The greatest tracts of timber (aside from Menominee) are on Chippewa lands at Bad River and La Pointe. Some are exceedingly valuable. I addressed the Department and received assurance that the Commissioner was aware of the dangers of a “second White Earth.” The following official communication (in part) is evidence that these Indians will be protected:—
“Under the treaty of September 30, 1854 (10 Stats. L., 1109), 1063 Indians within the La Pointe or Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin, have been allotted a total area of 8,387,068 acres. Approximately 45,000 acres of surplus tribal land remain, authority for the allotment of which exists in the Act of February 11, 1901 (31 Stats. L., 766), as amended by the Act of March 2, 1907 (34 Stats. L., 1217). Nothing is said in these acts about the allotment of timber lands and the remaining tribal lands within this reservation are very valuable for timber purposes, some of the eighty-acre tracts being estimated to yield approximately $30,000 for the timber alone. Other tracts containing but little timber are not desirable and an equitable division of the lands in allotment cannot be made under existing conditions.
“Two factions exist in the tribe, one in favor of allotting under existing laws and the other in favor of selling the timber, distributing the proceeds per capita and thereafter allotting the lands to the unallotted Indians belonging on this reservation.
“Appended hereto is the part of the Office file relating to this allotment correspondence, particularly the submission to the Department of the request for authority to procure agreements from the Indians to allot the lands under the existing laws with the understanding that the timber should be cut and sold for the benefit of the tribe at large.” (File omitted in this book.)
For several years there have been extensive cuttings of pine timber on the reservations at Bad River, Lac du Flambeau, Lac Courte Oreille, and Fond du Lac. The total amount cut on each of these reservations was as follows: Bad River, 57,183,770 feet; Lac du Flambeau, 23,049,110 feet; Lac Courte Oreille, 4,268,050 feet; Fond du Lac, 13,128,775 feet. All of this timber was cut on allotments except 12,068,620 feet cut from unpatented lands of the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, claimed by the State of Wisconsin as swamp lands, and 56,955 feet cut from tribal lands of the Bad River Reservation.
A number of circular letters were addressed by me to persons living in Wisconsin, requesting information as to the condition of the Indians. It is known that not only is there vocational training in the schools, but also more or less higher educational training. One of my correspondents, a missionary, takes the view that there has been too much higher education of Indian children in his State, and it would be far better to confine the work to the teaching of trades and give no book instruction beyond the fundamentals. He thinks that the average Indian when educated beyond this point, is not willing to take his place as an ordinary workman. Another gentleman, while expressing satisfaction with much that has been done, sums up the situation in the particular Indian community in which he resides as follows: “Too much red tape.”
The progress of these Indians while slow, is satisfactory. They do not present a sufficiently interesting problem for our study at the present time. It is safe to predict that within a generation, a full-blood Indian in Wisconsin will be a rarity. They may continue to live an indefinite length of time in various communities where they are now settled, but Government supervision (save possibly on the Menominee reservation) may be safely withdrawn in the near future.
In Michigan the larger number of Indians are Chippewa (Ojibwa), with a sprinkling of Ottawa and Potawatomi. Schools care for a majority of their children, and the adults are, for the most part, quite self-supporting. They may be dismissed from our pages.
Proceeding westward to the headquarters of the Mississippi, we have the great Minnesota region which is generally covered in my four chapters upon White Earth reservation. West of the Mississippi River, there are very few Indians in that great area of Texas (but 702), and in Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana; the numbers range from 313 to 780. These areas may be set aside as containing such a preponderance of white population as to render those of Indian blood an extreme minority. Of the mountain states, Colorado contains but 870 Indians, Wyoming 1715, and the others 4,000 to 11,000. The great Indian populations are, therefore, confined to nine states. Ten states contain from 800 to 8,000. The remaining twenty-nine contain but a fraction of the entire Indian body, and they are now more white than Indian.
Texas, in spite of its enormous size, is interesting in that but a handful of Indians are in evidence. In 1850 the Indian population was considerable. Nelson Lee’s book of captivity among the Comanches[[8]] gives an idea of the extent of the roving bands of Comanches and Apaches infesting the State in early days. The hostility of the Texas people was such that through the organization of the famous Texas Rangers those Indians were either driven out of the State or exterminated. Very little consideration was shown them, and I can find no evidence of any general effort being put forward to protect these Indians in their rights or place them upon reservations or establish schools among them. Our troops were frequently sent into Texas, and as late as 1875, roving bands of Indians infested the western part of the State and carried on raids into old Mexico, or stole stock from Texas ranches. As to the number of Indians in the State of Texas just prior to the Civil War, there seems to be no reliable statistics.