135

X. Soldiers of the Cross 146

XI. The Fashionable Tour 159

XII. The Chippewa Treaty of 1837 176

XIII. Citizens and Soldiers 187

Notes and References 205

Index 251

I

A CENTURY AND A HALF OF FOREIGN RULE

On an autumn day in 1766 Captain Jonathan Carver stood upon the bluff
which rises at the junction of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers and
viewed the wonderful landscape of prairie and wooded valleys that lay
before him. As a captain in the colonial troops of Connecticut he had
served his king faithfully in the late war with France; and now in the
days of peace which followed the glorious victory he sought to continue
his usefulness by exploring the vast regions which had been added to the
domains of Great Britain and Spain. Three years of travel in the
wilderness taught him that those wild lands would not always be the
haunt of savage animals and wandering tribes.

"To what power or authority this new world will become dependent, after
it has arisen from its present uncultivated state, time alone can
discover", he later wrote. "But as the seat of Empire, from time
immemorial has been gradually progressive towards the West, there is no
doubt but that at some future period, mighty kingdoms will emerge from
these wildernesses, and stately palaces and solemn temples, with gilded
spires reaching the skies, supplant the Indian huts, whose only
decorations are the barbarous trophies of their vanquished enemies."[1]

Not until the twenty-fourth day of August, 1819, when less than a
hundred soldiers of the Fifth United States Infantry disembarked
opposite the towering height where a few years later rose the white
walls of Fort Snelling, did the nation which was to rule assert its
power. The event was, indeed, epochal. It not only marked a change in
the sovereignty over the vast region, but it also made possible the
development of those factors which were to bring about the great
transformation.

It was for the "upper country" that this fort was built--a country
stretching from the Great Lakes across the wooded headwaters of the
Mississippi and Minnesota rivers to the plains of the Missouri. The
history of this region is marked by several distinct periods: the coming
of the French tr