The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-07-17
Tuesday Evening

soon aS Gn0Y saw bn61r money couIu go
in but one direction they began spend
that pleased their fancy. AS result
their tepees and tents are filled with,
trash they care nothing for and now
that the novelty has worn off the trash:
cannot be exchanged even for whisky.
Credit belongs to a few OF the IN
dians for hard work and honesty. They,
have refused all offers for their lands
and have improved it. Their credit is
good and they are making money.
encouraged in their shiftlessness, spend
what little money they obtain in rid
ing about on passenger trains and Hv-
ing in idleness, becoming more unfit
each day for actual work They are
rapidly getting to the stage where they
will again have to become wards OF
the government or become paupers on
the hands Of the county.
Few Outright Sales. s
The average price paid the Indian
flor his land when he sells outright Is
e., little more h than So an an acre So
have been sold. The others have been
mortgaged The amount the specula-
tors will loan on an eighty-acre tract
is often less than SO, and few of the
Indians have been able to stick to their
original price when dealing with the
SPECTATORS. Experts who have looked
! the land over declare that most Of it
| is worth $25 an acre, and some Of it
even more. One man purchased an
eighty-acre tract last Saturday for $500
and an offer of $25 an acre was re-
fused Monday. l.. IT,. .-.a-a
This is a fair estimate of what is
really being done to the Indians as
the result of the new law.
The land question also gives rise to
many peculiar legal phases. There is
an allotment for each child and when
the child dies the land first goes to the
father and if the father dies, the moth
er gets it, Many of the allotments are
now being probated and the fact that
married is causing some trouble:
In selling or mortgaging the land 1t
| is necessary that the wife give her con-
sent and in case the mortgages now
being made are foreclosed, a. contest
could be instituted in the courts. The
spectators have seen pretty we'll to
this, however, for the Indians have
spent their money and could not raise
enough to carry their cases into court.
AS result of this legal point, how
ever, many Of the Indians are becoming
married legally altho they have been
recognized as man and wife for years.
| In some cases the spectators persuade
them to do it and in others they do 1t
simply because they want to become
| There is vet much land that has not
| been encountered and which can be
saved only by the intervention of the
federal government. It has not been
registered in yet according to the state
laws and this will be done this fall
The office of the register Of deeds. Is
! the busy place in Detroit and this fall
Mr.. Converse is to have three oppos.
ing candidates. 1t is fee office and
lotments will be listed has caused an
unusually stiff campaign to be started
by those who are seeking to succeed
the present register. . C. @>5:2t ~Gr%
r. : Indian Agent Powerless. .=s.,-@
Simon Michelet, Indian agent st
White Earth, is fully aware Of the
manner in which the mixed bloods are
encumbering their lands and has ad-
folly Of their course. When an Indian
has any money in sight, however, it ID
impossible to advise him and so the
making of mortgages and the drunken
orgies have continued. The agent is
genuinely helpless in the matter, mas
much as a mixed blood, according to a
recent act of congress, can hold his
allotment in fee simple. BY so doing
he becomes endowed with all the rights
of citizenship, which he chooses ia
enjoy This means that he ceases to be
a reservation Iprotege' and that the
agent has no authority to direct his
actions: He can sell or cucumber his
land if he desires and, under the de
cision of the federal court rendered
about sixteen months ago, can purchase
frewater just as a white man. The
government has tried to restrict liquor
selling to allotment Indians by indi
eating that the federal court decision
was not absolutely explicit on this
point and that dealers supplied liquor
at their peril, but the very fact that
there was now any uncertainty at al
about the old-time rigid restriction has
been enough to cause liquor sellers tt
let down the bars.
Of about five thousand Chippewas OF
the White Earth reservation, fully two
thirds are mixed bloods and eligible fo
allotments. =; t,." r
While there is no open protest mad,
at Detroit against present conditions
there is strong feeling here against tn
way the Indians are being treated b,
the land spectators, and steps have al
ready beeen taken to lay the case be
fore the authorities at Washington.
FOLK ORDERS LID DOWN