residence at Mendota." Until 1857, the site of Sibley's home and the community around it were technically part of the Fort Snelling military reservation. Henry Sibley lived with his family in Mendota until 1862, when he sold his home to St. Peters Catholic Parish and moved to St. Paul. Relationship with Red Blanket Woman During the winter of 1840–41, Sibley entered a relationship with Red Blanket Woman (Tahshinahohindoway), daughter of Bad Hail (Wasuwicaxtaxni), a Mdewakanton sub-chief, and of partly French descent. They were part of a hunting expedition to the Red Cedar, which included 150 Dakota men and their families, as well as mixed-blood fur trader Alexander Faribault. While the details of their relationship are obscure, most accounts suggest that Sibley and Red Blanket Woman were married "in the Dakota manner" before or during the hunting trip. There has also been considerable speculation that Bad Hail had actively sought to establish kinship ties with Sibley for some time. In the final page of his unfinished autobiography, Sibley recounted that "an Indian sub-chief" had brought his daughter to his log house in the middle of the night for protection during the winter of 1835–36. Sibley wrote that he had declined to take her in as his wife, and that the two visitors had left his house "disappointed, and mortified, at the ill success of their mission." Although Sibley did not specify whether that man was Bad Hail, researcher Bruce A. Kohn states that it may well have been. On August 28, 1841, Red Blanket Woman gave birth to their daughter Helen Hastings Sibley, also known as Wakiye (Bird). Monsignor Augustin Ravoux, a Catholic missionary, baptized "Hélène," daughter of Tahshinahohindoway and an unnamed father, with fur trader William Henry Forbes named as her godfather. In February 1842, Forbes sent a cryptic update to Sibley, who was in Washington, apparently about Red Blanket Woman and the baby. The evidence is unclear as to how long Red Blanket Woman lived in the area. Some sources suggest that Tahshinahohindoway remarried a Dakota man, perhaps in 1842, and died in early 1843. However, trading post records show that Tahshinahohindoway had made purchases of blankets, clothing and other items as late as 1846. Marriage to Sarah Jane Steele On May 2, 1843, Henry Sibley married Sarah Jane Steele, the 20-year-old sister of Franklin Steele, an entrepreneur from Pennsylvania who had staked the first claim to the east