Index of /ulib/data/moa/83a/1d5/9ad/38e/930/4
delta.ulib.org/ulib/data/moa/83a/1d5/9ad/38e/930/4/delta.ulib.org/ulib/data/moa/83a/1d5/9ad/38e/930/4/data.txtIT would appear in the following writing that congress certainly who the santee people were and shows them to be known as mdewakanton and other bands..
tamara
THE INDIAN QUESTION.
BY
FRANCIS AX. WALKER,
LATE U. S. COIMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.
BOSTON:
JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
(LATE TI(CKNOII AND FIELDI)S, AND FIELDS, OSGOOI), & CO.)
1874.
.AD 1.7
& 7
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874 by
F. A. WALKER,
Ill the Offce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
]OSTON'
RAND, AVERY, & CO., STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS.
________________________________________________
NEBRASKA.
The Indians in Nebraska are the Santee Sioux,
Winnebagoes, Omahas, Pawnees, Sacs and Foxes
of the Missouri, Iowas, and the Otoes and Missourias.
The Santee Sioux, now numbering nine hundred
and sixty-five, a decrease from last year of
are a portion of the Sisseton, Wahpeton,
Medawakanton, and Wahpakoota bands of Sioux
of the Mississippi, belonging thus to the great
Sioux or Dak(.)ta nation. They formerly, with othe
members of the samine bands, now located on
reservations in Dakota, one at Devil's Lake in the
north-east corner of the Territory, and another at
Lake Traverse near their old home,. had an extensive
and valuable reservation in Minnesota,
stretching, with a width of ten miles, a long
distance on the south side of the Minnesota River;
175
AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRIBES.
and were comparatively wealthy and prosperous
until the Sioux outbreak in 1862, in which, it will
be remembered, nearly one thousand white citizens
lost their lives. After the suppression of
hostilities consequent on this outbreak, most of the
Santee Sioux were removed, in 1863, to the Crow
Creek reservation, and finally, in 1866, to their
present location near the mouth of the Niobrara
River, at which point their numbers were increased,
to the extent of about two hundred, by
the accession of other Sioux, who had been held
at Davenport, Io., as prisoners, charged with complicity
in the outbreak, but were pardoned by the
President.
The reservation of the Santee Sioux contains
83,200 acres; of which a small portion only is
suitable for agricultural purposes, the country
generally being broken with high bluffs and deep
ravines. Lands have been allotted in severalty to
over two hundred. These Indians are peaceable,
industrious, and well advanced in the arts of life,
and will soon render themselves independent of
the assistance now afforded by the government.
They have about five hundred acres in cultivation;
upon which good crops of wheat, corn, oats,
potatoes, &c., are raised, when not destroyed By that
176
AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRIBES.
scourge of the country, the grasshopper. The
houses of the Santee Sioux are generally of rude
structure; those first built being without windows,
and having only dirt floors and roofs. The Indians are,
however, improving of late in this regard, and building
much more durable and comfortable dwellings. They
are parties to the treatymade in 1868 with the nine
bands of the Sioux nation, ranging in the region of the
Upper Missouri River. In addition to the benefits derived
by the Santee Sioux under this treaty, they have
moneys resulting from the sale of their lands in
Minnesota, which are being used for their benefit
in improving their farms, and otherwise aiding
them in their efforts to become self-supporting.
Three schools are in successful operation on their
reservation, having in attendance three hundred
and twenty-three scholars.
Winnebayoes. -These Indians, numbering one
thousand four hundred and forty, a gain of forty
over last year, are located in the eastern part of
Nebraska, on a reservation containing 128,000
acres, adjoining that of the Omahas, and lying
about eighty miles north of the city of Omaha.
They are the remnant of a once powerful tribe
which formerly inhabited Wisconsin, from which
177
AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRIBES.
State they removed to Minnesota under the treaty
of 1837. At the outbreak of the Sioux in 1862,
they were peaceably engaged in agriculture, in a
beautiful and fertile country on the waters of the
Blue Earth River, a majority being thriving and
industrious farmers, many of them possessing
considerable intelligence. Although the Winnebagoes
were wholly disconnected with that outbreak,
yet the citizens in their immediate vicinity, as
well as in other portions of Minnesota, were so
determined that all Indians should be removed
beyond the limits of the State, that Congress, in
1863, passed an act providing for their removal.
They were first removed in May, 1863, to Crow
Creek, in Dakota; and after great suffering, and ~
loss of many lives from exposure and starvation,
they were finally established upon their present
reservation, which had been secured for them by
the government under treaty stipulations with the
Omahas, and at which they arrived in small and
straggling parties during the year 1864. They are
now gradually regaining their former comfortable
and prosperous condition. Allotments of lands
have been made to them. Their agent reports
that the past year has been marked by a steady
improvement of the condition generally of the
178
AN ACCOUNT OF THE TRIBES.
tribe. The men have nearly all adapted the dress
of the whites; and the agent anticipates that the
women will do the same so soon as they shall
come to live in houses, a number of which (50),
of a better class than is usually provided for Indian
occupancy, are now being erected, to be
given to those most industrious and making the
greatest progress toward civilization. Considerable
interest is manifested in education, there
being three day-schools, efficiently managed, with
an attendance of two hundred and fifty scholars;
and there is probably in operation by this date
also an industrial and boarding school, capable of
accommodating eighty scholars.
179