The Eagle Bone Whistles of the Sioux

By David Wrolson:

I ran across an evocative phrase in a song. "Custer's Ghost" sung by Dave Stamey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17DYcEy9mmY

If the link does not work, just type "Dave Stamey Custer's Ghost" into Youtube.

Libby's Gone
Like the Buffalo
Like the Eagle Bone Whistles of the Sioux

I remember running across information that the Sioux blew eagle bone whistles in battle.

When I listen to that song and especially that phrase, I can hear the piercing whistles above the noise and dust of the Little Bighorn.

Below is a picture of an eagle bone whistle.

The Iowa Front-The Sauk (and Fox) and the Sioux

By David Wrolson

Contrary to previous posted plans, I have not been wandering the frontiers of New France looking at first contact with the Sioux.

Instead, I have been reading up on Fort Snelling in preparation for an upcoming research visit/family trip to the Fort. I have not been there since 1975, when I was 8 years old.

The main book I am reading on Fort Snelling is a 1966 book called "Citadel in the Wilderness:The Story of Fort Snelling and the Northwest Frontier." I am also looking at a couple of smaller. more recent books.

Fort Snelling is central to Dakota (Eastern Sioux) history in the early 1800's and will appear in various future posts. However, one interesting thing that jumps out at me on first blush is the "War to the Knife" between the Sioux and the Sauk.

Off to the Frontiers of New France for awhile

By David Wrolson

My plan for the next while going forward is to dig into the early French contacts with the Sioux and related areas. I need to do some research into this area to see how everything fits together as I don't know enough about it.

Don't expect a lot of posts for the next while as spring field work starts soon and I need to learn a lot more about the French era.

I can't do much do much for awhile anyway on things like the Dakota Uprising/Fort Snelling and the campaigns in the Dakotas and points west as I would like to visit those sites for context and pictures and those sites don't really open up till Mid-May or later.

I really think "The Smoke of the Sioux" will be better over time if I get a good handle on the French era first. So off I go, into 17th and 18th Century New France and the frontiers beyond it for awhile.

I have had Francis Parkman's History of New France on my list for awhile and, surprisingly, the index has a large number of entries for "Sioux", so Parkman beckons.

Louis L'amour's Great-Grandfather Killed at the Battle of Big Mound

I was wrong in the previous post when I said I thought that Louis L'amour's Great-Grandfather was killed at the Battle of Whitestone Hill. It turns out that he was killed in a skirmish surrounding the Battle of Big Mound instead.

It is widely reported that during the opening sequences of the Battle of Big Mound that Lieutenent Ambrose Freeman (L'amour's Great-Grandfather) and George Brackett, a civilian contractor, were off hunting antelope and were joined by some friendly Dakota. Subsequently, they were attacked by a war party of other Sioux and Freeman was killed.

We will discuss the Battle of Big Mound in future posts, but this appears to be one of those battles in the1863 campaign that involved the Dakota, Nakota and Lakota tangling with the soldiers.

Interestingly, this battle took place well east of the Missouri River and Sitting Bull is often placed as being at the Battle of Big Mound and other battles in this area.

It is somewhat odd to think of Sitting Bull fighting US soldiers well east of the Missouri River in 1863. These battles are obviously overshadowed by events at places like Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Chickamauga.

North Dakota as the "Old West" Heart of Sioux History

One of the paths I plan to explore in "The Smoke of the Sioux" is North Dakota as the "Old West" heart of Sioux history.

Large US Army columns were sent west into present-day North Dakota in 1863 and 1864 to punish the Sioux for the 1862 Dakota Uprising in Minnesota. These army columns tangled with all 3 branches of the Sioux nation. The Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota were all involved in this very confused fighting.

Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa carried out a long war against Fort Buford which is located near the confluence of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers in northwest North Dakota. Sitting Bull hated Fort Buford. Ironically, Fort Buford was the site of his surrender in 1881.

The struggles between the Metis, with their screeching Red River carts that could be heard for miles, and the Sioux was largely a North Dakota thing. The April 2018 issue of Wild West magazine mentions the 1848 Battle of O' Brien's Coulee (in North Dakota) "that pitted roughly 800 Metis and 200 Chippewa against 1,000 Sioux."

The Indians called the US/Canada border the "Medicine Line." I have a book called "The Arc of the Medicine Line" about the surveying of this line. I have yet to read this book, but the relationship between the Sioux and the surveying of the Medicine Line would have been, in large part, a North Dakota affair.

Cursory research into Lewis and Clarks' contacts with the Sioux indicate that the Sioux raided the Mandan with whom Lewis and Clark spent the first winter of their trek in central North Dakota. I plan to delve into the Lewis and Clark contacts with the Sioux sooner rather than later.

It is hard to find quick information on this,  but Louis L'amour's great-grandfather was killed by the Sioux and, contrary to most reports which list him as a settler, I think he was a soldier killed in 1863 at Whitestone Hill in North Dakota. Whitestone Hill was one of those tangled 1863/1864 battles referenced above.

To "Wild West Magazine" Re: Lakota-Schmakota

I have never subscribed to any of the "Wild West"/"True West" Magazines, but for the purposes of "The Smoke of the Sioux" I chose to pick up my first copies from the newstand and then subscribed with the enclosed subscription cards.

I was a little surprised to see the following sentences appear in the April 28, 2018 issue of Wild West:The American Frontier in a story titled "Conquering Bear's Short Reign."

The Lakotas passed the pipe and debated among themselves for long awkward minutes about this strange concept. At last a Yankton Chief stood, came forward and placed his stick in Conquering Bear's hand. One by one the others followed until he held all 24 sticks. Americans observing th eproceedings believed a Lakota "Senate" had just appointed a "president." The Lakotas believed they had designated Conquering Bear their temporary spokesman.

I was a little surprised on my first reading of this magazine to see the apparent inclusion of the Yankton into the Lakota grouping. It would be easy for someone upon reading this to assume that the Yankton are Lakota, rather than Nakota, and this can cause years of confusion for the reader.

The first post of "The Smoke of the Sioux" outlined the 7 Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation and it is interesting that the Yankton , which are one of 2 branches of the Nakota, are considered to be at the same hierarchical level as the much more famous Lakota.

The Yanktonnais are the other branch of the Nakota and are also at the same hierarchical level as the Lakota.

The Hard Way to the Little Bighorn

The first post in "The Smoke of the Sioux" outlined as best I can the structure of the Sioux Empire.

https://thesmokeofthesioux.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-7-council-fires-of-great-sioux.html

One way to illustrate the unity of the Sioux Empire and honor the Eastern Sioux who were at the Little Bighorn after a tough 15 years is to point out their presence at the Little Bighorn.

Everybody knows about the Lakota and Cheyenne at Custer's Last Stand, but few know of the Dakota and Nakota presence there.

Doane Robinson in "A History of the Dakota or Sioux Indians" says:

"and seventh, the Santees and the Yanktonais, being the remnant of the unsubdued hostiles from the War of the Outbreak in Minnesota, under Inkpaduta."

Santee is another name for the Eastern Sioux, or Dakota. Inkpaduta ties things way back to the 1857 Spirit Lake Massacre in Iowa.

There weren't many Santee and Yanktonais there, they had come a hard way to get there, but they were there, riding with their Lakota cousins.

The best information I have seen places the Santee and Yanktonais as camping on the south end of the Indian camp with the Hunkpapa. This was the area Reno attacked in the early stages of the battle.

We will come back to the Little Bighorn later, but it seemed fitting to tie the Dakota and Nakota to the Lakota at their last great moment as free warriors.

The Buffalo Ridge and Books

I found these pictures from 2008 while going through old pictures and I could not resist posting. The first set are from a rancher who also had a Western book store on his ranch located in the lee of the Buffalo Ridge. We will come back to the Buffalo Ridge again, but for now, enjoy these pictures from the Sisseton-Wahpeton Reservation.

I also could not resist posting these pictures from an appraisal from 10 years ago, to my knowledge the house has been torn down and there are no identifying features. I promise it is not my house LOL.

Some Treaty Lines and Maps

I found some interesting treaty maps online. This first one is most intriguing. Note that the Dakota Cession of 1837 included a big chunk of Wisconsin, along with Minnesota. In a way I am gobsmacked that, less than 40 years before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, the Sioux still had a large presence in Wisconsin. It is astounding how fast things can change

Lest one say the Wisconsin Sioux were Dakota and thus different from the Lakota of the Little Bighorn, we need to recognize that there were Eastern Sioux riding against Custer at the Little Bighorn and they got there the hard way.

I had not planned to do the Little Bighorn for awhile, but I think the next post might jump ahead to the Little Bighorn and take a quick look at the Eastern Sioux that were there and whose role is almost totally forgotten by history.

The second map shows the large 1851 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux Cession by the Dakota that included most of southern Minnesota, except for a 20-mile wide band along the western part of the Minnesota River. These reserved lands were very important during the 1862 Dakota Uprising.

Note the "Dakota-Ojibway Treaty Line of 1825" running through the center of the state. This was an attempt to stop the fighting between the tribes. We will be looking closer at this line later.

The First Existential War the Sioux Lost

We need to remember that the Sioux war with the Whites that took place from about 1850 to 1890 was the second existential war the Sioux lost in historic memory. The first was the one they lost when the Chippewa (Ojibway) kicked them out of their homeland in the Minnesota woods.

This war was part of the vast movement of tribes that took places beyond the edges of the white frontier as tribes jockeyed for position. The Chippewa had better access to firearms and so forth and this is likely one of the reasons they won the war.

The Sioux were first encountered in the far northern Minnesota woodlands by French traders and explorers in the 17th and 18th Centuries. The Sioux were a people of the Minnesota wild rice beds far longer than they were a people of the buffalo.

Various factions, such as the Tetons, moved out of the woodlands earlier with successive waves following. I suspect that they were pushed by the Ojibway and pulled by the buffalo. Then they displaced other tribes farther west.

The war with the Ojibway was a "War to the Knife" and took place over decades, maybe even centuries. The Sioux/Chippewa War will feature prominently in this blog. As will the tribes displaced by the Sioux farther west.

If I remember correctly, there were Sioux vs Ojibway skirmishes that were visible from the walls of Fort Snelling. Fort Snelling is located at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers at the core of Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.

The following photo is taken from a Google image search and shows Fort Snelling as it was "Back in the Day."

If They Are Hungry, Let Them Eat Shit

A vignette from the Minnesota Massacre

This episode took place in the hungry days before the Dakota Outbreak in August 1862 when the Sioux were starving and tempers were at knife edge. As always, I plan to come back to it later in fuller depth.

A trader named Andrew Myrick at the Lower Village reportedly said "If they are hungry, let them eat shit." I have seen various versions of his comment from the bowdlerized "Let them eat grass" to "Let them eat grass and dung" to "Let them eat shit."

Personally, I think "Let them eat shit" rings truer to the time and the absolute rage that it aroused in the Sioux.

Myrick was killed in the first hours of the Uprising and his mouth was found stuffed with "Grass and Dung." Personally, I think it would have been stuffed with more "shit" than "grass and dung."

#3) Family Trips Chasing the Smoke of The Sioux-Fort Abraham Lincoln and the North Dakota Badlands

This is the third and final post about a series of family trips chasing the smoke of the Sioux. Once again, these photos will likely appear later and in context as this blog unfolds. However, I wanted to chronicle early on our family trips related to the Sioux.

On a 2008 trip, we visited Fort Abraham Lincoln; just south of Bismarck, North Dakota. Fort Abraham Lincoln was the jumping off point for both Custer's 1874 Black Hills Expedition and his fateful ride to the Little Bighorn.

We also visited the North Dakota Badlands. I felt the spirit of Sitting Bull in those Badlands. Hey, you have to give the public some Custer and Sitting Bull. It will be awhile (I think) before I get to the Little Bighorn, but as "The Smoke of the Sioux" will jump around chronologically and geographically, I may delve into the 1874 Black Hills Expedition sooner rather than later.

The first 3 photos are of a white buffalo at the Buffalo Museum in Jamestown, North Dakota.  I couldn't resist posting the 3rd photo, also taken there. I love the little guy in the picture. White buffalo are sacred to the Plains Indians.

The next batch of photos are from Fort Abraham Lincoln. It was sobering to see the names of the soldiers on the beds showing whether they survived the Little Bighorn or not. These 6 pictures were taken either in the soldiers' barracks, or they are in, or of, George and Libby Custer's living quarters. The house was pretty nice.

The next group of photos were taken in 2008, in the North Dakota Badlands. The cool thing is that Sitting Bull likely saw a Buffalo exactly the same place we did.

#2) Family Trips Chasing the Smoke of the Sioux-Fort Ridgely

Continuing the series of family trips chasing the smoke of the Sioux, a 2009 trip took us to many of the prominent sites related to the 1862 Dakota Uprising. I could only find pictures of Fort Ridgely which was under siege and attack by the Sioux during the Uprising.

The following photos were taken during the 2009 family visit to Fort Ridgely. Once again, these photos will likely appear later in context.

#1) Family Trips Chasing the Smoke of the Sioux-Pipestone

I think this is a good time to go through some of our family trips following the smoke of the Sioux. These pictures will likely be shown later and in context, however, it feels right to provide our family touchstones.

First up is a 2008 family trip to Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota.

The following is from the monument's website:

"When you pray with this pipe, you pray for and with everything."  -Black Elk

For countless generations, American Indians have quarried the red pipestone found at this site. These grounds are sacred to many people because the pipestone quarried here is carved into pipes used for prayer. Many believe that the pipe's smoke carries one's prayer to the Great Spirit. The traditions of quarrying and pipemaking continue here today.

Well-known artist, George Catlin visited the site, among many others back in the wild days. Catlinite, the name for the pipestone was named for him.

The following pictures were all taken on a family trip in 2008. It is stunning to see how much the kids have changed. This is an oasis on the prairie surrounded by level farmland.

The first 3 pictures shows a Native American (presumably Sioux) mining Catlinite. Only native Americans are allowed to mine the stone. It was a very hot day, and obviously hotter down in the hole.

The rest of the pictures are just random photos taken in this oasis on the prairie. The metal plate attached to a rock is related to Joseph Nicollet (of whom more later.) I just noticed the one of the little guy pouting. Obviously, something was going on.