page_title: Kechewaishke
section_title: Threats of removal
hierarchical_section_title: Kechewaishke / Threats of removal
caption_attribution_description: Symbolic Petition of Chippewa Chiefs, presented at Washington, January 28, 1849, headed by Oshcabawis of Monomonecau, Wis.
context_page_description: Chief Buffalo was a major Ojibwa leader, born at La Pointe in Lake Superior's Apostle Islands, in what is now northern Wisconsin, USA.
  Recognized as the principal chief of the Lake Superior Chippewa for nearly a half-century until his death in 1855, he led his nation into a treaty relationship with the United States Government. He signed treaties in 1825, 1826, 1837, 1842, 1847, and 1854. He was instrumental in resisting the United States' efforts to remove the Ojibwa to western areas and secured permanent Indian reservations for his people near Lake Superior in what is now Wisconsin.
context_section_description: In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which authorized the government to remove any Indian nations east of the Mississippi River to the western side and offer land in exchange. As northern Wisconsin was not then under pressure for development by white settlers, as occurred in the Southeast, the Ojibwa were not among the first targets of the act. They watched closely as the government used the territorial claims defined by tribes in 1825 to force numerous tribes in Indiana, southern Michigan and southern Wisconsin to move west to Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. These included the Odawa and Potawatomi, two Anishinaabe tribes closely related to and allied with the Ojibwa.
  In 1848, Wisconsin achieved statehood; Indian nations were under increased pressure for removal and marginalization. Corrupt US Indian agents controlled annuity payments, sometimes underpaying tribes, and took authority not granted them by the bands. They allowed white settlers to move onto Ojibwa lands and refused the Ojibwa the rights reserved by treaties. The Ojibwa complained to Jackson about the mistreatment and broken promises, but politicians were more apt to listen to western land speculators, who saw possibilities for profit in removing the Ojibwa to Minnesota.
  Even with the treaties of 1837 and 1842, leaders worried about Ojibwa removal. Kechewaishke kept in constant contact with the other bands to ensure the Ojibwa upheld their obligations. He sent runners to all the bands to report back on any conduct that could construed as grounds for removal. Nothing was reported. But President Zachary Taylor signed the removal order on February 6, 1850, under corrupt circumstances, claiming to be protecting the Ojibwa from "injurious" whites. The Wisconsin legislature resisted the order and put aside plans for removal. Alexander Ramsey, the territorial governor of Minnesota, and Indian sub-agent John Watrous conspired on a plan to force the Ojibwa to Minnesota anyway, as the two men stood to gain personal economic and political benefits from removal.
caption: This pictographic 1849 petition, sometimes attributed to Buffalo, was presented to the U.S. President by Oshcabawis and other Ojibwa leaders from the headwaters of the Wisconsin River. It complains of broken promises in the 1837 and 1842 treaties.  The tribes are represented by their totems: marten, bear, man and catfish, led by the crane. Lines running from the heart and eye of each animal to the heart and eye of the crane denote that they are all of one mind; and a line runs from the eye of the crane to the lakes, shown in the «map» in the lower left-hand corner.
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:02 15:46:45", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3579", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "638", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "458"}