Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/117

 HISTOEY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 83 hi extend eastward to Traverse des Sioux, there would be plenty of woods, and he would be satisfied. The land provided for the future home of his band was too much prairie. Shakopee's brother now came forward, and speaking very loudly and earn- estly, and to the point, said he represented the Indian soldiers, or braves, and was one of the owners of the land. "The chiefs don't seem to do anything," he said, "and we must be heard." Like Little Crow, he thought the east line of the proposed reser- vation was too high vip in the prairies, and he indicated Lake Minnetonka and Minnehaha creek as the locality where he thought the Medawakantons would, in the future, be willing to live and die, to make it the perpetual home of the band. He said the soldiers were satisfied with the other parts of the treaty. Governor Ramsey saw a valuable opportunity. He began flatter- ing not only the warrior who had spoken, but also the other Indian soldiers, saying they had spoken out boldly and like men. The commissioners, he said, have been waiting to hear what the warriors wanted. "Now," said the governor, "we will come down with the reservation to the Little Rock river, where it empties into the Minnesota; this line will certainly give you timber enough." Another soldier arose and demanded that the treaty with the Chippewas be abrogated so that he and the other Sioux could go to war against them whenever they pleased. No attention was paid to this speech except to laugh at it. Then ( !hief AVacoota. the mild mannered, gentle hearted head of the Red Wing band, arose, and speaking somewhat slowly and delib- erately, made a somewhat lengthy speech, in which he said that the treaty was all right upon its face, but the Indians, and he among them, feared that when it was taken to Washington it would be changed to their great injury, just as the treaty of 1837 had been changed. "I say it in good feeling," declared Wacoota, "but I think you yourselves believe it will be changed without our consent, as the other treaty was." He said as to future reservation, he wanted it south of where he and his band then lived (in the Cannon river country), or he would like his particular reservation to be at Pine Island or on the Mis- sissippi, which locality, he asserted, was a good place for the Indians. He wanted this condition put in the treaty if it was right and just, but if not, then "say no more about it." He declared he was pleased with the treaty generally, but hoped that the farming for the Indians would be better done than it had been. Governor Ramsey complimented "Wacoota "as a man I always listen to with great respect." Wacoota, it will thus be seen, wanted the reservation in the south part of what is now Minnesota, practically in what is now Goodhue county, others wanted it in other places, in fact there was so wide a diversity