n June 20, 1862, several Santee chiefs and leaders, lead by Chief Little Crow,
held a meeting with Agent Galbraith and four traders at the Redwood agency. Little Crow pleaded with
Galbraith to open the storehouse for all the Santees, and he gave the agent an ominous warning:
"When men are hungrey they help themselves." Galbraith discussed the situation with the traders. One
of the, Andrew Myrick, commented, "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them
eat grass." Hearing this, the Indians sat silent, being unaware of the text of Myrick's statement. But
when Williamson finished the translation, they jumped up from their positions and began a series
of "weird and savage war-whoops." . . .
from The Santee Sioux Indians by
Terrance Dolan, Chelsea House Publishers (1997), p. 48
ust as the traders settled down to breakfast [on August 18, 1862], a long file of
painted Dakota warriors, attired in breechcloths, entered the compound from the north. Small
parties broke off from the main body and stationed themselves near the stores. It was now seven
o'clock. At a signal, the warriors raised their motley array of rifles and shotguns and opened an
indiscriminate fire, many weapons being discharged into each trade house. James W. Lynd,
a clerk, fell first, being shot as he stood in the doorway of Myrick's newly built store. Moments
before, the warrior who killed him was heard muttering in an excited fashion: "Now I will kill
the dog who wouldn't give me credit."
 An orgy of wild killing followed, Indian warriors
becoming more impassioned with each passing shot. Myrick's cook, a German affectionately called
"old Fritz," fell seconds after Lynd, and Andrew Myrick himself was slain as he tried to escape
from a second-story window in his store. Myrick was supposedly shot first by an Indian who
wished to avenge his sister. Myrick had fathered three children with the man's sister and then
abandoned her for a younger, more attractive woman. Maddened warriors shot several arrows into
Myrick and thrust an old scythe into his ribs. As Dakota men broke into the three other commercial
establishments, trader Francois La Bathe and half a dozen other clerks met a similar
fate. Only two men, who were wounded in the attack, survived the rage of the Indian warriors.
The looting of the stores, however, brought an end to the organization apparent at the beginning
of the bloodbath. Most warriors commenced loading carts and wagons with spoils, leaving only a few
Indians to confront other whites at the agency below.
from Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux by
Gary Clayton Anderson, Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul (1986), p.p. 135-136
any warriors gathered around the house and store of the trader Andrew Myrick who had
told the starving Santees to "eat grass." They shot bullets and arrows through the windows and then
set the building on fire. Myrick, wounded, fled upstairs, clambered through a back window, and
tried to climb down a tree. By the time he reached the ground he was so full of arrows he looked like
a porcupine, and many bullets found him as he tried to crawl away. After he was dead, one of the
warriors stuffed a handful of grass into his mouth. "Who eats grass now?" angry Santees demanded
of the dead man again and again as they destroyed the Redwood Agency around Myrick's body. Fire and
smoke from buring buildings climbed into the sky, and the bodies of about 20 white people lay
scattered about the packed-earth roads. The great Sioux uprising of 1862 had begun.
from The Santee Sioux Indians by
Terrance Dolan, Chelsea House Publishers (1997), p. 63
|
