Daily globe., 1883-07-18
TAE GOOD INDIANS.

A DeDutatien of Mile Lacs Indians Inter
view Gov. Hubbard-Misplaced Conf
dence in Regard TO Old Reservation
Homestead Rights-A Chief of Prudence
Listens to Fair Promises which Govern
,nent Must Recognize in Some Manner
Their Case to be Immediately Attended
to.
Gov. Hubbard had a very interesting
hearing yesterday NOR ming with the six
head men of the Mile Lacs tribe of Chip
pewa Indians who reside on tract of land
at Mile Lacs lake, in this state, and who
year ago all told numbered 1,O06 SO uls.
= They were, with one exception, the older
men or sages of the tribe and were clad IN
a mixture of European and Indian cos
tunes. Their names were Shoboskku nix,
Mosomannary, the moose guardian of
the young chief,) Monomekshie, (chlef
and son of the Rice -maker) Wazeckmi-
neck, and Nagnenaba and Magienys.
The occasion of their visit to interview
their Minnesota great father was to see
If they could not secure cessation from
the inroads being made upon the lands
which they occupy by the white settlers
who have settled on half the lands of their
old reservation, and knowing that the In
dians have no legal claim to the other half,
help themselves to the grass and whatever
else there may be upon it, which they may
happen to want. with perfect impunity.
The pushing forward of the strides of
civilization and settlement, and the white
mans aggressiveness, when soldiers are
not ia the vicinity, it seems has not only
disturbed, vexed and rendered most uneasy
the older Indians, who, with the younger,
have for good reasons supposed that the
Mile Lacs reservation was to be the home
of themselves and their posterity for
ever, but il has excited their fears also,
that on account of it their wild young
bucks may naturally become so incensed
that they may take the bits in their mouths
and retalIate by taking few pale face
scalps, or by the wiDing out of some white
settlement by frebrand and tomahawk.
The interview with the govern or by the
Chippewas was conducted by them one by
one in turn, each declaring their griev-
ances and desire for peace, redress and
non-disturbance to him in their own dia-
iect, which was after the conclusion of
each sentence translated by their white in
terpreter.
The general tenor of their petitions were
vent the depredations of the white settlers
upon their lands, to preserve to them their
grass lands and to inaugurate such action
as to prevent any disturbance between
their young bloods and their neighbors,
and even the two oldest Indians, who had
with the old schief, now deceased, and
others of their tribe, signed an agreement
with the government at Washington in
1853, ceding the Mile Laos reservation
thereto, were as innocent as children as to
a knowledge of the fact that they had done
or the others had done anything to impair
their title to and the liberty of the occu-
pancy of their old reservation as long as
they or their posterity might live.
In the course of the meeting the follow
ing facts were brought out, which showed
that these Chippewas reasoned on perfect
ly Just premises, and that if any blame is
to be attached to any one it is rather to
the government who led them to affix their
names to a compact which they did not
understand, and which in order to obtain
their signatures made representations and
promises to them which were very unwise,
If they were in any measure iustihable.
In 1868 the chief of the Mile Lacs and
several other Indians, of which party were
Shaboskkunk and Mosomannary, the two
oldest Indians present yesterday, went to
Washington with their Interpreter, who has
since, with their chief and others. deceased,
where they executed a treaty
and ceded to the government the
Mile Lacs reservation, taking in release of
the same the larger Leech Lake reserva-
tion, which was afterward changed to the
White Earth reservation.
Several of the other Indians of the par
ty had affixed their names to this treaty,
but the head chief, ,Mosomannary, could not
be induced by the interpreter, the great
father or any of the officials to attach his
name to the parchment. He would in re-
ply to every solicitation to sign, say
"We've been true to the white man. We
don't want to go. We want to stay"
Then again on being pressed and urged
even by the interpreter, in whom he had
the greatest confde nee, he would reply,
ESend the bad Indians away but let the
good Indians stay" He finally totally re-
fused to sign the treaty, saying, me am
afraid" even after all the rest of his COM
rades had affixed their marks.
At this juncture President Lincoln and
the officers, taking into consideration that
these Indians in the massacres and
troubles OF 1862 behaved so nobly and
kept their friendly relations with the
whites so inviolate, and that they had Civ
en- neither the government or
state any trouble or anxiety on their ac-
count, resolved as this reservation was so
far remote to give them their White Earth
annuities and to let them remain on the
Mile Lacs reservation, probably suppos-
ing that the land would not be needed for
public settlement before the tribe should
become extinct.
They then through the Interpreter in
formed the chief that they might remain
in peaceable possession of the reservation
for ten years if they still behaved we'll and
kept peace with the whites. This was not
enough for the wary old chief, the 'Rice-
Maker" and an assertion was made place
ing the time at 100 years, or as long as any
of the tribe were alive and had not been
off the reservation, and finally when the
time was placed at 1000 years or an in
definite period, and he was again as
sured of the honor of the government in
keeping its compacts by his interpreter, he
finally signed the treaty, but with full
understanding, as 1t will be seen that the old
reservation was to be the final home of the
4rih md &c L.