(Report written by Mrs. William Smith)
Even today the very word "Indian" has an adventuresome sound and the boys and girls think today's Indians as similar to those they read about.
However, in the early 80s the Indians were becoming civilized and were completely under the control of white men. After the killing of Sitting Bull in 1890 there was little trouble with Indians in Dakota.
Sitting Bull was the Sioux chief who led many uprisings in the western states of the U.S. After the killing of General Custer and his men in 1876 on the Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull escaped into Canada where he remained until 1881 when he returned to Dakota. He was arrested in 1890 when an uprising threatened and was killed near Fort Yates, a short time later when trying to make his escape.
Although the Indians continually going through Foster County in the early 80s did not molest the settlers and were fairly well behaved, great fear was nevertheless felt through those early years. Most of the pioneers, particularly the women, were in great fear of the Indians, having heard many stories of Indian massacres in their childhood. Even now many Easterners think of Indians and Dakota as wild and unmanageable. Several of our pioneer women who have been interviewed had told stories of their feeling toward, and experiences with, Indians in the early 80s.
In the summer of 1885, Mrs. Jennie Laughlin saw Indians for the first time and she was very frightened. The trail from Fort Totten to the Standing Rock Reservation passed through the very farmyard of the Laughlins and the Indians did not change their course just because there were settlers located there. They seemed to follow their instincts in most things and did not change their habits easily. Often Indians stopped at the home of the Laughlins for food and drink which they never refused. Mrs. Laughlin hoped to be rid of them sooner by complying with their wishes. However, vicious looking many of them were. They did not steal or molest anything belonging to these pioneers.
Mrs. Laughlin says that most of the Indians dressed in native garb to some extent, wearing shawls or blankets wrapped around them and tied in below the waist with a cord or piece of rope. Their hair was usually parted in the middle and hung over their shoulders in two thick braids, the part painted a bright red and often a feather for an ornament. Occasionally there would also be an Indian with a full feather headdress. If they had beads or other ornaments they would be bedecked with them.
Mrs. Laughlin remembers well her first experience with the Indians.
One day in the summer of 1885, Mr. and Mrs. Laughlin and their children had just finished their noon meal when Mr. Laughlin noticed two Indian bucks carrying guns, riding toward the house from the north. His wife begged him not to leave the house until the Indians were out of sight and they stood at the window watching the two men as they rode up to the house and dismounted. Mr. Laughlin then went outside to waylay them, but they held out their hands in friendly fashion and asked in their sign language if they might have food. They then stood their guns against the house and followed Mr. Laughlin inside where he asked his wife to feed the men. She quickly set the table with their simple dishes and silverware and was glad that she had on the stove a large kettle of cabbage and another of potatoes, also plenty of bread which she had baked that morning.
She heaped serving dishes with food and the Indians sat down at the table. However, they completely ignored the plates and silverware and ate from the serving dishes, one eating by handfuls of the cabbage and the other handfuls of the potatoes and then exchanging. The bread disappeared like magic; Mrs. Laughlin kept replenishing the bread plate but all would soon be gone. When she had given them almost three loaves of bread she decided she would watch and see if they were actually eating it; surely two men would not consume that much food. It was then that she saw that they would empty the plate and tuck the bread in their blankets. She decided she would give them no more and was chagrinned that she had given them as much as she had, for there was little left for the family. Later she learned that it is "Indian manners" to take all that is set before them and that this showed appreciation.
When the two men had finished their meal, the Laughlins breathed a sigh of relief, but in vain, for they sat by the stoves and drew out their pipes, which had stems one foot and a half long. They sat there and smoked contentedly, every so often offering a pipe to Mr. Laughlin who was unable to smoke without becoming ill. He finally made them understand that he could not smoke, and they seemed reconciled and took their leave. The offering of their pipes had been their way of showing their thanks for the meal and friendship toward their benefactors. Mrs. Laughlin afterward berated her husband for not smoking as the Indians might have become angry.
These Indians had not been gone more than fifteen minutes when a lone Indian rode into the yard and up to the house. He was very different in appearance then the other two had been; being clean and well dressed in a navy blue suit with brass buttons which looked like a uniform. He told them partly in English and partly in sign language, that he would like some food. There was nothing left now from dinner, but Mrs. Laughlin set the table as before and gave him bread and butter, and tea. He ate with the manners of a white man, using the plates and silverware in the approved manner. He then asked the Laughlins regarding the direction the other two men had taken and was quickly on his way also. Often the Laughlins wondered what his interest in the other two Indians had been and whether or not he was some kind of officer but they were never able to find out.
Mrs. F.N. Chaffee said that Indians were the bone bf her life the first summer that she lived in Dakota, in the year 1885. Sometimes they would go through the country in large bands and again in two's and three's. Mr. Chaffee was friendly with the Indians and believed in treating them with kindness, telling his wife to let them have what food they wished and all the water they, needed. As a result of Mr. Chaffee's kindness, their homestead became a regular camping ground for the Indians, much to his wife's disgust. Sometimes they would buy all the food she had on hand and once a group of Indians drained their well dry, watering some hundred head of their stock.
The first night the Indians camped on their place, Mrs. Chaffee sat up all night and watched them much to her husband's amusement as he had become accustomed to the Indians in his two years in Dakota. However, the Indians did not touch anything belonging to the Chaffees and often asked to buy food rather than to beg it.
There was a stipulation made to the Indians camping on the homestead of the Chaffees. They must make their camp on the plowing so that the house and barn would not be endangered by their fires. The Indians usually traveled in wagons, but sometimes were on horseback or afoot. The women carried the luggage and small children and if anyone walked, they did.
Mrs. John Connolly Sr. had many experiences with Indians in the early 80s. She spent the first three years of her life in Dakota at Fort Sisseton and Fort Totten, and at both places Indians were numerous. They seemed very frightful to her at first as she judged them by stories she had heard from her father and mother who were settlers in Minnesota in 1862, the time of the great massacre that was recently commemorated.
Soon she became accustomed to the Indians and really interested in their customs and language. She learned to speak "Indian" quite fluently. Even after Mr. Connolly left the army in the fall of 1884 and took a homestead on the Sheyenne River some 15 miles northeast of New Rockford. Indians were constantly at their door. The reservation was just across the river from them and often the Indians were real pests.
On July 4, 1884 a sham battle was held at Fort Totten and great preparations were made for the celebration. A few days before the 4th, a long caravan of Indians from Fort Yates arrived to put on the show. They were given a cleared spot, some half mile in diameter, where they might camp until it was time to perform. In this camp they reverted to their native customs.
The day before the Fourth Mrs. Connolly went with Captain Bennet, his wife and daughter, to the camp to see the Indians in their native habitat. Several sights of that camp are still vivid in Mrs. Connolly's mind. In one place were several Indian men and women around a large bonfire roasting a quarter of beef on poles set up for the purpose. In another place an old Indian squaw was mixing flour and water to be baked in the stone oven into the hard biscuits which the Indians love. A short way off a group of Indian bucks in full war dress were preparing for the morrow's battle and finally came the scene which impressed Mrs. Connolly the most.
At a small fire two Indian women were roasting a dog; at the time they were singeing the hair from the animal preparing to roast it. Clinging to one of the women's skirts was a small and dirty child, crying lustily.
The next day, July 4th, the sham battle was held with a large crowd attending. The Indians were in full wardress and, with loud shouts and war whoops and much flourishing of weapons, they gave a most realistic imitation of Indian battles of yore. Some of them not so far in the past either.
There was one Indian, dressed in civilian clothes, who was the interpreter, conferring between the white men and the Indians and explaining the details of the battle. During the battle he rode with the others, being conspicuous in his civilian clothing. The Indians carried rifles and used blank cartridges.
At the very crisis of the fight, the Indians turned as one man and fired at the interpreter who fell to the ground. As soon as it was known to the spectators that the interpreter had actually been shot pandemonium reigned. The interpreter was dead.
Nothing could be proved on any certain Indian or Indians even though the killing was before the eyes of many people. It was impossible to ascertain which of the Indians had used blank cartridges and which had used real shell. It had been planned perfectly and carried out the same way. The Indians had undoubtedly been jealous of the higher education and position of the interpreter.
As was the case of the other pioneer women, Mrs. Ben Holcomb was intensely afraid of Indians when she first came to the west in the summer of 1883. The Indians from Fort Totten followed a trail to the Sheyenne River, then down the Jim River, cutting off at what was known as Bowman's Crossing and then crossing Foster County to the Hawksnest. Many of them stopped at the Holcombs asking for food and drink and often for tobacco. Sometimes they were fed and sometimes they weren't according to the provisions at hand.
During the early years there was one Indian who came to the Holcombs quite often and often stayed there overnight. He lived north of Devils Lake and had been educated at the Carlisle Indian School. He was the son of Chief Ironheart, who was said to be a most cruel looking Indian and who lived up to his name. However, his son whom Mrs. Holcomb believes was called Charlie, was very nice in appearance, talked English fairly well and always was polite and mannerly. He dressed well and upon his visits to the Holcombs the children were fascinated with him. He rode a beautiful horse which had a beaded saddle and always wore highly polished black boots. He amused Mrs. Holcomb very much when he would leave in the early morning as he walked very gingerly through the wet grass in order to protect his boots.
Mr. Holcomb said his chief impression of Indians was that they always had a lot of dogs following them for which he had much pity.
These and many other stories have been told of the Indians in those days of the 80s. They traveled through the county in a stream during the spring and fall of the year, going from one reservation to another. Although they were not nearly as wild and malicious as the settlers had imagined they would be, still many thought them most interesting.
This report by Leslie J. Strand, Independent, June 4, 1975)
"The wagon trains sometimes stretched out for a mile or more. In spring and fall, the farmers along the trail would occasionally see as many as 50 wagons moving in single file across the prairie. They rolled along with haste, at a slow trot, passing by and then vanishing into the south or north. -
The travelers were the Indians- Sioux tribesmen moving between Fort Totten and the Standing Rock reservation. For many years, they used a trail that took them along the western edge of Foster County. Traces of their wagon tracks still remain in the untouched sod of the Hawksnest.
The exact route of the trail is not remembered- it paralleled the Wells-Foster county line coming south from New Rockford and then circled toward the Hawksnest, meandering between favorite camping spots on the Pipestem Creek.
Farmers also used the trail. Portions of the Indians' route later were included in the Green Trail and still later, in the North Star Trail. Old-timers will remember these as the first marked trails running through the area. They were dirt trails but also the first highways.
To the farm children, the Indians in the wagon trains looked little different from the farmers. Usually, two Indian men sat in the front of the wagons. The women, wrapped in blankets, bounced along on the wagon floors, facing the back. They wore white-man's clothing- everyday work clothes for the men, long dresses for the women. There was nothing fancy about what they wore or their equipment. Their horses were generally thin; their harnesses were of the simplest kind.
"The things I remember more than anything else was the dogs- there was always a bunch of dogs and four or five loose horses following along," Tom White recalled. His memories go back to around 1910, when he was a boy living along side the trail.
The Indians passed by barely noticed by the farmers: 'We never paid any attention to them, ' he said, 'They were just travelers.'
Farther down the trail to the south, Emil Smith lived, near a grassy meadow on the east bank of the Pipestem. His family called it Pleasant Valley. It is a sheltered spot and was a regular stopping place for the Indian Travelers.
"I have seen that plot of ground nearly covered with tents- at least 20, maybe more", Emil reminisced. His earliest memories are from the 1890s- a time when the prairie was being transformed into farmland, with amazing speed. From the farmyard, about 40 rods from the meadow, Emil would watch them set up camp. He watched, but because he was just a young boy, he never visited camp.
The Indians were not hard travelers. 20 miles a day is about what they averaged although miles probably did not much concern them. They moved in accordance with the sun.
"They made camp early," Emil said, "so they would be all settled in before sunset. And when I would get up in the early morning, they would be gone."
Their tents were canvas. Neither Tom White nor Emil Smith can recall ever seeing the Indians use the traditional teepees.
However, Toady Zimmerman presents a considerably different picture. He grew up in the Hawksnest, just east aways, on what is now the Ray Klein farm. Looking back to about 1910, he remembers that a spring to the northeast of the Hawksnest was another favorite campground. (The spring still flows; its approximate location is marked by a motel unit from the old Rainbow Gardens.) This was apparently known as a spot for trading horses. The Indians usually stayed there four or five days, living in teepees, and many farmers would come to compare horseflesh and dicker on a trade.
Toady recalls that the men did wear the fringed leather clothing and beaded moccasins. The long hair was, however, no longer worn by the Indian men. Emil also remarked on this point that "It was not shoulder length, as I can recall; if it had been our folks would have said something about it."
Other than horse-trading, it seems that there was very little personal contact between the Indians and the white settlers. There were older settlers who were apparently accustomed to receiving the Indians as friends. Emil mentioned the names of Jack Middleton, Tom Crow and Joe Buell as men who were on familiar terms with the Indians. Tom White's grandfather, James Sweeney, had fought in the Indian Wars in Florida and Texas before eventually homesteading in Foster County.
"He had quite a little respect for Indians," Tom remembered. Many Indians knew Jim Sweeney or knew of him: "If you happened to be along the road, they would stop and want to talk to the older people- my granddad was an old man then".
"My grandparents were not the least bit afraid when the Indians came", Emil said. "The Indians were very quiet- they didn't speak more than a few words of English."
When they camped at Pleasant Valley, Indian women regularly walked to the farm to ask Emil's grandmother for milk for their ailing infants. "Me papoose sick, " they would say. As there was no firewood on the prairie, they would also go to his grandfather for wood. The firewood was purchased in Carrington in cord lengths and stove lengths for the cook stove. Ties were also available from the railroad. There was no fuel oil in those days, according to Emil.
"My grandmother was always glad to give them milk, and some bread, too. It was sort of a courtesy on the part of the Indians because they knew it would be given in a courteous way. They were always friendly- just like anybody else- and thankful for the milk and bread and wood", Emil said.
Not everyone, however, had a high regard for the Indians. Tom White speculated that one reason that they avoided towns was the possibility of harassment. A mistrust and bitterness towards the Indians was still present at the time of settlement here although the Sioux had long since ceased hostilities.
Tom White commented: "I think that maybe quite a few people had a little fear of the Indians, they just didn't know what they were going to do; however, nobody ever tried to antagonize them".
Emil Smith has one memory of the Indians celebrating at Pleasant Valley: "One evening they danced in the ravine with bells clanging. They kept on until midnight- I thought the Indians were going on the warpath." He laughed at his childish thought because in 1895, or thereabouts, there was no likelihood that they would ever attempt to fight the white men again.
In 1890 according to government figures there were 8,174 Indians living in North Dakota. By the same year, the number of white men had swelled to 191,000. There was a leap of more than 1,000 percent from 1878 when there were only 16,000. In 1873, the William Larrabee family settled near Lake Juanita, becoming the first permanent white family in Foster County. In that year, there was more than one soldier for every adult Indian male in the state.
The Indian way of life was already a part of the past when the white settlers began breaking up the sod here. The buffalo had disappeared- none of the pioneers in this area saw a wild bison although the prairie was littered with buffalo bones. The picture of the proud Sioux warrior was almost as much a memory for the pioneer generation as it is for us.
The Indians who journeyed across the prairie in wagon trains were a conquered people. At the time when the earliest childhood memories of Emil Smith, Tom White and Toady Zimmerman were formed, only the oldest Indians could look back to the time when these grasslands were their hunting grounds, thus, it is hardly surprising that the settlers took the Indians for granted. Like the grass and the hills, they had always been here. But the settlers' attention was elsewhere- focused on their own changing world. ,
The wagon trains continued until horses were phased out by automobiles. Tom White remembers the last group he saw: four young fellows who stopped for water while driving a bunch of horses north to Fort Totten. That was in 1925.
"We can't say they were happy, but they were gentle people- there was a dignity about them", Emil remarked. He discerned a special feeling in the Indian while they were free to travel and camp on the still-open prairie. "The remnants of their joy", he called it.
Source: A History of Foster County 1983 Page 57