The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1935-08-01

OF the 100000 appropriation, $4,000 was
set aside for the payment of $4,000 annuity
for period of 20 years; $4,000 was to be
expended for the erection of mills, blacksmith
shops and houses and the employment of physi-
clans, backsmiths and mechanics and $4,000
was to be devoted to educational purposes and
the encouragement of. the domestic arts All of
these were enterprises with which fault can
be found.
Considerably different, however, were certain
other clauses in the treaty. One of them was
that goods and provisions to the value of $685.
600 should be distributed to the Indians, one
portion when the treaty was signed and the re-
mainder during the coming year Another was
setting aside the sum of $4,000 for "sundry
individuals in behalf of whom reservations were
asked, which the commissioners refused to
grant" Among these individuals were white
traders and half-breeds who had married into
the tribe, and members Of their families. The
prOpriety of their being paid money which be-
longed to the Indians was dubious, to say the
least.
But more astounding than that was another
clause which provided for the payment of $175,-
600 to various individuals to satisfy claims made
by them against the tribes concerned in the
treaty, (which they have admitted to be justly
DUE" OF this provision Andreas, the Chicago
historian has said, at was an apportionment Of
the ready money of the tribes among all the
whites who could bring a claim against any
Indian. The honest debtor and the unjust and
dishonest claimant absorbed the fund. How large
a portion of it represented robbery, theft and
perjury will never be known until the great book
is opened on the last day." Certainly it was one
of the most shameless instances of greed, fraud
and dishonesty in the history of our dealings
with the Indian, common though those things
have been from beginning to end.
Shortly after the treaty was signed $4,000 worth
of the $1250OO worth of the goods which the
Indians were to receive were distributed to them
in addition to the first years annuity of $4,000
in cash. "The Indians profted little by the
wealth bestowed upon them" says Quaife "The
greater part of it quickly passed from their hands
to the Golfers of the traders, much of it in ex-
change for bad whiskey; and the red man was
probably more injured than benefited by the mess
of pottage for which he had surrendered his
birthright."
No doubt during the next two years the Potta-
watomies realized that fact and a sullen resent
ment must have burned in their hearts at the
thought, especially as the time drew for
them to journey, both fguratively and literally,
toward the setting sun. Such was their feeling
they assembled in Chicago in the summer of
1885 to receive the last payment of their annuity
in their native land and to prepare for that
journey. .......-....-..-.
Chicago had long been favorite resort with
the Pottawatomies. Here they had come to hold
their councils and to receive their annuities.
Here almost a quarter of a century before they
had gained their most signal triumph over the
race that was crowding them ever westward.
Since the last great gathering two years before,
the sprawling village had developed into what
must have seemed to the unsophisticated red
a veritable metropolis. The signs of civiliza-
ton which it presented to their wondering gaze,
although crude enough from the point of view Of
the Twentieth century, must have brought home
to them the realization that their birthright had
passed into the possession of mightier race;
already they were strangers in the land of their
nativity. :.
Before quitting forever their ancient council
ground the warriors INDUCED in a last great
dance. The matchless charm of Irving has i'm
mortalized the Moor's farewell to his beloved
land More dramatic in its picturesque savagery,
and worthier far of the life he had led was the
Pottawatomie's farewell to Chicago. Driven west
ward by the advancing tide of civilization, in the
final moments of their expiring tenure of their
homeland the warriors gave demonstration of
their devotion to their ancient ideals by staging
before their conquerors such an exhibition of
savagery as appalled, the stoutest hearts"
That exhibition was the farewell dance which
took place on Lake street that August day 100
years ago and of which Judge Cation has left us
such graphic description. The story of it forms
the last chapter of Quaife's Chicago and the
Old Northwest" the last paragraph of which
reads:
THUS did the red man play his savage role
to the end. 1t a brave show which he
enacted that summer morning, but it was nothing
more. For him the scepter of power had depart
ed, and this was his final farewell. few weeks
later he took up his weary journey toward the
sunset and Chicago knew him no more. The
red man had vanished and Chicago and Chi
cagos future were committed to the care of
another and mightier race"
Today remnants of the once powerful Potta-
watomies, "the People of the Place of the Fire."
live in Kansas and Oklahoma far from the west