St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-22
ST. PAUL NEWS.
LEIGH LAKE INDIANS
They Repudiate Falsehoods Of Some of
Their Young Men.
And Most Cordially Endorse Mr.. King as an
Honorable Man.

The GLOBE published q few days ago let
ter from Leech lake, signed by an Indian
and purporting to represent the sentiments
of the Indians, severely rejecting upon
Mr.. King Of the agency. 1t gives us pleasure
to know that those reflections were untrue
and unjust and the following very emphatic
reputation of the charges is given as a mat
ter of justice to Mr. King. The signers are
representative men among the Indians at
Leech Lake:
LEIGH LAKE, March II, 1884,
To the Odah Kay Ogemah (the Great Chief
who steers) Governor L. f. Hubbard;
The chiefs and headmen of the Pillagcrs at
Leech Lake want to tell you something.
We have asked Mr.. King, our Ozhebegay
Wenene (the writing MANI our Pungee she
Nah he Ogeneah (sub-agent) to write these for
US. We all feel big shame because some of
our young men go to the white folks country
and tell such big lies, and have them
printed. We very much afraid that our
great father at Washington, by and by when
he comes to do business with us, will think
we are all children and can't tell the truth
and won't listen to US.
1t is all true, that the Pillagers last sum-
mer did have one big council at softer Tail
Point in our country, called to talk about
only one thing-oaw damages, because the
whites build these dams to cover our country
all over with water.
This thing troubles us very much, and we
all got tired waiting SO long, because the
great father don't fix it up, and pay US the
money, and settle our minds, we also had
big trouble in our minds because we got
aletter from our great father, that he wo uld
only.give us half of our payment money at
one payment. This was new
thing for him to d. and we
got two of our half-breed young men, Will
liam Bonga and Ignatius Hole-in-the-D Day, to
write letter to our great father, just about
these two things. We all agreed on this,
and that no bad talk should be said, and
that all our young men must be quiet, and
make no trouble and that if they did make
trouble, we throw them out of our council
and make them feel big shame. We find
out after awhile that somebody put words in
that letter we never said; making fight
against two white men the great father sent
here, and against one interpreter. We want
to tell you these Pillagers had no quarrel
against these men, government employees.
wen ny dllu ny Il IOOllon SJOly DlS llCS, was
printed at Duluth against Mr.. King. 1t is
true we did not want William Bonga sent
to the big jail, for the whisky found in that
wagon last summer. William had been try
ing to get our white friends to ask the father
to pay us our damages, and we don't believe
Mr.. King was trying to have William sent to
big Jail. We don't know who wrote those
bad stories against Mr.. King, and then said
that was the way all our Indians felt and be-
leved. Our four chiefs who touched the pen
then dec. 1889 supposed they were saying,
in that letter words about their damages and
their payment money kept back. Most all
our Indians felt big shame over such bad
talk at Duluth.
When our agent, Major Luce, came here to
give us our payment goods January 26th) he
had William Bonga and Mr.. King shake
hands to be friends. Ten of us who touch
the pen to this paper, heard William tell the
agent that.he did not 6eJieOe these very stories
he got printed against Mr.. Kings moral
character, and heard William say that all this
bad talk should be stopped. But now we are
all full of wonder and shame because one of
our young men (not chief ten nights ago
had big lot more of these lies printed at
Saint Paul, and had his name signed to them
as if he was big Indian, and pretended he
was sent down just to do that work by big
council. II is all a He
We did not lose any blankets and shirts
and stockings out of our payment when he
says, Nov. 1882, not 1888; we had no pay
ment in 1888. We hope our white friends
won't throw away all their sense to believe
such foolish lies. Mrs. King did not go to
her country till seven months after the pay
ment, and she did not go in the night, nor
carry off Indian goods. Nobody here believes
our school children, and as matron takes
good care Of them and is very kind to US all
and works very hard to help make a good
school.
There is just one thing more we want to
talk about-these nasty stories about Mr.
King running after our women-'debauch-
ing'' them, this printed story says-we be-
lieve it all a mess of lies, not word of truth
in all the stories.
Did you know that the great father, had
just sent March A. his oldest inspector,
(Col. j. S. Gardner). here, to find out all
about it, and see if Mr.. King is a bad man.
He told US in our council here, that he came
here because Mr.. King asked the great father
to send him, and that he was ready to hear
all the complaints we had to make against
the overseer.
Our head chief opened the talk, and said
the oyerseer got mad, and did not listen to
him, and help him and the Indians as he
ought to do, and that he wanted the great
father to send him away and give them a
new overseer. Then three other Indians,
not chiefs, nor head men, began the nasty
talk against Mr.. King. They only talked
about an old woman, who is on the Indian
rolls, as Seventy-si1 years old, she has had her
nose cut off, and is crazy besides. Three of
hoard harc in Ii hot
she had so little mind, that she took some
fish heads in a pan with spoon, to go and
feed pony, and tried to pull the pony by
the tail around to make that end of the pony
eat them.
The inspector told us that he
had talked with, all the way
from Mile Laos up here say, they believed Mr.
King was an honest, good man. Mr.. King
told the inspector that he had no wish nor
intention to stay here. The inspector told
US he heard at Little Falls, that Mr.. King
was going away by July 1, or before. He
told US he must say, that he believed, if Mr..
King went away, the great father wouldn't
send US a better man. We hope yon will see
him youself. We have known Mr.. King over
six years. We don't believe he steals In
dian goods, nor goes after, or tries to be-
bauch Indian women. He is sixty years old,
and we believe he works hard to do the best
he can for Indians. A few of our Indians
don't like him, and we don't suppose they
would like any overseer, who did not do
everything an Indian wanted him to do
We want to say one thing more, we don't
want our white friends to listen to our strag-
Cling young men, nor you to listen to
them. We chiefs begin to feel 0e1y small, the
boys make so much big talk. By and by we
get to quarrelng over it among ourselves.
1t must be stopped to save trouble.