their weapons. It was amid such stirring war-like
scenes that attempts for peace were made.[353]

The earliest policy of the government had been to interfere as little as
possible, and to allow retribution to be made by one tribe on another.
But such inactivity did not appeal to a red-blooded officer like Colonel
Snelling, who wrote after the trouble in 1827: "I have no hesitation in
Saying that the Military on this frontier are useless for want of
discretionary power, and that if it is not intrusted to the Commander,
Men of Straw with Wooden Guns and Swords will answer the purpose as well
as a Regt of Infantry."[354]

But later the policy was adopted of confining in the "Black Hole" of the
fort any culprits who were captured. Thirteen of the Sioux who
participated in a massacre at Apple River were imprisoned;[355] and on
one occasion Little Crow's band performed the scalp dance near Fort
Snelling in commemoration of the murder of two Chippewas, while the
murderers themselves languished in the fort.[356] Probably this method
of dealing with the problem would have been adopted earlier; but
"the force at this point", wrote an officer, "has been too small to send
a sufficient force to take the offenders, even should an order to that
effect be issued."[357]

To determine how influential Fort Snelling was in maintaining order is
impossible. As was the case with the liquor traffic, conditions were bad
but could have been worse. From time to time there were events that
indicated some success. After a peace had been concluded on the fourth
of June, 1823, a small quarrel almost precipitated a general conflict on
the sixth. Much to the chagrin of the Italian traveller, J. C. Beltrami,
who was then a guest at the fort, the officers were successful in
preventing bloodshed. "Everything conspired against my poor notes", he
wrote, "I had already perched myself on an eminence for the purpose of
enriching them with an Indian battle, and behold I have nothing to write
but this miserable article!... I almost suspected that the savages were
in a league with the gentlemen of the fort to disappoint me."[358]

Peace was maintained during the winter of 1831 on a line of three
hundred and forty miles above and below Fort Snelling, and on one
occasion there occurred the pleasant sight of Sioux and Chippewas
departing in company for their hunting grounds on the Sauk River.[359]
Man-of-the-sky, who was chief of the Lake Calhoun band of Sioux,