Interview · North Dakota · Demus McDonald · NDNAEU 5
Themes: Land & stewardship, Kinship & family, Storytelling & oral tradition, Education & learning, Culture & continuity, Food & plants, Economy & livelihoods, Children & young people, Intergenerational learning
Learn About questions
Why were the Native American people starving in Minnesota in the late 1800’s?
Who said, “Let them eat grass,” in reference to the starving Native people of this time?
Why did the Native men steal eggs out of a farmer’s chicken coop and throw them at the farmer’s house?
How did the “Busting Eggs War” get its name?
How did the governor at this time in Minnesota get people to kill Native Americans? Why?
How did many of the Dakota people from Minnesota end up in the Spirit Lake area?
Learn From questions
What was my family’s experience in the late 1800’s?
Have members of my family been directly impacted by war? In what ways?
How did I end up living in the place I am now? Have people from my family lived here for a long time?
Transcripts
08 Demus McDonald: Busting Eggs War
Watch this interview on YouTubeMy grandma chuckling maybe she always said in the quarter she’ll say I’m not always this old the one in there Armand comes Mitsubishi we teach that much she said me too I was a little girl I had mom and dad grandpa and grandma and they told me stories about long ago and that’s why I’m telling you so for you to tell and she said are people that don’t go out there welcome - is it more culture otoko of each other many shorter a pitch at the leaping and she said our people here our nation here built like people we weren’t always here we came from the east from our land where the water smoking many shot and that’s steam you know and they turned it to Minnesota and that’s where our ancestors came from there was a war the war broke out there was four young men order the war sisters were stealing their rations and they weren’t giving him the money that they got at the agency and they wouldn’t give him food that they had and there was one store owner he said if the Indians are so hungry let them eat grass so anyway these four young guys they went to a farm and they asked for some food and that farmer he took his gun and he chased them away so as they leave they came to our chicken coop and that one got one in there took a bunch of eggs he came out he gave them all this throwing eggs at the farmhouse busting eggs and that farmer came back all start shooting at them so they had guns - and they killed him and it was all family and that’s how that war started or breaking eggs throwing eggs and breaking eggs they call it wait car kejoro pitches the busting eggs war that’s what the Dakotas call it so that’s when the war started that attention that a governor Minnesota he was giving white people $200 to bring in a dead about Dakota and $50 for kids so they were going around shooting Indian people throwing what in a wagon go get their $200 so everybody left and our people ended up here they were there was a bad another battle I fought the Abercrombie Whitestone here there’s another one by tapping north by still there’s another battle there and then another one look we’re merry colleges and when after that battle was over some went across and went toward for Tech and our people went towards Canada from Apple Creek when I when I see that rest area out of Bismarck out what I think about that toss and toss bomb walk well not that Apple Creek that’s when they followed they went north and they went there’s a lake east of rugby called Pleasant Lake and they called it with Chiba DISA the Dana that’s how far our people got that far and the soldiers here dare Dakota Scouts they caught they found them at pleasant lake and they asked them to come to four top so you could live around Fort Totten and peace we won’t hurt you so they followed the soldiers they ended up here and wherefore when school is that flat area that was the very first encampment there were hundreds of teepees there and that was the first campground of our people before they start getting allotments around here and that’s where they lived in that big very big camp so that’s how my grandma said our people ended up here they were going to Canada and they got as far as Pleasant leak and a lot of our grandparents were born in that area that pleasant lake around 1867 around there because they built the first fort here at Fort Totten 67 I think there’s made of logs but that battle was over about three years before that I think and that’s what my grandma said they roamed all over don’t want chief chaka 80 pieces of death do whenever do they want they set up camp where there’s a lake close by
Affiliation sources
NDNAEU document credits: Demus McDonald — Spirit Lake (Dakota).
Source materials
Supplied transcript documents. Text and transcription uncertainties are preserved as supplied.