ish us, and tried every way to stop us. It was three years altogether in regard to my schooling, as day scholar and boarding at the schoolhouse. By the teaching and helping of the kind family of Dr. Williamson, we had a very good opportunity, and made use of those three years. I got so that I could read the fourth reader by the time I left the school.

It was then my mother came and I went home with her to the Indian village. She dressed me up in Indian costume, but as I had been living among the white people mostly I was bashful to go out in Indian style, and for some days I stayed inside the tent where many people could not see me. But after years of living among them and being dressed in my own people's costume, I never forgot what I learned towards the white people's ways, their language, their civilization, and so forth. Although dressed in Indian costume, I thought of myself as a white lady in my mind and in my thoughts.

river set apart for the Indians by the treaties of Mendota and Traverse des Sioux in 1851. She and her husband were Christian Indians, and for some years lived in a log house and "in civilization" at the Lower or Redwood Agency, on the south side of the Minnesota, two miles southeast from where the village of Morton now stands.

The Lower Agency was the scene of the outbreak of the Sioux on the morning of August 18th, 1862. The Christian Indians were of course opposed to the uprising and the war; but in time they all, or very nearly all, were swept into it, some by inclination, and others by the force of public sentiment and through fear and coercion. Good Thunder and his wife, and the other Indians who were "in civilization" at the Lower Agency, were obliged to leave their houses, remove a few miles westward to Little Crow's village, and take up new abodes there in tepees.

It was on the fourth day of the outbreak when Snana purchased Mary Schwandt from her captor. This act, which doubtless saved the life of an innocent young girl, was wholly Snana's; her husband was away from home at the time.

Mary Schwandt was then fourteen years old. Her story of her captivity is published in the sixth volume of these Historical Collections (pages 461474).

After Snana had restored Mary Schwandt to the whites at Camp Release, she and her husband came down with other Indians to Fort Snelling, where they were encamped for some time. Here, in the following winter, her two children died; and soon after their death she went to Faribault, and lived there for some years.

Later she removed to Santee Agency, Nebraska, where she was again married, this time to another man of her race whose Indian name was Mazazezee (Brass), his English name being Charles Brass. He was for several years a scout in the United States military service, and died from injuries received while scouting under Generals Terry and Custer. Snana (or Mrs. Maggie Brass, this being her English name) was afterward employed in the Government school at Santee Agency, and has lived on the farm allotted to her there. Her son, William Brass, has received an education in the Government school at Genoa, Nebraska. She also has two adopted daughters, both Indians.

Her name appears, with the few others, upon the monument erected by the Minnesota Valley Historical Society, at Morton, in commemoration of the services of the Indians who saved the lives of white persons and were true in their fidelity to the whites throughout the great Sioux War in Minnesota in 1862.

The spelling of the foregoing Dakota (Sioux) proper names conforms with their pronunciation, giving to the letters their usual English sounds. It therefore differs somewhat from the system used by Rev. Stephen R. Riggs in his Dictionary of the Dakota Language, which gives mostly the French sounds for vowels and employs ten peculiarly marked consonants, such as cannot be supplied by our English fonts of type. A final syllable, win, is often added in a Dakota name, as that of Gray Cloud, to indicate that it is a feminine name.

An Indian man whose name was Good Thunder then offered some special things to my mother for me to be his wife, which was, as we may say, legal marriage among the Indians. But I insisted that, if I were to marry, I would marry legally in church; so we did, and were married in the Protestant Episcopal church.

Some years after we got married, we were the first ones to enter the Christian life, which was in 1861. We were confirmed in the same church. On account of our becoming Christians we were ridiculed by the Indians who were not yet taught the gospel of Jesus and who could not yet understand what Christianity meant.

I want everybody to understand that what little education I have was taught me by the kind family of Dr. Williamson. It has been of very great use to me all through my life; and it led me from the darkness of superstition to the light of Christianity in those dark days among my people.

Then came the dreadful outbreak of 1862. About eight days before the massacre, my oldest daughter had died, and hence my heart was still aching when the outbreak occurred. Two of my uncles went out to see the outbreak, and I told them that if they should happen to see any girl I wished them not to hurt her but bring her to me that I might keep her for a length of time. One evening one of my uncles came to me and said that he had not found any girl, but that there was a young man who brought a nice looking girl. I asked my mother to go and bring this girl to me; and my uncle, having heard of our conversation, advised my mother that she ought to take something along with her in order to buy this girl. Hence I told her to take my pony with her, which she did.

When she brought this girl, whose name was Mary Schwandt, she was much larger than the one I had lost, who was only seven years old; but my heart was so sad that I was willing to take any girl at that time. The reason why I wished to keep this girl was to have her in place of the one I lost. So I loved her and pitied her, and she was dear to me just the same as my own daughter.

During the outbreak, when some of the Indians got killed, they began to kill some of the captives. At such times I always hid my dear captive white girl. At one time the Indians

reported that one of the captives was shot down, and also that another one, at Shakopee's camp, had her throat cut; and I thought to myself that if they would kill my girl they must kill me first. Though I had two of my own children at that time with me, I thought of this girl just as much as of the others.

I made her dress in Indian style, thinking that the Indians would not touch her when dressed in Indian costume. I always went with her wherever she went, both in daytime and night. Good Thunder never helped me in any way to take care of this girl, but he always went with the men wherever they went. Only my mother helped me to take care of her; especially whenever she would wash, she always provided the soap and towel.

The soldiers seemed not to come near to us, but instead of that they could be heard at a distance beating the drum day after day, which I did not understand. Of course we who had captives wished the soldiers to come to us or to kill all the bad Indians.

Once, when the soldiers came near us, all the bad Indians were trying to skip from the country, mean and angry; but at this time I dug a hole inside my tent and put some poles. across, and then spread my blankets over and sat on top of them, as if nothing unusual had happened. But who do you suppose were inside the hole? My dear Schwandt, and my own two little children. camped beside us, my heart was full of joy.

captive girl, Mary When the soldiers

General Sibley was in command of the army, and he advised us to camp inside of his circle, which we did. He was so kind that he provided for us some food just the same as the soldiers had; and I thought that this was something new to me in the midst of my late troubles. When I turned this dear child over to the soldiers my heart ached again; but afterward I knew that I had done something which was right.

From that day I never saw her nor knew where she was for thirty-two years, until the autumn of 1894; when I learned that she lives in St. Paul, being the wife of Mr. William Schmidt. Soon I went to visit her, and I was respected and treated well. It was just as if I went to visit my own child.

WITH NOTES OF MISSIONARY WORK AMONG THE SIOUX.*

BY REV. MOSES N. ADAMS.

With the rapid and marvelous increase of the white population coming by immigration into Minnesota during the ten or twenty years previous to the Sioux outbreak of August, 1862, there was at the same time the concentration, more and more, of the native Sioux or Dakota Indians, on well defined and smaller reservations.

To this end, new treaties were made by the United States government, providing for the sale of their best and most desirable lands; and new, if not better provision was made by treaty stipulations to induce the lower bands of Sioux on the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers to remove from the lands which they so long had occupied and from the graves of their fathers, and once more to pitch their tents westward, towards the setting sun. This change was the result of the treaty of 1851, at Traverse des Sioux, Minnesota.

Although this movement was not without valuable considerations, it was not altogether satisfactory to the Indians. This, together with the remembrance of former treaties and their failure to realize the stipulated benefits thereof, and their oft repeated wrongs, whether real or only imaginary, all combined to make them feel uncomfortable and restive.

One thing, however, is certain, that the United States government desired to deal fairly with them, as its wards, and had provided well for them. If the treaty stipulations had been honestly and faithfully carried out, the Sioux or Dakotas

*Read at the monthly meeting of the Executive Council, October 9, 1899.

would have been satisfied for the time, and possibly the outbreak would have been forestalled, Minnesota saved from so great a sacrifice of life and property, and the national government from a vast amount of trouble and expense.

CAUSES OF THE OUTBREAK.

Many attempts have been made to give the causes of that Sioux outbreak in 1862. Whatever were the grievances of the Sioux, although many and great, there was no justifiable cause for that uprising and indiscriminate massacre of the innocent white settlers, men, women and children, without mercy. Yet we cannot afford to ignore the fact that there was much at that time, as there had been for years before in the management of Indian affairs, that was exasperating to the Indians and increasingly provoking and vexatious to them.

It had been previously announced to them, in 1861, in council at Yellow Medicine Agency, Minnesota, that "the Great Father (the President) at Washington was to make them all very glad."

They had already received their annuities for that year, but were told that the government would give them a further bounty in the autumn. Some of the Indians were pleased with this offer, but others demurred and complained to the general superintendent, asking him, "Where is the promised extra gift to come from?" The superintendent could not or would not tell them, only that "it was to be great and make them very glad."

By such words the four thousand upper Sioux were encouraged to expect great things. In the autumn of that year 1861 the Sissetons from Lake Traverse came down to the Yellow Medicine Agency, confidently expecting that the promised goods for them would be there; but the low water of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers delayed the arrival of the goods; and the Indians were very greatly disappointed. They waited there, however, and had to be fed by the agent. When finally the goods came the deep snows and cold winds of winter had also come, and the proper season for hunting was past and gone.