Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1889-10-11
MILE Laos INDIANS.
Letter from Hon. n. Richardson
and Interview with Hon.
III. M. Rice.

Little Falls IS somewhat interested III
the Chippewas of Mile Laos, I will
give you short sketch of my trip out
to that lake at the time the late treaty
was contaminated with them.
BY the courtesy of Hon. II. M. Rice.
chairman of the Indian commission ap-
pointed by the President under the
provisionso of the. Nelson bill passed at
the last session Of congress, 7 was in
formed of the time and place of the
meeting of the commission. AS the
commission was to 60 ont from Bra in
erd to Mr. ,Jobezs place on the west
shore Of the lake where they had mott
fed the Indians to meet them on
Thursday, the 18th day of Sept, I
boarded the evening train of that day
and went to Brainerd where 1 found
Col. Sam St. Pierre waiting for my ar
rival, 1 having arranged with him to
take his team and go to the lake wit b
me ON Friday, the 9th. We put up at
the Arlington house and got of for the
reached our destination at ~ H., q dis
tanro Of 26 miles. The commissioners,
Messrs. Rice and Whiting. were there,
also Glen, Paul and Henry Beau'ieu,
three brothers; Theodore Beaulieu, edit
or of the Progress at White Earth; the
new agent, Shuler, and x-Agent Shee
han; and Geo. Morrison in charge of the
commissary, who issued to the Indians
pork, beef, -four, tobaccr, tea and sug-
ar. At first not over half q dozen Ind
ians could be seen about the premises.
So far as could learn there was dead
lock between the mmissioners and
the Indians, the latter having demanded
that the commissioners come down to
the south end Of the lake at the outlet
aud on the reservation. This the COM
missioners had refused to do. On as.
certaining the situation I informed the
commission that 1 would 90 down to
the outlet and see the Indians that
might be there and advise them to
abandon their notion of staying away
from the commissioners. So Mr.. St.
Pierre hitched up, on being informed
that it would be possible to make the
trip with his buggy, the distance being
ten miles. We struck out and made it
in four hours. You can Judge some
thing about the road when st. Pierre's
thorough5reds could make but two and
one-half miles an hour found at the
outlet Chiefs Sha-bosh- Magma
na-ba, My-in-gonce and one other be-
sides dozen or So Of braves. They
soon called me down to Sha- bosh- kungs
wigwan and asked me my opinion as to
whether they had better go mp and see
the commissioners. l said to them
believed they had better go and see the
commission and hear what their old
friend, II. NJ. Rice, had to say to them;
that their Great Father had sent him
to visit them, and that he probably had
very important message for them,
They were not long in making up their
minds to go. half dozen or so of
squatters were there looking quite
little anxious. We stopped over until
Sunday afternoon, by which time quite
a large number Of Indians had gathered.
In the meantime Agent Shuler and In
terpreter Paul Beaulieu had come down
in ~ sailboat. At this plabe we put up
1t the Astor house, kept by John Sloan.
His table was furnished with all the del
icasies which that market afforded,
prominent among which was wild rice
and fresh fish of which the lake furnish
es an abundant supply. \ little after
dinner on Sunday Sam concluded that
he could stay no longer and struck out
for home, going alone while l waited
until late in the afternoon ana went
back to Jobez's in the salboat, the dis
lance by the route we took being ~
miles. AS the wind was not brisk the
time consumed in making the trip was
nearly three hours. There were but
six of US in the boat, its capacity how
ever being twenty-five men.
TO he continued.
n. RICHARDSON.