The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-06-27
Only On. Nan Kill.d b II. IadIs.s.

Only One Msn Killed by the Indians.
A telegram from the alleged seat ofwar at
Mile Laos, Mimi, says: .,
The train bearing the troops from Fort
Smelling arrived at Mora at 4:3O Friday
morning, June 18th, having made the run in
three hours. Mora il twenty-four miles from
the reservation, on the shore of Mile Laos
lake. Mickelsen, nm Ignorant Norwegian,
who brought the frst news from the lake
was interviewed by Captain Staunch, the
commanding officer, and told a much milder
tale than contained in the telegram to the
governor signed by him. Mickelsen says
that the telegram was written by R. p.
Briggs, one OF the squatters on the reserva-
ton, and the man who wrote the first
alarming letter to the governor, telling Of
the threatened trouble over the digging of u
canal from the lake across the reservation.
Briggs got Nicholson to sign the telegram
because it would give the question more
weight with the governor to have the jnfor-
nation coming from different sources. In
stead of "six killed and wounded" Nickel
son admits that he heard of only one man
being assaulted by the Indians.
A young Norwegian, Berg, living five
miles further up the lake, came to the
Briggs ranch and said the Indians had shot
Ole Magnuson, bis neighbor wounding him.
Thu Indians hare been gathering on the
shores of the lakes near Magnuson for sew
eral days past, preparatory to holding their
dances and %pow-wows. They are plentifully
supplied with whisky. and in a proper mood
to carry out oft-rrpeated threats to murder
the whites. Magnuson was shot at from
ambush and fell at the door of his shack with
two bullet wounds in the head. The Indians
left him for dead, and he crawled to the
house OF Berg. half a mile dis
tant, to give the alarm: Nicholson
did not wait for further particu-
lars, but started at once for Mora, where he
arrived in the afternoon. The officers were
q trife chagrined when they learned the
fdimsey foundation for the reports which had
brought out three companies of United
States soldiers, armed and equipped to put
down supposed Indian uprising, and tele-
graphed Gen. Ruger a full statement of the
situation.
Three and a half hours were lost in waiting
for orders from headquarters. Then the or
der came to send q detachment, of twelve
men to the reservation to ascertain the ex-
tent OF the trouble, holding the larger body
at Mora in readiness to march. Capt. Han
nay was detailed in charge OF the detach-
ment. There are between sixty and seventy
squatters on the reservation, according to
the most reliable estimates. Few of these
have families, SO that the total number of
whites may be placed ut about one hundred.
The settlements are all OF the shores of the
lake, where is tho only part of the reserva-
ton available for agricultural purposes, the
rest being pine land. The first squatters To-
Gated there three years ago, when the gov
erment made the last payment to the Chip
pewas on the lands purchased. The Indians
have watched the encroachments of the
whites with jealous eyes. They claim
title to the land on which the squatters are
settling by the treaty o 1S55, renewed in
1854, which gives them $1,000 acres to live
on as long as they ore at peace with
the whites. The government has never
opened the land of settlement, and has never
issued no patents, and the squatters have
gone there entirely on their own RESPONSE
bility. They have been badly scared by the
threats OF the Indians recently, and q few
have fed the reserve. One famiiy, which
moved there O week ago from Milaca, were
ordered off by the Indians the next day
after their arrival, and they went.