The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-05-16

Mile Laos reservation and held the
first council with the Mile Laos bands
on October 2, 1890. This council was
called to order by the chairman Of the
commission, Hon. 81. M. Rice, and
Immediately following Commissioner
Whiting spoke to the Indians as fol-
lows: 'sMy friends, ! have heard
much of you. I know of the trouble
you have had. I know, too, that in
years gone by you were friendly and
rendered important service to your
Great Fathers government. Your
services, your faithfulness to your
Great Father in time when the white
people were in peril, have not been
forgotten. He finds that your exist
ence as a people has become i'm
perllled, owing to the great change Of
circumstances which surround you.
In view of this fact, and fearing that
your condition would become worse
until it would be unbearable to you,
fhe sent your old time friend here to
tell you what was best for you to do. !"
(P l63 Report of the Chippewa Com
mission, approved March 4, 1890, by
the president).
| In the course of the proceed
ings of the council Chairman
Rice referred to the treaty of 1868,
hereinbefore alluded to, as follows:
Il shall detain you but few moments
before dinner. wish to refer to an
old matter that has given you a great
deal of trouble. That is the treaty
made at Washington some twenty
years ago. was there and know all
about it. 1t was a wise treaty, and
If it had been properly carried out
you would have escaped all trouble
that has befallen you. Men who cared
more for themselves than they did for
you thought they had found a hole in
it, and that they would take advantage
of that and deprive you of your
rights. They knew that the govern
ment was engaged in a great war
which occupied all it's time. They
thought that under the circumstances
they would be able to drive you from
this reservation. You had some
friends who worked for you continu-
ally. They had all they could pos
sibly do to preserve you your rights
and to see that in the end justice
should be done. Among these friends
was Joseph Roberts, and I am sorry
that the Master of Life should have
seen fit to take him away, because it
|would have been a pleasure to him to
have been here and meet us today.
The time has come when am able to
tell you that all he said, all I have
said to you, all the chiefs told you
who were there and made the treaty is
correct; that the understanding of the
chiefs as to the treaty was right.
Here is the acknowledgment of the
government that you were right, that
you have not forfeited your right to
occupy the reservation.
Commissioner Rice having been in
formed that the writer was located on
the reservation and claiming the su-
pervision of a large part of it, sent a
runner to me and requested that I call
on him. So, mounting old Dobbin,
| (my horse) I rode up to where they
were stopping. I found them domi-
ciled with Mr.. Jabes. I introduced
myself to Mr.. Rice and DR.. Whiting.
They explained to me that they had
heard I was in charge of large part
of the reservation and requested in
formation as to where and how I came
to be so. 1 told Mr.. Rice he ought
not to be surprised as one of his near
neighbors and townsmen, A. H..
Wilder, was the owner of about one
half of the reservation, and explained
that almost all the rest had been filed
on by pre-emptors and homesteaders.
He claimed he had just come from
Washington and that they had not no.
titled him of any such state of affairs
showed him by a fine set of township
plats, which Mr.. Wilder had furnished
me, all the land taken or vacant and
convinced him from other records
had that all but about five thousand
acres of the land was segregated from
the public domain. Thereupon he
produced roll of manuscript and
said he would read me what he was
instructed to tell these Indians. His
instructions were to tell the Indians
that they would be given all the agri-
cultural land and enough of the pine
would be reserved to build them
houses and barns, blacksmith shops,
school houses, and sawmills to manu-
facture the lumber, and they would
also be furnished teams and wagons