St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-27
CHIPPEWA CLAIMS.
A Visit of White Cloud to the Cover
nor-Their Immediate Needs.

nOr-Iuolf lI1IuculdU0 MENUS.
White Cloud, head chief of the Mississippi
band of Chippewas, and resident on the
White Earth reservation, accompanied by
Joseph Chareth, head man Indian of that
band who served during the war as soldier
in the ranks of the Ninth Minnesota regi-
ment, and also by Geo. johnson, an inter-
prefer, the son of Rev. John Johnson, full
blooded Chippewa and their minister at
White Earth, paid an official visit to Gov
Hubbard Yesterday. On being given audi
| ence by the governor White Cloud produced
his papers authorizing him as the
agent of number of other
bands of reservation Chippewas, as
well as his own, to come down and interview
the governor in relation to the wants of those
Chippewas who had come to the conclusion
| that they must gain their living by tilling the
earth, which papers were signed by fully fif-
| ty of the chiefs and head men of the several
bands by the prefix of their mark.
The substance of White Clouds statement
| to the governor that the latter might gain the
ear of the great father at Washington in their
behalf, was that owing to the short crop last
| fall and the delay in the payment of their an
nuities the Chippewa Indian farmers had
been obliged to eat up the wheat they had in
store, and consequently had no seed to put
into the earth this spring to
get another crop. That when
their annuities were finally paid, they were
| so deeply in debt to the traders and those few
Indians who were above board and had
trusted them for winter supplies that they
had hardly anything left, and therefore no
means wherewith to purchase the necessary
seed wheat. Therefore they wished to pray
the Great Father at Washington to provide
them with this seed, so that they might raise
another crop.
Joseph Chareth, who was present, owned
| thirty five acres of wheat land, and had seed
on hand to rc-sow the same and there were a
! few other wealthy Indians who were thus be-
| forehand, but the great majority who had
| plowed last fall were without seed, while
there were many of the young bucks who had
never planted before, who were DESTROYS of
| doing so this spring, but had neither seed or
tools to work with, to make themselves self
supporting.
Another matter concerning which White
| Cloud desired to call the attention of the gen
eral government to was the refusal of
the Indian agent at White Earth to let the
Indians have the use of the government
teams and agricultural implements which
had been purchased and sent to the rcserva-
ton for them to prepare their lands for SOW
ing and to harvest their wheat crops. When
the teams and implements were first pur-
chased by government to help give the In
dams start they had been given the use of
them, but for some reason or other the auto
cratic agent, against whom complaints have
become so numerous as to incline the public
to the opinion that there ''must be
some fire whe there is so much smoke,n has
preferred TO let them grow old at the crib OF
rust out in storehouse rather than be used
for the legitimate purposes of their purchase.
Gov. Hubbard lent an interested ear to the
very straightforward and reasonable requests
of White Cloud, and Informed him if he
could procure some St. Paul scribe to reduce
his verbal petition to writing that he would
forward the same to Washington asking i'm
mediate ntteution thereto.