A Family Connection to "The Smoke of the Sioux."

The early stages of "The Smoke of the Sioux" might be a good time to quickly highlight a literal family connection to the smoke of the Sioux. This story will probably be featured in more depth and in context of the 1862 Dakota Uprising, but this is a fun little post.

Both branches of my paternal side of my family were Norwegian settlers who fled from Sioux raiders during the unpleasantness. After they left, the Indians burned the house and tried to burn the barn (or vice-versa, I forget which) by stuffing them with straw.

One of the buildings burned and the other survived until at least 2010. The original homestead is still owned by a branch of the family and in 2010 there was a massive family reunion there as the old farmer had sold the place to his granddaughter and it was a way to mark the end of an era.

The following pictures are of the building that survived the Sioux attempts to burn it. I had not thought of this when I named the blog, but this was literally subjected to "The Smoke of the Sioux." The photos were taken by the author at the 2010 reunion.

Note the thick beams. I assume they were pretty green and wet in 1862.