The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1850-03-13

like disposition. They have ever bee,
till lately, the immediate, and inyeterat,
foes of the Red-Wing and Wabashav
bands of Sioux. They sold all thei
country atthe St. Peters Treaty in 1887
and are subject to remove at the will O
the President. For the last three years
they have expected to receive from thei
Great Father, the dread mandate for re-
moval: but have expressed determine.
ton not to go, as they say that at the
treaty of st. Peters they sold only their
pine trees, and not the land.
Till last Summer these Indians were
very friendly to the Whites; they have
never been half the trouble, or com.
mitted half the depredations on the lum-
bermen of the Chippewa and Menom-
lnee rivers, as the St. Croix Chippewas
have on their lumbermen on the St.
Croix river. Last summer, however, a
circumstance happend to them that has
embittered their minds against the
Whites. One of their number, a war
rier belonging to one of the principal
families, while OH visit to the mills at
the Falls Of Chippewa, INDUCED in
drinking and becoming intoxicated, had
scuflle with Frenchman whom he
slightly stabbed with his knife. A num-
Der of drunken Americans, whose names
| do not know, Immediately took and
bound the Indian, and without even the
show of summary trial, and justice
(such as our st. Croix neighbors, a
short time ago INDUCED in, under sim
liar circumstances they hung the Indian.
The man that was stabbed recovered
III a short time, and the above act was
an act of cold blOoded murder.
will insert here short extract from
letter of relation living at Chip
pewa river who was cognizant of the
whole affair, aed wrote to me shortly
after its occurrence, he says:
''In couple of weeks after, the poor
fellow was hung by these drunken worth
less scamps, the Lac Chatac, Sac
Coutereille and Minominec River bands,
arrived at my trading house, the Indians
came in force, headed by their respect
i've chiefs, with full intention as they
said of taking those white men, and en-
forcing on them their own summary mode
of justice. They came determined to
take blood for blood Foreseeing the
consequences ofsuch an act, it was with
the greatest difficulty that | succeeded
with the help Of Mr.. Ermitinger and
Alexis Corbin, to prevent them from
putting their designs in execution. They
took the ringleaders, however, and
bound them, to send down to Prairie du
Chen, with the intention of delivering
them to the civil authorities. Mama
ung-a-be, chief Of the Lac Chatac band,
with some of his young men, and Alexis
Corbin as interpreter, escorted them as
far as Lake Pepin, where the prisoners
effe cted their escape, and have gone up
the Mississippi.
We see by this that the Indians have
acted in this matter much more rational
ly than the whites. After the escape of
the murderers, the chiefs went to La
Pointe and laid their complaint formally
before their sub-agent there. The mat
ter, however, has not been attended to,
and the Indians have not obtained JUS
tice. This is the cause of their present
GOODNESS towards the whites, and know
ing the family of the man hung, as do,
l should not be surprised that they would
at last take the matter into their own
hands, and murder some innocent white
in revenge for the death of their brother.
Any more serious consequence than this
l do not apprehend. AS the Chippewas
generally are more docile, and easier
influenced by their half breeds, (who
certainly will not advise them into trou-
ble) than any other tribe in the United
States. l have not written the above in
order to urge measures against the I'M
principled actors, for consider it the
business of the Indian agent at La
Pointe to attend to it, us he is paid to
guard over the interests of our govern
ment and these Indians.
O-JIB-WAY.
Gull Lake, March 1850.