Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/118

 84 HISTOEY OF GOODHUE COUNTY of opinion that the red men would probably never have agreed among themselves, even if the matter had been left entirely to them. The commissioners honestly considered that they had selected a good place for the Indian reservation. There would be plenty of wood and water, and the Indians could continue to hunt in the big woods and elsewhere in their former hunting grounds as usual until the whites should come in and settle upon the lands. Wabasha now arose and asked whether or not is was designed to distinguish the chiefs and second chiefs by marks of distinc- tion, and to allow them more money than the common Indians should receive. Colonel Lea answered: "Wabasha now talks like a man." The colonel said that it was due to the station and responsibility of the chiefs that they should be distinguished from the other Indians. He said that each chief ought to have a medal and a good house to live in, so that when his friends came to see him they could be accommodated properly. Wabasha again arose. This time he turned his back upon the commissioners and spoke to his warriors somewhat vehemently, but with dignity. "Young men," he said, "you have declared that the chief who got up first to sign the treaty, you would like killed; it is this talk that has caused all the difficulty. It seems that you have agreed among yourselves that you will sell the land, and you have done it in the dark. I want you to say now outright, before all' the people here, whether you are willing to sell the land." Shakopee's brother, the speaker for the warriors, sprang to his feet and called out excitedly: "Wabasha has accused us of something we never thought of. The warriors heard that the chiefs were making a treaty and they did not like it, for the land really belongs to the warriors and not to the chiefs; but they never spoke of killing the chiefs. It was true that the soldiers have got together and agreed to sell the land ; they have told him so, and now I have said so." Governor Ramsey, seeing his opportunity, quickly said: "This, then, being the understand- ing, let the soldiers tell us what chief shall sign first." Medicine Bottle, the head soldier of Little Crow's Kaposia band, arose and said: "To the people who did not go to Washington and make the treaty — to them belongs the land on this side of the river. There is one chief among us who did not go to Washington at that time, and the soldiers want him to sign first. He has been a great war chief, and he has been our leader against the Chip- pewas. It is Little Crow. We want him to sign first." Little Crow promptly arose. Without a tremor he faced the scowling warriors who had opposed the treaty, and in his well known clarion voice, keyed to a high pitch, he thus addressed them : "Soldiers, it has been said by some of you that the first that