walked the rest of the journey, fiveher fifteen months old baby This was July 4, 1843 My first baby was born on the 10th of the following September

On this last five miles of our journey, Indian women came out to meet us Some of them had umbrellas and held them over us They seemed to know that this was a terrible adventure for us One of them put her arms around me and tried to help me on and was as kind as any white wos' baby, but the little thing was afraid of the over and over again, ”Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom”

The Indians seemed to me very poor, indeed They had for rowing very scarce and no longer furnished a living for them The Indian women each year planted small patches of corn with only their hoes for plows They raised only small amounts and they had no store houses So in holes in the ground, but dared nottheir supplies stolen, so they were not always able to find it when it anted In the fall they gathered wild rice which they threshed by flailing it in buffalo skins

In the spring they ar They were often very short of food and suffered fros in a swill pail An old Indian woman came in and , ”Why did you throw this away?” She then gathered them carefully out of the pail and carried them home in her blanket to cook Pies that were set out on thesill to cool disappeared also

This first winter was spent at Lac qui Parle, or Medeiadaues I was told that it was so named from a remarkable echo about the lake I kept house in a little roo house Dr Williamson and his family lived on the lower floor

One day as I was alone sitting at , the door of my room opened and a hideously painted Indian came in His face, as nearly as I can remember, was painted half red and half black hite streaks across A band around his head contained a nu the nuhten me terribly I deterhtened I was I sat still atand in a short tiain This Indian was the famous Little Crow, the leader of the outbreak of 1862 Afterwards my second husband, Mr Pond, tried to teach Little Crow to read music and he told me that he had double teeth all around Little Crow learned to sing and had a fine voice He was a fine looking felloithout his paint; tall, slender and strong looking

In the spring of 1844, April 4, we started on our journey back to Traverse de Sioux We had a snow storm on the way but reached our new ho cabin with a little attic above The Indians here were not quite as friendly as those at Lac qui Parle and see theirls that I could persuade to co their children learn to read, sew, cook or anything else I think they had an idea that in so thee when they sold their land At any rate only a few girls ca them less unpleasant I provided basins, towels, soap and combs and requested them to use them each day as they caht in these ht a irls was an especial favorite ofto learn all she could She was about fifteen years old The girls had to walk about a h the deep snow to reach the school One day this favorite girl was absent I asked why she was not there, but the other girls did not know

The next day again she was absent and the other girls told me the reason was because she did not wish to ht her and had three wives already That day her parents went for food fro her at hoone she co herself

The Indian tents were heated by round in the center, the sh a hole in the top On each side of this fire they drove a forked stick into the ground and laying a pole across these sticks hung on it their utensils for cooking To this pole this poor Indian girl had tied a rope attached to a strap about her neck and, the pole being low, had lifted her feet froed herself rather than marry a man she did not love

One day when I was alone in a or Traverse de Sioux an Indian man came softly in and sat down by the stove I soon saw that he was drunk, which frightenedto him except to answer his questions because I did not wish to rouse his anger

Presently he reached to the stove and lifted a griddle and I thought he was going to strike riddles on the cook stoves then, each had its handle attached instead of having a separate handle I slipped out of the door and soon he went away Later he ca to strike you the other day I was drunk and that is my reason I would not have done it if I had been sober” I accepted his apology, thinking it a good one for an unlearned Indian

The treaty between the U S government and the Dakota Indians was overnment three in number, came in June Their chief was Luke Lee There were no houses where the white people could be entertained, so they camped in tents on the bluffs of the Minnesota river near an old trading house, occupied at that time by Mr Le Blanc The bluff was not an abrupt one, but formed a series of terraces from the river to the summit The cae of trees along the river but from there to the top and as far back as the eye could see, perhaps for two miles back on the bluff, there was not a bush or tree