Rosalie & Hyacinthe
Couturier
A story from Alec
DeMerce – later known as “Racky” who left his home in Canada early in the
nineteenth century to become a wanderer in the western wilds.
Alec found the Dakota in this area (Sleepy Eye area) to be
friendly and never returned neither to his home nor to civilization. He spent his time trapping and hunting and
who probably was the first white man to know Chief Sleepy Eye. Alec DeMerce had
several Indian wives at different times and raised a number of children. Alec ended up marring Chief Sleepy Eye’s 1st
sister (2nd sibling) “Tate” or her English name Louisa. They had six children together; Rosalia,
Madeline, Jeanetle, Francis, Alexis, John. Alec DeMerce however had two other
children from his previous wives; Dennis and Frank.
One of Alec’s daughters, Rosalie married a man by the name
of Hyacinth Coutourier or “French Cap”, as he was commonly known, was another
French Canadian. A trading post was
located near the lake in about the year 1829 and different traders kept it up
more or less constantly until the Indian Uprising of 1862. We have been often times told about a large
Sisseton-Dakota Indian village as having a long time existed at what we are
familiar with existed at what is now called “Sleepy Eye Lake”. It was still thriving at the time of the
Coutourier settled here in 1856 or 1857.
The lake was called by the Indians, “Bedatasche”, meaning as
interpreted by some, “Big Wood Tree” and by others, “Pretty Water With Big
Trees.”
It was about this time that the lake went dry, after a long
series of very dry years. It soon filled
again, dried up once more, in recent years filled again and has since held its
level. Ish-Tak-Ha-Ba was chief of the
Sisseton’s for many years. He took part
in negotiations for the treaty at Traverse de Sioux in 1851. So far as is known he never counseled the
breaking of that treaty, nor did anything to prevent the carrying into effect
of its terms, though he doubtless regretted the necessity of making it as much
as any of his contemporaries. He, with
many others, looked upon the whites as a force irresistible and as a power with
which the wisest course was to make the best terms possible.
Chief Sleepy Eye died
in 1860, before the uprising of 1862 the village site was not long occupied by
Chief Sleepy Eye’s people, but Hyacinthe Coutourier had not changed his
location. Hyacinthe and Rosalie
Coutourier lived on the shore of Sleepy Eye Lake
east near the tribe’s camp. Their home was
located east of the farm buildings on the Todnem farm. The Todnem farm was directly across the
street from where the St. Mary’s Cemetery is presently. The home of the Couturier’s consisted of 3
rooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs.
A trader named Ross lived in
a small clearing in the grove on the east side of what has since been classed
Ross Lake – a small lake nearly a mile southeast of Sleepy Eye Lake. Mrs. Coutourier was Dakota halfblood – Chief
Sleepy Eye’s niece – and he was a French Canadian was had for years lived with
these Indians; yet on hearing of the intended uprising – friendly squaw had
informed them – they got to New Ulm, the nearest settlement, as quickly as they
could, knowing that the Indians in their excitement and lust for blood would
make no exceptions. Ross took his family
across the Cottonwood River which was heavily fringed with timber and
underbrush on both sides. Hiding in
daylight and traveling only at night, they worked their way eastward arriving
at Mankato without having seen any Indians.
A child was born to Mrs. Ross while on route. Their house was burned, probably by the
Indians. The burning, however, did not
take place during the first raid of the Indians, because soldiers who came
through the area shortly after found it intact with guns and ammunition in the
house where Mr. Ross had left them.
When the Coutouriers returned
they also found their house undisturbed, but “French Cap” found three dead
Indians, bound in bark and tied to the limbs of a large oak a few rods
southwest of his house. Thirty-eight
Indians implicated in the uprising were hanged at Mankato on December 26th,
1862.
For more information about
the Uprising of 1862; www.browncountydakotawarcommemoration.com