Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/65

 HISTOEY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 35 ica," pages L13-154, says: ''The new school, with such scholars at its head as Brinton, Cyrus Thomas, Powell and Carr, hold that the presenl Indians are the descendants of the Mound Build- ers." John Gmeiner, pastor of the Church of St. Raphael, Springfield, Minn.. January 10, 1908, in "Acta et Dicta," pub- lished by the St. Paul Catholics' Historical Society, July, 1908, page 221-222. says: "The Dakota confederation consisted of a number of tribes whose ancestors must have been originally united in one tribe, for they spoke dialects of the same language." About 800 years ago seven tribes, the Omaha, Ooehenonpa, Minn- ikannazo, Ttazipco, Licanga, Hunkpapa, and Yanktonnen, united to form the Dakota confederation. The very name implies this. It means "allied nations." The name Sioux was unknown to them; it is a corruption of an Ojibwa word, meaning enemies, as the Dakotas and Ojibwas were continually at war. The Dakota confederation gradually increased until it included forty-two tribes and extended far beyond the limits of our present state. The Dakotas entered Minnesota and Wisconsin about the be- ginning of their confederation. Father Craft writes: 'It is quite certain they were near Lake Michigan 800 years ago, as they met there Eric Upsi, Bishop of Greenland, who had come there- from Vineland about 1121." It is certainly a most interesting and surprising fact to find the long-lost, zealous Norse bishop finally reappear in the ancient traditions of the Dakotas. Any one desirous of reading more about Bishop Eric Upsi, or Gnup- son, may consult P. De Roo, "History of America Before Colum- bus," Philadelphia and London, 1900, vol. 88, pp. 174-282. No doubt Eric Upsi came to the western shores of Lake Michigan by way of the St. Lawrence river and the Great Lakes. Accord- ing to Humboldt, the Norsemen had some of their principal set- tlements at the mouth of the St. Lawrence river, and it was quite natural for them to follow that great waterway to its sources, as the French did at a later period. The following ap- peared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press September 7, 1909 : " 'Eight Swedes and twenty-two Norwegians upon a journey of discovery from Vineland, Nova Scotia, westward. We had a camp of two skerries (rocks in water) one day's journey from this stone. "We were out fishing one day. When we returned home we found ten men red with blood and dead. Ave Maria. Save us from evil. We have ten men by the sea to look after our vessel. forty-one (?) days' journey from this island. Year 1362.' This legend, cut in Runic characters on the Kensington stone now on exhibition at the Swedish village at the fair grounds, the genuine- ness of which seems to have involved in dispute many of the pio- neer Scandinavians in Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin. Some