he
hunt furs sufficient to pay for the goods advanced them; and they hoped
that in the payment for the lands certain sums would be reserved
for the liquidation of these debts.[481]

In the early summer of 1837 Major Taliaferro was ordered to organize a
delegation of Sioux Indians who could be taken to Washington, where the
Sioux negotiations would take place. At the same time orders were issued
to summon the Chippewas of the upper Mississippi to a council to be held
at Fort Snelling. To both of these groups the subject of the purchase of
the Indian lands east of the Mississippi would be broached.[482]

Miles Vineyard, who was the sub-agent at Fort Snelling, was immediately
sent to the villages of the Chippewas. Early in July the red men began
to arrive, and by July 20th about a thousand men, women, and children
had pitched their tepees near the fort. Many were the notable chiefs
gathered there with their warriors. With the Pillager band from Leech
Lake was Chief Flat Mouth, who had twenty-five times been on the warpath
without receiving a wound, who had delivered his English medal to Pike
in 1806, and whose band had been attacked by the Sioux under the walls
of Fort Snelling in 1827. The most famous of the Chippewa chiefs, he was
still living in 1852, being then seventy-eight years old.[483]

The chief of the bands from Gull Lake and Swan River was
Hole-in-the-Day. Energetic, brave, and intelligent, he gained a great
influence over the Chippewas of the upper Mississippi. His name, which
literally meant a bright spot in the sky, is often written
Hole-in-the-Sky. He was a frequent visitor at Fort Snelling and came to
his death at that place in 1847 when he fell from a wagon, breaking his
neck and dying instantly.[484] His brother Strong Ground or Strong Earth
was also present at the council. He had been a member of Flat Mouth's
band at the time of the massacre in 1827. Thirty-six eagle plumes waved
from his head-dress at the time of his death, each of them representing
the scalp of an enemy. The first of these he obtained when as a small
boy he dashed into the ranks of the Sioux during a conflict and scalped
a fallen warrior.[485] Chiefs and warriors from the St. Croix River,
Mille Lac, and Sandy Lake, with their followers, were also encamped near
the fort.

There were also notables among the white men gathered there. The United
States commissioner was Henry Dodge, known as an Indian fighter, and at
that time Governor