Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1909-02-26

HNA III "SSC IIOlA 0FeeH bay, are en-
gagged in an undertaking of unusual in
terest. The government has built for
them. out of their own funds, large.
modern sawmill, and will engage in the
numbering business for their benefit, log
ging the timber and manufacturing and
selling the product in competition with
other lumber companies
Menominees Are Wealthy.
The Menominees are one of the
wealthy tribes of the United States,
made so by the sale of their immensely
valuable timber. OF the ten townships
in their reservation, approximately six
still contain dense stands Of virgin tim
Der. while about four have been cut over.
A year ago the funds in the United
States treasury to the credit of the
tribe were nearly $3,O00,00O, and the
tribe enrolment was Il tritie short of
10OO. The reservation is not allotted.
Both lands and money are held for the
tribe IN trust by the government under
treaty.
For more than generation the Indi-
ans have been cutting their timber and
selling 1t, under government regulations,
TO lumbermen, who have driven it ON the
Wolt and Oconto waters to their mills
outside the reservation for manufacture
by white labor This arrangement has
afforded the Indians employment for
only three or four months in the winter
time; the rest of the year most of them
who do not care to farm have been idle.
The price received for their logs has
been far below their real value because
conditions of transportation and other
factors limited the bidding to certain
wealthy lumbermen of Oshkosh and
Oconto. who were able to control the
prices. The methods of logging practiced
have resulted in great waste; millions of
feet of valuable pine were stolen. and
wherever logging has proceeded the for
est has been utterly destroyed Even
the money. derived from reckless squan-
derlng of their resources has helped
the Menominees but little and hurt them
in many ways Annuities, rations and
other benefits have demoralized many of
them. and they have not shown conspic-
uOus advance in self-reliance. sustained
industry, thrift and sobriety-qualities
they will need most when citizenship
is obtained.
To Manufacture Own Lumber
1t was with the idea of furnishing to
the Menominee steady employment on his
own reservation, of getting for him what
his timber was worth, and of stopping
the destruction of his forests that Sen
at0r La Toilette of Wisconsin secured
the passage of law which was APP
proved last March 2S. This law pro-
vides that no more logs shall be sold,to
lumbermen, that instead the timber shall
be manufactured on the reservation in
mills erected by the government out of
tribal funds, and the lumber and other
products sold. Indians are to be given
the preference over white men in EN-
ployment in the saw mills and in the
woods, as soon as they prove competent
to do the work required. The law does
not forbid the employment of the white
man, but makes him in a sense the tutor
to the Indian, who is expected through
the special opportunities for advance
ment and better pay afforded him to
become steady, sober and skilful work
man.
So much for the admirable purpose of
this law, whose boldness of conception
and radical nature, typical of it's author,
have become increasingly apparent as
its execution has advanced. Construc-
ton was pushed rapidly and despite the
Instructions and delays incident to gov
ernmental procedure, is now practically
complete large two-band sawmill
with a capacity of 10000 board feet of
lumber per hour has been built aud is
now in operation. The town of Neopit
has been built around the mill. and in
cudes large hotel houses for EMPLOYEES.
a sewage system. electricity. etc -Four
large dams for river driving have been
built, and about ten miles of stream i'm
proved. Ten miles of logging railroad
have been built by a railroad company to
serve the mill, and the road is in opera
ton. Besides the river and the railroad
as means of transportation, the forest
service has built 111a miles of substan-
tial wagon road connecting Neopit with
the west side of the reservation.
Worked Under Difficulties.
The work was accomplished under I'M
nj ytrnr vIiY l.44s.. ,1ss
When the forest service took il up last
April it found that 100000 feet of
logs, large part of them hardwoods
which spoil quickly in the summer. had
been dumped into two unimproved
streams regardless of whether they
would float or not, and landed in other
places scattered over a wide area 1t
was necessary in a single season to ar
range for transportation of this i'm
mense quantity of logs and build a mill
adequate for saving them quickly into
lumber. The task was made trebly diff
ficult by the necessity of limiting the
hours of labor of workmen and me-
chanics to eight (the restriction has
since been removed and of the bitter
and determined opposition of certain
powerful lumber companies, and Others
whose special interests had been dam
aged by the new Jaw. The wealthy
lumbermen of Oshkosh and Oconto who
at their own price for forty years and
are now shut off from such purchases.
do not look kindly on this enterprise. In
tense hostility was reused by the action
of the forest service, which took charge
of the work just in time to prevent the
tribe from being despoiled by certain
white and Indian contractors who were
logging on the Blowndown district. The
tribal mind was infamed against the
work by agitators, and for a time the
men in charge went about their tasks
at some personal hazard. A dam was
blown out with dynamite, the woods set
aire, and threats of other violence made. !
This disposition of the Indians was
however. only a passing phase. and the
tribe has come to a better understand !
ing of what is being done for it.
Forests Are Still Rich.
In spite of the drain which forty years |
OF logging have made on the reservation. |
the splendid forests of Eastwood elm. |
birch, maple. oak. hemlock and pine rep |
resent greater wealth than the pine cut |