]

In due time the letter was delivered to Colonel Snelling. "When I first
received Col McNeils letter," he wrote later, "I was disposed to smile
at the absurdity of connecting the Sioux & Foxes, in a design to attack
this post". But he later found out that the Foxes had sent wampum and
tobacco to the bands of Wabasha and Little Crow, asking them not to
stand in the way of any movements they might make. Wabasha accepted the
wampum but Little Crow came to the fort to make known the danger. The
vagueness of the rumors, however, made it impossible to act, and later
developments showed that there was no truth in the report--at least no
violence was attempted.[317]

Fear of the strength of the fort prevented hostilities. It was
the Indian fashion to attack by ambush. They did not have the patience
to endure a protracted siege. The Americans did not belittle the
strength of the military works. Little Thunder and White Head, two
Indians who had escaped from the jail at Mackinac by cutting through the
log walls, met an American, George Johnson, at Lac du Flambeau. They
were very inquisitive about the strength of Fort Snelling and the number
of Americans stationed there. Regarding this incident the white man
wrote: "I answered saying, that the fort at River St. Peters was as
strong as Quebec, and more Americans there than in any other post."[318]

The government did not adopt Dr. Morse's plan for civilizing the
Indians, but the agent tried to carry out the policy therein suggested.
The colony at Eatonville, located on Lake Calhoun, and the Indian
schools soon passed into the hands of the missionaries. After the making
of treaties a blacksmith shop was added to the agency. In line with his
policy of providing for all classes of Indians, Taliaferro urged the
erection of an orphan asylum where "all poor blind, and helpless women"
would also be accommodated.[319]

If time had been given doubtless a new form of Indian life would have
arisen about the fort; but the coming of the land-seekers destroyed the
plan. The failure was to result in a great massacre in 1862. This much
at least can be said for Old Fort Snelling; it kept the Indians friendly
while the foundations of American life were being laid in the Northwest.

VIII

THE SIOUX-CHIPPEWA FEUDS

One of the reasons given for the building of Fort Snelling was that it
would prevent the disastrous wars existing between the Sioux and
Chippewa Indians.[320] Beginning