University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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W.{ t tate mxh Mittbersitg

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By Alherl t M„rsc WHEN THE continental ice sheet retreated iiortliward over Nlinnoota. tlicrc lolldwcd tlu- ;iV)oris;ine, believed to be the ancestor of the modern Eskimo. Then the Indian asserted his claim of ownership, and the woods and rolling ])rairies became his hnnlint; ' ground. But he was. before long, awakened from his dream of si)lcndiil isolation. The covetous eyes of Enro])0 were ([uick to jierceive the beauty of the new world, and the Red Skin was humbled bv the White Man. Relics found at Little Falls indicate the activity of (|uartz workers in that ncighiiorlKiod about seven thousand years ago, long before the King Tutankhamen ruled the Egy))tian em] ire. This race, the earliest in Minnesota of which there is evidence, apparently lived in the locality of Little Falls while the continental glacier was still in the northern part of the state. It i.s thought that they were the ancestors of the Eskimos, and that they followed the ice sheet in its northward re- treat over Canada. French explorers, groping their way westwani in (picst of fortmie and adventure, found the Sioux hidians in control of the country between the Mississiijpi river and the Rocky mountains. The second western expedition of Medaril Chouart and Pierre DEsprit, more familiarly known as Sieiu ' des (Iroseilliers and Sieur de Radisson, is generally regarded as having taken them in KiOO to the neighborhood of Knife lake, in Kanaliec county. This gives them the dislinclion of being the first white men to enter the area now known as linnesota. The part of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi came under American control at the close of the Revolutionary war, and when the Louisiana Purchase was made in 1803, the United States acquired the entire area of the state through the addition of the section west of the river. Two years later. President Jefferson sent an expedition under Lieutenant Zelnilon Montgomery Pike, at that time twenty-six years of age, to sign |)eace treaties with the Indians and to exclude British trading posts from the region at the headwaters of the Mississippi. .Vnd the rai)id development of the state is largely due to the accomplishments of Pike, later a brigadier general, who was killed in the War of 1812 when he was leading an attack u|)on Toronto, Canada. On September twenty- first. Pike reached the confluence of the Mississi])pi and Minnesota rivers and cam])ed on the western side of the island which now bears his name. The next day he delivered an elo [uent and convincing oration before a band of 150 Sioux warriors, headed by Little Crow, grandfather of the Indian by that name who led the Sioux outbreak in 18G2. He ex|)lained the object of his tri]); gave notice that the L ' nited States were free from English rule; and criticized the Canadian traders who were responsible for the warfare of the Chii)pewa against the Sioux. The chief ac- complishment of Pike at this conference was to execute the first deed signed in the state. .Vrticle A modern licu of Grand Pc ringe. oldest aetttement lU M inni ' soia. in its ex- treiiic north-can tern corner «f llir Stcilf. Page 25