Old Bets

Azayamankawin , also known as Hazaiyankawin, Betsey St. Clair, Old Bets, or Old Betz, was one of the most photographed Native American women of the 19th century. She was a Mdewakanton Dakota woman well known in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where she once ran a canoe ferry service. Old Bets was said to have helped many women and children taken captive during the Dakota War of 1862.

Photographs of "Old Betz" were used extensively in carte-de-visite prints now held in museum collections worldwide, including the United States Library of Congress; the National Portrait Gallery in the United Kingdom; and the Minnesota Historical Society.

Early life and family

Betsey's Dakota name is usually given as Azayamankawin and translated as “Berry Picker.” Biographer Mark Diedrich calls her Hazaiyankawin, which he translates as “Woman Who Runs Toward Huckleberries.” She was given the name “Betsey” or “Bets” by the soldiers who built Fort Snelling.

Her mother was Itahotawin (c.1778–1863), translated as “Grey Face Woman.”

Azayamankawin had at least five siblings. Her brother Ticawakeya ("Shelter Top"), became known as “One-Legged Jim” after he was wounded in a battle with the Ojibwe in 1839.

Stories about her romantic life

Numerous stories were written about the romantic life of Young Bets, some explicitly fictional. In one version, she was said to have fallen in love with the son of an Ojibwe chief when the Dakota and Ojibwe were at peace. When hostilities broke out between the two tribes, the man she had planned to marry tried to kill her. Her life was saved by a Sioux warrior, who killed the Chippewa man, brought her his scalp, and married her. A variation of this story was that Young Bets was once married to a cousin of the Ojibwe chief, Hole-in-the-Day the Elder. Taopi was born around 1824 and was known as Nagioskan ("Moving Soul"), until he was wounded by an Ojibwe firing into his tepee around 1838. At this time, Little Crow's village was located on the west side of the Mississippi River. Before crossing the river, however, the Ojibwe encountered two Dakota women working on a farm owned by Francois Gammel, one of the French Canadians who had settled on the east side of the Mississippi, about two miles south of Pig's Eye's trading post. or in dismembering a dead man with a hatchet. Betsey's son Lightning Maker, who was fifteen years old at the time, later stated that one of his brothers had been killed in the attack, and that he had cut off a man's head to avenge his death.

In November 1849, the Pioneer posted a notice that James M. Goodhue and Isaac N. Goodhue were applying for a license to operate a ferry at the lower landing in St. Paul. In response, on April 13, 1850, the Minnesota Chronicle and Register printed a newspaper advertisement in Betsey's name: New Ferry. The subscriber would respectfully announce, that having procured from His Majesty Little Crow a license to keep a ferry, she is now prepared to carry passengers at the rates fixed by law, and for as much more as the public choose to give her.

—‘Old Betsey.’ ‘The connecting link between the Indians and the whites’ N. B. — This Ferry is in opposition to Goodhue. – a trait she ascribed to all Indians. On one occasion, she recalled that Betsey had given her a seat in her canoe. Because Bishop didn't have money to pay her, Reverend Dr. Thomas Smith Williamson had paid on her behalf instead. Bishop saw that Betsey looked happy and thought that the debt had been settled. A few days later, however, Betsey called on her boarding house to demand full payment, which Bishop then paid. Betsey subsequently pursued Bishop on two more occasions, once when she was ill at her physician's office, to insist that Betsey had injured her arm and needed money. She would then continue on to St. Paul before returning to the reservation, walking hundreds of miles by foot. Whitney had submitted Betsey's portrait along with a portrait titled “Dacotah Dandy.” The journal observed: “The ‘Dandy’ is evidently ‘got up’ at great expense, with eagle's plume, earrings, braided hair, beads, skins of animals, &c.; the Dandy is quite in contrast to ‘Old Bet’ who is not at all ornamental.” During the first few days of the uprising, which started on August 18, Little Crow and his followers took a large number of white and mixed-blood women and children captive.

Although Taopi's role in saving the hostages is well known, Betsey's specific role in assisting the captives is undocumented.

Taopi and the Peace Coalition A week after the Battle of Birch Coulee, Taopi, Good Thunder (Wakinyanwaste) and Chief Wabasha managed to smuggle a letter to Colonel Henry Hastings Sibley, letting him know that they were opposed to Little Crow and wished to help the whites. They received a letter back from Sibley instructing them to wait for his arrival and to save as many prisoners as they could. Biographer Mark Diedrich suggests that some of the captives then found shelter with his mother Betsey. The presence of “Old Betz” at Camp Release staring at the soldiers during the handover is noted in numerous accounts. Any written article pertaining to that expedition would not be complete without mentioning the name of Old Betz. Old Betz was just a homely old squaw, between 50 and 60 years of age. What she had done to immortalize herself is rather beyond my ken, but in those old days any picture gallery in Minnesota without a likeness of Old Betz adorning its walls would be decidedly behind times, and some of the histories as well displayed her picture…It was claimed at the time that she had been very kind to the white women and children that had fallen into the hands of the savages. Like many white people of lowly station in life, she had the faculty of ingratiating herself into a higher strata of society than she naturally belonged; hence, she was allowed absolute freedom of our camp, whereas the other women and children were denied that privilege. She could talk some English, at least enough to be understood in plain matters. However, her name does not appear in any of the trial records as a witness. Her son Taopi did testify as a witness in both the prosecution and defense of members of his band. of hundreds of tepees that had been enclosed inside a stockade to protect them from attack by angry settlers, as much as to keep them in.

In a chapter on “The Removal of the Good Indians to Fort Snelling,” Bishop McConkey described seeing Betsey there, as well as Taopi and Chief Wabasha. Regarding Betsey, she said: At some point, Judge Charles E. Flandrau acquired the painting, which was donated in 1902 to the Minnesota Historical Society.

Final years and death

In the fall of 1871, Betsey was unwell and was rumored to be near death. During her suffering, she called for Father Augustin Ravoux rather than the Episcopal missionaries for spiritual support. Father Ravoux suggested that she be baptized. On October 8, 1871, Betsey was baptized at the Catholic Church of St. Peter's in Mendota as “Betsey Mary St. Clair.” This was the only time she was recorded using the surname “St. Clair.”

Soon afterward, several obituaries started to appear in St. Paul newspapers. Later, when it became apparent that Betsey was still alive, the St. Paul newspapers were widely derided for their error. On October 20, the Faribault Democrat wrote: “Old Betz, whom the papers of this portion of Minnesota have recently killed and buried, is reported still living and quite healthy. Don’t distribute your obituaries, gentlemen, for she may die.”

In October 1871, Father Ravoux visited Betsey again and felt that she was finally near death. He reported this to his contacts in St. Paul, who proceeded to publish an “almost obituary.” On March 2, 1872, another premature obituary was published in Harper's Weekly in New York City.

In July 1872, Henry Hastings Sibley spoke to the St. Paul Chamber of Commerce about his concerns for Betsey's worsening condition. He explained that she had become so disabled from rheumatism that she was confined to her “shanty” on his land and was distressed that she could no longer go out to make a living. Although he had provided for her for many years, he was struggling to continue to take care of her. He had also appealed to Dakota County officials, who said that charity to Indians was not within their remit. Sibley, who was then president of the Chamber of Commerce, asked for donations on her behalf and collected $63.60, which he passed on to Father Patrick F. Glennon.

On April 26, 1873, an unnamed “Mendota correspondent” reported that Betsey had finally died. The St. Paul Dispatch was reluctant to be wrong again and sent their “most reliable reporter” to verify the news. The Pioneer expressed skepticism but finally published their own obituary on May 1, 1873. Historians at the time were also convinced of her death. However, biographer Mark Diedrich devotes an entire chapter exploring the possibility that Betsey lived on for another 10 years, based on the fact that her name is on a list of Mdewakantons in Minnesota receiving payments in 1885. Although many biographical sketches of Betsey state that she was given a Christian burial, her final resting place remains unknown.

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