|
Fort
Snelling Internment Camp
Eye Witness Report from
Maza Okiye Win (Isabel Roberts) in 1862 as told to and carried by Elsie
Cavender. Part Three. "It was on this trip that my maternal grandmother's grandmother was killed by white soldiers. My grandmother, Maza Okiye Win, was ten years old at the time and she remembers everything that happened on this journey. The killing took place when they came to a bridge that had no guard rails. The horses or stock were getting restless and were very thirsty. So, when they saw water they wanted to get down to the water right away, and they couldn't hold them still. So, the women and children all got out, including my grandmother, her mother, and her grandmother. When all this commotion started the soldiers came running to the scene and demanded to know what was wrong. But most of them [the Dakota] couldn't speak English and so couldn't talk. This irritated them and right away they wanted to get rough and tried to push my grandmother's mother and her grandmother off the bridge, but they only succeeded in pushing the older one off and she fell in the water. Her daughter ran down and got her out and she was all wet, so she took her shawl off and put it around her. After this they both got back up on the bridge with the help of the others who were waiting there, including the small daughter, Maza Okiye Win. She was going to put her mother in the wagon, but it was gone. They stood there not knowing what to do. She wanted to put her mother someplace where she could be warm, but before they could get away, the soldier came again and stabbed her mother with a saber. She screamed and hollered in pain, so she [her daughter] stooped down to help her. But her mother said, "Please daughter, go. Don't mind me. Take your daughter and go before they do the same thing to you. I'm done for anyway. If they kill you the children will have no one." Though she was in pain and dying she was still concerned about her daughter and little granddaughter who was standing their and witnessed all this. The daughter left her mother there at the mercy of the soldiers, as she knew she had a responsibility as a mother to take care of her small daughter. "Up to today we don't even know where my grandmother's body is. If only they had given the body back to us we could have given her a decent funeral," Grandma said. So, at night, Grandma's mother had gone back to the bridge where her mother had fallen. She went there but there was no body. There was blood all over the bridge but the body was gone. She went down to the bank. She walked up and down the bank. She even waded across to see if she could see anything on the other side, but no body, nothing. So she came back up. She went on from there not knowing what happened to her or what they did with the body. So she really felt bad about it. When we were small Grandma used to talk about it. She used to cry. We used to cry with her. "
(published in Waziyatawin, "Grandmother to Grandaughter: Generations of Oral Tradition in a Dakota Family," in Devon Mihesuah, ed., Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians) Copyright of this report belongs to Waziyatawin Thank you Waziyatawin for sharing this story with those who care. An almost up to date report in a couple of days |
|
Day 4. December 13th 2019 Prayer for today Good morning relatives,
Route for today.
The Ride continues and goes from Woonsocket to Howard, 38 miles. Tonight the Riders will stay at the Howard 4H building and the horses will be staying at the Howard fair grounds. Breakfast will be provided by the Woonsocket Ladies , Lunch and Dinner will be at the Chuck Wagon with Josette and Keith.
From our Members: From Nancy Kohn Raven
Photos from todays Ride:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dakota 38 + 2 Memorial Ride Supporters group on Facebook Historic photographs courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society Website mostly written and Created by Gloria Hazell Derby Dragonfly Dezignz © 2019 to date |
