History Yields Conflict and Contentment

Trying to figure out the street numbering in St. Peter, MN, led Bug and I to unexpected discoveries. First we stumbled upon Minnesota's first Asylum for the Insane, then a co-op. Next we discovered the Pearly Gates of Saint Peter! You never know when you might stumble upon a little piece of Heaven in Minnesota.

Finally, we discovered our true intent --the Treaty Site Museum. This is the original site of the Traverse Des Sioux.

Pulling up to the museum was more than I could have hoped for. It was completely surrounded by acres of native prairie grass. Such an ecosystem offers a realistic view back in time before the prairie became domesticated by the hands of immigrant farmers and settlers from New England. Native prairie grass grows deep, lush and holds an abundance of medicinal wild-flowers. This is what Traverse des Sioux was like in 1851.

Inside the museum Bug and I watched a video on Joseph Nicolette (Nic-oh-lay). He was a French surveyor who mapped the vast prairies after the Lewis & Clark Expedition. He was a philosopher who saw this open land through the eyes of the Dakotah he met. His map included tribal names for features and waterways.

One of Nicolette's recordings was of the site that would one day exchange ownership of the lands he mapped. Traverse Des Sioux was actually a river crossing to a trail heavily traveled between Fort Snelling (in what is now St. Paul) to the Upper Minnesota River and the Red River valleys.

According to the history marker outside, "News of the signing of the treaty of Traverse des Sioux on July 23, 1851, started a great land rush which brought swarms of settlers to the fertile lands acquired by the United States from the Sioux."
"Sioux" is Ojibway for "foe." The Dakotah never called themselves "Sioux" and that misnomer continues today. The Dakotah were part of a huge nation of tribes extending west from MN across the plains into the Rockies. The Sisseton and Wahpeton signed the first of other treaties in 1851.

Much of the money never made it to the bargaining tribes. It went instead to the traders who claimed the tribes had unpaid debt. The rest of the money was to come in allotments. Many white settlers refused to establish credit with the tribes despite the pending allotments. Perhaps they had a good idea of how long the government would take to pay.
By the early 1860s, disease, poverty and starvation darkened the lifestyle of tribes that once followed the buffalo across the prairies and harvested the fruits of native berries and plants. Prairie grass was turned under the plow.

Frustrated, young warriors began to lash out in a string of massacres against the invaders with plows and homesteads. The Sioux Uprisings of 1862 claimed hundreds of lives and would mark the beginning of the longest war US troops would ever fight. It all ended with the Tragedy of Wounded Knee.

Concluding our historical research at Traverse Des Sioux Treaty Museum, I left with a pile of notes, a grand book on Little Crow and a replica of a US medallion commemorating the treaty with an embossed rendering of Little Crow. Bug left with three boxes of LemonHeads.
Clouds were slowly drifting in and it was time to head home. We headed west to LeSuer, another river town on the Minnesota River.

In Lesuer we passed a beautiful lake covered with soft cotton from the river trees. By this time my partner in adventure was sound asleep. I was not sure which way to go--follow the river home or cut across the country side to? I had to look on the map. Ah--Northfield. Let's go to Northfield!

Bug awoke as I nearly swerved off the road--a truck crossed the median into my lane and nearly took us out. I think he was as sound asleep as Bug had been. Adrenaline flowing, I was definitely wide awake. Bug asked where we were at. "Well, we almost returned to St. Peter's Pearly Gates." I answered. "I don't know exactly, Rice County, I think."

We meandered though more farms, rolling hills and a couple of large lakes beckoning for a canoe. I spotted what looked like an old school house and we detoured for a closer look. Yep, it was an old school house full of stuff. What treasures of history might linger in that junk, I could only wonder.

We reached Northfield as rain began to sprinkle. We were hungry and ready for a bite to eat. Passing the old grist mill on the Cannon River, I thought of the stories contained there. What were their lives like, what significant events took place, what affect has it had on our lives today? What haunting or memories or legacies will we leave behind?

History is a living, breathing connection between human lives, past and future. I once had a story-teller from Tennessee grasp my hand and say, "This hand once held the hand of a man who touched the hand of a Civil War soldier." Want to hold my hand and feel history?

Hunger broke through my meandering thoughts as Bug spotted a pub, the Contented Cow. You see, Northfield is a town of colleges, cows and contentment. Sheppard's pie and Pilsner (root beer for Bug) sounded like the fastest way to reach contentment after researching the conflicts of yesterday.