Acton, Minnesota

The Tragedy at Acton Township

The memorial at the site of the Jones homestead.

What was Minnesota like in August of 1862?

In 1862 the Civil War consumed the attention of most Americans.  Minnesota had only been a state for a few years.  In order to attract settlers and free up farm land, the government had made a deal with the Dakota Indians who occupied Minnesota.  Europeans first met the Dakota in the 1650’s.  Seven major tribal groups existed in Minnesota;  the Sisseton, the Yankton, the Tetons, the Yantonais, the Mdewakanton, the Wahpeton, and the Wahpekute.  The Mdewakanton occupied the Mississippi River Valley and traded with the Europeans.  By 1820 the game herds on the Minnesota prairie were becoming depleted.  The eastern Sioux were being pushed west by settlers.  In 1857 a treaty was signed in which the Mdewakanton relinquished their lands in exchange for reservations that were created along the Minnesota River.  The reservation was to be shared by four tribes that consisted of six thousand people. 

The Lower Sioux Agency included well-tended fields, storage buildings, homes for government agents, and a boarding school.  Stores were built by traders who settled in the area.  There were one hundred white settlers living on agency land.

In 1855 the U.S. Government provided the tribes with cash annuities.  The Indians were expected to settle on reservation land and in return they would be given food, taught how to farm, and taught Christianity.  There were nine bands of the Mdewakanton tribe that settled on the Lower Sioux Agency.

The Upper Sioux Agency was the home of the Sisseton and Wahpeton tribes which were made up of four thousand Indians.  The agency boasted new buildings, which even included a  hotel.  There were also missionaries who served the agency.

In 1862 there was a conflict in the spring over debts that were owned to the traders who lived on the agency.  The annuities promised to the tribes were only given to those who had cut their hair and were living as farmers.  The Civil War kept Congress from appropriating the funds in time for springtime distribution.  (Anderson, 8-12)

What happened at Acton on August 17, 1862?

Because of the lack of food available to the tribe, hunting parties would leave the reservation.  Young men went off to hunt in the Big Woods in Wahpeton territory. On Sunday, August 17, four Indians were traveling home to the Minnesota River via the Pembina-Henderson trail from a hunting trip to the Kandiyohi County area.  At noon they approached the homestead of Robinson Jones in Acton Township, approxiamately three miles southwest of Grove City.  The Indians knew Jones and his wife, who ran the general store.  The Indians were Brown Wing, Breaking Up, Kiilling Ghost, and Runs Against Something When Crawling.  They took some eggs near the fence and a quarrel broke out between two of the Indians over whether they had the right to take the eggs.  The quarrel escalated and one of the Indians dared another to shoot a white man.  The Indians approached the home and demanded liquor form Jones.  Jones and his two children were home, Clara D. Wilson, who was 15 year olds, and an eighteen month old son.  Mrs. Jones was visiting another son, Howard Baker, who lived about a half mile northeast of the Jones farm.  Jones left the store and went to the Baker residence.  The Indians challenged the white men to a target shoot.  Instead the Indians shot the settlers, including Viranus Webster, who was a young settler from Wisconsin.  She was staying at the Baker farm in a covered wagon when she was killed.  Howard Baker, the son of Mrs. Jones form her first marriage, was killed.   Both Mr. and Mrs. Jones were killed.  Mrs. Webster hid in a covered wagon.  Mrs. Baker hid with a child in the cellar.  The Indians went back to the Jones home and killed Clara Wilson.  Word of the murders spread to Forest City and a party of men went to the Jones’ home.  (Carley, 7-8)

How did the actions of four teenagers led to a war?

On the evening of August 17, the four Indians returned to the Rice Creek Village.  Red Middle Voice, the head of the village, believed that there would be trouble for the whole village.  He knew that because white women had been killed, soldiers would come.  He feared that the village would lose their annuity.  They were already outsiders at the Lower Sioux Agency.  They had separated from Shakopee because they were considered troublemakers.  They had moved from the Upper Sioux Reservation to the Lower Sioux. After the murder, Red Middle Voice moved his people back to Shakopee’s village.  Shakopee saw the incident as an opportunity to go to war with the whites.  He knew that he would need support from those living at the Lower Sioux Reservation.  He called for a council of chiefs at Little Crow’s village.  The Sioux leaders who were summoned included Mankato, Wabasha, Traveling Hail, and Big Eagle.  Little Crow lived in a house built by the U.S. government.  He told Shakopee to go to Traveling Hail for support.  He believed that Shakopee’s warriors were influenced by whiskey.  He did not want to start a war with the whites because he did not feel that there was any way that they could win.  However, he agreed to lead the Sioux in a war that would drive white settlers from the Minnesota River Valley.  He wanted to regain his position as speaker for the Lower Sioux tribes.  He also welcomed the chance to be a military leader.  (Carley 10-11)

According to Big Eagle, the Uprising had many causes.  The Sioux were dissatisfied with the actions of the whites.  They were forbidden to make war with their enemies.  They were being pressured into acculturation of a new and foreign culture.   The Sioux felt that the traders were cheating them.  They were offered credit rather than access to government payments on their annuity.  The creditors refused to allow late payments.  The whites abused the Indians, especially the women.  They believed they were better than Indians.  Not only was their conflict between whites and Indians, there was also conflict among the Sioux.  Some had adopted farming, while others continued to pursue the traditional lifestyle.  This conflict became apparent when Traveling Hail was elected to fill Little Crow’s position as speaker for the tribe.  Shakopee, the elder who was supportive of the whites, died, and his voice of reason and compromise was lost.  Indians were aware of the Civil War and the absence of the white soldiers who left to fight.  They believed that the North would lose the war and their treaty would be void.  Another source of conflict was the new Indian agents who were assigned to the Lower Sioux Agency.  The tribe did not like them; they were not respected as warriors.  The summer of 1862 produced a good crop which favored the farmers, but did not help the tribe. All of these events stirred up a desire to push the white settlers off the land and return to the ways of the past.  (Anderson, 24-25)

Dakota War of 1862:  Minnesota's Other Civil War by Kenneth Carley, published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 2001.

Through Dakota Eyes:  Narrative Accounts of the Minnesota Indian War of 1862  by Gary Clayton Anderson, published by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1980.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Who was she?

Laura Ingalls Wilder is a beloved American author whose simple style of writing is biographical and easily absorbed by people of all ages and languages.  She was one of many people who traveled westward in the 19th century to settle the prairies of Dakota Territory.  Laura was born in the Big Woods of Pepin, Wisconsin and lived there with her parents and older sister.  As a child her family moved to Minnesota, Iowa, and South Dakota where her father earned his living as a farmer, hotel manager, and railroad employee.  Her story captures the spirit of those who followed their dreams of a better life.  After working as a teacher for two years, Laura married another homesteader.  She kept a journal about her experiences that was published in a local newspaper.  Later, in the 1920's, she began writing the series of books that has become an early source of history for many young Americans.

According to her book, On The Banks of Plum Creek, Laura and her family lived in a sod house close to a small body of water named Plum Creek outside of Walnut Grove. The farm included 172 acres of fertile prairie.  The house was purchased from a Norwegian settler named Anders Haroldson.  Visitors to Walnut Creek can travel to a farm north of town to visit Plum Creek and see the site where the dugout used to be.  The Ingalls never had success as farmers on this land.  Charles should have made a nice profit with the wheat he planted, but a grasshopper plague ruined all of it.  After three years with no success the family moved to Iowa to manage a hotel.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove has built a replica of the dugout.

Why is she important?

Laura Ingalls Wilder was one of the first to write about Pioneer History.  She provides us with an early example of how everyday, ordinary life can be used by historians.  Keeping a journal and creating fictionalized accounts of actual events has value to historians.  Her books are used to create a vivid picture of Pioneer Life for children.  Her characters draw people to study this time in history.  Her voice paved the way for others who want to write about social and cultural history in addition to focusing on biographies of important leaders and inventors.

How is she remembered today?

Here's the interesting thing about Laura Ingalls Wilder.  She wrote about her experiences on the Minnesota and Dakota prairie at the end of the 19th century.  She had no intent to record history.   Her purpose was to record the stories of her life.  However, her stories are based on her life and not completely factual.  Names and some events have been changed.  This is understandable as most people do not want someone else including their names in a book if they have no control over how they will be portrayed (think of poor Nellie Oleson).  Reading the Little House series gives one an idea about what it was like to live in Walnut Grove, but it is not a history of Walnut Grove.  A visit to the little town on the prairie revels that the books resemble life in Walnut Grove when Laura lived there and that her father played an important role in creating a town council and building a church, but there is more to Walnut Grove's history.

The books were used to create a television series.  The TV show was great at getting people interested in Pioneer History, but they took a lot of liberties with Laura Ingalls' life.  History was rarely accurately portrayed as the show captivated audiences with the colorful cast of characters we all love.  The show wasn't even filmed in Minnesota, but on a set in California.  However, without the show, most people would not know about Laura Ingalls Wilder and Walnut Grove.  While it may not be historically accurate, the show did create a vivid picture of the farms and small towns that sprung up around the prairie.  The braids and bonnets worn by the show's young cast have become a symbol of life on the prairie.  But the show glossed over many of the hardships of Pioneer Life, such as fires, plagues of grasshoppers, blizzards, and the scarlet fever that left Mary Ingalls blind.  Also, some of my favorite characters never existed.  Miss Beadle, played by Charlotte Stewart, who regularly makes appearances in Walnut Grove, was never a teacher in the school.  There was a family named Bedal who ran the lumber yard and grocery store.  Their home was used as a school before 1875.

The town of Walnut Grove has capitilized on the world's love for Laura Ingalls, not only through the museum, but also by creating an annual pageant that has been performed for 35 years.  They provide a more in-depth and historically accurate portrayal of Laura's time in Walnut Grove.  The pageant is performed at an outdoor location and was written by James Merchant to provide entertainment and insight into the town's history.  It is directed by the local high school principal and most of the cast and crew are local.  The two-act play that is performed three weekends in July each summer shows the growth of the small town through the eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder.