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n Sunday, August 17, four young Santees from the Lower Agency, their stomachs rumbling
with hunger, went out to attempt to hunt. But after many hours they had found nothing, so with empty
hands and empty bellies they began the 40-mile journey back to their settlement. Along the way
they passed the land of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson Jones. Mr. Jones was a farmer who made
a profitable extra income by selling whiskey to the Santees. The disastrous effects of liquor on Indian
society were already well known, but whites such as Jones continued to make money off the growing numbers
of alcoholic Indians. Many Santees consequently disliked Jones for selling alcohol to an already
desperate people.
As they crossed Jones's pastures, the four Santees came
across a hen's nest. The nest contained some eggs, and one of the Santees started to take them.
Another cautioned him, saying that they might get in trouble for stealing. "You are a coward," the
first Santee shouted. "You are afraid of the white man. You are afraid to take even an egg from him,
even though you are half starved!"
The other Santee, starving, desperate, and angry,
replied that he was no coward. To prove it, he said, he would go and kill the white people living
in the nearby cabin. The other Indians said they would go with him. And with that, they headed
over to the Joneses' cabin.
Af first, the young Santees demanded food from
Jones. Jones brusquely told them that he had no food to spare and, taking his rifle and ignoring the
four Indians, walked over to the cabin of his relatives, the Bakers. Jones's wife was at the
Bakers' place, visiting her son, Howard Baker, his wife, and their two children. A friend
of Howard Baker, named Webster, was there as well.
The four Santees followed Jones to the Bakers' cabin, where
one of the Indians proposed a shooting contest. Jones, Webster, and Baker shot first, using a tree
stump as a target. When the Santees' turn to shoot came, they all aimed at the target. Then, suddenly,
they turned on Robinson Jones and shot him. The Santees then shot down the other three, who
were taken completely by surprise and had no chance to defend themselves. The four Santees fled,
stealing horses from another farm, and reached their village near the Lower Agency by nightfall.
from The Santee Sioux Indians by
Terrance Dolan, Chelsea House Publishers (1997), pp. 58-60
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