The times., 1898-10-12
Abuse of the Red Man.

| Abuse OIL the heu N8n.
That the primary cause of the Pill
| lager outbreak was a series of abuses
nobody who is familiar with the gen
eral treatment of the red men will
doubt. 1t is wildly improbable that in
! this late day, after their long and bit
ter experience with white soldiers, any
| considera BILE number would offer forci
BILE resistance to the white authorities
unless there was a burning sense of
wrong in their hearts. In the case of
the Northwestern Indians it is directly
charged by persons who have had init
mate relations with those directly in
volved that there has been a long
series of robberies by Indian agents
who have swindled them out of money
due to them from the Government, out
of their land, their timber and their
stock. and in scores of instances out of
! their mileage and per diem when at
! tending the United States courts at Du-
| luth and St Paul as witnesses in the
prosecution of persons charged with
smuggling liquor into the reservations
and selling it TO the Indians.
! A Chicago man, who seems to have
! specific knowledge of all these affairs,
says that the Government appropria-
tons are too small. and when several
hundred Indians are taken to st. Paul
| the money is exhausted Before the wit
nesses are paid. They are left penni-
| less In the streets hundreds of miles
from the reservation, and are compelled
| H. ha with Ixy
such food as they can beg from the un-
| friendly white settlers. This has been
an annual disgrace through four sue
| cessive administrations. 1t is for this
reason, chiefly, that Indians refuse to
submit TO arrest CT to serve as witnesses.
Even if acquitted they are pretty sure
| to be subjected to hardships, often in
the dead of winter, for which there is
no excuse. AS they do not understand
charge 1t to a policy of calculating
robbery or persecution.
One of the exciting causes of the
present trouble is said to have been the
assassination of Pah- -Gon-Ay- -Geshick,
or Hole-in- the-Day, chief of all the
Chippewas, and traitor TO his tribe.
1t is charged, and it has not been de-
MED. that he came to Washington to
settle certain differences between his
people and the Government and sold
out the tribe. Some smart representa-
tive of the Government bought him and
caused him to betray his trusting fell
lows by the promise of house and an
annuity of $1,000 for fifty years. The
perfidy was so obvious and injurious
that two young Pillagers were selected
by a general meeting to kill him, which
they did near Cass Lake. Since then
the annuity has been divided between
his two sons and another heir. One of
his sons became chief by inheritance,
but the tribe refused TO recognize him
or any of the family of the traitor,
electing White Cloud (Wah-Bah-Nah-
Quod) as chief, who still holds the
office OF course there has been bitter
feeling toward the Government for its
bribery of the former chief.
Then followed broken promises in re-
lation to the Winnebagoshish dams
near the source of the Mississippi. The
rice fields of the Indians were ruined
and a large crop destroyed. They were
promised compensation, but the prom
ise was never kept. In Wisconsin,
when a similar overflow affected the
farms of white men, the claims were
promptly paid, as Senator Philetus
Sawyer was an influential Republican
and he pushed the matter. The pine
land troubles added to the sense of
nd
bands were induced TO favor the Mel
son bill of 1887, under the representa-
ton that it allowed them to take UP
their lands in severalty on the reserva-
ton where they were. AS soon as it
became a law, however, new con-
struction was placed on it and the res
ervation was open to settlement by
white men The Indians were told by
the agents of the Government that they
would receive no rations and would for
felt all annuities unless they removed
to White Earth agency.
Here is a succession of betrayals,
broken promises, petty swindles and
positive outrages. That it is not sim
ply fire-water and a devil-spirit that
move these Indians to violence is indi-
Gated by their stipulation that the
newspaper correspondents must be al
lowed to be present when they meet the
representatives of the Government
They yearn for an opportunity to tell
the American people what their treat
ment has been. They realize the hope
lessness of war with the white men,
but it is only by such an outbreak
that they can expect to find remedy
for the intolerable evils they are made
10 suffer.