Temperance makes its case… 125 years ago

BACKBONE

September 1897 Time to make a change.

Do you believe that both of the old parties are corrupt?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you believe that this country needs a new political party?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you believe that the rum traffic should be prohibited?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you pray for the coming of the Lord’s kingdom?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you wish to be in a position where you will not have to explain that you are as good a Prohibitionist as the man who votes as he talks?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want to lessen crime, poverty, and misery?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want to see an era of financial prosperity?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want to see one thousand million dollars, now worse than wasted for liquor, spent for food, clothing, and comfort?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want to see peace and plenty in the land?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want honesty and purity in politics?

Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want to overthrow boss rule?* Vote the Prohibition ticket.

Do you want to go into a party that has not a rum seller in it?

Vote the Prohibition ticket— True Reform. *Political term, not work related.

Territorial Dispatches 168 years ago THE MINNESOTA WEEKLY TIMES September 12, 1854 HEAVY RAINS.—The rains of last week and yesterday, have raised the Minnesota River nearly, if not quite two feet, and the Mississippi nearly eighteen inches. This is pleasing news to all, for if boats can reach us without difficulty, freights will be lower, and consequently provisions will be cheaper.

ST. PAUL MARKETS Livestock Beef on foot…8 cents per lb.

Cows…$30 at 50 Work oxen…$90 to 150 at yok.

FRESH MEAT Beef…8 at 12 cents Mutton…10 at 12 cents Pork…10 3/8 cents Veal…12 1/2 cents Chickens…$3…20 per d GROCERIES Sugar, brown…6 at 7 cents Refined…9 cents Crushed and powdered… 12 1/2 cents Tea…60 cents at $1 LUMBER Common…$10 at 14 per M Flooring…$16, 20 at 25 Siding…$16 Shingles….$2 at 3.50 Lath…$2 Dimension Stuff…$14 at 10 Wood, dry…$3 at 3.50 per cord (for heat) 170 Years Ago THE WEEKLY MINNESOTAN September 11, 1852 Lake Minnetonka and nature description piece (continued).

Lake Wilkin We don’t know whether it was ever named before, and don’t care; hereafter it is thus to be known. We forgot to mention that “Cedar Lake,”* although within a mile of Lake Calhoun, does not belong to the Calhoun and Harriet family. It pours its waters out to the north, through the creek which enters the Mississippi just above the Cataract of St. Anthony. Lake Wilkin we think is one of the Calhoun chain. Three or four miles on, we came for the first time to Little Falls creek, which we crossed. The land along this creek is good, and mill privileges plenty. The growth of weeds, grass and hazel is as high as a man’s shoulders. The surface, however, is too much broken to invite settlement while less elevated and depressed sections remain open. Crossing one of the high peaks hereabout, while the team was making the circuit of a wet meadow, we found a bunch of the wild sage, which is mentioned by Fremont and others as growing so extensively upon the plains of Oregon and California. We were not before aware that it grew in this country. The whole of Minnesota is a rich and inviting garden for the explorations of the botanist, and we wish greater attention were paid to this matter.

*A lake to the north of Cedar Lake answers to this description at present, the area in between now bisected by I-394 and a wildflower garden.

171 years ago THE DAKOTA FRIEND August 1851 Gatherings from the traditionary (handed down) history of the Mdewankantonwan Dakotas.

The chiefs of the Mdewa- kan-ton-wan division of the Dakota tribe, having been made chiefs by white men, traders, it was quite natural that rival chiefs should rise up simultaneous with rivalry in the fur trade. It appears that even before the English obtained possession of their territory, the French had introduced a system of chieftaincy, the tendency of which, was to break the Mde-wa-kan-tonwans in pieces. While they were yet centered on Rice Creek, previous to their taking possession of the country along the Minnesota River, as we have already seen, they were becoming subdivided and were broken into three or four parties, under as many head men who doubtlessly adhered to different individuals of the Wahsheeshpoon traders. When their country fell into the hands of the English (i.e. after 1763), it appears that while some of those who had been called chiefs by the French, were probably recognized as such, others were arbitrarily created chiefs by their new masters, or fathers, as they were pleased to call them. This imparted new vigor to the over active spirit of rivalry. At the present time, those claim the clearest title to chieftaincy as can prove their immediate descent from such as were recognized chiefs by the English. The grandfather of the present chief of the Wabashaw band, whose name was Wabashaw, was one of their most noted chiefs. Indeed many say that he was the first civil chief of the Mdewakantonwans. Very few at present pretend to trace their hereditary right to chieftainship back of him. Wabashaw was made chief by the English at Quebec (following a river journey down and around Chippewa territory to Green Bay to make peace).

At the time of the last war between England and the United States, those chiefs who were the particular favorites of the Sagdaxin (English), sided with the enemies of the United States. The late Joseph Renville was at their head, and held the rank and received the pay of Lieutenant or Captain, in the British Army. This circumstance, of course, gave a new impulse to the spirit of rivalry among them., when the country of the Dakota fell to their conquerors, and for the third time, the fur trade changed hands. Owing mainly to such influences it is, that we now find the Mdewakantonwans, instead of being congregated together in a single band, under the conduct of War Prophets, as at first, or in the two powerful bands of Ma-tan-ton-wan and Watpa- a-ton-we-dan, as they were at a subsequent period, are scattered in broken fragments from a point on the Minnesota river, twenty- five miles from its Mendota, or junction with the Mississippi, to Wabashaw prairie, a hundred miles below St. Paul.

February 1851 For the Dakota Friend. Edited by G. H. Pond The Americans and Dakotas The Dakotas often say, “The Americans are not friendly to us;” but it is not so. The Americans have never abused them. Long ago the Americans established themselves at the mouth of the St. Peter’s, and ever since they have treated the Dakotas with kindness. Before the Dakotas sold their land they were often in want of food, and their wants were supplied by the garrison at Fort Snelling. Then who ever went hungry to the Fort was fed.

Afterwards the Americans asked the Dakotas for a portion of their land, but they did not ask them to give it up for nothing. They could have taken the land from them without paying for it, and if they had been disposed to abuse them, they would have done so; but they did not wish to do so. They bought it and paid well for it. It is long since that land was sold, yet the Dakotas have been permitted to hunt on it as though it were their own. If the Americans had been unfriendly to them they would have confined them to the west side of the river.

It is often said that the Dakotas who went to Washington to sell their land (in 1837), were deceived by the government, and that none of the conditions of the treaty then made (with President Martin Van Buren) have been fulfilled as the President promised they should be; but this is not so. All the conditions of that treaty have been or will be fulfilled.

The Dakotas now say that the Americans wish to rob them of their lands, and drive them off to the prairie; but this is not true. They will ask them for their land, but they will not take it from them without paying for it; and if they remove them to another place,* they will not put them in a bad country where there is no wood. They will put them where there is good land and plenty of wood and water.

The Dakotas also say that the Americans wish to have them perish, and for that reason to drive them from their lands; but that is not true. The Americans wish to have them live, and for that reason will gather them together in some place by themselves. Indians and white men cannot dwell together. If they attempt to do so the Indians soon perish. If the Dakotas would all with one accord, turn their attention to planting, and make an earnest effort to adopt the habits of civilized people,** they could dwell in the neighborhood of the Americans. If they would select good land, fence, large fields, and give up their roving habits, they might retain sufficient land for their own use, and no one would complain of it. The white people would be pleased with it, and the President (Millard Fillmore) would encourage them and furnish them (per treaty) with such things as would enable them to plant and build. But so long as the young men are ashamed to chop wood, or cultivate the earth, so long as they are afraid of axes and hoes, and rove about with arrows and war clubs, they cannot live in the vicinity of white men. The Americans bear no ill will to the Dakotas, but if they retain their savage customs and roam about among the white settlements, they are afraid that evil will arise out of it, not only to the whites but to the Indian.

Though the Americans are strong and can do as they please, they do not wish to oppress the Dakotas— they prefer to be on friendly terms with them.— S.W. ?

* This removal would in fact happen. The original for the Treaty of Mendota can be viewed at https:// catalog. archives . gov/ id/176246554.

**A term understood at that time to include slavery, as was practiced by the Cherokee, one of the five ‘Civilized Tribes.’