The American. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1857, 1857-10-03
Correspondence of the American.
SD. Paul, Sept. %, Is5

Mr.. FEsroS-,Sir: Having seen a statement
about the Great Fort Smelling Steele" in your
| paper, j have concluded TO send you an account
of another transaction which relates to the sale OF
a part of the Fort Smelling reservation, in which
Mr.. Steele also figured largely and profted i'm.
mensely. 81 5.ag 81 mfs 40 HsBo 81
In October, 1854, was sold at the Land Office
at Still Water, about twenty-five miles east Of St.
Paul, the lands belonging to the Fort Smelling
reservation, lying east Of the Mississippi river.
The tract contained about nine thousand acres,
including the town Of St. Anthony, and ran down
the river to this place. These lands were not sub
ject to presumption, and every person was a tres
passer who entered upon them. Nevertheless,
people went on them, and set up their pre-emp-
ton claims, each to the quarter or half quarter
section he could find unoccupied by any other
sguatter. In this way, long before the sale took
place, every inch Of the reservation was squatted
upon, though in violation Of the law, and though
not one out of twenty Of the so-called "sg,atersn
ever spent single night, and perhaps not single
whole day upon the tract claimed by them. The
practice was to run up little board shanty called
"a claim shanty, about eight or ten feet square,
something like temporary and very Indifferent
cow-house, go there once in while, plough few
burrows, and call 1t settling the land. ~ .1 20
But it so happened that there were in some In.
stances opposing claimants to the same piece Of
land, aud will presently tell you how their claims
we're adjusted. 3l1 n
When the law was passed authorizing the Presi-
dent to sell this reservation in quarter and half
quarter sections, &c., those who had been lucky
enough 10 squat upon O tract---in all, perhaps,
three or four hundred persons-determined that
they would have the land at 81 % per acre,
though il we're worth, on an average, at least one
hundred dollars an acre, some tracts being ex-
ceedingly valuable, those especially lying on The
river, at the Falls, where there is an immense
water power and mills. ~.
In order TO accomplish their purpose, those
trespassers entered into a combination to prevent
any one bidding for any Of the land but their own
agent; and in order to settle who were entitled 10
the tracts they claimed, the association appointed
a committee to sit and hear the evidence Of each
claimant, and then TO determine which should
have it, This committe held its sittings from day
to day for long time, as court, and heard
counsel in behalf of the conflicting claimants as If
they had been regularly reconstructed COURT
though, as they we're told by one lawyer to their
faces, they were traitors, setting the laws of
their country at defiance, and openly and shame
essly violating them. ,i ~ ZOO h5e "t'7
ms COURT at length, having decided who was
the righ6ul claimant 10 each. individual tract Of
This reservation, appointed ono man to bid Off at
the sale each tract for the Individual whose name
vas set, by this selfconstituted authority, oppol
The next step was for the association to form
themselves into armed bands with head man to
each ten, and one as head over ALL and TO an.
nounce to the world that any man, except the one
they had appointed, who should bid upon any
tract offered for SALE would not leave the ground
slivel