Historic Day at Lower Sioux Agency

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

MORTON -- A hardy group of La Compagnie members, tolerating a stiff wind that buffeted the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site Saturday, re-enacted the lifestyle of the fur traders who plied the Minnesota River Valley in the early 1800s, selling and trading their wares to Indians and settlers alike.

The event continues today.

While the event continues today, writing is on the wall that the fur traders portrayal may well be the last such production to be held on the site. While the site is to remain open through Labor Day, the money raised so far including $37,000 from the Lower Sioux Indian Community won't allow any more such productions this season, said Tim Talbott, the historic site's manager.

Fighting to maintain a happy face, Talbott, who also manages the Fort Ridgely Historic Site, talked about the sites' future, dubious as it may be, while kids and a couple of adults played an American Indian game of "double-ball" beside the agency's small cornfield.

"We'll be operating here Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until Labor Day with a total of two employees per day which will result in reduced programming for the rest of the summer," he said.

"We're still trying to decide what we can do with the other weekends, but there isn't money for another production like this. What we're doing, basically, is buying time to get to the table to try to determine what to do about next year."

He admitted he's just glad to have one more season at the site which he has managed for the past 5 1/2 years. If a way can't be found to continue the site's operation next year, however, Talbott's job will end on Dec. 31.

Meanwhile, the fight to raise enough money to keep the Fort Ridgely site open this summer is showing glimmers of hope, but "we're still about $4,000-$5,000 short (of the needed $15,500), and we have to have it by 5 p.m. Monday."

Having most of the money by that deadline won't help. They have to have it all in hand.

"I think we still have a chance, but it's a slim one," Talbott said, pausing to retrieve an errant "double-ball," two balls made of cord and connected by a cord.

As he propped his chin on crossed arms on the top rail of the split-rail fence containing the corn, he lapsed into his historian role, explaining "in the days of the fur traders, women planted the corn, cared for it and harvested it."

If things didn't work out right, obviously there would be no one to do the planting at the Lower Sioux Agency.

Elsewhere, members of La Compagnie des Hivernants de la Riviere Saint Pierre, of which Talbott and his wife are members, did their best to make sure visitors got a good grounding in what the fur traders' lives were like back then.

Walter Edison, 77, of Minneapolis sat in a folding chair beside his car creating designs in colorful beadwork on buckskin. In the last nine years, Edison has taught himself to attach the beads in different designs to both cloth and buckskin bags, a peace pipe bag and knife sheaths.

"I got started as a volunteer at the VA (hospital). They wanted someone to teach beadwork so I started studying it."

Some of his work, like the award-winning peace-pipe bag, takes quite a while to do.

"The peace-pipe bag took me two years to make. Of course, I broke my arm in the process so that slowed me up some. If someone was to ask me 'how much for the peace-pipe bag,' I would tell them $3,500. Of course, I'd probably take less like $1,500," Edison said.

Then, there's the display of furs and goods that could be "bought" with those furs by Al Kasinskas of St. Paul, and the dried foods that traders had for eating, as well as the songs sung in French.

All that and more, possibly for the last time, at the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site.