8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 8/ 



report was dated " Northwestern Agency, St. Peter's. Iowa Territory, 

 September 30, 1839," and in it he gave a vahiable account of the sev- 

 eral tril)es of the Dakota, with many of whom he was personally ac- 

 quainted. Concerning the " !Medawakantons." occupying the countrv 

 surrounding Fort Snelling. he said in part : " This tribe numbers ex- 

 actly 1,658 souls; 484 warriors, 406 women, and 768 children of all 

 ages. These reside in seven detached villages, composed of bark 

 houses ; and in winter, buffalo, elk, or other skin lodges are resorted to 

 during their migration or hunting ex])editions." These were the people 

 with whom Eastman came in contact and were the subjects frequentlv 

 sketched and painted. But parties of the Ojibway, who claimed and 

 occupied the country north and east of the Mississippi, likewise visited 

 the post, and often members of the two groups, ever enemies, met in 

 the vicinity of the fort and engaged in combat which usuallv resulted 

 in the death or wounding of some. 



Two important villages of the Mdewakanton. " mysterv lake village," 

 of the Santee or eastern division of the Dakota, were then standing 

 a short distance from Fort Snelling. Ka])Osia. the more extensive and 

 better known, was on the right bank of the Mississippi about 12 miles 

 below the mouth of the Saint Peters, or Minnesota River, as the stream 

 was later designated. Little Crow was chief and the village was visited 

 and briefly described by many who ascended the river. Both the bark- 

 covered lodge, in form not unlike that of a log cabin but having the 

 entrance at the t^nd instead of side, and conical skin tipi were to have 

 been seen at the settlement, with an ancient burial ground and manv 

 scaffold burials on the summit of the cliff' which bordered the low- 

 ground over which the habitations were scattered. It is believed that 

 many of I^astman's pictures were sketched at Kaposia. The seconrl of 

 the native villages belonged to another band of the Mdewakanton and 

 was usually known as " Shakopee's Village." from the name of the 

 chief whose home it was. This settlement stood on the banks of the 

 Minnesota River, some miles above its junction with the Mississippi, 

 in the present Scott County, Minn. 



Far down the Mississippi, about 140 miles l)elow the mouth of the 

 Minnesota River, was the important \illage of \\'ai)asha. on the right 

 bank of the river. ()ccup\ing part of " Wahbasha's Prairie." now within 

 the bounds of Winona County. A I inn. The name Wabasha, " the red 

 leaf." was applied to a long line of chiefs of the Mdewakanton. long 

 liefore they had been driven from the shores of Mille Lac and forced 

 to seek a new home on the banks of the Mississippi, when they estab- 

 lished the most southern village of their tribe, the first to be encoun- 

 tered when ascending the river. 



