Pembina in 1850: Illiteracy, Flood, and Warpath

From Pembina – The U.S. Deputy Marshal who has been engaged in taking the census at Pembina has arrive at St. Paul. He reports the crops entirely destroyed by the unusually high waters, and many houses swept away. He reports the educational interests of Pembina, not in a very flattering state. The schoolmaster has gone abroad, and of 166 inhabitants, only twenty-six can read and write – fifteen males and eleven females. When three days travel southwest of Pembina a party of seven Sioux Indians were attacked by sixty Chippewas, and six were killed and scalped. These tribes are always at war.

SOURCE
Wisconsin Democrat, page [3], vol. 5, iss. 40
Publication Date: November 2, 1850
Location: Madison, Wisconsin
Headline: From Pembina
Article Type: News/Opinion