r villages he received six dollars per day.[298]

Besides these services the visits to the fort offered direct opportunity
for the giving of tangible evidence of American supremacy. The English
government had lavishly distributed signs of authority. During the first
two years of his term of service, Taliaferro collected no less than
thirty-six medals of George the Third, twenty-eight British flags, and
eighteen gorgets.[299] Some of these were presented to the agent as
direct evidence of submission to American authority. In 1820 two
employees of the Missouri Fur Company were murdered on the
Missouri River. The surrender of the murderers was demanded by
Taliaferro, and while he was away the tribe came to Fort Snelling with
one of the culprits and a hostage. Colonel Snelling, then acting as
agent, described the scene in a letter.

"These unfortunate wretches were delivered up last evening with a great
deal of ceremony, & I assure you with affecting solemnity; the guards
being first put under arms, they formed a procession in the road beyond
the bake house; in front marched a Sussitong bearing a British flag,
next came the Murderer & the devoted chief, their arms pinioned & large
splinters of wood thrust through them above the elbows, intended as I
understood to show us that they did not fear pain & were not afraid to
die. the Murderer wore a large British medal suspended to his neck &
both of the prisoners bore offerings of skins, &c. in their hands. last
came the chiefs of the Sussitongs, in this order they moved, the
prisoners singing their death song & the Sussitongs joining in chorus
until they arrived in front of the guard house where a fire being
previously prepared, the British flag was burnt, and the medal worn by
the murderer given up."[300]

In return for these greatly coveted signs of respect the agent delivered
to the most prominent chiefs the medals and certificates of the United
States. And thus by flattering the leaders control over the Indians was
assured. What chief was not proud to carry with him this certificate,
even if he could not read it himself? "The bearer _The Whole in
the day_ is a respectable Man, and wears a Seccond Size Monroe Medal
Presented to him for his uniform Good Conduct and great attachment to
the United States--His Residence is at Sandy Lake Law Taliaferro Indian
Agent at St. Peters".[301]

But the memory of the days of English rule was still alive, the
suggestion being made to t