Note 304 — XXVIII THE DEATH OF MRS. NOBLE AND THE RANSOM OF ABBIE GARDNER

Ma-za-ku-ta-ma-ni was at this time the President of the Rev. Riggs’ Hazelwood Republic. This Republic was a rather unique attempt at self-government upon the part of Christianized Indians of the Yellow Medicine Agency under the guidance of the Rev. Mr. Riggs. It was “a respectable community of young men who had cut off their hair and exchanged the dress of the Dakotas for that of the white man.... They elected their president and other officers for two years, and were recognized by the Indian agent as a separate band of the Sioux.”—Hubbard and Holcombe’s Minnesota in Three Centuries, Vol. II, pp. 254-257.