The age-herald., 1898-10-19
STORIES ABOUT
 THE INDIANS

James Martin in the Chicago Times-Herald.
 Basil Restein. the French-Canadian hunter and trapper, who is fairly well | known in the northwest, told me several | good Indian stories not long ago when met him at a small hotel at Pembina N. D. | The old race of trappers of which Restein is type is rapidly disappearing before the settlement of the west and the exhaustion of the game but they are men who know the Indian of the northwest we'll and in all his moods Resteln had many dealings with the Chippewas and by him they were regarded as peaceable and honest. One of the stories he had was of the ciiip- pewas and a former atsashpt to move them to new reservation. At the time of the .5Ioux attack on Fort Ripley in 1862 the Mile Lac Chippewas assisted the white men and came to their defense The sec retary of the interior and the state or Minnesota were grateful for this ass st. ance, and promised that as a reward the Mile Lac Chppewas should never be re- moved but should have the special protee- ton of the government. It was only few years later, though, that the interior de- partment sent special agent to the reser- vation to endeavor to persuade them to move from Mile Lacs to north of Leech Lake. There was quite a powwow, and the special agent failed in his effort, when one of the best known men in Minnesota came to his aid. This man, whose name do not remember, addressed meeting of the chiefs.
 My brothers" he said, "the great father has heard how you have been wronged, and he said: I will send my red children an honest man to talk to them. So he looked to the north, to the east, the south and the west and he said Here is an honest man., and he sent me- So brothers look at me. The winds of ffty-five years have blown over my head and silvered it over with gray, and during that time I have never done wrong to any man. am your friend, my red brothers, and as your friend I ask you to sign this treaty.
 When he had finished one of the chiefs arose and said:
 My friend, look at me. The winds of more than fifty winters have blown over my head and silvered it over with gray, but they have not blown my brains away"
 Then he sat down and the council was ended.
  will make his way to the frontier towns and when he has an Indian audience he is sure of appreciation They regard his feats with mixed wonder and awe. The prestidiSlta- teur is looked upon as a wonderful medicine man, for superstitidns still survive among the redskins. There was one entertainer of this kind, of whom Restein tells, who much delighted an old chief in his audience at Rat orto hX tnto wine making things appear and disappear, and other similar bits of parlor magic. The prestidigitateur was invited to visit the chief. The latter wantetd him to live with the tribe, and offered him his daughter as bride in exchange for only two ponies. It was cheap enough for a wife, but the magi- clan, being already married, declined the honor. While with his host he went up to an ugly yellow cur belonging to the chief and proceeded to extract dollars from his tail, removing about twenty in all by his seight-of-hand. Then he offered the chief two ponies for the dog. The chief refused and was pleased to have the magician de- part so that he could get dollars from the dogs tail. When the prestidgitateur left the Indians first tried to get dollars from the CUTS caudal appendage and then took the cur and cut it open. They were dis gusted when they failed to find single dol- lar in it.
 At one time party of Indians>visited Winnipeg and attended a variety perform ance that was in progress. One of the fea- lures on the bin was the trick of a woman who. while on a trapeZ, held cannon in her teeth and discharged it-a familiar cir GUS trick that has long ago been discarded at the shows in the big cties The Indians were uneasy when they saw the cannon. When it was pointed at them they were more uneasy When at last they saw 1t touched with a light they exchanged hur- ried glances of fear. Then as one man, they drew their knives and made a dash though the crowd to the door, They were afraid that it was a trick to kill them.
 
 The Indians of the northwest are good eaters. Restein told me that they could eat many times as much as a white man, and that the men who hold eating records at the dime museums and elsewhere would be foolish to try conclusions with the aver age Indian. On one occasion Restein and his friends killed a Buffalo calf and, dressing it, had hung it up, when an Indian arrived at the camp and asked for hospi- tality. He had evidently travelled long way and was hungry. The trappers told him to help himself, and he did He cut off some slices of meat and laying them on the embers of the fire eat them as soon as they
 
 When they awoke in the morning the buff falo calf was gone. During the night the Indian had eaten it, every bit, as he ax- plained when asked to account for it's dis appearance. After that Restein never told an Indian to helf himself to food.
 
 Talking of the honesty of the Indian, it is a curious fact that many of them object to pleading mot guilty when tried in the United States courts. They do not under stand that it is only phrase. A typical case occurred before the United States commissioner at St. Paul when Chippewa was brought up for selling whisky to oiasr~ Indians. When arraigned he pleaded gull ty. The commissioner, an inexperienced man, knowing him to be a pagan and be- lieving him to be drunk, thought it best not to enter that plea. But the Indian cried out: 'I am guilty. Any man who says he isn't guilty when he is guilty is - liar" There could be no answer