How It Started

 

            The way that the Sioux Uprising started was very interesting.  Four Indians supposedly started it.  The interesting part is that these Indians had no intention of starting a war, or even being violent.  Pride was the driving force behind the start of the Sioux Uprising.

 

            It all started on August 17, 1862 in Acton Township of Meeker County.  The four Indians were Brown Wing, Breaking Up, Killing Ghost, and Runs Against Something When Crawling.  They were from the village at Rice Creek, about 40 miles southwest of Acton.  They were coming home from an unsuccessful hunting trip when they unintentionally started a war at 11:00 on Sunday morning.

 

            The story goes that the four braves came upon the property of Mr. and Mrs. Robinson Jones, who ran a combined store and post office on their land.  Near the fence that marked the boundary of Jones’s land, the four Indians found some eggs in a hen’s nest.  Being hungry, one of the braves picked up the eggs.

 

            After doing this he was advised by another one of the Indians not to take them.  An argument then started between the two, the former calling the latter a coward.  Angered by this charge the latter offered to show that he was anything but a coward.

 

            He was going to do this by going onto Jones’s land and killing him.  At this time Jones was in his store so that is where the Indians went.  When the four Indians got there, they tried to act tough.  However, Jones saw them as no threat and he left to go to the house of his brother-in-law, Howard Baker. 

 

            The Indians followed him there, and offered to play a game of target practice, which was common during those times.  So Jones, Baker, and his friend Webster took turns with the Indians firing at a block of wood sitting on a tree stump.  Then suddenly, all four Indians turned on Jones and shot him.  Then they took aim at the men’s wives, who were watching on the porch.  Baker saw this and jumped in front of the women, taking a bullet to the chest.  The Indians then quickly brought down Webster and Mrs. Jones.

 

            The Indians fled immediately, realizing what would happen if they were caught.  As they were leaving, Clara Wilson, one of Jones’s adopted children, saw them from the doorway and she was gunned down as well, bringing the death count to five.

 

            When the Indians arrived back at Rice Creek they immediately told Chief Shakopee what they had done.  Excited Shakopee advised they go and tell Little Crow the news.  On Monday, August 18, 1862, the four braves and Shakopee told Little Crow about the murder of the five whites and how a full-blown war should be started.  Little Crow was reluctant considering how he was trying to keep peace with the whites.  However, he could not hold back the chance and the rest is history.