A Message from Garcia: ‘Forde Township’

How does one begin to relate a story of an innocent non – Indian boy who was caught up in a situation beyond his comprehension, which resulted in a wound with life long consequences?

The story of the antagonists is as old and as long as the day America or The Turtle Island was discovered by Europeans. As time passed more land was coveted and forcibly taken, subtly at first by a treaty of peace, or sale of land. Little by little the Indian held land diminished. In 1819 it was the Dakota Indians who heard the knock at their door. In 1851 they sold almost all their homeland in Minnesota. By 1862 they finally realized they had been lied to, and cheated out of their inheritance, forced to take the only avenue open – war.

Immigrants were enticed to the ‘new world’ by offers of free land and visions of gold paved streets. The Government of the United States offered free land at first, but later charged $1.25 for each acre with the stipulation that the land be farmed for a certain number of years. The immigrants and Indians were pawns in the ‘manifest destiny’ of the United States.

Into this setting came Ole Olson Forde. On Sunday August 24, 1862, 50 warriors under Chief White Lodge traveled down the Des Moines River. When they reached the Norwegian settlement of farmers in Belmont Township, Jackson County, Minnesota they began killing the local residents. This act has been forever known as the Belmont Massacre. Almost all of the settlers were un-armed, “[they were] as easy to kill as sheep” (Rose 1910). The Norwegians were no match for the experienced Dakota warriors.

Ole Olson Forde was just eleven years old, the son of Ole and Kari, Fjorde. They lived in the northwest quarter of section twenty-two, Belmont Township, Jackson County, which is located halfway between the Minnesota towns of Windon and Jackson, just north of the Iowa state border.

When the Forde’s saw the Indians coming they hid Mrs. Forde, and two other women along with eight children in the cellar. Ole piled clothing, boxes, and trunks, over the trap door. Ole senior and junior, Johannes Axe, Lars Furnes, and Lars G. Jornevik barricaded themselves as best they could. No one had a firearm. The Indians instantly pushed their way into the cabin and killed everyone except Ole Jr. who escaped out the west door into a cornfield. The women and children remained undiscovered (Rose 1910).

When Ole fled out the door, he heard the door slam behind him, and looked over his shoulder. He noticed an Indian taking aim at him and he jumped to the side. The bullet tore off the tip of his right elbow. Ole immediately hid in the cornfield. The Indian was hot on his trail but stopped only a few feet from the terrified youth. The Dakota man was called back to the cabin with the news that a jug of liqueur has been found. This saved Ole’s life as the Indian surely would have discovered his hiding place. When he saw his chance Ole fled to a neighbor’s cabin (Rose 1910).

White Lodge and his murders prowled about the neighborhood killing a total of thirteen adults, eight men and five women and wounding two boys and a girl. As quickly as they had arrived they moved back north using the Des Moines River as a guide; which ended the Belmont Massacre (Rose 1910).

Oscar T. Forde conducted an oral history interview which was tape recorded. He tells a slightly different version. He said the neighbors had gone to church and his grandfather was feeding the pigs when he was shot full of arrows. The attackers gave the victory cry and charged the house. Oscar’s father was big for his age, held the door shut as the family hid in the cellar. Naturally they pushed in and killed everyone in sight except young Ole who fled out the door. Oscar says they killed a young man, his wife, but didn’t kill the baby. He said there was a hollow where someone had tried to dig a well and was over grown with tall grass. They shot at him and hit him in the left elbow with an arrow. Ole jumped in this hollow and hid. After awhile he jumped up and ran to the church to report the massacre. The men all run to their homes and forgot about Oscar’s father, Ole. They went back and found him and they all escaped, traveling two or three days. The elbow was infected with worms. A man opened a shotgun shell and poured the gunpowder on the wound and lit a match to it. The infection was burned out, but his left arm was disabled for life.

The brothers Ole and Nils, and their mother moved to Dakota Territory settling near the Fort Totten Indian Reservation. Oscar T. Forde says his father got a wheelbarrow in Fargo, placing their possessions inside he pushed it some 70 miles to their homestead on the banks of the Sheyenne River right west of Aneta, ND. His father sold insurance and later wanted to become a preacher. The Sheyenne Church, Norwegian Lutheran, wouldn’t let him as he wanted to preach in English. (Oscar T. Forde). They lived six miles south of Tolna in what later became Forde Township, Nelson County, North Dakota (Monson 1975).

In an interview with Mr. Archie Redfox Sr., he stated he met Ole and was told the circumstances that led to him having a stiff arm, useless for the rest of his life.

Mr. Redfox related Ole’s statement that as soon as the Indians burst into the cabin he ran between the legs of the Indian and fled out the door. Analyzing this, it seems almost impossible for an eleven-year old boy to run under someone’s legs. I am sure in that moment of terror that is what he thought he did. Mr. Redfox commented, “I wonder why he came to live by the Reservation near us [Indians]”.

Bibliography

Diedrich, Mark Personal communication May 2004.

Information on Chief White Lodge.

Durand, Paul C. Where the Waters Gather and the Rivers Meet: An Atlas of the Eastern Sioux.

Privately Published, Faribault, MN. 1994

Forde, Oscar T. Oral history interview conducted by Bob Carlson February 18, 1975. Tape # 157A & B

State Historical Society of North Dakota, Bismarck.

Monson, Cherry Wood Forde Acres, Privately published, Warwick, ND 1975.

Personal communication and Mrs. Monson’s Forde family file.

Rose, Arthur R. An Illustrated History of Jackson County Minnesota.

Northern Publishing Company, Jackson, MN 1910. (Chapter 8, Pages 101-107)

Upham, Warren Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. Third Edition.

Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul, 2001.

Woolworth, Alan R. Personal communication. He located the cite for the book by Arthur R. Rose.

Glossary

Des Moines River Inyanŝaŝa Wakpa (Inyan = stone, rock; Ŝaŝa = very red in color; Wakpa = River.). Named so because it flows through a gorge of red sandstone in Marion County, Iowa. This river rises in the western edge of Des Moines Township, Murry County, Minnesota. It flows through Murry, Cottonwood and Jackson Counties; thence crosses Iowa and joins the Mississippi River (Durand 1994:32; Upham 2001:11,391).

Ole F. Forde Also known locally as Big Ole was born on January 27, 1851 at Evangen, Voss, Norway. He came to America in 1859 aboard the sailboat Norge. The family went to Highlandville, Winneshiek County, Iowa, later moving to Jackson County, Minnesota. In 1862 Ole was wounded in the elbow during the Belmont Massacre. He married Easter Time at Rochester, MN in 1873. The remaining family members moved to Dakota Territory, six miles west of Aneta, ND. In 1911 he moved to Finley, ND and was hired by the railroad. In 1921 he was transferred to New Rockford, and retired at age 70 the following year. He moved to Wyndmere, ND. In 1928 he moved back to the New Rockford – Sheyenne, North Dakota area. He died in 1943 at age 92.

Turtle Island The legendary name for the American continent. God covered the earth with water. He asked turtle to put earth on his back which only muskrat was able to retrieve from the bottom of the water.

White Lodge Wakeyaska (Wakeya = lodge, tipi; Ska = white color)

A southern Sisseton Chief. He was the son of Blue Spirit

(Wakanto), a rival of Sleepy Eyes. When in the 1850’s Sleepy Eyes (Iŝtaĥba) appointed his nephew to succeed him, White Lodge split off from the band and moved to Lake Shetek. He went with Little Crow II looking for Inkpaduta in 1857. By 1860 he became hostile to the civilization movement and joined in the Minnesota War of Rebellion in 1862. He fled Minnesota for the Missouri River and then north to Canada where he probably died in obscurity (Diedrich 2004).