CHAPTER VI. THE WHITE EARTH SCANDAL
Judge Burch’s research led him to conclude that the Indians were in vastly better shape forty years ago than at the present time. The reading of Warren’s book, Gilfillan’s testimony, and other evidence establishes it beyond question that the Indian does not seem to have suffered to any great extent in either health or morals prior to 1880. The older men of the tribe, who were keen mentally in spite of great age, when I visited those Indians in 1909, told me much regarding their past. I visited them under most auspicious circumstances, being empowered by the Indian Office to conduct investigations of affairs at White Earth, and having at my command numerous interpreters and assistants. The old shaman, Bay-bah-dwun-gay-aush, Me-zhuck-ke-ge-shig, Ojibwa,[[13]] Mah-een-gonce, and others with whom I talked a great deal, laid the blame for their present deplorable condition on the unscrupulous French-Canadians, mixed-blood element, as well as covetous white men who sought timber and land. Gilfillan has pointed out in his letter the increase of drunkenness due to large financial rewards offered by the Government in pursuing a mistaken policy.
Father Aloysius Hermanutz has been at White Earth since 1878. In his testimony before the Graham Investigating Committee, he stated that the full-blood Indians at that time were in good condition. Nearly everyone owned a team of oxen, a cow, and cultivated fields. Many of them raised vegetables and there was much weaving of rugs and small carpets. They had an Agent, Mr. Charles Ruffey, who was kind to them but very strict. The farmer was a competent man and knew how to make Indians work.
“I met him one day on the road on horseback. He went to that Indian—to that farm—I met him there and asked him where he was going, and he said: ‘There are two Indians, Father, up beyond that church. They didn’t plow their field in order to put the seeds in, and the Agent ordered me to tell them if they don’t plow their fields now (it was in April) that the team will be taken away from them.’ And of course they were oldtimers. That was Saturday when I saw them, and on Sunday morning they started to plow. They were scared and they plowed their fields. At the time the Indians were in very good condition, and then afterwards it changed and they went down again.”
The illustrations accompanying these chapters were taken during the investigation of 1909 and give some idea of conditions obtaining at that time. So much has been said and written regarding the situation of the Minnesota Ojibwa, that the Government adopted heroic measures, and conditions are to a great extent ameliorated, but they are still far from satisfactory.
Omitting the racial traits of the people the past sixty years, let us consider their present condition and the causes leading up to it.
The 1889 bill (Congress) was known officially: “For the Relief and Civilization of the Chippewa Indians.” There is both sarcasm and irony in that phrase, which only those of us who know what kind of “relief and civilization” the Chippewas have received since the bill was passed, can appreciate.
At the time White Earth reservation was created, a treaty was made with the Ojibwa bands, March 19th, 1867. It was the Government’s intention at the time this solemn treaty was signed, to encourage progress in industry, and to permanently locate the Ojibwa upon farms. With so laudable a purpose in view, one of the provisions of this treaty was as follows: Any Indian who brought under cultivation ten acres of land, was entitled to a fee simple patent, or deed, for forty acres additional, and so on up to 160 acres. This encouraged many Indians to become industrious and they brought under cultivation many tracts of land. In 1887, under the Dawes Act, the holdings of agricultural land were limited to eighty acres. After the “Relief and Civilization” act of 1889, Gus Beaulieu, a French-Canadian-Indian politician, and others became very active in and about White Earth reservation. A Mr. Darwin S. Hall was appointed Chippewa Commissioner and became interested in Mr. Beaulieu’s projects.
Whatever the original purpose of this act, it was used by venal white men to get hold of the Indians’ land. Previously the land had all been in a reservation and could not be touched. Now it was coming under the control of individual Indians and might be sold.
The Indians could not be thrown neck-and-heels off their reservation, although I suppose certain interested persons of northern Minnesota would have adopted that happy expedient were it possible. Some kind of legislation must be enacted whereby the wolves could enter the flock, if not entirely disguised, at least so covered that the shepherd of the flock might have some difficulty in differentiating between the sheep and the wolves. So it came about that the “Clapp Amendment” was passed as a rider to the general Indian appropriation bill. The Clapp amendment in substance, provided that any mixed-blood Indian could dispose of his property, but full-bloods and minors could not.
If either Senator Clapp or Congressman Steenerson ever endeavored to put an end to the abuses resulting from the passage of this legislation their efforts have failed to accomplish results. I never heard that anyone in Congress tried to remedy the evils following the passage of these bills. Two of the missionaries, Rev. Felix Nelles of Pine Point and Rev. Aloysius Hermanutz of White Earth, wrote to the Indian Office, protesting that the Indians were being swindled out of their property. But Father Felix reports to me by letter that so far as he is aware neither the protest of himself nor his superior, Father Aloysius, had any effect.
When the Act of 1867, establishing White Earth reservation, and which Judge Burch has discussed, was put into effect, a great number of Indians by hard work, notably the chief of the entire five living bands of Chippewa, a grand old man, whose name is Me-zhuck-ke-ge-shig, took advantage of this and earned many acres of land. This chief was looked up to by the Indians, was a good man himself, and many of his friends followed his example, worked hard and earned forty, eighty or one hundred and sixty acres. Imagine the surprise of these Indians when, at the time the pine lumber was allotted, some one in Washington announced that the Indians who had received farm lands could not participate in the pine allotting. In other words, the French-Canadians, the mixed-bloods and such full-bloods as had not worked and were not industrious, received pine tracts valued from few to many thousands of dollars, and those who had obeyed the wishes of the Indian Office, had advanced by hard work along the “road to civilization,” were debarred from participation. It was precisely as if a college passed its drones and conditioned its honor-roll men. No wonder these White Earth Indians do not care to work, and say they “cannot understand Washington.” If whoever was responsible for such a ruling had sat down and deliberately tried to figure out the most certain way of injuring the Ojibwa Indians, he could not have conceived a better plan.
Immediately after I was appointed on the Board of Indian Commissioners, a correspondent wrote me from Wisconsin that the Ojibwa Indians at White Earth were in bad condition. The Indian Rights Association had made a similar complaint. Rev. Charles Wright, Episcopal missionary at Cass Lake, shortly after the scandals began to develop, on his own responsibility borrowed money and in spite of the opposition of the Indian Agent, Simon Michelet, he went to Washington to lay the grievances of the Indians before the President. He bore letters of introduction from Governor John A. Johnson and United States Senator Knute Nelson. The lumber companies, it was supposed, wired the Indian Commissioner of Wright’s mission. He did not find favor at Washington, never succeeded in seeing the President, and sorrowing and sick at heart he was compelled to return to Minnesota.
The Board of Indian Commissioners having no funds, I asked the Indian Office to appoint me as Special Agent with full powers, and send me to White Earth. This was done about March 1st. I spent five weeks investigating conditions in the southern part of the reservation, Pine Point, and returned to Washington the latter part of April, 1909. The first of July, Inspector E. B. Linnen and myself were sent to White Earth with full authority. We employed a total force of thirty-seven persons and made a complete investigation.
During the first five weeks at White Earth, save for local employees, I was entirely alone. The investigation soon developed that millions of dollars’ worth of pine timber and farm lands had been stolen from the Indians. As soon as it was ascertained that I was working in the interests of the Indian, the lumber companies and the mixed-blood and French-Canadians attempted in every possible way to end the investigation. They first tried bribery, and later intimidation. They lured away several of my witnesses, and even some of the Government employees informed me that it was hopeless to fight the great land and timber interests back of the despoilation of 5,300 Indians. Matters went from bad to worse. Some idea of the physical strain may be had from the statement that I lost fifteen pounds weight in five weeks. As the other Inspectors and Special Agents had not reported on White Earth conditions, the Indian Office could not, at first, believe my story. At last, I received a telegram asking me to come to Washington. I had at that time one hundred and three affidavits representing more than a million dollars worth of property, and involving county officials, lumbermen and presidents of national banks. Ill feeling had developed in the local towns. The nearest railway station, Park Rapids, was distant eighteen miles. Ogema, on the “Soo Line,” lay forty-five miles to the north. Knowing that the enemy would attempt to prevent the affidavits going East, I started Doctor Isaac Stahlberg, Government physician, for Park Rapids at noon. He arrived there about half-past three o’clock and volunteered the information that I would probably take the 5 o’clock train East.
Meanwhile, at 7 o’clock that same morning, in three vehicles, nine of us, including five armed Indian policemen, started for Ogema to the north. We reached our destination without incident, and I delivered the affidavits to Commissioner Valentine in Washington two days later.
Honorable Robert G. Valentine, then Commissioner, took great interest in the White Earth affair, supported my contentions, and at his suggestion a very experienced man, Inspector Linnen, returned with me to the scene of action, as has been stated. We had the hearty cooperation of Superintendent John R. Howard, who was appointed early in 1908 and succeeded Simon Michelet. Major Howard has filled one of the most difficult positions in the entire Indian Service. He has been bitterly opposed by the mixed-blood element through Beaulieu’s newspaper. Neighboring towns have organized Boards of Trade, and these have appealed by committee and through the press to Congress, alleging that the Interior Department and Department of Justice have interfered with business.
Howard’s position has been no sinecure, and in addition to his other troubles, he was given a chief clerk who happened to be a disputatious person, who had caused trouble in California, and on arrival at White Earth became friendly with some of those who were opposing him. This tense situation was not brought to an end until vigorous protests were lodged by a number of us at Washington.
The beginning of the great scandal at White Earth is interesting as well as dramatic. What I have to say in succeeding pages is not in the official language of the report made by Linnen and myself, but is drawn from departmental sources.
I make this explanation, for I am well aware that what follows will sound to some readers as a page from Russian, or Turkish, history, rather than a leaf from the history of one of our own states in our own great and free country!
The 24th of April, 1905, was set as the date on which the white, Norway and other valuable pine tracts would be allotted to the Indians of White Earth. The word was passed throughout the reservation, and the French-Canadians, who are there in considerable numbers and most of whom show very slight trace of Indian blood, were the first to appear. Educated mixed-blood Indians also arrived some days previous. A line was formed near the United States Government building door some time Saturday afternoon. The allotting was to begin Monday morning. It is interesting to note that first in the line was Margaret Lynch, a young white girl, whose father and mother were white people, and who, the Indians properly maintained, had no right to an allotment. The girl received allotment number one, for which her father refused $22,000 cash the next day.
The Agent at this time was Simon Michelet. He was possessed of a violent temper, according to the sworn testimony of a policeman employed at the White Earth Agency for nearly ten years. Michelet was friendly with Gus H. Beaulieu, the Nichols-Chisolm Lumber Company and others who were equally interested in obtaining timber from the White Earth Indians. It was bad form, to say the least, for the United States Agent to use his office at this time to hold long conferences with the representatives of the lumber companies.
What was said behind the closed doors no one knows, but what occurred at the time of the allotting sheds a little light on the situation. The chief clerk of agent Michelet was one J. T. Van Metre. As he resigned his position after the timber was allotted and entered the real estate business, this added another complication to the already confused affairs at White Earth.
During the allotting of the pine timber there was such confusion, the line became broken and many people lost their places. My two investigations on the reservation, covering nearly seventeen weeks, lead me to believe that the most valuable tracts were selected in advance, and that the names of those who were to have them were entered on a list for use at the allotment.
In support of this contention is the affidavit of Robert Henry, sworn to September 24th, 1909, who came early to White Earth at the time of the allotment and passed into the agent’s office shortly after the allotting began. He held in his hand descriptions of forty or fifty different pine tracts, and yet was told that all had been selected and he could not have a good pine allotment. Not enough people preceded Henry to have drawn each of these allotments. The same is true of a woman who had in her hand fifty descriptions, and she was told that all of these had been selected. It early in the day became evident that the full-bloods were, if possible, to be kept from getting any land, for by the Clapp amendment only the mixed-bloods could sell their land.
Early in the day when the full-blood Indians were clamoring for recognition and insisting that the French-Canadians and white people be kept back, John St. Luke, the policeman, testifying under oath, September 24th, 1909, says: “Agent Simon Michelet came out of his office in an excited manner, and told me to keep the Indians out and let the mixed-bloods in. There seemed to be confusion in the line. Michelet pushed some of these Indians back, swearing at them, and told me to club them if necessary, to keep them from crowding in.” St. Luke refused to do this.
At last the full-bloods registered a protest, some of the Indians sent for their guns, and things took on a serious aspect. Presently by way of compromise it was agreed that for every mixed-blood that received a pine allotment a full-blood should also obtain one. This continued until all of the twenty or more miles of pine timber had been allotted in tracts of eighty acres each to the Indians.
OJIBWA CHIEF, KE-WAY-DIN, PINE POINT, WHITE EARTH RESERVATION, MINNESOTA, 1909
The pine timber allotted these Indians ranged all the way from tracts worth $2,000 or $3,000 to those valued as high as $25,000. Since the lands were allotted, iron ore has been found in quantities under certain parts of the reservation. How extensive are these bodies, no man may know, and the value might be a few millions, or many hundreds of millions.
EVICTED INDIANS, TWIN LAKES, WHITE EARTH RESERVATION, MINNESOTA, 1909
The effect of the allotment on the Whites near White Earth was immediate. Mushroom banks sprang up in the surrounding small towns. The Indians in their affidavits (of which Linnen and myself took 505) testified that lawyers, banks, county officials, and business men of prominence in Detroit, Ogema, Mahnomen, and other towns, joined in the scramble to secure their pine lands and farm tracts.
As few of these men spoke the language, it was necessary to have interpreters, and the educated Indians were soon divided into two camps, those who were willing for pay to interpret for the land-sharks and timber thieves, and those who would not help in defrauding their own people.
It is sad to note that in a hundred or more instances the Indians were purposely made drunk and their lands taken away from them while under the influence of liquor. Many of the Indians do not remember what kind of papers they signed, whether deeds or mortgages, or whether any papers were signed at all.
While our investigation was in progress, and we had moved over to Rice River, Mr. J. Weston Allen visited us for three weeks. He came as a representative of the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, and because of his high standing in the legal profession, rendered valuable assistance in the investigation.
The key to the whole situation lay in the question of blood. As has been shown before, the mixed-bloods only could sell their land. The full-bloods could not. Consequently we assembled the old record-keepers, medicine men, chiefs, and Indians of prominence who knew their own people. Some of these were more than eighty-five years of age and none of them under seventy. When an Indian appeared before us to give his testimony, we first asked him whether he was a full-blood or a mixed-blood, and the names of his parents and grandparents. The old witnesses, probably twelve or fifteen, might not all know the parents or grandparents of the Indian testifying. But three, four, six, and sometimes eight of them would know the family history, and would be able to swear whether the Indian was a full-blood. If he was a mixed-blood, we told him with regret that we could do nothing for him.
One affidavit of the Indian himself as to his blood relationship and parents was taken, another signed by the old witnesses to the same effect. A third affidavit related to the property possessed by the Indian, with number and description of allotments, and by careful questioning we ascertained when and where he had disposed of his land. The fourth affidavit was by the interpreters in which they solemnly declared that they had correctly interpreted our statements to the Indian and his answers to us, and that he understood the nature of the papers that he had signed. The interpreters also made further affidavit that they had carefully interpreted to the old Indian witnesses the papers that they signed. In addition to all of the above, we frequently took affidavits of Indians who were present during the swindling operations. Thus it will be seen that the evidence was very complete, positive and exact. So far as I know, no investigating force on a reservation had ever done more work in the same length of time. We labored from eight o’clock to twelve, one to six, and frequently from seven until eleven at night.
The Indians took great interest in the investigation, and as we moved from one portion of the reservation to another we were accompanied by large numbers of these poor people. On one occasion over eighty Indians were present, and we were compelled to turn two large school buildings into dormitories.
These Indians had lost their property almost without exception. Whether the term “swindle” is used or not is immaterial. They lost their property through many and devious ways. The affidavits indicated that in many instances Indians appeared before the buyers either drunk or somewhat under the influence of liquor. Not only did the interpreters give the Indians liquor, but frequently the Indians drank of their own accord. Of course the bankers, lawyers, county officials and real estate men knew that the ordinary code of business ethics would not countenance their dealings with drunken persons. But these land-owners being Indians, and the sentiment of the thirty-seven individuals and firms who in the affidavits are shown to be responsible for the conditions at White Earth being against Indians as land-owners, no discrimination was made and Indians were permitted to “do business” whether drunk or sober. Next to drunkenness as a means of separating the Indian from his land, the deliberate deceit practised by the buyers stands out conspicuously. Scores of affidavits and statements were taken of Indians who owned two, three, five, or even seven or eight trust patents. The trust patent was preliminary paper, but as trust patents would in the process of time become deeds, the white people did not differentiate and trust patents were in most cases accepted the same as deeds. In order to be within the law it was necessary to prove the Indians mixed-bloods. Most of the Indians were therefore sworn as mixed-bloods. They frequently protested, stating that they were full-bloods, but were described in the papers as mixed-bloods just the same. Therefore few of the papers signed by these Indians were read or interpreted to them, and in the majority of cases, as the Indian could neither write nor read, he did not know whether he was signing receipts, mortgages, deeds or releases. The favorite form of expression used by the interpreter, according to affidavits, was “the buyer says this is a legal document which you would not understand if read to you, and all you have to do is to sign your name and receive the money.” Very few Indians appear to have sworn to the papers they signed.
When an Indian appeared with more than one trust patent he was usually told that one of these would be purchased or mortgaged and the others would be held for him and he could sign papers for all of them. Many of the buyers were accustomed to say to the Indian, “You have no safe in your cabin, and if these papers burn up you would lose your land. You had better let me keep them in my safe.” Then the Indian signed and parted with the papers and we can imagine the result.
Allotments acquired by inheritance are called by the Indians “dead allotments.” Such estates must be probated. In other communities the fee is anywhere from a few dollars to fifteen dollars or more, but in Detroit, Mahnomen, Ogema and Wauban, the usual charge varied from $50 to as high as $150, according to the credulity of the victim—and there were other charges. When the Indians reported to us that they had signed over “dead allotments” to be probated, we frequently discovered that it was not clear in the Indian’s mind how so much money was necessary in order to settle these estates, but having surrendered the trust patent, he was without anything to show for his inheritance. Frequently little or nothing accrued to the Indian after the benevolent attorney or banker had been paid for his efforts in directing the Indian’s footsteps along the broad highway of civilization.
Instances are not wanting where deceased Indians were actually resurrected long enough to dispose of land which they had neglected to convey during life, and affidavits are not lacking which recite that so-and-so was an adult mixed-blood and competent to handle his affairs. I have in mind one case of a boy resting in his grave at Pine Point. Certain individuals made affidavit that this boy was alive, and was of age, and thereby they secured control of his valuable pine allotment.
The affidavits bristled with forgery and perjury.
Men employed in the livery stables of Detroit and elsewhere told me that as soon as the lands were allotted all the available teams and drivers were engaged by the buyers, and that night and day for many months these men scoured the reservation and pursued the Indian men, women and children until they had secured the best farms and timber tracts available. There is one man in particular whose history is interesting. He walked into Detroit a tramp ten years ago and began washing dishes in a hotel. Just how he got his start is under dispute, one man claiming that a stranded theatrical company left several trunks of gaudy paraphernalia in Detroit, which this man traded to some drunken Indians for a tract of land. Whether this is true or not, he was successful in Indian land speculation, and at present he is now a leading citizens of the region. Some of the Indians call him, “the white wolf, with the gold teeth.”
Where was the United States Indian Bureau, while this disgraceful scene was being enacted? Where was the Indian Agent, sworn to protect these people? Where were the Inspectors and Special Agents? How was it that the testimony of missionaries and others, and their warnings, produced no effect in Washington? These are questions I have repeatedly asked, and nobody has ever answered them.