MR. MEYER is a member of the English faculty in Mankato State College. His familiarity with the history of Goodhue County, of which he is a native, combined with an interest in the Minnesota Sioux, led him to undertake the present study.

The Prairie Island Community A Remnant of MINNESOTA SIOUX

ROY W. MEYER

A FAMILIAR THEME in American Indian recognition by the government and were al­ history concerns the tribe or fragment of a lowed to remain on Prairie Island, where tribe who either avoid government removal their children and grandchildren make up to some far-off reservation or who return to one of the few surviving Sioux communities their original homeland after exile. The in Minnesota today. Cherokee offer the most celebrated example. The Mdewakanton were one of the seven When they were removed from their native bands that composed the Sioux nation, and territory in the Southeastern Uplands and re­ the first white men to visit the Minnesota located west of the Mississippi in 1838-39, a country found them living near Mille Lacs few families remained behind and were Lake. The advance of the Chippewa, who later joined by others who fled the new area had obtained firearms from the whites, set aside for them. Their descendants hve forced them out of this region about the today on the Qualla Reservation in North middle of the eighteenth century, and they Carolina. moved southward to the lower Minnesota A Minnesota band of Mdewakanton Sioux River and the Mississippi below the Falls of provide another instance of this sort of back- St. Anthony. One of the Mississippi River trailing. These Indians survived not one, but villages was situated a few miles above Lake two, removals, and their descendants are to Pepin and was headed by a series of chief­ be found on Prairie Island in Goodhue tains bearing the titular name of Red Wing.^ County. Sent first to a reservation on the Zebulon M. Pike stopped there in 1805 and Minnesota River after the treaty of Men­ 1806. Henry R. Schoolcraft in 1820 reported dota in 1851, and then to the Santee Reserva­ the village to consist of four large and sev­ tion in Nebraska after the Sioux Uprising of eral small lodges with cornfields nearby. In 1862, a few famihes drifted back to their old the middle of the century the Mdewakanton homes. They were eventually given official numbered 1,750, of whom about three hun­ dred were living at Red Wing's village in twenty-four bark or log houses. They cafled 'Frederick W. Hodge, ed.. Handbook of Ameri­ can Indians, 1:678, 826-828, 2:364 (Bureau of this spot "Hem-minne-cha" (also spelled American Ethnology, Bulletins, no. 30 — Washing­ "Khemnichan," "Remnica," and in various ton, 1910); Newton H. Winchell, The Aborigines other ways), said to mean "hill-wood-wa- of Minnesota, 532, 537 (St. Paul, 1911).

September 1961 271 ter," and they seem to have been deeply at­ again — more for the convenience of the gov­ tached to it.- The river, its adjacent marshes, ernment, which had a supply problem, than the woodlands, and the nearby prairie made because of the complaints of the Indians, an extremely desirable habitation for a who were thoroughly miserable there. This people whose economy was still largely one time they were taken down the Missouri to of hunting, fishing, and food-gathering. the mouth of the Niobrara River in Nebras­ The story of the treaties of Traverse des ka, where they were joined by another 280 Sioux and Mendota is well known. By the Sioux, chiefly men who had been imprisoned terms of this "monstrous conspiracy," as it at Mankato and later at Davenport, Iowa. has been called, the Lower Sioux — Mdewa­ From this time on the eastern Sioux are gen­ kanton and Wahpekute — relinquished their erally referred to as the Santee, a name claims to a vast area in southeastern Minne­ apparently derived from their ancient dwell­ sota and were given as partial compensation ing place near Knife Lake (Isanti or Isan- a tract of land twenty miles wide along the yati) in east-central Minnesota. They were upper Minnesota River.'^ After the treaties placed on the Santee Reservation in the were ratified in 1852, the Indians showed an hope that they would become farmers, as understandable reluctance about moving to some had before the uprising. Upon their this reservation. The departure of those at arrival they settled first on the bank of the Red Wing was hastened by the burning of Missouri in a disconnected village of tents their houses in the spring of 1853. One wit­ and log and earth huts roofed with sod. Thus ness remarks that this was "evidently the they remained for two or three years, appar­ work of incendiaries," who went unpun­ ently making little effort to farm or other­ ished.^ By a combination of threats and in­ wise estabhsh themselves. The area chosen ducements, nearly all the Sioux were for their final home was rather rough and eventually persuaded to move, so that, ac­ not especially suitable for cultivation. In ad­ cording to one source, fewer than twenty dition, their previous experience with ths Mdewakanton and Wahpekute were living outside the reservation by 1862.° "E. D. Neill, "Dakota Land and Dakota Life,' After the uprising of 1862 had been and "Pike's Explorations in Minnesota, 1805-6," quelled, virtually all the Minnesota Sioux in Minnesota Historical Collections, 1:214, 309, 339 (St. Paul, 1902); Mentor L. Williams, ed., were exiled from the state, and their rights Henry R. Schoolcraft, Narrative Journal of Travels under earlier treaties were abolished. About through the Northwestern Regions of the United fifteen hundred of the Lower Sioux were States . . in the Year 1820, 212 (East Lansing, Michigan, 1953); Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, ed.. held at Fort Snelling over the winter of History of Goodhue County, 33 (Chicago, 1909). 1862-63, and then thirteen hundred of them 'WincheU, Aborigines, 554. were shipped to Crow Creek on the Mis­ * [Joseph W. Hancock], Goodhue County: Past and Present, 185 (Red Wing, 1893). Hancock went souri. The remaining two hundred, who had to Red Wing's village in 1849 as a missionary and been friendly to the whites, were allowed remained there for the rest of his life. to return to the former reservation, where ° Return I. Holcombe, Minnesota in Three Cen­ Congress had authorized their settlement on turies, 2:322, 326 (Mankato, 1908). An early white settler on Prairie Island told his grandson individual tracts of land. Opposition from years later that there were Indians on the island white settlers in the area made this plan after 1853 and that two or three days before the unworkable, and after wandering for a time, Sioux Uprising in August, 1862, they held a night meeting around a campfire and suddenly disap­ some of the Sioux settled near Mendota and peared. See Jay Edgerton, "Sioux Once Driven Faribault. Eventually these groups died off from Prairie Island," in Minneapolis Sunday Trib­ or removed to Morton and elsewhere." une^, October 30, 1949, Upper Midwest sec, p. 5. "Stephen R. Riggs, Mary and I: Forty Years After three years at Crow Creek the thou­ with the Sioux, 208, 223 (Boston, 1880); Commis­ sand or so who had survived the river trip sioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1866, p. 225-227, and subsequent epidemics were moved 235-239; William W. FolweU, A Historu of Minne­ sota, 2:263 (St. Paul, 1924).

272 MINNESOTA History ^Prairie Island Indian Reservation

UPPER Goodhue County, showing the Prairie Island Indian U.S. Highway 61 Reservation as it was in 1958.

White Father's capriciousness had led them they subscribed to the all-but-universal to be hesitant in settling anywhere.'' view that the best course to follow regard­ In a few years, however, many of the ing the Indian was to transform him as Indians were induced by their agent and quickly as possible into an approximation by missionaries to build houses on farms of the white man, eliminating his peculiarly which had been assigned to them. The gov­ Indian heritage — his customs, language, ernment furnished teams and paid the In­ dress, and above all, his rehgion. A later dians to break an acre of land. Soon they Indian commissioner was to remark con­ were dispersed about the reservation, mak­ cerning this effort; "it may be that the world ing an effort to farm. By 1871 about a has never witnessed a religious persecution hundred families were living in houses on so implacable and so variously imple­ individual tracts and some six hundred mented."^ acres were under cultivation.* To judge from the agents' reports, they Under the Grant administration, Indian were reasonably successful in their efforts. affairs were largely taken from the hands of The number of Indians wearing white man's the military and the corrupt Indian agents, clothes, the number of acres broken, and and given to the Society of Friends. All four the number of houses with shingles and of the agents at Santee during this period floors increased from year to year. So much were Quakers. They seem on the whole to progress had been made by the late 1870s have been devoted and sincere, although that Santee had become a model reservation for other Sioux groups to visit and emulate. The government conducted a manual labor ' Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1866, p. 213, 240; 1877, p. 147; Riggs, Mary and I, 230; school, and religious groups operated two Doane Robinson, A History of the Dakota or Sioux boarding schools. Yet the Indians were not Indians, 23 (n.p., 1904). happy. They longed for their old homes, 'Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1871, p. 163, 266. they had no permanent title to their land, " John Collier, The Indians of the Americas, 224 and nearly every spring they were disturbed (New York, 1947). See also Oliver LaFarge, As by rumors of removal. Some neglected to Long as the Grass Shall Grow, 26 (New York, 1940). plant crops, expecting to be hustled off else-

September 1961 273 where before they could harvest them. A It is impossible to determine exactly smallpox epidemic in 1873, together with when the Prairie Island colony was estab­ departures discussed below, reduced the lished, for information on this point is original population to 764 by 1880. i" contradictory. The Red Wing Argus of De­ During these years repeated attempts cember 22, 1887, stated that these Indians were made to have individuals given title to had been a public charge since 1868, which their assigned lands, both by the agents, seems rather early. Another account, pro­ who thought this solution best for the In­ vided in part by a white resident on Prairie dians, and by land-hungry whites, who Island during this period, claims that the wanted to acquire portions of the reserva­ Sioux did not return until 1886 and that the tion. These efforts culminated in an execu­ only red men on the island before that were tive order issued on February 8,1885, which a few secret visitors who rode by night, or granted slightly more than half the reserva­ "good Indians" who carried a passport from tion lands to individual Indians. Most of Henry H. Sibley. The Indians' own records the remainder were returned to the public state that Mrs, Eliza Wells, who still hves on domain to be immediately taken up by Prairie Island, went there in 1884. The state white settlers, whose holdings soon checker- census of 1885 lists no Indians in Goodhue boarded the area. At once local whites pres­ County, although small groups are indi­ sured the Indians to dispose of their lands; cated for Dakota, Scott, and Wabasha they were even told that with the proceeds counties." The fact that the federal govern­ from the sales they could buy land near ment moved in 1886 to provide land for their old homes in Minnesota. Although the these people suggests that they had been in agent in 1886 pilloried this talk as utterly the locality for some time. The truth proba­ false, the government in that year made its bly is that occasional visits by individuals to first concerted effort to provide land for their old haunts led in time to longer visits members of the Santee community who had by families, some of whom neglected to re­ made their way back to Minnesota. "^^ turn to the Santee Reservation, and that by 1886 sufficient permanent settlement existed PRECISELY WHEN the departures from the Santee Reservation began is difficult to "Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1871, determine, since the movement was entirely p. 441; 1876, p. 100; 1877, p. 147; 1878, p. 99; extralegal, and — at least in the case of the 1879, p. 106; 1880, p. 121. '^ Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1885, people who went to Prairie Island — sur­ p. 136-141; 1886, p. 189. The bulk of the Santee reptitious. One group left Santee in 1869 Sioux remained in Nebraska. Although 1,248 and bought farms near Flandreau, Dakota were listed on the tribal roDs in 1950, only 299 were actually hving on the reservation a decade later. Territory, where a colony of three hundred See Indians on Federal Reservations in the United Sioux existed ten years later. In his report States, part 3, p. 1 (United States Department of for 1878 the Santee agent mentioned that Health, Education, and Welfare, Public Health Service, Publications No. 615 — Washington, others had gone to Minnesota, presumably 1959); Llewellyn Kingsley, Superintendent, Win­ about the same time as the exodus to Flan­ nebago Agency, Winnebago, Nebraska, to the dreau. Later it was noted that some of the author, August 3, 1960. Flandreau people had gone to Minnesota. "^Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1871, p. 269; 1878, p. 99; 1879, p. 106; 1886, p. 193; Since the agents at Santee were not con­ Riggs, Mary and I, 265-267. cerned with the exact destination of the In­ "" Edgerton in Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, Oc­ dians who returned to Minnesota, there is tober 30, 1949; Minnesota, Executive Documents, 1886, vol. 1, p.330, 337, 377, 391. A brief record of nothing in their reports to indicate whether events in the Prairie Island community, begun by the emigrants went to their old reservations Thomas H. Rouillard and continued by his daugh­ in the upper Minnesota Valley or to their ter, Mrs. Wells, has been translated from the Da­ earlier homes farther east.^^ kota language by Norman R. CampbeU. A copy is owned by the Minnesota Historical Society.

274 MINNESOTA History to oblige the government to take some nesota who had severed relations with their action. tribe at Santee. Five thousand dollars of it Probably one reason the Sioux found their went to the Prairie Island colony. Walter S. way to Prairie Island was the fact that it McLeod of Bloomington was appointed had not been wholly taken up by the whites. agent to buy land, and in the summer Because of its limited agricultural resources of 1887 he purchased three tracts com­ and relative inaccessibility, the island was prising about 85 acres in Goodhue County, the last portion of Goodhue County to be 98 acres in Scott County, and 10 acres in settled. Although often described as an Dakota County, as well as a larger area in island in the Mississippi, the area is actually Redwood County. Robert B. Henton of a part of the right bank of that river, cut off Morton, who succeeded McLeod, made fur­ from the upland by an arm of the Vermillion ther purchases in 1889, 1890, and 1891. River, which parallels the Mississippi from These included 120 acres in Goodhue Hastings to the lower end of the island. County, 258 in Scott, 40 in Dakota, and Since the construction in 1938 of Lock and 110 in Wabasha. No permanent Indian com­ Dam Number 3 in the Mississippi and the munities, except Prairie Island, grew up on diversion of the Vermillion, the "island" has these lands, although those in Scott County become a peninsula. Slightly more than ten are still farmed by four Indian families. The miles long and averaging two miles in other land has long since passed out of In­ width, Prairie Island is almost completely dian ownership.1* flat and only about sixteen feet above the Until the appropriation of 1886 could be average water level of the river; hence it is put into effect, Goodhue County continued, partially covered with lakes and sloughs and somewhat unwillingly, to look after the wel­ is subject to flooding. The soil is rich in hu­ fare of the Indians on Prairie Island, as it mus but sandy, and in drought years crops had for some years. In November, 1887, sev­ which mature late are likely to dry up. eral county officials visited Hastings H. Hart, No specific mention was made of the secretary of the state board of corrections Prairie Island group when Congress in 1884 and charities, to learn whether it was incum­ appropriated ten thousand dollars to buy bent upon the county to support these In­ stock, tools, and other supplies for the In­ dians. Hart wrote them the next month that dians who had returned to Minnesota from the attorney general had informed him Santee. In 1886 an appropriation of twenty that under the constitution these Indians thousand dollars was made, to be devoted were a legitimate charge upon the county. to the purchase of lands, seed, provisions, Frank M. Wilson, the county attorney, dis­ and lumber for the houses of those members puted this interpretation, and in response to of the Mdewakanton band of Sioux in Min- a telegram from him. Hart appeared before the board of county commissioners early in " Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1888, January, 1888. There followed some corre­ p. Ixxvi, 333; 1891, part 1, p. 110, 178; Argus, spondence between the county attorney and December 22, 1887; United States Census, 1950, the Indian bureau, which apparently re­ Population, part 23, p. 122; United States, Statutes at Large, 58:274; Dakota County Register of Deeds, sulted in the land purchase of 1889.^^ Miscellaneous Record, book Q, 609; Abstract Books, The number of Indians on Prairie Island no. 27, p. 73, among the county archives at Has­ tings; United States Indian Population and Land, at this time was quite small. Although the 14 (Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian census of 1890 gives Goodhue County an Affairs, Reports — September, 1960); interview Indian population of sixty, a list of names with Casimir L. Le Beau, Field Representative, Minnesota Agency, Bemidji, July 14, 1960. filed with the county auditor that same year ^^ Argus, December 22, 1887; Goodhue County shows only forty-six on Prairie Island. In Board of Commissioners, "Proceedings," 1888, p. the next couple of years, Indians from 128, 131, on file in the office of the county auditor. around Wabasha and other points moved Red Wing.

September 1961 275 A Sioux summer dwelling, Prairie Ishnd, 1898

in, with the result that there were said to Despite unfavorable soil conditions, the be nearly a hundred people in the com­ Prairie Island Indians made attempts to munity by February, 1892.^*' earn a living from farming. Throughout the 1890s they raised potatoes and com, as well IF ONE is to judge from the infrequent as some wheat, oats, and beans. They also notice given the Prairie Island colony in the supplemented their income in a variety of local newspapers, the attitude of the sur­ ways. For example, they often presented rounding white community was not alto­ dances as part of the Fourth of July program gether sympathetic. When these Indians in Red Wing. In this way they once took in are mentioned at all, it is in tones of con­ more than a hundred dollars. They also descension and tolerant amusement, and picked and sold wild grapes and sometimes attention tends to be focused on the occa­ collected bounties on wolves. ^^ sional cases of drunkenness, petty thievery, On the whole, however, the history of and quarreling within the band. When a the Prairie Island community has been one Sioux drowned in 1893 while returning from of poverty. Despite the infrequency of refer­ Red Wing in a canoe laden with a fifty- ences to them in local papers — at a time pound plow and some provisions, the tragic when every runaway horse in the county effect was vitiated in the eyes of the writer was reported — there is evidence to show reporting the incident by the discovery of that their poverty was chronic. Two men a half-empty bottle of whisky in the dead died in the spring of 1888, and on both occa­ man's pocket. Some indication of the popu­ sions the Episcopal rector requested that lar attitude may be gained from the fact old shoes, boots, and other clothing be do­ that when an Indian paid off his debts it was nated to the relatives who attended the news. An 1891 newspaper carried the story funerals. The church missionary society of a certain unidentified Indian (the names served lunch to the mourners and sent were always given in the case of misde­ enough provisions home with them to last meanors) who several times had borrowed for several days." On February 13, 1895, the money from the Episcopal rector to buy the Red Wing Daily Republican reprinted schoolbooks for his children and then later an article from the Hastings Democrat, paid back the entire sum out of wages. The writer comments patronizingly: "This speaks " United States Census, 1890, Indians, 336; list volumes for the honesty of the man, as well of Indians on Prairie Island, October 21, 1890, in as for his desire for his children to receive the Goodhue County auditor's office; Red Wing advantages of which he had been deprived, Daily Republican, February 10, 1892. "Daily Republican, April 13, 26, 1893; Argus, and also shows that he, at least, is adopting October 29, 1891. some of the better features of the white '"Daily Republican, July 5, 6, October 11, 1892; man's civilization." ^^ June 1, 1893. ''Argus, April 19, May 2, 1888.

276 MINNESOTA History which reported that an Indian woman about Christianity. Nominally Christianized be­ sixty years of age had died of starvation on fore the Sioux Uprising and repeatedly Prairie Island, leaving three children. The said by their agents to be "all Christians" at writer commented that almost all the In­ Santee, these people remained under sus­ dians there "are in want of the necessities picion in this respect long after their return of life." He called for charity, adding that to Prairie Island. A white pioneer who lived these people "cannot make their wants on the island for many years stated in remi­ known, and they don't know how to work, niscences probably written about 1925, that and could not obtain employment if they many of the Indians were "still astraddle of did." the fence in some things relating to their It might be supposed that merely surviv­ old faith and superstitions."-' ing would be as much as these Indians could Yet their loyalty to the Episcopal faith do. During these trying years, however, has been constant since their return from they managed to retain their identity, to exile, and the little congregation on the learn much from the white community island has been over the years one of the around them, and even to give something principal unifying forces in the community. to that community, as when they presented For the flrst twenty years after the Indians' their dances or when a group of Red Wing return to Prairie Island, the congregation baseball players obtained a pitcher from was held together by services conducted in Prairie Island. When, in 1906, the women homes by native ministers like Thomas H. of the Indian community contributed sev­ Rouillard. The Indians also attended the eral homemade garments for a box to be Red Wing Episcopal Church, where they sent to an orphanage in Minneapolis, a Red customarily sat in the rear. In 1905 a church Wing newspaper headlined the item "In­ building, originally erected at Point Doug­ dian Women of Prairie Island Helping Less las, was ferried down to Prairie Island and Fortunate Whites."^" re-erected on land acquired the previous That the dances survived is remarkable, year by the diocese of Minnesota. Since then since they were a feature of the native cul­ the Chapel of the Messiah, as it is called, ture that the Indian agents and missionaries has been served by the Episcopal rector in were at one time most determined to stamp Red Wing. It was long customary to sing out. In 1888 the agent at Santee reported one hymn in Dakota, and as late as the ob­ indignantly that some of his charges had servance of the church's flftieth anniversary gone to St. Paul to attend dances given by in 1955, the Holy Communion service was then- Minnesota brethren. The result, he conducted in the native language. This said, was a bad influence on some of the practice has since been discontinued.-- "least progressive" of the Santee. One ob­ jection to the perpetuation of old customs, THE FIRST thirty years of the twentieth such as dances, was that they supposedly century on Prairie Island differed little from conflicted with the Indians' profession of the last decade of the nineteenth. Unmarked by major events, this period saw a gradual ^ Daily Republican, June 16, 1892; April 17, accommodation to the surrounding white 1906. society; the dying off of those who had "' Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Reports, 1888, p. 173; untitled manuscript by Alfred A. Johnson, participated in the exile and the return, and owned by the Goodhue County Historical Society, their replacement by younger people bom Red Wing. on Prairie Island. The children were aware "''Daily Republican, May 2, 1940; Red Wing Daily Republican Eagle, October 6, 1955; "Indian of the history of the group only through Women of the Diocese Are Active and Inter­ what they were told by their elders. Stfll, the ested," in Minnesota Missionary, May, 1931, p. 14; geographical and cultural isolation of the interview with the Reverend Monroe Bailie, rector of Christ Church, Red Wing, June 23, 1960. community persisted to some extent, par-

Septemher 1961 277 tially because its members wished to have guage; "We, the Minnesota Mdewakanton it so. Sioux residing on the Prairie Island Reser­ When the depression of the 1930s came, vation under the Pipestone jurisdiction in the Prairie Island people, who had never the State of Minnesota, in order to form a enjoyed much economic margin of safety, more perfect union, develop our natural re­ were faced by the most serious crisis since sources, insure our domestic tranquillity, their return to the island. Between 1884 promote the general welfare, to enjoy cer­ and 1899 Congress had appropriated $85,- tain rights of home rule, to provide educa­ 328.83 for the benefit of the various Sioux tion in schools of higher learning including groups in Minnesota, and by an act of June vocational, trade, high schools, and colleges 21,1906, the Prairie Islanders had shared in for our people, and to secure the opportuni­ the division of three miflion dollars appro­ ties offered us under the Indian Reorganiza­ priated for the Sioux nation in 1889. Wilbur tion Act, do hereby establish the following E. Meagley of the Santee Agency made the Constitution and Bylaws."^^ final payments to the Prairie Island people The document provided for the election in June, 1907. After that, they do not appear of a five-member community council, which to have received any substantial aid from would in turn appoint four chairmen to deal the federal government, and their condition with land, agriculture, forests, conservation, gradually deteriorated until by 1935 they and public welfare. Commendable as were were in desperate straits.^^ the motives which led to the adoption of The seriousness of the situation is re­ this constitution, its provisions were rather flected in the language of a resolution too ambitious for a community of eighty- adopted by the Goodhue County board of two people with virtually no natural re­ commissioners on June 7, 1935. It says, in sources to develop, with no forests to be part, that the Prairie Island Sioux "are at administered, and a welfare problem far too present on government relief, destitute and big to be handled by a local public welfare unable to support themselves having noth­ chairman. Hence it has not proved as useful ing except certain lands granted to them a tool as it might have been had the group for their support." These lands, it goes on, been larger and more favorably located. The "are so small and inadequate that it is im­ council continues to function, however, and possible for them to make a living from holds quarterly meetings at which matters these tracts." The resolution recommends relating to law and order, welfare, educa­ that "the Indian Bureau of the United States tion, and land management are discussed.^^ government procure additional land for The corporate charter, which was drawn these Indians in order that they may be up and ratified on July 23, 1937, by a vote of able to secure their livelihood from agricul­ thirty-nine to three, provided for the incor­ tural pursuits." ^^ poration of the group as "The Prairie Island In an effort to meet this crisis, the Prairie Indian Community." Among the purposes Island community took advantage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which ^ Santee Claim Case, Evidence for Defendants, authorized Indian communities to adopt 127 (Court of Claims, no. 33,728); United States, constitutions and bylaws for purposes of Statutes at Large, 34:356, 25:888; Daily Republi­ can, June 13, 1907; Mr. Homer B. Jenkins, Chief, self-government and to incorporate as legal Branch of Tribal Programs, Bureau of Indian Af­ entities in order to further their economic fairs, to the author, April 21, 1961. development. A constitution was drawn up ^'Goodhue County Board of Commissioners, and adopted by a vote of thirty-five to four "Proceedings," 1935, p. 323. •^ Constitution and Bylaws of the Prairie Island in an election held on May 23, 1936. The Indian Community in Minnesota, 1 (Washington preamble deserves quotation, if only be­ 1936). > V s , cause of its somewhat grandiloquent lan- ^Constitution, 2; Mr. Norman R. CampbeU to the author, October 4, 1960. 278 MINNESOTA History of this act were "to secure for the members fllustration, in miniature, of the problems of the Community an assured economic in­ facing Indian communities tliroughout the dependence; and to provide for the proper country. Sherman found that of the 120 exercise by the Community of various func­ acres of tribal land remaining before the tions heretofore performed by thc Depart­ 1937-38 purchases, only nineteen were be­ ment of the Interior.'"-' Here, too, the ing farmed, all by one man. The rest were effectiveness of this plan was largely frus­ idle or leased to whites. The entire com­ trated by the small size of the group and munity contained one cow, one horse, its inadequate economic base. twenty-five chickens, one buggy, one culti­ Partly in response to the appeal from the vator, and one plow. During the drought county commissioners, the federal govern­ years even the subsistence gardens had been ment made several land purchases on behalf neglected. Of the sixteen houses located of the Prairie Island Indians in 1937 and there, only three had more than three rooms 1938. The original purchase made in 1887 and six had only one room. The average had been divided into small tracts and annual family income during 1935 and 1936 deeded directly to individuals, while the had been $166.45, of which $97.12 came 120 acres bought two years later had been from relief and government-sponsored la­ retained by the government in trust status bor. An average of $43.57 per family was and assigned in ten-acre tracts. Now a much earned annually from the sale of handi­ larger area was purchased, including por­ crafts, mainly drums marketed through a tions of the original tract which had passed Minneapolis firm.-"' out of Indian hands. It brought the total Sherman's study recommended several federal holdings to 534 acres. In addition, methods of raising the living standards of five small houses were built, each measuring the Prairie Island Sioux. Based on the as­ twelve by fourteen feet, and an inventory sumption that these people would continue of the economic potential of the community to live on the island and not seek employ­ was prepared by Clyde G. Sherman, asso­ ment elsewhere, Sherman's proposals cen­ ciate credit agent of the Indian bureau.-"* tered about improving the efficiency of their This inventory is valuable, not only as subsistence farming, the only kind of agri­ the most detailed study ever made of the culture feasible under the existing condi­ Prairie Island community, but also as an tions. Families were urged to co-operate in the use of the land, to produce all the food ^ Corporate Charter of the Prairie Island Indian they could for home consumption, and to Community in Minnesota, 1 (Washington, 1938). "" Clyde G. Sherman, "An Economic Survey of improve their methods of canning and food tlie Prairie Island Indian Community in Minne­ preservation. Muskrat trapping was sug­ sota," 7, an unpublished study in the possession of gested as a possible source of cash income the Minnesota Agency, Bemidji. when the dam then being built raised the ""Sherman, "Economic Survey," 3, 8, 9, 11, 13.

INDIAN farm on Prairie Island, 1960 water level and produced ponds and mainly to off-reservation employment. Some sloughs.'^" men from the island work seasonally for In view of the note of desperation de­ white farmers or are employed as construc­ tectable in these proposals, it is not surpris­ tion laborers or at factories in Red Wing, ing to find the Minneapolis Tribune of Hastings, and elsewhere. Few, however, are March 10, 1948, reporting that of the fami­ trained for anything but day labor, and in lies started in farming in the 1930s, only the event of a layoff, they are among the one was still at it. The situation has re­ first to be released. Although it would be mained much the same since then. Until hard to document the charge, there almost quite recently one man, operating nearly certainly is an element of discrimination in­ eighty acres, had farmed consistently with volved in the difficulty these Indians have in the assistance of funds from the council. Ex­ finding jobs. In 1947 a questionnaire was cept for gardens, this is apparently all the sent by the Governor's Interracial Commis­ agriculture practiced among the Prairie Is­ sion to 110 employers in small Minnesota land Sioux. In an era when white farmers cities located near Indian reservations. Al­ cannot make an adequate living from eighty though most replies indicated that these acres or even more, one does not have to seek employers would hire Indians, many dis­ far for the reasons why untrained Indians, tinguished between "good" and "bad" In­ with no machinery and no agricultural tra­ dians, and some spoke of high absenteeism, dition, are unable to manage on ten-acre drinking, and irresponsibility.^' plots of submarginal land. Off-reservation employment provides in­ come for those who are able and willing THE PRAIRIE ISLAND community today, to take advantage of it, yet most of the if not quite a rural slum, at least qualifies as Prairie Island people derive a living from a depressed area. In 1959 it was estimated the manufacture of souvenirs, from leasing that the average annual income was about land to white farmers, and from various a thousand dollars per family.^' Even if forms of pubhc assistance, such as disabihty they wished to do so, its residents, number­ payments, old age pensions, aid to depend­ ing approximately a hundred and living on ent children, and direct relief. The director less than a square mile of land, could not of the Goodhue County welfare service esti­ support themselves by agriculture at a level mates that at least sixty per cent of them comparable to that of their white neighbors. The problem is further complicated by the ^"Sherman, "Economic Survey," 22. "'United States Public Health Service, "Basic fact that the population, like that of other Data: Prairie Island Sioux Community," 2, an un­ Minnesota Indian communities, is predom­ pubhshed survey compiled by the Indian Health inantly young and growing. The increase of Office, Bemidji. The president and vice-president of the community council on Prairie Island believe the Minnesota Sioux has been phenomenal: the figu'^e given here is low. A study published in from 271 in 1920 to 371 in 1930, 548 in 1940, 1956 placed the average income at $150 to $200 and 656 in 1950 — an over-all increase of psr month. See Cynthia Kelsey, "Changing Social Relationships in an Eastern Dakota Community," 142 per cent in thirty years. Goodhue in Minnesota Academy of Science, Proceedings, County's Indian population, located largely 1956, V. 24, p. 12. on Prairie Island, has grown even more "''Governor's Interracial Commission, The In­ dian in Minnesota, 37 ( St. Paul? 1947); The Indian rapidly; from 43 in 1920 to 83 in 1930, 111 in Minnesota (Revised), 35 (1952); United States in 1940, and 121 in 1950 —nearly 177 per Census, 1930, Population, part 1, p. 1220; 1940, cent. More than half of the Prairie Island Population, part 4, p. 75; 1950, Population, part 23, p. 122; interview with Mr. Norman R. Campbell people today are under twenty-one.'^ and Mr. Wallace WeUs of the community council, If the Prairie Island community is some­ November 26, 1960. The high mobility of the Prai­ rie Island people makes it difficult to' say just how what better off economically in 1961 than many are resident there at any given time. it was in 1937, this improvement is due "•' Indian in Minnesota (1947), 64-66.

280 MINNESOTA History normally receive some kind of aid; in win­ may be said to have been largely assimi­ ter, a slack season for employment, the pro­ lated. The majority of the younger people portion is greater.-" are fluent only in English, which nearly all To the average white visitor, who tends to members of the community understand, but measure civilization in terms of bathtubs the older people prefer not to speak.'"' and picture windows, the Prairie Island The Prairie Island people dress like non- community presents the down-at-the-heels Indians, play canasta, watch television, and appearance that characterizes so many In­ exercise the same political rights as their dian settlements. Few of the occupied white neighbors (twenty-two votes were houses are comparable, however, to the tar cast in the November 8, 1960, general elec­ paper shacks one sees on the northern Min­ tion). Nevertheless, they retain a strong nesota Chippewa resei-vations, and the best group consciousness and a recognition of of them are indistinguishable from those of themselves as Indians. Besides the use of the the average white farmer in the vicinity. Dakota language, mainly by the older peo­ Half are heated by oil, the rest by wood or ple, there are various practices — such as coal. Seven or eight are wired for electricity. occasionally giving Indian names to chil­ There are about eleven refrigerators in the dren, holding special christening and fu­ community, of both the electric and gas neral ceremonies, or placing shells and bits type; most cooking is done with gas. There of pottery or china on graves — which seem are sixteen wells on the home premises, to be survivals of earlier customs. Since 1958 though all water is obtained from outdoor the community has sponsored an annual pumps. Almost all the families own automo­ public powwow at which Indians from other biles, and several have television.'^ communities perform.'^ Have the Prairie Island people been as­ It should be noted emphatically that these similated? If assimilation means the general people are Indians. The 1937 survey showed use of the English language, adoption of that forty-five of the eighty-two people then the clothing and manners of the surround­ resident on the island were full bloods, and ing white civilization, and some degree of only one individual was listed as having less participation in the general life of the larger than one half Indian blood. The proportion community, then the Prairie Island Sioux of non-Indian blood has increased since then, but reliable figures are diflBcult to ob­ ** Kelsey in Academy of Science, Proceedings, tain, as the tribal rolls have not been revised 13; interview with Mr. Alvin Halvorson, Director, Goodhue County Welfare Service, June 23, 1960. since 1934. It seems certain, however, that =•'Public Health Service, "Basic Data," 6; Kel­ the proportion of Indian blood is higher say in Academy of Science, Proceedings, 13; inter­ than in the parent Santee community in view with Mr. Campbell and Mr. Wells. Nebraska, where only five per cent were "" Interviews with Mrs. Raymond H. Nelson, former teacher in the Prairie Island school, July 6 considered full bloods in 1950. But the and September 2, 1960; interview with Mr. Camp­ Prairie Island people are not all Sioux; the bell and Mr. Wells. community also includes Winnebago, Chip­ " Interviews with Mrs. Nelson, Mr. Campbell, and Mr. Wells. pewa, and, until recently, one Cherokee. ^ Sherman, "Economic Survey,'' 3; Indians on This infusion of non-Sioux stock is the result Federal Reservations, part 3, p. 1; Kelsey in Acad­ of exogamous marriages necessitated by the emy of Science, Proceedings, 16; interview with Mrs. Nelson. In June, 1960, the Minnesota Agency blood relationship of most of the people in conducted an informal survey of the fifty-four the community and the consequent lack of people residing on tribal lands in the Prairie Island eligible mates at home — a lack which has community. It was found that eight were full bloods, twenty-three were three-quarters Indian, been cited as a reason some young men twenty-one were one half Indian, and two were leave at their first chance for mihtary service one quarter or less Indian. See L. W. Chisholm, or off-reservation jobs. Twenty-two Indians Acting Superintendent, Minnesota Agency, to the author, November 22, 1960. have left during the past decade.'*

September 1961 281 Adequate education for these young peo­ stantial tracts of land. Whether a group as ple has been a problem at Prairie Island, as small as that at Prairie Island, with so little it is on Indian reservations elsewhere, but land available, can initiate and carry out a the situation seems to be improving. A re­ plan to solve their present dilemma is prob­ cent survey showed that the average educa­ lematical. A few individuals have found tional level for all adults was 8.7 grades, but personal solutions by leaving the community the average for those between twenty and and taking their places in the larger world thirty years of age was 10.5 grades. Until of non-Indians. Perhaps in time those who 1953 a rural school was operated in the com­ remain on the reservation will evolve a com­ munity as a part of the Goodhue County munity solution which wdll enable them to school system but with federal aid because achieve material prosperity and at the same of the tax-free status of Indian land. Since time preserve their group identity. But the that time the children have attended the signs of it are not yet apparent. Burnside Township consolidated school, In June, 1960, archaeological excavations now a part of the Red Wing school system. on Prairie Island were begun by Dr. Elden Many who are acquainted with the com­ Johnson, state archaeologist, under the aus­ munity believe that the more rigid attend­ pices of the Minnesota Historical Society ance standards of the Burnside school, as and with the assistance of a two-thousand- well as the opportunity to compete from dollar grant from the Northern States Power the earliest grades with non-Indians, will be Company, which has acquired some 450 of beneflt to the Prairie Island children and acres of land where it plans to build a gen­ may give them greater incentive to continue erating plant. According to early press re­ through high school. Although several had leases, evidences of a culture dating back started high school in Red Wing, none grad­ at least four thousand years were found uated until 1951. Since then a number have along with artifacts from more recent pe­ completed their high school work. In 1959 riods.*" At the time these discoveries were there were twenty-four children enrolled at being made, the modern Prairie Island Sioux Burnside and four high school students at were meeting to lay plans for the pow^wow Red Wing.'9 held from July 9 to 11. Although there have been long gaps in the Indian occupancy of the island, and although the present inhabit­ PRAIRIE ISLAND illustrates on a smafl ants in all probabflity are not descended scale the dilemma facing many Indian from those of four thousand years ago, there groups in the United States — too little land is in these two events, juxtaposed in the for complete dependence on agriculture and summer of 1960, a suggestion of the tenacity no readily available alternative source of and endurance of the American Indian. If income. It is a truism that there is no single the people of Prairie Island can demonstrate "Indian problem" but a multiplicity of them, a creative power comparable to the ability with no one answer that will suffice for all. to survive that has carried them through two The most conspicuously successful solutions exiles and more than a half-century of pov­ so far have come about through the Indians' erty, their future may yet be bright. own initiative and planning, while schemes imposed upon them by non-Indians, how­ ever well intentioned, have almost invari­ ™ Public Health Service, "Basic Data," 3-5; in­ terviews with Mrs. Nelson, Mr. CampbeU, and ably failed. Before applying this principle Mr. WeUs. to Prairie Island, however, one should rec­ '" Minneapolis Star, June 15, 1960; Daily Repub­ ognize that the Indian communities which lican Eagle, July 14, 1960; St. Paul Dispatch, have in some measure solved their prob­ July 13, 1960; Minnesota History News, June, 1960. lems have been fairly large, numbering THE PICTURE on page 276 is from the coUection several thousand people and possessing sub- of the Minnesota Historical Society, and the one on page 279 was taken by the author.

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