Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Hapstiŋna Makaakaŋiwaŋkewiŋ Black Flute Lucy Otherday was also called Lucy. Lucy’s mother was the sister of Ṡakpe II. Hapstiŋna grew up on the north side of the Rivière Saint-Pierre (St. Peter’s River). She was a Mdewakanton Dakota Indian.
A postcard shows the “Sioux Reservation” in Shakopee, but the 18 acres, located on the north side of the river, was actually purchased by Oyatekokepa Jacob Otherday in 1871. The land was directly across the Minnesota River from Tínṫa Otuŋwe, often called the Village of the Six.
The 1875 census shows 15 people, ages from 7 to 65, with surnames of Otherday, Tokudo or Tahkudo, Bonska, Simis, and Bluestone. In 1900, the colony consisted of about 15 residents, living in three dwellings. The surnames include Otherday, La Framboise, Ortley, Bluestone, Shoto (or Choteau), Campbell, Cloud, Jackson, Tahkudo, and Baska. All were probably related.
Lucy married James Otherday. They had two daughters, Minnie and Mary.
Condi G Raguet grew up on the north side of the Minnesota River in the 1860s. “When we got to the crest of the bluff, looking down on the meadow onto one of the ‘rice lakes,’ as they were called, we saw a group of men, boys, Indians, and children.”
Both the white people and the Dakota were equipped with forks, ready to grab the fish.”
The fish came up out of the water to breathe. “We followed the crowd’s example and kept at it all day until about 5 o’clock.”
“An Indian woman (maybe Hapstiŋna) asked me to eat some of the fish, but as they hung the fish upon the spears over the fire without removing the entrails, I declined. But, the fish was perfectly roasted and in the end I tried them. They were so delicious I ate a great many of them.” They had so much fish—black bass, wall-eyed pike, and pickerel, no bullheads or sunfish—that it was about one and one half ton of fish.
Lucy would make the rounds in Shakopee with her daughter, Minnie.
Lucy was almost blind but used a walking stick to move around town. She would gather food from the tiŋta, or prairie, including different kinds of berries. She waded in the wetlands to harvest psiŋca a nourishing bulbous root with her feet and hands.
Lucy and Minnie dug mdo, a wild potato, and tipsiŋna, prairie turnips, from the tiŋta. They also gathered berries, crabapples, plums and nuts from the woods. Lucy and Minnie also harvested watercress which also grew in the springs.
The watercress from Faribault Springs, the wild grapes in season, the moccasins, and the bead work were sold to people in Shakopee.
Irene McDevitt Reinke Bursey recalled “…they had to drive across the old bridge at Shakopee onto the Indian Road, where they would see…Minnie (daughter of Hapstiŋna) sewing under a shade tree and the young Indian boys running and hiding behind trees, aiming and shooting their Fourth of July guns.”
Hilary Drees remembers driving his bike, with three other kids, down to the river to Indian Road, where they saw the hogs that lived on the north side of the river, and continued past Sever’s farm to look at the tipi of the Indians.
Hapstiŋna Makaakaŋiwaŋkewiŋ Black Flute Lucy Otherday died at age 88 on March 6, 1920.