A Brief History of South Dakota/Chapter 12
CHAPTER XII
MANUEL LISA, AMERICAN
Captain William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, had before 1812 become General Clark, Indian agent and commander of the militia of the upper Louisiana territory (later called Missouri territory), which included South Dakota and all of the American Northwest. When Manuel Lisa, the wily Spanish trader, returned to St. Louis from his famous boat race to the Ree towns in the summer of 1811, he reported to General Clark that "the Wampum was carrying by British influence along the banks of the Missouri, and all the nations of this great river were excited to join the universal confederacy, then setting on foot, of which The Prophet was the instrument and the British traders the soul."
At this time the Sioux Indians of the Mississippi River were wholly under the influence of the British traders from Canada, from whom they obtained their goods. On the other hand, the Sioux Indians of the Missouri River were under the influence of the French Americans from St. Louis, with whom they traded. It was the British policy to secure the assistance of the Dakota Sioux in the War of 1812, first for whatever assistance they might be able to render in the war, but chiefly that through the alliance the British might secure the Dakota trade. Manuel saw this and at once imparted to General Clark a scheme by which he believed not only that the Dakota trade could be held for the Americans, but that the Mississippi Sioux as well could be made of no value to the English. General Clark was pleased with the plan and gave the execution of it to the Spaniard, who, however bad his principles may have been as a trader, was always a loyal American.
Lisa was made the American agent for all of the Indians on the upper Missouri. He came among them and established a strong post somewhere in the vicinity of the Big Bend. It may have been on American Island at Chamberlain, and it may have been upon Cedar Island just above the bend. Here he maintained a large stock of goods for the Dakota trade, taught the women to raise vegetables, and supplied them with domestic fowls and cattle. He made of his post an asylum where the old men and women and the sick and defective were welcomed and cared for. Then with Spanish diplomacy he set about to create an impression in the minds of the Indians that the Sioux on the Mississippi were their enemies, and he skillfully fomented trouble between the two branches of the Sioux nation. Trusted runners were sent to the Mississippi to hint to the Sioux there that the Dakota Indians were very much incensed at their conduct and were likely to send war parties against them at any time. This kept the Mississippi Sioux at home to protect their families and camps. Lest the too frequent cry of wolf should make the Mississippi Sioux careless and get them to thinking there was no danger, he sent a war party of Omahas against a little band of Iowas, but was careful to see that no general war took place.
Lisa kept his Indians busy hunting and trapping and gave them good trade so that they were generally prosperous, while the Mississippi Sioux, between their expeditions to help the English, and their fear of trouble from the Tetons, neglected their hunting; the British found it very difficult to bring goods to them for trade, owing to the war, and they were thus left very poor and in a miserable condition. By these methods Lisa held the Sioux of the Missouri very strongly to the American interests and was perfectly successful in his plan to make the Mississippi Sioux not only of no value to the English, but actually a burden to them.
When the war was finally over, Manuel perfectly understood conditions among the Indians on both rivers, and he hurried to St. Louis to propose that a great council be immediately called in which all of the Sioux should be invited to participate and that they be thereby drawn to the American interest, both for citizenship and for trade. Clark, now governor of Missouri territory, fully agreed with him, and authorized a council to be held at Portage des Sioux, at the mouth of the Missouri River. Manuel went back to the upper Missouri and gathered up forty of the chiefs and head men of his Dakota Sioux, while Lieutenant Kennerly went to the Mississippi Sioux and secured representatives of all of the bands residing there. The council was called for the fifteenth day of July, 1815, and was within ninety days of the close of hostilities between the English and Americans on the Mississippi. All of the bands joined heartily in a treaty of peace and friendship with the Americans.
Among the chiefs whom Manuel Lisa took down for this council was Black Buffalo, who, while waiting for the council to assemble, died on the night of July 14. He was a Minneconjou and a man of a great deal of power. It will be recalled that he was the principal chief with whom Lewis and Clark counciled, feasted, and quarreled at the mouth of the Teton (at the site of Fort Pierre), from September 25 to 28, 1804, when upon the up trip. He was with his band near Fort Randall when the explorers returned in 1806, and fearing trouble and delay they did not stop to hold communion with him. In 1807 he was in league with the Rees and present in the Ree villages when the attack was made upon the party of Sergeant Pryor and Pierre Chouteau, Sr., who were endeavoring to get Big White to his home, and in the skirmish Black Buffalo was dangerously wounded, the whites supposing he was killed. We next find him at the head of a party of Dakotas whom the Astorians met at the Big Bend in 1811, protesting against the carrying of arms to the Rees and Mandans, with whom the Sioux were then at war. At this time, by reason of his appearance and mild deportment, he made a very favorable impression upon Brakenridge, who was the historian of the expedition. During the ensuing war with Great Britain, Black Buffalo was one of the men upon whom Manuel Lisa relied in his efforts to keep the Missouri River Dakotas friendly to the United States.
Colonel John Miller, with a detachment of the Third Infantry, was present at the council, and at the request of Governor Clark, Black Buffalo was buried with military honors. Indeed he was given the honors of an officer of high rank, and the ceremonies evidently made a deep impression upon the assembled red men, for Big Elk, chief of the Omahas, who delivered one of the funeral orations, said:—
"Do not grieve. Misfortunes will happen to the wisest and best of men. Death will come and always comes out of season. It is the command of the Great Spirit, and all nations and people must obey. What is past and can not be prevented should not be grieved for. Be not displeased or discouraged that in visiting your father here you have lost your chief. A misfortune of this kind may never again befall you, but this would have come to you, perhaps at your own village. Five times have I visited this land and never returned with sorrow or pain. Misfortunes do not flourish particularly in our path. They grow everywhere. What a misfortune for me that I could not have died to-day, instead of the chief who lies before us. The trifling loss my nation would have sustained in my death would have been doubly paid for in the honors of my burial. They would have wiped off everything like regret. Instead of being covered with a cloud of sorrow my warriors would have felt the sunshine of joy in their hearts. To me it would have been a most glorious occurrence. Hereafter, when I die at home, instead of a noble grave and a grand procession, the rolling music and the thunderous cannon, with a flag waving at my head, I shall be wrapped in a robe (an old robe, perhaps), and hoisted on a slender scaffold to the whistling winds, soon to be blown to the earth, my flesh to be devoured by the wolves and my bones rattled on the plains by the wild beasts. Chief of the soldiers, your labors have not been in vain. Your attention shall not be forgotten. My nation shall know the respect that is paid to the dead. When I return, I shall echo the sound of your guns."