The Legend of the Singing Sisseton Oak

The Legend of the Singing Sisseton Oak. . According to tradition, there once lived a famous singer among the Sisseton Sioux, who inhabited this then wilderness area - their chief village being on the east bank of Lake Sisseton. Famous throughout the Sioux nation, he wove into exquisite song the adventures of the chiefs and warriors., Befriending a three-year-old captive white child, his new songs of the child of the pale moon often disparaged war and bloodshed, provoking the ill-will of the chiefs., When a fatal epidemic struck, the wisemen decreed the presence of the child as displeasing to the Great Spirit, and so must suffer death., Songs eloquently pleading for her life led to the singer's condemnation to burn with the child bound to his back and his hands fastened to the limb of a large oak. Above the roar of the flames his voice, mingled with the cries of the child, pictured war and bloodshed as hateful to the Great Spirit., His heroic death chant so moved his people that they never again engaged in massacre., The Indians firmly believed that at dusk the voice of the singer and the cries of the child could be heard from the great oak., The complete legend was first published in the Martin County Sentinel, April 22, 1895. That the legend and its site may be known to future generations, this marker is placed in memory of its writer , Major Arthur M. Nelson. , Since early settlers and strangers reported hearing wailing sounds emanating from the oak, Major Nelson visited the spot alone on a calm evening and concludes the legend thus:, "I am free to admit that a feeling of indescribable dread, if not fear, crept over me when there came to my ears much more distinctly than ever before, the voice of a man wildly singing mingled with the agonizing cries of a child., I came away more convinced than ever that there is much related to the soul, or divine in man, of whatever race or grade of civilization, both in this life and beyond the grave, that natural causes cannot explain, and though the sweet voice of the singer may have long been hushed in death, his songs live on and find an echo in the souls of the living." , (Note: This mighty Singing Oak was destroyed by fire of mysterious origin in June, 1908.), A bronze plaque on native fieldstone has been placed in the northwest portion of Sylvania Park on the spot believed to be the location of the Singing Oak.