The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-02-11
THE WHITE EARTH INDIAN
RESERVATION
Interesting Report from St. Benedict's
INSTRUMENTATION of the Indians
Churches and Schools.


We have received the following in
teresting report from the Very Rev.
erend A. Hermanutz, o. S. B., pastor
of st. Benedict's Mission on the White
Earth Indian Reservation, in the Dio-
cese of Crookston, Mimi. 1t gives
a good account of the condition of the
Indians and of the growth of the
Church among them.
Since the existence of our mission
among the Chippewa Indians on this
reservation there never was a time
when the mission came so near being
ruined and broken up temporarily and
spiritually as in the past four years.
The mission, it is true, underwent
some hard struggles in former years,
which, however, in the end, turned out
to it's benefit, renewing the Christian
faith by the addition of numerous
neophites and converts.
BY an act of Congress the half-In-
dians were allowed to sell their lands
well as their own. In consequence of
this the majority of the white blood
Indians, old and young, disposed of
valuable property, and the greater
number of these were cheated out of
their holdings by land spectators in
side and outside of the reservation.
We missionaries preached and ad-
vised, especially the young people, to
keep their lands and homes.
Many had mortgages and options
taken on their lands without knowing
what a mortgage was, and SO lost their
property and got hardly anything for
it. When the full-Indians saw their
relatives, the half-Indians with their
hands full of money and living like
princes, they wanted the same privil-
ege. A number of chiefs own heavy
pine claims, each worth from $1,000
to $4,000 At the instigation of GER
tain unscrupulous persons on the res
#erSation5 these chiefs Illegally sold
their claims under the pretence that
they have white blood in their veins.
Their example acted like a raging
prairie fire on the other Indians Now
every one claimed to be half-breed
and sold their lands for trifle.
The strange thing was that no agent
nor official of the government raised
a voice against these illegal sales for
nearly three years Finally the United
States government took hold of these
matters, and last summer two officials
Investigated the affairs, and SO far
found out that over 600 allotments
were illegally sold, i. e., about 60
per cent. of the lands of the full
bloods | sincerely hope that the In
dians will recover their property, as
otherwise they will be homeless out
casts. For. my own information |
found that quite few Catholic fam
lilies guarded the lands of their chill
dren; these are mostly people who
own good farms and are solicitous for
good Christian education of their
children in our school.
But at the same time another cal
amity, worse than the loss of their
lands, befell our Indians. The sale of
the land brought white people on the
reserve, and in less than year new
towns arose, in which saloons and
other disorderly, resorts of the vilest
kind sprang up. These saloons were
the feeders of numerous blind pigs,
which operated in and around the
agency, near schools and churches.
Near our mission two of them were
kept open day and night, even on
Sundays. One day gang of rowdies
broke up the public sidewalk leading
from the agency to our church. | re-
ported the owners of these saloons to
the agent. But the agent was in a
peculiar situation. When he reported
such cases to the county attorneys,
they refused to take said cases into
the court.
In order to free the school and the
mission from these scandals, bought
the 80-acre lot on which these saloons
were, and the owners were fired.
advised the United States agent to pc
tition the government to take up
these cases, as he alone was not able
to stop the violations of the law. The
present government prepared and act
ed with full determination, and in less
than one week all the saloons on the
reservation were closed and the orgies
stopped. 1t was happy Advent and
Christmas that followed
Among the Mississippi tribe of In
dams on this mission there are hardly
any pagans to be found. From the
adjacent Protestant mission seven
converts were received into our
Church.
During the year 1909 there were so
baptisms, IL marriages, "a burials, %
First Communicates from st. Bene-
diets school, Is from the government
school. 4,128 Communions were regis
tered during the year.
a New Mission Among the Pagans.
For several years the government
officials have been at work to remove
the Mile Lac Indians to this reserve.
They belong to the Mississippi tribe.
About 30 families of fullbloods were
located at Elbow Lake, about 20 miles