Minnesota we came across a party who were restoring
their homes, and "building up their waste places" desolated by the
terrible Sioux wars of but a short time before. As they had nearly all
of them suffered by that fearful struggle, they were very bitter in
their feelings towards the Indians, completely ignoring the fact that
the whites were to blame for that last sanguinary outbreak, in which
nine hundred lives were lost, and a section of country larger than some
of the New England States was laid desolate. It is now an undisputed
fact that the greed and dishonesty of the Indian agents of the United
States caused that terrible war of 1863. The principal agent received
600,000 dollars in gold from the Government, which belonged to the
Indians, and was to be paid to Little Crow and the other chiefs and
members of the tribe. The agent took advantage of the premium on gold,
which in those days was very high, and exchanged the gold for
greenbacks, and with these paid the Indians, putting the enormous
difference in his own pocket. When the payments began, Little Crow, who
knew what he had a right to according to the Treaty, said, "Gold dollars
worth more than paper dollars. You pay us gold." The agent refused,
and the war followed. This is only one instance out of scores, in which
the greed and selfishness of a few have plunged the country into war,
causing the loss of hundreds of lives and millions of treasure.

In addition to this, these same unprincipled agents, with their hired
accomplices and subsidised press, in order to hide the enormity of their
crimes, and to divert attention from themselves and their crookedness,
systematically and incessantly misrepresent and vilify the Indian
character.

"Stay and be our minister," said some of these settlers to me in one
place. "We'll secure for you a good location, and will help you get in
some crops, and will do the best we can to make you comfortable."

When they saw we were all proof against their appeals, they changed
their tactics, and one exclaimed, "You'll never get through the Indian
country north with those fine horses and all that fine truck you have."

"O yes, we will," said Mr McDougall; "we have a little flag that will
carry us in safety through any Indian tribe in America."

They doubted the assertion very much, but we found it to be literally
true, at all events as regarded the Sioux; for when, a few days later,
we met them, our Union Jack flutterin