Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-01-30

ST PAUL, Jan. 27.-Canadial timber
wholesale despoilation of pind lands in
Minnesota tributary to lake of the woods
that have been going ON for a decade. A
score or more of millionaire Minnesotans
who are today prominent in business, poll,
their fortunes and are still adding to their
colossal wealth by a coalition with the
Canadian thieves, whose headquarters are
at Rat Portage, Keewatin. and other
points on the Lake or the Woods. These
men have in times past been all powerful
IN Minnesota politics. and so have pre-
vented any Investigations and protests
coming from this state.
These same men have all along opposed
the opening of the great Red Lake Indian
reservation, because they foresaw In its
opening and the constant rush into that
region of settlers and smaller lumbermen
sure end to their practically unmolested
timber cutting. At the present time they
are not only able to cut any amount OF
timber they may want entirely clear of
any charges for stumpage, but the great
operators also have clear field, for owing
to the enormous outlay of capital required
to maintain tugs and steamers on Rainy
Lake river, its branches, and the Lake of
the Woods to carry out this tim
Der, none but extensive opera
tors can enter the contest. The timber is
worth not less than s. to so per thousand
feet right where it stands This land be-
ing a part of several Indian reservations
as yet unsurveyed, and the title in the
5000 Indians who are scattered over the
northern part of Minnesota, every cent OF
the value of this timber belongs to the In
dians. The RedLake Indians propose to
force the government to reimburse them
for all the timber stolen from their pre-
serves. The value of stumpage of last
years timber cut was not far from 81 500,
900, and the product more than $1,000, 900
If Uncle Sam is in the end obliged to re-
imburse the Indians for dozen years of
this wholesale thievery there is abundant
material for a congressional investigation,
and the report would read like romance.
This investigation ought to follow the
adoption of the report of the Red Lake In
dian commission, and it will unless silenc-
ed by the timber thieves and their friends
In high stations. When the report of this
Red Lake commission, of which ex-United
States Senator Henry M. Rice, of
Minnesota is chairman, is ratified by
congress the 5000 Chippewa Indians of
northern Minnesota will receive lands in
severalty and then become citizens of the
United States. All the timber that has
been cut and manufactured has gone to
Winnipeg, to Brandon, and q thousand
other towns scattered over Manitoba and
the British provinces for a thousand miles
In several directions, and even down into
northwest Minnesota and the Dakotas
At the time of the wonderful real-estate
and building boom in Winnipeg and Man
itoba in general, some six or eight years
ago, the timber for all that building craze
came from Northern Minnesota and made
.umbermen of Minneapolis, st. Paul and
Duluth suddenly wealthy. Since then the
numbering has been going on as
regularly in the Rainy Lake region
as in Wisconsin, Michigan, or
the head waters of the Mis-
sissippi New lumber companies entered
the field, and by forming an alliance often
sive and defensive with the Mississippi
valley lumbermen, who were dispelling the
Indian reservations along the headwaters
of the Father of Waters" both were as
sured of immunity from interference by
the officers of the government. 1t was a
great alliance, and it rolled up fortunes for
the men behind the scheme and those ac-
lively engaged In it.