St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-02-05
Inspectors Find Something
Wrong on the Fond du
Lac Reservation,
And Conf1scate a Large
Amount OF Timber Cut
Without Authority.
Sad Condition of the Once
Rich and Beautiful Indian
Territory.
The Globes Exposures Led to
the Investigation With
This Result.


lished series Of articles showing the
extent to which timber thieves were
appropriating the timber on govern
ment lands and the Indian reservations
in the northern part of this state. The
operations in the region tributary to
Rainy river were especially noted. and
the attention of the officers Uf the inte-
rior department was called to the mat
ter. The publication of these articles
at that time called out denials from all
the lumbermen interested in getting the
timber cut by the poachers. The Mis-
sissippi Valley Lumberman was espe-
clally fierce in the manner of
denying the charges. But in spite
of these denials the officials at
Washington, after waiting three or four
months, appointed large number of
special agents to investigate the con-
dition of affairs in Northern Minnesota,
Many of these men, like the men who
had allowed this timber stealing TO go
on for years under their noses, at once
fell into the hands of the lumbermen
interested and found no evidences of
wrong doing. There were, however.
enc OF two of these agents who could
neither be bought nor bullied, and they
did find evidence of the most colossal
understanding in the history of Min
nesOta, favored as this common
of wrong doing. On the Fond
du Lac Indian reservation. for example,
the government officials have seized, and
will shortly sell, no less than 5000, 600
feet of pine logs, as we'll as a large
amount of other timber, all cut without
authority and for which not one cent
was paid either the government or the
Indians. But this is not all. This cut
ting has been going on for years, until
that reservation, fifteen miles square,
once covered with the hneSt quality
pine, is almost denuded. The govern
lnent has called halt, but it is too late,
and no effort should be made to bring
the guilty parties to punishment.
The fact of the matter is, however,
that the government officials have
winked at this kind of bushes and
shared in its profits.
But, lest the virtuouS lumbermen'S
organs are tempted to deny these facts
it is we'll to produce some firSt-claSS
evidence, and here it is, in the shape of
a notice now being print( in the legal
columns of the Carlton Vidette, at Carl
ton, in this state.
PROPOSALS FOR THE PUR-
CHASE OF TIMBER.
SEALED proposals, endorsed proposals
- for the purchase of logs, railroad ties,
cedar telegraph poles, etc. ms the case may
be. and addressed to Ralph Balm Special
Agent of the General Land Office, care of
Local Land Office, Duluth, Mimi. will be re-
ceived until Feb. d, 1892, for the purchase of
the following timber. unlawfully felled and
manufactured on the Foud du Lac In
in MinnQSnto nd
by order of the Honorable, the Commissioner
of the General Land Office:
Sixty million feet, more or less, white
pine and Norway pine saw logs.
Ten thousand six hundred and ninety
four tamarack and white pine railroad ties.
One thousand eight hundred and six:y-one
cedar telegraph poles.
Five thousand one hundred and ninety
eight cedar paving and fence posts.
Four thousand one hundred and tifty-three
running feet of white pine piling.
The above timber IS on the Fond du Lac
Indian reservation, Mimi, and for particu-
lars in respect TO it its location, ETC., apply
to the undersigned by mail.
Bids may cover all OF the above timber or
may be separately made for each kind.
The right is reserved TO reject sny or all
bids. or any part of any bid. if deemed for
the best interest of the government.
Each bid must be accom- panied by certi-
fed check or draft upon some United States
depository or solvent national bank in the
payable TO the order of the commissioner of
the general land office, for at least per cent
OF the estimated amount of the pro posal
which check or draft will be forfeited 10 the
United States in case any bidder or bidders
receiving all award shall make default in re-
spect to the proposals accepted.
Proposals accompanied by cash in lieu of
certified check will not be considered.
RALPH BALM.
Special Agent General Land Office
Duluth, Mimi.
Is not the above advertisement proof
positive Of the GLOBES frequently re-
iterated charges?
The condition of the Fon du Lac res
ervation, as described by a man who
recently travelled over it and investi-
gated the situation, Is more than inter-
esting; 1t tells pitiful tale of govern
ment negligence and dishonesty. This
story, as told GLOBE representative
yesterday. follows:
ut will certainly be gratifying to the
readers of the GLOBE, and in fact all
that portion Of citizens who have the
welfare of the public domain at heart,
to know that the relentless war that has
from time to time been carried oil by
the GLOBE against the timber thieves
and destroyers of Uncle Sans forests,
mas not been without very telling eff
feet. For years past onslaughts of this
kind have been made, and by means of
error or mistake whichever the
perpetrators have seen fit to call it. the
boundaries of personal claims have
been oyerstepped, aud many thousands
of the finest trees and the most valuable
cedar and other timber have fallen to
repleniSh the Golfers of large mill con-
Germs, or sold by the smaller fry of tim
Der DurlOiners for their personal ac-
quirements.
Take, for instance, the tract of land
known as the Fond du Lac reservation.
This reservation is situated at the head
OF the dalles of the st. Louis river, and
twenty miles from the head of Lake Su-
perlOr.s. 1t is fifteen miles square, and
was set aside for Il part of the Chippewa
tribe, consisting of at one time about
1000 Indians, but which now does not
number over 400. This reservation pos
sesses everything that could be desired
for the Indian in his native condition.
1t abounds in game of every kind for
their use in winter, and berries of nearly
every description, in vast quantities, are
every where to be found on it in sum-
mer. In either winter or summer the
red man can go to its numerous lakes
and streams and find him fish of several
kinds, and easy to procure. But these
are not all that this large area
OF land possesses. Aside from its
great fertility of sofia quality that the
Indian will never know, because of his
hopeless lazineSs-it has, or did have at
one time, vast forests covering its hills
and valleys, consisting of birch, maple,
cedar, and numerous other varieties. all