ued for
Pug-on-a-ke-shig and a deputy marshal served it. He disregarded the
subpoena. An attachment was then issued to arrest him and bring him into
court. A deputy United States marshal tried to serve it, and was
resisted by the Indian and his friends on three different occasions, and
once when the Indian was arrested he was rescued from the custody of the
marshal. Warrants were then issued for the arrest of twenty-one of the
rescuers. This was in the latter part of August, 1898. Troops were asked
for to aid the marshal in making his arrests, and a lieutenant and
twenty men were sent from Fort Snelling for that purpose. This was
simply a repetition of the many mistakes made by the military
authorities in such matters. If troops were necessary for any purpose,
twenty men were simply useless, and worse than none, and when the time
came for the application of military force would, of course, have been
annihilated. The United States marshal, with a squad of deputies,
accompanied the troops. It soon became apparent that there would be
trouble before the Indians could be brought to terms, and General Bacon,
the officer in command of the Department of Dakota, with headquarters at
St. Paul, ordered Major Wilkinson of Company "E," of the Third Regiment
of United States Infantry, stationed at Fort Snelling, with his company
of eighty men, to the scene of the troubles. General Bacon accompanied
these troops as far as Walker, on the west bank of Leech lake, more in
the capacity of an observer of events and to gain proper knowledge of
the situation than as part of the force. On the 5th of October, 1898,
the whole force left Walker in boats for a place on the east bank of the
lake, called Sugar Point, where there was a clearing of several acres
and a log house, occupied by Pug-on-a-ke-shig. They were accompanied by
R. T. O'Connor, the United States marshal of Minnesota, and several of
his deputies, among whom was Col. Timothy J. Sheehan, who knew the
Indians who were subject to arrest. This officer was the same man who,
as Lieutenant Sheehan, had so successfully commanded the forces at Fort
Ridgely, during the Indian War of 1862, since when he had fought his way
through the Civil War with distinction. When the command landed, only a
few squaws and Indians were visible. The deputy marshals landed, and
with the interpreters went at once to the house, and while there
discovered an Indian whom Colonel Sheehan recognized as one for whom a