The Tomahawk., 1904-04-28
CHIPPEWA RESERvA-
TONS 10 open
JUNE Is

The secretary of the interior
has signed an order TO open the
Chippewa reservations of Miss
issippi, Winnebegosish, Boisforte,
Grand Portage, and a small tract
on the Red Lake ceded reserva-
tion.
The proclamation provides for
! the opening Of 24S, 745 acres.
This is the beginning Of the end
of the final stroke of the greatest
| outrage that was ever perpetrated
on any band Of Indians.
In order to get the assent of the
Chippewas to the act which pro-
vides for the opening of all the
Chippewa reservations in this
state, the commissioners who ne
gotiated the act> held up their
hands and invoked the Great
Spirit to bear witness to the truth
of their statements that every In
dian would get an allotment of
land on his reservations that not a
foot OF land would be sold or
otherwise dis posed of until all the
agreements made under the act in
respect toallotments were fulfilled.
How has the government fulfilled
this obligation?
In the first place, Secretary
Hitchcock ignored the law by ar
bitrarily abolishiag the commits
sion which the law required must
make the ailotments of land to the
Indians, and thus practically took
away from them the right to secure
these ailotments. Since then
every act of his has been against
the interests of the Indians.
In his message to congress trans
mitting the report of the secretary
OF the interior relative to the act
of 1889, President Harrison said:
The act of January Il, 1885
(25 U. S. Stat, 642) evidently
contemplated the voluntary re-.
moval of the body of all these
bands Of Indians to- the White
Earth and Red Lake Reservations;
but a proviso in section 3 of the
act authorized any Indian to take
has allotment upon the reservation
where he now resides. The COM
missioners report that quite a
general desire was expressed by
| the Indians to avail themselves OF
this option. The result of this is
that the ceded land cannot be as
certained and brought to sale
under the act until all the allot-
ments are made.
Under the provisions of the In
dian appropriation act of 1902, the
Mile Lac Indians assented to the
proposition to be removed from
Mile Lac, and one of the con-
ditions of the act is that they may
take allotments on any of the
Chippewa reservations where
allotments are being made to the
Chippewas Of this state.
A number Of them expressed a
wish to remove to the Mississippi
Chippewa reservation. but no
steps have been made to remove
them there although it is nearly
two years since they gave their
assent to the removal.
The opening of the reservations
will now prevent them from being
able to secure allotments where
some OF them intended to take
these allotments and where Secre.
tary Hitchcock authorized In
spector Nc Laughlin to inform
them they could take their allot-
ments if they would remove from
Mile Lac and which was made
condition of this removal.
The public cannot be blamed
for it's demand for the opening of
the Chippewe reservations, be-
cause it has no means Of knowing
! whether the government obliRa-
tions to the Indians have been full
filled or not, but 1t is the secretary
of the Interiors fault that these
obligations to the Indians in re-
,,o,t tn @ho o1Iafmapfa of land c