The Way It Was; 5

The following program was originally released in 1969. No tribe considered revenge a more sacred duty than the Winnebagos. It was their ancient custom to take five lives for one. And it is notorious on the frontier is that no blood of theirs has been shed that has not been fully of then aged. They used to or some part of the body of a slain enemy about them as a testimonial of prowess. We will remember a grim Winnebago was wont to present himself before whites with a human hand on his breast. He had taken it from a Yankee soldier to pick a no. The way it was. Presenting eyewitness accounts of historic events material for this series has been selected from the files of the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Today the story of Red Bird. Before the outbreak of the Winnebago war of eighteen twenty seven thousands of settlers had encroached on Winnebago territory in southwestern Wisconsin northwestern Illinois searching for fur and leather. Some of the most important discoveries of lead or were on the lands of the Winnebagos who work their own mines and were jealous of the intruders. The Indians long smouldering resentment came to a head in 1826 when word reached the Winnebago village of Chief Red Bird that two Winnebago prisoners at Fort Snelling Minnesota had been killed and their bodies cut to pieces. It is recollections of the early period a sheen. Army Officer William Snelling described how the story reached the Indian village. Certain Dakota ambassadors arrived at Redbirds village with a lie in their

mouths. They said you have become a by word of reproach among us. You have given the Chippewas reason to laugh it you and the big knives also laugh at you. Lo while they were among you they dared not offend you. But now they have caused why Mungo's gherao and his companion to be put to death. And they have cut their bodies into pieces not bigger than the spots in a garter. The tail is believed and a cry for vengeance rose throughout the village. According to Indian beliefs every man needs his whole body to enter the great beyond. If the big knives as the Indians call the white man had mutilated the bodies the men who died could not enter the spirit world. The leading chiefs of the Winnebagos Council to ponder what action was to be taken. Their decision to take scalps was recalled by Colonel Thomas McKinney in his memoirs of the Winnebago war chiefs the result of dawn enforcing the

Indian's law retaliation Redbird was called upon to go out and take meat as they phrase it. Not wishing to appear colored he undertook the enterprise secretly rejoicing that a business had been referred to him for he resolved to make a circuit and return saying he could find no meat. He did so and was a braided and taunted and called coward and told he knew very well if he had the spirit to avenge the wrongs of his people he could by going to the prairie get as much meat as he could bring home. This fired him and he reckoned to redeem his character is a brave and beckoning that we come when another Indian he told him to follow him. On June 26 or 27 18 27 Redbird and his two companions entered the home of Mrs. James H Lockwood British in Wisconsin and after frightening her and her servant went on to the farm a raise East news daughter Mary Louise described what happened at the farm and a long letter written years later.

I will tell the story as learned from my mother. After dinner the family consisting of father mother kept. An old man living with. My brother Frank who was 3 years old myself nearly 10 and Pascoe a visit to. Having an after dinner. For him who had reached the door unnoticed entered the room. My mother placed her bag and be seated. Hungry. And watching them she said to father mean to do last. Father. His gun was to a joint over

the. Signified little son. To my father with his. Gun concealed under his position and took down my. Father instantly rose the gun from him. A little fired his concealed gun. During the right breast of my father. The house was filled with powder smoke. My little brother was crying mother picked him up out of the House over the fence near the house. They made her way over the fence

and dropped one of the who was away from him threw the mother into the house. Under the father was not dead but could not speak or move but made motions with his switch from the Joseph. She told him what had helped her. He mounted his horse and rode away without a word. She then returned to the house.

Father who still live and get away. Mother the end with my little brother have made her way into the timber close to the house in her flight she noticed a large soft maple tree which had been blown down. The place where it stood was surrounded by a dense growth of brush. She crept into this and into the cavity made by uprooting the tree placed Frank crouching over him remained almost breathless until within twelve feet of her hiding place. The Indians killed cap with their knives. Mutilating him and taking his scalp. My mother was not discovered. The Indians then returned to the house. Passed from a place of concealment. Took this opportunity to make his way to the village. He reached exhausted the house of Julian la Riviere.

He there found Frank desu Kit who mounted his horse and alarmed the people who turned out to the rescue. A mother in the meantime was searching for the road to the village. When she saw the people coming to their relief. I had crept from under the bed to the door when the Indians returned to the house. Little son in testimony given at the trial of himself and the chief Redbird said that he first gave the child a kick on the left hip and then with the gun barrel in his hands struck her with the breech of the gun on the right shoulder and with his knife struck her in the back of the neck intending to behead her and carry the head away with him. At this moment the other Indians outside the house shouted that people are coming he said. I then took her

scalp and with it part of the skull. He then scalped my father down who was dying face he said the tears were flowing at witnessing the horror and butchery of myself. When the rescue party reached the house my father was dead. I was lying in a pool of my own blood. I'm supposed to be dead. Son of Julian wrapped me in his handkerchief and carried me to his father's house. Hours later. Being prepared a toy to bury. You know. I was first discovered to be alive. And by careful and tender care under kind Providence was restored to help. The same day as the incident it is fine to kill boats coming down the Mississippi bound for prayer were fired upon by Indians from the

shore. Among the passengers aboard was William Snelling who included a description of the attack and his recollections of early prayer. Oh. During the absence of Redbird and his companions 37 of the warriors who acknowledge the authority of Redbird had assembled with their wives and children near the mouth of bad acts river they received the murderers with exceeding great joy and love approbation of the exploit. A keg of liquor was immediately set approach. The red men began to drink and as their spirits rose to boast of what they had already done and intended to do. They were at about four in the afternoon dissipating the last fumes of their excitement in the scalp dance when they decried one of the keel boats approaching

forth with the proposal to take here and massacre the crew was made and carried by acclamation. The boats had descended the river together as far as the village of WABA Shah where they expected an attack. The Indians on shore were dancing a war dance and hailed their approach with insults and menace. But did not nevertheless offer to obstruct their passage. The whites Now suppose the danger over and a strong wind at that moment beginning to blow up stream the boats parted company that which sat deepest in the water had the advantage of the undercurrent and of course gained several miles in advance of the others. So stay. Wrong was the wind that all of the force of sweeps could scarcely stem it. And by the time the foremost boat was near the encampment at the mouth of the bags the crew were very willing to stop and rest one or two Frenchmen who are on board observed hostile appearances on shore and advised the rest

to keep the middle of the stream. But their council was disregarded most of the crew were Americans though as usual with our countryman combined a profound ignorance of Indian character with a thorough contempt for Indian prowess. They urged the boat directly toward the camp then men were teasing their friends companions about their apprehensions on the boat. Was within 30 yards of the shore when suddenly the trees and rocks rang with the blood chilling ear piercing tones of the war whoop and a volley of rifle balls rained upon the deck. Happily the Winnebagos had not yet recovered from the effects of the end of March and their arms were not studying. Only one man fell by their lawyer. He was a little negro named Peter. His leg was dreadfully shattered and he afterwards died of the wound. Then Peter began to curse and to swear damning his fellows for leaving him to be shot at like a Christmas turkey. But finding that his reproaches had no effect he also

managed to drag himself below. A second volley came from the shore but as the men were now lying prone in the bottom of the boat below the waterline. They all escaped with one. The Winnebagos encouraged by the non resistance now rushing to their canoes with intent to board in the meanwhile. The white man had recovered from their first panic and seized their arms. The orders were received with a very severe dis church one for no two savages who were killed with the same bullet. Several more were wounded and those who remained on Heard put back satisfied that a storm was not the best mode of attack. Tool however persevered they were together in one canoe and approached the boat a stern where there were no holes through which the whites could fire upon them. They soon leaped on board one seized a long steering oar rudder the other jumped upon deck where he halted and discharged five muskets which had been left there by the crew fly below threw the deck into the bottom of the boat in this manner he wounded one man

very severely. After this exploit He hurried to the bar where he seized a long pole and with the assistance of the steersman succeeded in grounding the boat on a sand bar and fixing our fast under the fire of his people. To Winnebago boatmen then began to load and fire till they no small annoyance of the crew. At the stern was soon dispatched one of the lights served his. Mission through a crack and gave them a mortal wound through the boards. Still he struggled to get over board probably to save his scalp but his struggles were feeble in the second well and terminated them before he could affect his object. After the fight was over the white man who slew him took his scout. The bow of the boat was open and the warrior there still kept the station out of sight accepting when he stopped the fire which he did five times. A sailor named Saucy Jack Mandeville shot him through the head and he fell overboard carrying his gun with him. From that moment Mandeville

assumed the command of the book a few and resolved to take the skiff and leave the rest to their fate. They had already cast off the rope. Jack interposed the clearing and he would shoot the first man and bayonet the second who had persevered and they submitted. Afterwards they fought like bulldogs after the two or three first volleys the fire had slackened but it was not therefore the less dangerous. The Indians had the advantage of superior numbers and could shift their positions of pleasure. The lights were compelled to line the bottom of the boat below the water mark for its sides were without bulwarks every bullet passed through and through. It was only at intervals and very warily that they could rise to fire with a flash of every gun show the position of the marksman and was instantly followed by the reports of two or three Indian rifles. On the other hand. They were not seen and being thinly scattered over a large boat the Winnebagos could not guess their position. The fire was therefore slow.

Or none on either side cared to waste ammunition for upwards of three hours. Both men lay and blood and Bilgewater deprived of the free use of their limbs and wholly unable to extricate themselves during the height of battle. The day was saved when Saucy Jack Mandeville leaped overboard calling for assistance with the aid of four men who succeeded in pushing the boat off the sand bar thereby setting it afloat and enabling an escape. About sunset the boat arrived the British carrying the dead and wounded of the crew and bearing the marks of about five hundred shots on its ballance sides. News of the attack on the keel boats and of the incident at gun use farm travel quickly panicky settlers were soon fleeing to prairie to Sheen at the village they proceeded to fortify themselves and prepare for what they believed was an impending attack. Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan hastily organized military detachments from St. Louis

Missouri Aleena Illinois Fort Snelling Minnesota and Fort Howard Wisconsin and ordered them to meet at the Portage of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers to discuss a treaty with the Winnebagos. Among the officers at the Portage was a special commissioner from the War Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs. Colonel Thomas McKinney the object of the joint expedition was to put a stop to any further aggression of the sort that Winnebagos had been advised that the security of their people lay in the surrender of the murderers. The first intimation that this primary object would be accomplished was given the day after our arrival at the Portage in a very mysterious way. I was sitting at the door of my tent when an Indian with nothing over him but a blanket came up to the bluff and walking to the tent seated himself beside it. I inquired through an interpreter what was the object of his visit. After musing awhile he said do not strike. When the sun is there tomorrow and looking up and pointing to

about three o'clock in the afternoon they will come in who will come in I asked Red Bird and weak he answered. The moment he gave the answer he rose wrapped his blanket about him and with hurried steps returned by the way he had come. At about 3 o'clock the same day another Indian came and took his position in nearly the same place in the same way. When two like questions he gave like answers and at sundown a third came confirming what the other two had said. With the addition that he had to secure that object given the families of the murderers nearly all his property there was something heroic in his voluntary surrender. The giving away of property to the families of the guilty parties had nothing to do with their determination to devote themselves to the good of their people but only to reconcile those who were about to be bereaved. The heroism in the purpose is seen in the fact

that the murders committed to Prairie du scene were not wanton. But in retaliation for wrongs committed upon this people by whites the parties murdered at the Prairie were doubtless innocent of the wrongs and outrages of which the Indians complained but the law of Indian retaliation does not require that he alone who commits a wrong shall suffer for it. One scalp is held to be do another. No matter from whose head it's taken. Provided it be torn from the crown of the family or people may have made a resort to this law unnecessary. Noon the next day they were seen descending a mound of Portage a body of Indians somewhere mounted somewhere on foot. Three flags were borne by two one in front. And one in the rear where America and one in the center was white. They bore no arms. In the course of half an hour

they had approached within a short distance of the crossing of the Fox River. When we heard a sink. Those who were familiar with the air said its a death song. And still nearer some present who knew him said it is red bird singing his death song. The moment a halt was made on the margin of the river preparatory to crossing over to scalp yellows were heard. In the nominees and other Indians who had accompanied us were lying carelessly around on the ground regardless of what was going on but when a scalp yells were uttered they sprang as one man to their feet seized their rifles and were ready for battle. They were at no loss to know that the Elves were scalped yells. But they had not heard with sufficient accuracy to decide whether they indicated Scouts to be taken or given. But doubtless inferred the first.

Now the advance of the Indians had reached half up the ascent of the bluff and the lead was car Amani walking turtle distinguished car Amani spoke. They are here Braves they have come in. Treat them as Braves do not put them in irons. I told him I was not a big captain. His talk must be made to Major Whistler. The military had been previously drawn out in line. They Menominee and while binocular Indians were in groups upon their haunches on our left flank on the right the band of music a little in advance of the line in the front of center at about ten paces distant where the murderers the magnificent red bird. And the miserable looking weak how all eyes were fixed on red bird.

Well they might be for of all the Indians I ever saw. He is without exception the most perfect in form in face gesture in height. He is about 6 feet straight but without restraint. His proportions are those of the most exact symmetry and these embrace the entire man from his head to his feet. I never beheld a face that was so full of all the ennobling at the same time the most winning expression. I could not but ask myself Can this man be a murderer. Is he the same who shot scalped and cut the throat of gag near. There he stood not nor was the expression of his face changed a particle. He appeared to be conscious that according to Indian Law and measuring the DDA had committed by the injustices and wrongs cruelties of the white man he had done no wrong. The light which had shone upon his bosom from the law which demanded an eye for an eye so

harmonized with his conscience as to secure its repose. He was there prepared to receive the blow that should consign his body to the ground and send his spirit to that blissful region to mingle with his fathers who had gone before him. After a moment's pause a quick survey of the troops he spoke saying I am ready. And then advancing a step or two he paused saying I do not wish to be put in irons. I have given away my life. It is gone. Stooping took some dust in his finger and thumb blew it away. In the dust as it fell and vanished from his sight. Like that he added I would not take it. Yes gone. Having spoken he threw his hands behind him to indicate that he was leaving all things behind him and marched briskly up to major Whistler breast to breast.

Platoon was wheeled backward from the center of the line. Major Whistler stepping aside Redbird and we marched through the line in charge of a file a man who attempted had been provided for him in the rear where a guard was set over him. Red Bird was denied the noble death his surrender had seemingly prefaced according to one report an epidemic then raging in the village was the cause of Redbirds death. Some claim he died from the effects of his confinement. One writer states that he died of a broken heart. Most say simply he died in prison a few months after his surrender. A year later the other prisoners were sentenced to be hanged the day after Christmas 18 28. But in November of that year President John Quincy Adams granted them a pardon on the implied condition that the Winnebagos for ever relinquish their claim to the land they had along held

the threat of a border war with the Winnebagos and other Indian nations in Wisconsin was temporarily ended and more settlers than ever flocked to mine the Rich fled deposits on the former Indian land. The way it was presenting eyewitness accounts of historic events. Today the story of Rydberg. Material for this series was selected from the files of the Wisconsin State Historical Society. Consulted for the series. Doris Plante scripts by Beth music by contempt for production. Ralph Johnson. This is the national educational radio network. Originally released in 1069 the program you've just heard is from the

program library of National Public Radio.