Background
James McLaughlin was the son of Felix and Mary (Prince) McLaughlin. Не was born in Avonmere, Ontario.
( Chronicles McLaughlin’s tenure as agent of the Devils L...)
Chronicles McLaughlin’s tenure as agent of the Devils Lake Sioux Agency in Dakota Territory from 1871 to 1881 and of the Standing Rock Agency on the Missouri River below Bismarck from 1881 to 1895. He describes his friendship with many prominent warriors including Chief Gall, Chief Joseph, and Sitting Bull.
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James McLaughlin was the son of Felix and Mary (Prince) McLaughlin. Не was born in Avonmere, Ontario.
McLaughlin was educated in the common schools.
In 1863, McLaughlin went to Minnesota, where for eight years, he was variously employed. On July 1, 1871, he entered the United States Indian service as the assistant agent, under Maj. W. H. Forbes, of the newly established Devils Lake Agency, at Fort Totten, in the present North Dakota. Five years later, on the death of Forbes, he was made agent. While in this post he succeeded in abolishing the savagely cruel sun dance of the Sioux. His work attracted official attention, and in the fall of 1881, he was transferred to the important Standing Rock Agency, at Fort Yates, on the Missouri. Here he had the management of some 6, 000 Sioux, many of them former hostiles who had been driven back by force or hunger to the reservation. He became greatly attached to Gall and Crow King, two of the leaders in the Little Bighorn battle, and to John Grass, the outstanding orator and diplomat of the Sioux nation, and was enabled to alter radically the Indianattitude toward peaceful industry and the education of the children. In the negotiations over the proposed agreements of 1882, 1888, and 1889, whereby large land cessions were demanded by the government, he took an active part and was influential both in obtaining concessions for his wards and in persuading the leaders to accept the final proposal. During the Ghost-Dance craze of 1890, when a general Indian uprising was feared, he opposed the use of the military and exerted himself to check the spread of the excitement by peaceful means. He was, however, compelled to order the arrest of Sitting Bull, an attempt that resulted (December 15) in the death of the chief and eleven other Indians. In January 1895, the office of assistant commissioner of Indian Affairs was offered him. Preferring field service, he declined the offer but accepted instead (March 31) the post of inspector under the personal direction of the secretary of the interior. He had returned to Washington from a protracted visit to the Dakotas, where he distributed an award to the Santee Sioux, when he suddenly became ill. He died at the National Hotel. The body was taken to his home at McLaughlin, S. Dak.
McLaughlin was especially valuable in the role of negotiator and participated in more than forty formal agreements with the various tribes. He is best known for having ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull in December 1890, which resulted in the chief's death. McLaughlin, South Dakota was named for him.
( Chronicles McLaughlin’s tenure as agent of the Devils L...)
McLaughlin traveled widely and thus became acquainted with conditions among the Indians in every part of the country. McLaughlin was tall, with a dignified bearing and graceful manners. His tastes were refined, and his intellectual interests were broad and varied. It is doubtful whether any one has better understood Indian character. In 1910 he published My Friend the Indian, in considerable part an autobiography. Though the composition is largely another's, the substance is all his own, and the book faithfully reflects the man and his work.
McLaughlin was married, on January 28, 1864, to Mary Louise Buisson, of French, Scotch, and Sioux ancestry.
