Sale 2455 - Printed & Manuscript Americana, September 28, 2017

Calhoun and Lake Harriet (both in present-day Minneapolis), and Lac Qui Parle near the present South Dakota border. Samuel wrote on NewYear’s Day in 1836 from St. Peter: “I spent one month with the Indians on their hunt, the Lord took care of me. . . . I began to teach some of the children their letters.Their parents are pleased with it.”A 25 September 1838 letter from Lac Qui Parle describes a conflict between Sioux and nearby Chippewa at great length:“Another party from here and Big-Stone Lake went out in the month of Aug. and returned with a scalp about the last of the month. Since that time, they have been dancing almost every night around the scalp. Many nights they dance from dark till light and frequently they spend much of the day in the same manner. . . .The Chippeways were driven across the Mississippi. Missing their canoes they were obliged to swim, five were killed while crossing. But they generally hunt their enemies as they do beaver or otter, except it is conducted with much religious ceremony.” Drinking habits are discussed in Gideon’s 28 September 1841 letter: “At some of their villages they are drunk days and sometimes weeks together. . . .There is always more or less fighting at such times. I am acquainted with a number of men who had their fingers and thumbs bit off in drunken frolics.” As the Pond brothers gradually became more established, they were joined by wives and raised children on the frontier. Samuel described the arrival of Gideon’s first daughter on 22 June 1839:“Her Indian name is O-do-wah-nah. It means the Little Song.The Indians named her and we generally call her by that name.” Samuel’s daughter Jennet wrote circa 1850:“We have no school nor any children to play with. . . .There are a great many Indian children here, but Papa does not allow us to play with them or talk with them.” 37 of the letters were written during the period of the brothers’ active work with the Sioux from 1834 to 1853. In 1853, Samuel became one of the first white settlers of Shakopee,MN (it is now a suburb of Minneapolis), and was soon joined by the families of his brother Frederick Pond and sister Ruth Riggs. From this point onward, the letters describe the transition from frontier to rural life, discussing the relocation of the Indians and the arrival of the railroad. Some of these later letters discuss the CivilWar and the DakotaWar of 1862. Samuel wrote on 10 February 1863:“Gideon went up lately to see the Indians in prison and baptized some of them.” The collection also has some philatelic significance. 24 of the early letters are franked “Fort Snelling” in the address panel with the postage of “10” or “25” written in manuscript, 1834-49.Another dated 1835 is franked from Prairie du Chien,WI.Among the early inked postmarks are 5 from Fort Snelling dated 1850, each stamped “10.” Other Pond letters from this period were quoted in SamuelW. Pond’s Jr.’s 1893 memoir,“TwoVolunteer Missionaries Among the Dakotas,” but these letters appear to be unpublished. The collection is remarkable in its depth on the Indians and early settlements of Minnesota. A full inventory of the collection with abstracts of each letter is available upon request.