198 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND EPHNOGRAPHY. 
in short, all public interests. From these headquarters they send out from 
time to time runners, who bring back information of the whereabouts of the 
bison herds. From this lodge goes out the camp crier, who makes procla- 
mation of the time and place of the buffalo surround. And from this same 
central place of power go forth the young men who are commissioned to 
cut up the tent and the blankets, or break the gun and kill the horse of one 
who has transgressed the laws of the Ti-yo-ti-pi. And when the hunt of 
the day is past, and the buffalo meat brought in, the breast or some nice 
piece is roasted or boiled here, and the young men gather to eat and smoke 
and sing and tell over the exploits of the day. It will not then surprise 
any one to know that this Soldiers’ Lodge became the central force in the 
outbreak of 1862. 
In the summer before the outbreak took place, there was quite a trou- 
ble at the Yellow Medicine. The payment was promised to these annuity 
Indians when the strawberries were ripe, that is the last of June or the first 
of July of each year. This season the Sisseton came down earlier perhaps 
than usual, and the annuity money and goods were delayed much beyond 
time. About 4,000 Indians were gathered at the Yellow Medicine, where 
they waited about six weeks. The small amount of provisions on hand 
Agent Galbraith wished to keep until the time of making the payment. 
The corn and potatoes planted by Indians living in the neighborhood had 
not yet matured. Consequently this multitude of men, women, and chil- 
dren were for more than a month on the borders of starvation. Some flour 
was obtained from traders, and the agent gave them small quantities; they 
eathered some berries in the woods and occasionally obtained a few duc ks. 
sut by all these means they scarcely kept starvation off. They said the 
children cried for some thing to eat. 
Standing Buffalo was the principal chief of these northern Indians. 
They were encamped in a large circle on the prairie immediately west of 
the agency. It was now along in the first days of August. Hunger pressed 
upon them. They knew there was flour in the warehouse which had been 
purchased tor them. It would not be wrong for them to take it in their 
present necessitous circumstances. Thus they reasoned; and although a 
detachment of soldiers from Fort Ridgeley had their camp near the ware- 
house, the Indians planned to break in and help themselves. 
So it was, on a certain day, the men came down to the agency five or 
six hundred strong and surrounded the soldiers’ camp. The white people 
thought they had come to dance; but while they stood around in great 
