JAMES BASSETT, FULL-BLOOD OJIBWA IN TRIBAL COSTUME
In 1869, the Nelson Act was passed. This provided for the collecting of scattered Ojibwa from ten localities and concentrating them at White Earth, Red Lake and Leech Lake. Judge Burch enters into a lengthy discussion of how the Nelson Act was followed by a bill introduced by Senator Clapp, and that in January, 1904, Representative Steenerson of Minnesota introduced another bill. Of this the Judge says:—
“Under the terms of this Steenerson Act each Indian who had received an allotment on the White Earth Reservation or was entitled thereto should have an additional allotment sufficient to make the original and additional total 160 acres, provided that if there should not be enough land for 160 acres each, the additional allotments should contain only so much land as could be allotted by dividing the total remaining allotable land by the number of eligible allottees.
“We expect to show that of this White Earth Reservation there was an area of lake surface aggregating 59,731.24 acres; also that there is claimed as swamp land going to the State as part of its quota under the organic law of Congress 26,658.15 acres. The allotments additional under the Steenerson Act were made by one Simon Michelet, the White Earth Indian Superintendent, or Agent, at that time. By omitting the two items of lake land and State swamp land from consideration, he figured that there was sufficient territory practically to furnish each allottee the full 160 acres of land, and thus he proceeded to allot to those who first came to be served the total of 160 acres; of course, including all the valuable pine upon the reservation.
“We expect to show that those who were thus favored by these complete additional allotments were largely composed of persons who could be handled in the matter of purchase of the timber by the representatives of the lumber companies that had procured the greater portion of the timber in the four townships. Large numbers of persons eligible to additional allotments, but who came later, were denied the same because there was no land left for them, there being 31,516.88 acres lacking. It will thus be seen that the so-called additional allotment under Michelet was a fraud upon the rights of from 400 to 500 Indians who were absolutely left out in the cold. In addition to this, it would seem that the allotments made included the 59,000 odd acres of lake land, thus increasing the fraud upon those who were not favored with pine in these additional allotments. The allotment was, of course, in direct violation of the Steenerson Act itself. It is a matter of question whether those who had knowledge of and participated in the benefits arising from these illegal allotments can not be yet reached by a court of equity and they compelled to account for their misdeeds.
“No machinery for carrying into effect the Clapp amendment was provided therein, and thus it remained to be determined who were and who were not adults of the mixed-blood and freed from restraint as to alienation. The result was that designing persons rushed in and obtained deeds and mortgages indiscriminately; that is, from children of the mixed-blood and adults of the full-blood the same as adults of the mixed-blood. In all of these they were accustomed to recite the competency of the Indian, and attached to the deed in each case they usually secured what purported to be the affidavit of two persons that the allottee was an adult Indian of the mixed blood, which affidavits were ordinarily passed with the deed in making mesne conveyances or in recording in the proper county recording office. In connection with these transactions we shall be able to demonstrate to the committee that every variety of fraudulent schemes and devices which would occur naturally to acute minds was resorted to to defraud the Indians. The taking of these deeds in violation of law from minors of the mixed-blood and from full-bloods eventuated in the action of the Government in requiring the Department of Justice to file about 1,200 bills in equity to remove the clouds from the titles to lands thus unlawfully obtained.
“Following upon the sudden acquirement of money by persons in some respects less fitted to handle the same and make proper use of it than white children of tender years, there came a condition of affairs which we expect to demonstrate to the committee as most deplorable and shameful, a stain upon the fair fame of a great and enlightened State. Saloons ran wide open. Cheap and tawdry articles were sold at extravagant prices. The Indians were overreached, and the money they had obtained from selling or mortgaging their lands or timber was coaxed from them in exchange for objects of little or no value, but of supposed utility—such as decrepit horses, defective vehicles, unmanageable sewing machines, and even pianos of little worth. A perfect frenzy of drunkenness characterized many who took their way to the neighboring town of Detroit, and encamped in its vicinity, and practically the same conditions occurred in the hamlets along the Soo Road. The land-shark, passing under the more dignified title of real-estate agent, was everywhere in evidence, and the money-loaning shark, posing under the more dignified business appellation of banker, was engaged in over-reaching the Indian right and left.