Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/114

 80 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY commissioners, the Indians saying nothing, the council adjourned until it should be called by the Indians. The next day the Indi- ans remained in their quarters until late in the afternoon, when messengers came saying that the chiefs were all assembled at the council house and wished their white fathers to attend. Very soon the council was in session, but after the opening there was a long silence. Finally Anah-ga-nahzhee (Stands Astride), the second chiefs or head soldier of the band of his brother, Shako- pee, remarked that it had been decided in council, the Indian council, that Wacoota should speak to the Indians. But Wacoota asked to be excused, and that some other Indian should speak. "I am of the same mind with my friend here, Wabasha, and will sit and listen," said Wacoota. There was no response. After a long wait the commissioners went over the whole subject again, and the Indians yet remaining silent, Colonel Lea at last said: "It is plain that the Medawakantons do not wish to sell their lands. I hope they will not regret it. This grieves my heart, and I know it will make the heart of your Great Father sad. Say to the chiefs and head men that we are all ready to meet them here tomorrow, or at any other time and place they desire." The commissioners now hastily adjourned, apparently in great ill humor, leaving the chiefs still on the benches, astounded at the conduct of their white brothers. There was an interregnum in the proceedings for four days. The time was spent by the whites in privately preparing a treaty which would be. acceptable to the Indians. The Medawakantons had become partially reconciled. The head chief, "Wabasha, was still opposed to any treaty as it had been proposed, but Little Crow and other sub-chiefs were in favor of one if the terms were fairly liberal and the assent of their bands could be obtained. Little Crow was particularly for a treaty and the sale of the big expanse of land to the westward, which, he said, did his people no good, which but very few of his band had ever visited, and which he himself had never seen. He disliked to abandon his old Kaposia home, because of its associations. Here were the graves of his father and mother and other kinspeople ; here was the site of his birthplace and of his boyhood, and here he had been chief of the old and noted band of his ancestors for more than four years. But Little Crow was shrewd and intelligent, and knew that the whites were pressing upon his people as they had pressed upon the other red people, and that the result would be the same as it had been — the Indians would be compelled to leave their country and move on. The wise course, therefore, it seemed to him, was to obtain the best terms possible — to get all of the money and other supplies and the best permanent reservation to be had. It was asserted that Little Crow had been well bribed by the