DECEMBER 9:

1657 Trois-Rivières, Quebec - The Jesuit Relations reports that on this day in Three Rivers, 'M. de la Poterie opened an establishment where wine was sold to the Natives: two pots for a winter beaver and one pot for a summer beaver. And since the troubles were not resolved by these means, people complained about the existence of the establishment, to the extent that M. de La Poterie was forced to send to Quebec for the will of the Governor regarding said establishment. The Governor concluded that it should not remain opened, but he did not force him to close it down. 

December 9, 1864:   Fanny Kelly is left at Ft.Sully by Sioux.
 
 
 

BACKGROUND:
 

From http://www.dickshovel.com/sittingbull.html
 

Mrs. Fanny Kelly was taken captive in July 1864 by a war party of Hunkpapa Sioux in Wyoming. During most of the five months she was held prisoner, Mrs. Kelly stayed in the lodgings of Sitting Bull, the famous leader "as a guest," of his family, "and I was treated as a guest," she wrote. "He was uniformly gentle, and kind to his wife and children and courteous and considerate in his [interactions] with others. During my stay with them food was scarce more than once, and both Sitting Bull and his wife often suffered with hunger to supply me with food. They both have a very warm place in my heart."  This surprising warm friendship with a woman who had every reason to hate and fear him, characterized Sitting Bull's interactions with whites.
 

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The full text of Fanny Kelly's "Narrative of my captivity among the Sioux indians, with a brief account of General Sully's Indian expedition in 1864, bearing upon events occurring in my captivity" can be found at http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/cgi/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABB5283

EXCERPT....

CAPTIVITY AMONG THE SIOUX.
CHAPTER I.
EARLY HISTORY-CANADA TO KANSAS-DEATH OF MY FATHER-MY MARRIAGE-,- HO! FOR IDAHO I "-CROSSING THE PLATTE RIYHV A STORM.

I WAS born in Orillia, Canada, in 1845. Our home
was on the lake shore, and there amid pleasant surroundings I passed the happy days of early childhood.

The years 1852 to 1856 witnessed, probably, the heavest immigration the West has ever known in a corresponding length of time. Those who had gone before sent back to their friends such marvelous accounts of the fertility of the soil, the rapid development of the country, and the ease with which fortunes were made, the "Western fever" became almost epidemic. Whole towns in the old, Eastern States were almost depopulated. Old substantial farmers, surrounded apparently by all the comforts that heart could wish, sacrificed the homes wherein their families had been reared for generations, and, with all their worldly possessions, turned their faces toward the setting sun. And with what high hopes! Alas! how few, comparatively, met their realization.

In 1856, my father, James Wiggins, joined a New York colony bound for Kansas. Being favorably impressed with the country and its people, they located the town of Geneva, and my father returned for his family. Reaching the Missouri River on our way to our new home, my father was attacked with cholera, and died. In obedience to his dying instructions, my widowed mother, with her little family, continued on the way to our new home. But, oh! with what saddened hearts we entered into its possession. It seemed as if the light of our life had gone out. HIe who had been before to prepare that home for us, was not there to share it with us, and, far away from all early associations, almost alone in a new and sparsely settled country, it seemed as though hope had died. But God is merciful. He prepares the soul for its burdens. Of a truth, "IIe tempers the wind to the shorn lamb."

Our family remained in this pleasant prairie home, where I was married to Josiah S. Kelly.

My husband's health failing, he resolved upon a change of climate. Accordingly, on the 17th of May, 1864, a party of six persons, consisting of Mr. Gardner Wakefield, my husband, myself, our adopted daughter (my sister's child), and two colored servants, started from Geneva, with high-wrought hopes and pleasant 12
cont........pg 13