INDIAN SCHOOL CHILDREN IN UNIFORM, PINE POINT WHITE EARTH, MINNESOTA
“During the summer of 1912 Mr. James T. Shearman was detailed by the Honorable Secretary of the Interior to secure testimony concerning the eighty-six mixed-blood Indians suspended from the White Earth rolls. At this hearing certain testimony was given that may be of interest to you, as it explains the assassination of the then head chief of all the Chippewas, Hole-in-the-Day, who was killed at Crow Wing by a party of Leech Lake Indians in 1886. At this hearing an old, blind Indian testified that Clement Beaulieu, father of Gus Beaulieu, Albert Fairbanks, uncle of Ben Fairbanks, and certain other mixed-bloods employed him and other Indians then living at Leech Lake to go to Crow Wing and kill Chief Hole-in-the-Day, agreeing to pay the Indians $2000 for the deed. They went to Crow Wing and killed him according to agreement. Later, when the mixed-bloods refused to pay the price agreed upon, they organized another party and came to White Earth, intending to kill Beaulieu and certain other mixed-blood families. Upon their arrival here they were induced by the present Head Chief, Me-zhuck-ke-ge-shig, who was related to one of the party, to return to Leech Lake. After this old, blind Indian finished his story, Me-zhuck-ke-ge-shig, now about ninety years of age, went upon the stand and confirmed the testimony of the former witness. Mr. Shearman’s report is probably on file in the Secretary’s office, and I am informed that a brief of the testimony was made by Mr. E. C. O’Brien of the Department of Justice, and you can probably obtain a copy of the same.
“Since Mr. Shearman was here on the matter referred to, I have been furnished additional testimony concerning the killing of Hole-in-the-Day. It appears that the party left Leech Lake under the pretext of going hunting, there being nine in the party, and that only four of them were in the plot to kill Hole-in-the-Day. When they got to the Crow Wing country May-dway-we-mind said: “Hole-in-the-Day dies today.” Later, they met him about a mile and a half from the Crow Wing Agency at a branch of the two roads, where he was killed. After the deed was done, one of the party named Ay-nah-me-ay-gah-bow asked why he had been killed. The answer was that they were told to do it and that there was a reward for killing him, that each one of the party was to get a thousand dollars and a nice house built for him, and the one who shot first was to take Hole-in-the-Day’s place as Head Chief. The man who asked the first question also asked who offered the reward and he was told that Clement Beaulieu (father of Gus H. Beaulieu), Albert Fairbanks (uncle of Ben L. Fairbanks), ——[[10]] with others, were the men.
“Me-zhuck-ke-gwon-abe or Jim Bassett also stated that about four years after the killing he came with May-dway-we-mind, Num-ay-we-ne-nee, Way-zow-e-ko-nah-yay, O-didh-quay-ge-shig and Day-dah-tub-aun-gay to White earth for the money that had been offered as a reward and which they did not obtain.
“It is a matter of history that Hole-in-the-Day was opposed to the admission of the mixed-bloods to this reservation and that he was killed at their instigation, and there has been irrepressible friction between these Indians ever since.”
CHAPTER V. THE LEGAL COMPLICATIONS AT WHITE EARTH—THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Judge Marsden C. Burch, representing the Attorney General of the United States (Department of Justice) before the Committee on Expenditures in the Interior Department, House of Representatives, went into modern Ojibwa history at great length. The hearings began July 25, 1911, and continued through March 27, 1912. The testimony lies before me, and it fills 2,759 pages. It would be well nigh impossible for readers to consult this enormous bulk of evidence submitted by several hundred witnesses. He found, as have others, that they moved into Minnesota from the head of Lake Superior some seventy years ago. About 1868 the White Earth reservation was established, and the following bands were located at White Earth, Leech Lake, Red Lake, and Cass Lake in Minnesota: the Mississippi; the Otter Tails; the Pillagers; and a few Indians still claiming they belonged to the Lake Superior band and the Fond du Lac band. The White Earth reservation consisted of thirty-six townships, or 829,440 acres. The population in 1909 was 5,300; about 700 full-bloods and 4,600 mixed-bloods. Those who have traveled over it will agree with Judge Burch’s statement.
“I have never seen a more beautiful stretch of territory than that embraced in the present White Earth reservation. It contained lakes and streams, prairies and forests, timber enough of white pine originally there to build all the elegant buildings that might have been needed for centuries to come, of the most valuable character—timber which now converted into lumber would be worth in the open market, ranging by various grades, from $35 to $110 per thousand feet, board measure. It is hard wood, ample for fuel and all kinds of purposes. There were marshes and lakes wherein they could fish, and whereon they could hunt and gather wild rice for their sustenance; and the richest of prairie lands imaginable, high, rolling, healthy—everything that could be desired for the last stand of a great race.”
On January 8, 1912, Judge Burch made a longer speech which reviews the entire political and Departmental history of White Earth.[[11]] Some readers may wish to know a little concerning the legal procedures by which Indians are dispossessed. We will, therefore, take White Earth as an example, and omit the discussion of similar troubles elsewhere. I present about a fourth of his address.