St. Paul daily globe., 1892-02-06
You're Charged With Work
ing for One Particular
Lumber Firm.
Plenty Of Green Timber Being
Cut OF the Indian Reser-
vations,
And Then Indians Are Forced
to Sacrifice 1t to One
Firm


charges brought against"him by ex-Con-
gresham Hall. AS indicated by the
dispatches from Washington, those
charges amount to nothing but in
subordinati0n. If Mr.. Hall keeps his
ears open and takes the trouble to QueS-
ton some of the lumbermen who have
their headquarters in Minneapolis
he may be able to bring
still more serious charges against
the Indian agent. These lumbermen
tell some things that have bad look,
and they tell them in such straight
forward way, with offers to back them
up with indubitable proofs, that it is
impossible to pass over them lightly.
What the lumbermen have to say has
to do with the cutting OF timber on In
dian reservations. Briefly stated is
this:
The Indians are cutting good deal
more timber off the reservations than
the law allows them to cut: but one
lumber firm in the Northwest is allowed
to buy that timber; that one firm is con-
nected, indirectly, with the junior SEN
| ator from Minnesota; this company en-
joys these privileges in the way of pur-
| chasing timber through the direct influ-
ence of Indian Agent Shuler.
The lumber firm meant is that of G.
| A. Smith & Co. Ex-Gov. John s. Pills
bury is the company" of c. A. Smith
& Co. Senator w. b. Washburn is in
| timately connected in business with the
Pillsburys. Senator Washburn is sup
posed to have deal of influence with
the Indian agent. And there you are.
Every VQar fhprp iC moro lpcc finn
Der on the Indian reservations that,
through the agency of fire and storm, is
put into such condition that it must be
cut at once or it is lost forever. The In
dians are allowed by the government to
cut and sell all the dead and down TIM
Der on the reservations. They are given
that timber. according to the intent of
the law, or regulation allowing them
to make use of it. to do with
as they please. They may sell 1t to
whomsoever they choose. But, accord
ing to the stories that come to the
GLOBE, the Indians are not permitted
to exercise their own free will in dis
posing of this timber. It is claimed
that they are practically coerced into
selling it to G. A. Smith & Co.,
and at a price much below
the market price of the timber.
1t is a fact that C. A. Smith & Co.
have been getting nearly all of this
timber. Other firms have been trying
to get chance 10 buy some of the logs,
but they have been crowded out. They
logs had been sold to c. A. Smith Il Co.
Even when they have offered a
good deal more for the logs
than G. A. Smith & Co. have paid
they have been unable to get them.
This thing has been running OH so long
that they have grown tired of it, and
have determined to protest. They feel
that they cannot afford to sell sawed
lumber in the market in competition
with G. A. Smith q Co.. when they have
to pay more for their logs than the lat
ter company does.
These complaints from the lumber
men have been floating around in such
pronounced form that GLOBE man
went out yesterday to look them up and
see If there were any lumbermen in
Minneapolis who would be willing to
| state, in his own name, that
such discrimination was being
| practiced and that the Indians were
being practically forced to sell
their logs to certain firm when an
other firm was willing to pay more for
them. The first man met was D. Will
ard, of j. w. Day & Co. The reporter
was not compelled to walk any further.
! MIR. Willard was perfectly willing to
talk and to talk plainly. He was asked
| if it was a fact that the other lumber
| firms were being shut out from buying
logs from the Indians, and if SO, how
| and why.
II will relate an experience of my
own,' answered Mr.. Willard. land you
may judge for yourself. Ihaye recently
returned from trip up North to buy
logs. was up on the Leach Lake In
| dian reservation, also on WinnebigO-
shish lake. There were three Indians
up there, Charles Loche, John Lyons
and an Indian named Bungo, who had
logs to sell. They had about $4,000 feet.
offered them $3.50 thousand for
their logs. Now, you see, these
| Indians cannot make contracts by them
selves. They are wards of the nation
and all of their business must be done
through the nations representative, the
Indian agent. A couple of days after
made this offer to Loche for his logs,
Lyons came to me and told me that the
| Indian agent had told Loche that he
must not sell his logs to me. He
was told that e. A. Smith &
Co. wanted the logs and that the
logs must be sold to Z. A. Smith & Go.
Smith & Co. would offer but s4 4 thou
sand for the logs, $3.50 thousand less
than offered. Loche, according to the
report brought to me by Lyons, told the
Indian agent that Smith & Co. would
not pay as much as other firms would,
and that he wanted to get more money
out of the logs. Four dollars would no
more than pay for the cutting, and
would leave the Indian no profit at ALL
"'Fhat makes no difference said the
agent. You have got to sell these logs
to Smith 4 Co..
so Smith & Co. got the logs. The
/ contract was made with them for "a a
thousand. just to see if the price had
anything to do with the matter, offered
Lyons, when he came to me with this
story, IS thousand for his logs. for
they were worth it. The increase in
the price made no difference. G.. A.
Smith e Co. got the logs. And they
are getting them all.
81 forgot to mention that the Indian
| agent did not refuse LOche and Lyons
permission to sell these logs to me with
out offering some excuse,
81 do not know j. w. Day s. Co., >
said he. Il do not know whether they
are responsible parties
"'But we know them,' the Indians
| answered, and we are willing to trust
them sufficiently to sell them the logs
" hen 1t was that the Indian agent
! told them that it made no difference
that G. A. Smith & Co. wanted the logs,
| and that they must have them.
Now this is not fair to us. We have
| to sell our lumber in the open market in
competition with the lumber of c. A.
Smith q Co., and we are not able to
compete with them if we are not allowed
| 10 60 into the market and buy
logs on an equal basis with them.
We cannot sell lumber for the
same price they do when we have to pay
81 or So more a thousand for the logs.
The Indians are also done an injustice.
They cannot get out of the logs what
they are worth. Why. would pay 81 a
thousand for the stumpage-cutt the logs
myself. They only get out of it enough
to barely pay for the cutting"
| "But to go into this question a little
further" continued Mr.. Willard. "This
| Kind of 1uorlz x,,auId not haa, c..aI, :.