hem. In addition, as if all the
accidents were destined to be adverse, the session of Congress was very
long, the Appropriation Bill, which included the Indian appropriations,
did not pass until the day before the adjournment, and the immense
pressure of business on the Departments, and the great difficulty of
obtaining coin, all occasioned long and unusual delays. The coin,
$71,000 in silver (Indians understand silver coin, and will scarcely
take any other), was finally shipped by express from the sub-treasury in
New York city, on the 12th of August, reached St. Paul on the 16th, and
was immediately despatched by private conveyance to Yellow Medicine, via
Fort Ridgely, at which latter place it arrived on the 18th.

The Indians came down to the Agency at Yellow Medicine about the middle
of July, to the number of four thousand, men, women, and children. Here
they remained in waiting some three weeks. Provisions, in small
quantities, were given to them, but for so large a number of mouths the
rations were scanty. This supply, with the few wild ducks and pigeons
which they could shoot from time to time, the little flour they were
able to buy on credit from the trading houses, and the half-grown
potatoes they stole from the fields, enabled them to eke out a scanty
subsistence.

As might be readily imagined, this state of things bred great
discontent. On the morning of the 4th of August, a large number of
Indians came over from their encampment, and some on horseback, and some
on foot, with guns and hatchets, rushed to the door of the warehouse,
cut it down, and commenced carrying out bags of flour. The few soldiers
who were stationed at the Agency, were, as well as the Agent and
employes, taken completely off their guard by this movement; but in a
short time they recovered themselves; got a field piece loaded and
turned upon the crowd, and sent a squad of soldiers to the warehouse. At
these preparations, the Indians desisted; but the military force was too
small to make more than a formal demonstration. The pile of flour taken
out of the warehouse had not been carried away, and while the soldiers
prevented this being done, the Indians placed a guard to hinder its
being recovered by the whites. Thus they stood during the remainder of
the day, in an attitude of mutual defiance, yet neither party was
willing to inaugurate hostilities. The next morning, when the Indians
again as usual flocked down to the Agency, a couple of ar