Dakota Life In the Upper Midwest

THE DAKOTAS OR SIOUX IN MINNESOTA AS THEY WERE IN 1834.*

THE DAKOTAS OR SIOUX IN MINNESOTA AS ffHEY WERE IN 1834.* BY REV. 8AMUEL WILLIAM POND. Pm;:FACE. Perhaps the following work needs no preface, for it is what the title indicates and nothing more. It is written because in a short time none can tell what the Dakotas of Minnesota were when the first white mission for them began. This fragment of the History of Minnesota rna)' be of more value at some future time than it is now. It may be tho:ught st.range that the writer, who was so many years a missionary among the Dakotas, has said nothing about the way in which they received or rejected Christianity; but he thought it better not to mention that subject at all than to treat it superficially, and justice could not be done here without too greatly extending this work. My main object has been to show what manner of people the Dakotas were as savages, while they still retuined the customs of their ancestors. '1'hls paper was partly read by Samuel W. Pond, Jr., of Minneapolis, at the monthly meeting of the Executtve Council, March 12, 1906. It Is printed from a manuscript book written mostly during the years 1865 to 1875 by Rev. Samuel W. Pond, giving hIs "Recollections of the Dakotas as they were in 1834." In that year he and his brother, Rev. GIdeon H. Pond, began "their missionary work for these people at Lake Calhoun, building a log house there, the first dwelling of white men on the sIte of Minneapolis. The lives and work of these brothers were narrated by Rev. JJ:dward D. Nel1l, D. D., in one of hIs Macalester College Contributions (Second Series, 1892, No.8, pp. 159-198), "A Memorial Of the Brothers Pond, the First Resident MissIonarIes among the Dakotas"; and a more extended narration by Samuel W. Pond, Jr., entitled "Two Volunteer Missionaries among the Dakotas, or the Story of the Labors of Samuel W. and Gideon H. Pond," was published In 1893 as a volume of 278 pages, wIth portraIts and other illustrations from photographs. The author of this paper was born In New Preston, Conn., April 10, 1808; and died in Shakopee, Minn., December 12, 1891. His brother Gideon was born also In New Preston, Conn.. June !lO, 1810; and died In Bloomington, Minn., January 20, 1878. 3 4 MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY COLLECTIONS. SUBDIVISIONS OF THE DAKOTAS IN MINNESOTA. Nearly all that portion of the Dakota or Sioux nation that lived in Minnesota, as the limits of the state were afterward defined, had summer residences on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, except those who lived at lakes Big Stone and Traverse. There was a small village at Lake Oalhoun, one on Oannon river, and one at Two Woods, south of Lac qui Parle. With these exceptions, all the Dakota villages were near the two rivers and two lakes before mentioned. This statement applies to the summer villages of the Dakotas, as during the winter months camps were made wherever deer or furs were to be found. These Indians belonged to different divisions of the great tribe of Dakotas, and were known by different names. There were five of these divisions, namely, the Medawakantonwan, Wahpetonwan, Sissetonwan, Ihanktonwan or Yankton, and Wahpekuta. The villages of the Medawakantonwan were on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, extending from Winona to Shakopee. Most of the Indians living on the Minnesota above Shakopee were Wahpetonwan . At Big Stone lake there were both Wahpetonwan and Sissetonwan; and at Lake Traverse, Ihanktonwan, Sissetonwan, and Wahpetonwan. Part of the Wahpekuta lived on Oannon river, and part at Traverse des Sioux. 'l'here were frequent intermarriages between these subdivisions of the Dakotas, and they were more or less intermingled at all their villages. Although the language, manners, and dress of the different divisions were not precisely alike, they were essentially one people. Nor were these people of Minnesota separate from the rest of the Dakota nation, but were closely connected with those living farther west. They considered themselves as forming part of a great people, which owned a vast region of country, extending from the upper Mississippi to the Rocky mountains. They thought, and not without reason, that there was no other Indian nation so numerous or so powerful as the Dakota nation. Before their chiefs visited Washington, many of them believed that if the Dakotas should unite their forces and act in concert, they would prove more than a match for...