[363] For an account of the attack on the trading house system see
Quaife's _Chicago and the Old Northwest, 1673-1835_, pp. 301-309; also
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XX, pp. xiii-xviii.
[364] This account of the fur trade is based upon the reminiscences of
Mr. H. H. Sibley in the _Minnesota Historical Collections_, Vol. III,
pp. 245-247; and Turner's _The Character and Influence of the Indian
Trade in Wisconsin_ in the _Johns Hopkins University Studies in
Historical and Political Science_, Vol. IX, pp. 601-607.
[365] If an Indian failed continually in paying up his credits, the
trader would refuse him any more goods. This would bring on the enmity
of the hunter and his whole family. Such was the case of Joseph R. Brown
mentioned in the _Minnesota Historical Collections_, Vol. III, p. 247.
[366] _United States Statutes at Large_, Vol. II, pp. 139-146, Vol. III,
pp. 332, 333, Vol. IV, pp. 729-735.
[367] A copy of an American trading license is published in the _Report
from the Select Committee on the Hudson's Bay Company_, p. 282.
[368] _Indian Office Files_, 1831, No. 70.
[369] _Indian Office Files_, 1831, No. 82.
[370] _Auto-biography of Maj. Lawrence Taliaferro_ in the _Minnesota
Historical Collections_, Vol. VI, p. 200.
[371] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XX, p. 43
[372] Sibley to Featherstonhaugh.--_Sibley Papers_. This letter is
printed in Holcombe's _Minnesota in Three Centuries_, Vol. II, p. 57.
[373] Chittenden's _The History of the American Fur Trade of the Far
West_, Vol. I, p. 323.
[374] A list of the posts in the agency in 1826 is given in the
_Minnesota Historical Collections_, Vol. II, pp. 113, 114.
"The Secretary of War directs that the traders in the St Peters Agency,
who have been directed by you to build their houses in a particular
form, as designated by you, be informed that they are at liberty to
adapt the shape of their building to their own convenience. He moreover
directs that the term of Forts, by which they are designated, be changed
into Posts."--William Clark to Taliaferro, March 26, 1827, in
_Taliaferro Letters_, Vol. I, No. 72.
[375] Taliaferro to Herring, September 15, 1834, in _Indian Office
Files_, 1834, No. 210; _Taliaferro Letters_, Vol. I, No. 74.
[376] See Sibley's story of a tea party given to a number of traders at
Fort Snelling.--_Minnesota Historical Collections_, Vol. III, pp. 248,
249.
[377] Coues's _The Expeditions of Zebulon M. Pike_, Vol. I, p. 230.
[378] _Taliaferro's Diary_, February 22, 1831.
[379] Schoolcraft's _Narrative of an Expedition through the Upper
Mississippi to Itasca Lake_, p. 44.
[380] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XX, pp. 306, 307.
[381] _United States Statutes at Large_, Vol. IV, p. 564.
[382] Norman W. Kittson to Sibley, March 2, 1846.--_Sibley Papers,
1840-1850_. Mr. Kittson was the manager of the American Fur Company's
business along the international boundary, with his headquarters at
Pembina. He, with the late James J. Hill, was one of the promoters of
the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railroad Company.
[383] _Report from the Select Committee on the Hudson's Bay Company_, p.
370.
[384] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XX, p. 383.
[385] _Taliaferro's Diary_, January 30, 1831.
[386] Kittson to Sibley, August 7, 1846.--_Sibley Papers, 1840-1850_.
Mr. Kittson was the organizer of the picturesque caravans of Red River
carts (at one time called "Kittson's carts") which carried on the
extensive commerce between the Canadian and American settlements. At an
early date this trade assumed large proportions. "The van of the Red
River train numbering from an hundred to two hundred carts made entirely
of wood and green hides and drawn by oxen and ponies in harness, reached
St. Paul on Sunday with furs, hides, buffalo robes, dried buffalo
tongues, pemmican, etc. They have been forty days on the route."--_The
Minnesota Pioneer_, July 26, 1849.
[387] _Missionary Herald_, Vol. 38, p. 58, February, 1842.
[388] _Indian Office Files_, 1839, No. 62.
[389] _Missionary Herald_, Vol. 40, p. 281, August, 1844.
[390] _Executive Documents_, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I,
Document No. 1, p. 563.
[391] _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vol. XX, p. 383.
[392] _Taliaferro's Diary_, July 23, 1834.
[393] _Taliaferro Letters_, Vol. I, No. 74.
[394] Marsh to Street, April 28, 1832.--_Street Papers_, No. 20.
[395] _Indian Office Files_, 1835, No. 326.
[396] Bailly to Street, August 3, 1832.--_Street Papers_, No. 28.
[397] Street to Cass, October 3, 1832.--_Street Papers_, No. 69.
[398] "Several persons have been arrested near Crow Wing for selling
whiskey to the Winnebago Indians; and twelve or fifteen barrels of
whiskey have been overtaken and knocked in the head, by Capt. Monroe's
troops."--_The Minnesota Pioneer_, August 9, 1849.
[399] _Senate Documents_, 1st Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Document
No. 1, p. 922.
[400] Taliaferro to Clark, August 17, 1830.--_Indian Office Files_,
1830, No. 143.
[401] _Indian Office Files_, 1830, No. 140.
[402] Taliaferro to Clark, August 2, 1829.--_Indian Office Files_, 1829,
No. 65.
[403] _Executive Documents_, 2nd Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I,
Document No. 1, p. 444.
[404] _Senate Documents_, 1st Session, 30th Congress, Vol. I, Document
No. 1, p. 919.
[405] _The Minnesota Pioneer_, May 12, 1849.