The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1943-01-14
Pagan Indians
Favor One White
Man Idea-War
Isolated Tribe in Northern
Michigan Adhere to
Ancient Culture.

WATERSMEET, MICH.-Pagan.
ism and the Indian culture of the
DAYS before Columbus are making
a determined stand in the wilds OF
northern Michigan. They'll have no
truck with white men, or their swing
bands, or their marriages, or their
divorces, or their priests and
preachers - those resolute Chippe-
was of Lac Vieux desert, an iso-
lated spot whose nearest white
town is Watersmeet. Mich.
But there's one thing the white
men are doing that the steel souled
tribesmen go in for with a will.
They have laid aside their pipes
of peace and have declared war for
mally on the Axis.
Americans First.
The young braves are more than
willing to enlist, and a conscientious
objeetor is as rare as redskin di-
vorce among the solemn faced abb
origines.
ANY land good enough to live
in says George A. Cadotte, tribal
interpreter, is good enough to fight
for. That is our creed. We are
Americans, first and last, and war
is our inheritance.
Sacred drums beat "a rhythmic
tattoo in the night and you can hear
the chomp-chomp of moccasined
feet around the fireside. Primitive
powwows, weird medicine dances
and fantastic rites are as much In
vogue in this lake studded Michigan
Wisconsin border paradise as bene-
fits, bargain days and ball games
] are in Chicago.
There are no glittering shops. gyp
joints, theaters, churches, night
! clubs-not even a post 6ffice--in this
! strange remnant of the frontier.
| Newspapers and radios are rarities.
| No one ever heard of formal mar
riage ceremony and the Indians
1 have no word for divorce.
! In fact, the rules of the outside
world just don't go. Back in 1854,
when Indian lands were coded to
the government. scattered bands
were assigned to various reserva-
tons. The Lac Vieux desert band
| found itself at the LAnse tract on
Lake Superior.
In sharp contrast to the fertile
! soil their forefathers had defended
! against the Sioux in the land of
lakes, Z the new homeland was
/ marsh.
They Just Turn Rebel
] The band rebelled, returning to
Lac Vieux desert-only to find that
Uncle Sam had taken over. In des-
peration. the leaders appealed to
President Lincolnz-in about 1868
/ and the Great Emancipator"
] promptly signed over 40 acre tract
to the band without reservation
privileges.
Since that day, generations Of
J rebel Indians have revered Lincoln,
even though their knowledge of Hon.
est Abe begins and ends at Lac
| Vieux desert. In 1870, President
Ulysses S. Grant added As acres to
the original tract, giving the band
86 acres of primitive wilderness in
which TO hunt, fish, and trap-even
though white man law is boss"
Life among the pagans is a med
! ley of ancient and modern. Homes
are crude--White man style-but
worship is by tribal tradition. AT
home the tribesmen speak Chippe-
wa, which is white man. for Ojib-
way-outside they speak English. If
they commit crime they are tried
in a white mans court.
Eighty Indians -4from newborn
babes to 80 year old squaWs and
Wrinkled braves, make up the band
today. Originally it numbered 200.
Big chief is youthful John Ackley,
and medicine man is venerable
John Pete, N years old, who speaks
little English. Interpreter and un-
official agent is Cadotte, educated
Indian who speaks fluent English
and received commercial training
in Superior, Wis, before he drifted
in to stay early in the depression.