LAKE SUPERIOR AGENCY.
I. L. MAHAN, AGENT, BAYFIELD, WIS.
A Merciful Man, etc.
I am glad to report the following, as one of quite a number of instances that have come within my own knowledge. Last fall, in obedience to the request of twelve of my Indians, I estimated for twelve cows and calves, but received only eight. In consequence of this failure, four of my people were disappointed, after having harvested, at their own expense, a sufficient amount of food to supply the cattle during the winter (by no means an easy undertaking for an Indian). The disappointed ones, however, took the ill luck philosophically, and made the best of the disappointment. They earnestly besought me to try again, and, if possible, get the cows and calves. I did try, and secured each of the four a good cow and calf, for which they each worked upon their own 80s in clearing, etc., under the direction of the Government farmer, thirty-eight days, and received each a cow and calf, and drove them to their houses. A few weeks after, a report came to me that Henry Buffalo was sadly neglecting his cow and calf; that he had secured each to a stake, driven in the ground for the purpose, and had taken his family on a visit to an adjoining settlement, a few miles away, leaving the cow and calf without food to eat or water to drink for days at a time. This, to me, seemed terrible treatment, and I set myself about an investigation, and found that, upon the occasion above referred to, the Indians in the vicinity had all gone to attend church service some miles distant, they having word of the coming of a favorite priest. Friends had advised the stake arrangement—the fences not being considered strong—and made preparations for Henry, in order to induce him to go. He started, but looking back, took pity upon the dumb brute, and returned and remained at home all day, feeding and watering his cow and calf, and using an evergreen brush to keep the flies off. The report was founded upon the fact that his house was locked up. Such care and sympathy is worthy of reward.
An Industrious Builder.
The other day an Indian applied to me for lumber and nails to finish his barn, that he might have a floor to thresh his grain upon. The lumber and nails were furnished him, and, on inquiry, I learned that he had stripped a sufficient number of cedar trees of bark to cover his barn; and not having horses or cattle, had transported it in a small boat, upon the lake, to the nearest point toward his house, and then packed it upon his back one and a half miles. Do you say such zealous and fatiguing labor does not deserve its reward?
Smart Surveying.
The Lac Courte D’Oreille reservation is located in the north-west corner of Chippewa county, near the intersection of Ashland and Burnett counties. It was selected, undoubtedly, for the timber, although some very fine farming-land has been found. The Indians made choice of this region of country on account of the very fine groves of sugar-maple and the large number of inland lakes; but the white man, who defines the boundaries, took occasion to so run the lines that the most of the maple-groves and many of the lakes are left out, and the Indians have a reservation running from south-west to north-west about thirty miles, and from north-west to south-east but about three or four miles. Upon this reservation we have made 160 allotments of eighty acres to individuals, and many good farms have been opened without very much encouragement from the Department, as the Indians long for their patents, as in the case of Red Cliff and Bad River. In passing up the Lac Courte D’Oreille River, I found five new log-houses, and, in one case, about ten acres cleared, and all planted. There are perhaps twenty or twenty-five other houses, that have been built by Indians without any individual aid from Government. They have improved the roads across the reservation. They have some stock, but are sadly in need of more.
No Civilizing Measures.
Belonging to the Lac du Flambeau reserve are 542 Indians, who live almost entirely by trapping, hunting and fishing. They are rovers in every sense of the word, having no houses or permanent homes, save the starry-decked heavens. They are visited each year by the Agent; and such goods and supplies as the Department furnishes are distributed to them as presents. The appropriations are not large enough to supply employés; therefore, no civilizing measures have been introduced here. Five thousand dollars a year, judiciously expended for labor, in building houses, clearing land, and supplying cattle to these Indians, would, in a very short period, place them beyond want; while the present policy—of leaving them to their own inclinations—will make a class of miserable paupers, without knowledge or disposition to be anything else; and the State will sooner or later be called upon to step in between the Indians and the general Government, and exercise some of its Christian charities. These Indians must be aided, or they are lost beyond redemption.
A Farmer on a Rock.
The Bois Forte bands, numbering 797 Indians, have a reservation of 107,509 acres, lying in unsurveyed territory, about forty miles north-west of Vermillion Lake, in Minnesota. They have mingled with the whites but little; therefore have but few of their vices. They roam, fish, hunt and trap for a livelihood. They dress in civilized costumes, and a few of them sow and plant and harvest, live in houses, and have some of the ordinary home comforts; but they are few indeed. They have been banished to perhaps the most wretched of all lands, or rock, in North Minnesota. Their treaty stipulates that a farmer shall be provided. A farmer! Think of it—on such a rock! The explorers report not a spot upon which to plant a potato. There is not a road within forty miles of the reservation. The treaty is rapidly passing away—half gone; soon they will have nothing left. We would most earnestly renew our recommendation of last year, that about 1,000 acres of land on the south side of Vermillion Lake, be set aside for agricultural and educational purposes, and that the Bois Forte Indians be induced to select homes and settle thereon; that the boundary be defined, and that the employés be permanently located.
Schools.
Our schools have been well attended. Books for more advanced scholarship have been a constant demand, and the statistics from teachers and farmers show a gradual improvement. The free-lunch system at Red Cliff and Bad River has been continued all year, and is, without doubt, the most successful medium through which to reach poor and hungry children.
The Wisconsin Scare,
as it is called, might have reached immense proportions had not the officers of the Indian Bureau taken a firm stand against the possibility of such a thing as an Indian outbreak among the Chippewas. The Chippewas have grievances that would make white men tear their hair and howl from one end of the country to the other; but they prefer to submit quietly and peaceably to the powers that be, praying without ceasing, hoping continually that the good men of the Great Father’s household will yet hear and answer their petitions by the necessary legislations.