Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/63

CHAPTER IV. EARLY DAYS. Possession by Indians — The Dakotas — Traditions and Opinions — Col. Colville's Views— Origin of Name "Red Wing"— The Raidsson-Groseillers Allegations — No Proof that These Men Ever Saw Goodhue County — Hennepin Lands at Red Wing's Village — Duluth Passes the Village — LeSueur at Prairie Island — Fort Beauharnois and Its Successors — Carver Passes Through Wisconsin Channel — Pike and His Narrative — . Meets Red Wing and Calls Him by His English Name — Leavenworth — First Steamers — Denton and Gavin — Aiton and Hancock — Tribute to Rev. Hancock — Early Schooling-— The Pioneers Arrive — By Dr. W. M. Sweney. Through how many ages the Indians flourished in this county is a question that will never be satisfactorily settled. At any event, the white men found here a band of Indians whose ances- tors, according to their tribal traditions, had occupied the land for ages, and had for headquarters, "Hem-minne-cha," which is now known as Cannon Junction, with straggling villages extend- ing in every direction within a radius of six miles. The villages of the Sioux Indians were usually found situated near a collec- tion of earth mounds ; but there' are no well authenticated ac- counts of the Indians found there by the early explorer, having practiced to any great extent mound burial, but they did follow the custom of scaffold burial, as was noticed by Hennepin at Prescott Point, at the mouth of the St. Croix in 1680. This prac- tice I have myself seen in Red AVing. a great many times. Such flint, stone, bone and copper implements, and rude pottery, as were found to be in general use in the hands of the Indians, when first visited by the whites, are usually found at the bottom of a mound when excavated, yet the natives had no traditions as to who were the makers of the artifacts, or who were the builders of the mounds. Within a radius of six miles from Cannon Juncr tion I have located, mapped and charted over four thousand In- dian burial mounds, earthworks, stone cairns, etc., showing con- clusively that this region must have been inhabited for many ages. I can show today an oak stump standing on top of a burial 33