NO. 3 SETH EASTMAN BUSHNELL II 



nesota. al)Out nine miles long and three miles wide, occulted bv the 

 chief Wapasha (or Red-Leaf) and his band of Sioux, whose bark- 

 lodges are seen at the upper end of the prairie." And that same day, 

 after leaving Lake Pepin, " an hidian village, called Red Wing, 

 inhabited by a tribe of Siou.x is seen on the Minnesota shore. It 

 appears to contain about one dozen bark lodges, and half as many 

 conical lodges, covered with bufl'alo skins : also, a log or frame house, 

 occupied by a missionary. Indian children were seen running, in 

 frolicsome mood, over the green prairie, and Indian females were pad- 

 dling their canoes along the shore. This village is near the mouth of 

 Cannon River." ' The next day, ]May 17, he passed Kaposia, then 

 consisting of some 40 skin lodges and having a population of about 

 300. 



Such were the native villages along the banks of the Mississippi in 

 Minnesota just before the organization of the State. 



The small water color reproduced in Plate 8 is believed to have 

 been made on the bank of the ^linnesota River, above Fort Snelling. 

 and may be a sketch of Shakopee's village. It is signed and dated 

 1848 and was probably made just before Eastman was detached from 

 Fort Snelling. Some beautiful pencil <lrawings made about this time 

 are also reproduced, one being entitled : " Sioux Indians Playing the 

 Game of the Plum Stones" (pi. 9), which was later engraved, and 

 ■' Buffalo Hunt of the Sioux Indians" (pi. 10). in which the artist 

 recorded the use of the spear, bow and arrow, and gun, in' the mounted 

 hunters. 



The report of the Indian Agent, dated " Saint Peters Indian 

 Agency, Sept. 15, 1847," refers to the condition of the Sioux as 

 " more favorable the past year. Buft'alo, al)Out the head of St. Peters 

 River, have been much more abundant than usual, which is to be ac- 

 counted for by the fact that prairies farther north were burned over, 

 so that these animals were driven to seek subsistence in a more south- 

 ern region." This may have enabled Captain Eastman to have wit- 

 nessed the hunting of the buft'alo by the Indians nearer Fort Snelling 

 than formerly, and some of his sketches were possibly made at that 

 time. 



As already mentioned, many of the pencil sketches that Eastman 

 made during the years he was stationed at Fort Snelling were copied 

 and worked up in after years when he had returned to Washington. 

 Two examples are shown in Plate it. illustrating two phases of the 

 process of dressing a deer skin, which he had undoubtedly witnessed 



' Seymour, K. S., Sketclies of Alinnesota. Xew York, 1850. 



