Some one should write a book devoted to stories of Indian heroism, the
fulfilment of promises and kindred subjects. There is much material of
this character available on many of our reservations. I do not mean
folk-lore, or traditions, but stories of actual happenings, most of
which are quite unknown to the average white citizen.
During the White Earth investigation in Minnesota, I frequently joined a
group of Indians and through interpreters, Mr. John Lufkins, or Mrs.
Rose Ellis, persuaded the old men and women to relate some of their
experiences. The first story, that of Ojibwa, was told by a man bearing
the same name as the tribe. He was a famous warrior, noted for his
bravery in action against the Sioux. His friend, No-de-na-qua-um (the
Temperance Chief), also a famous warrior, had been shot through the
right lung, and proudly exhibited to us the scars in his chest and back.
The story of Ojibwa is presented as taken down at the time, without
explanations or additions, being a literal translation.
OJIBWA’S STORY
“When I was young, long ago, there were three Sioux who went into a home
and assaulted a white woman, near Fort Snelling. The white woman
screamed, and her husband ran up, took one of the three guns left
outside the door by the Indians, shot one of the Indians, and the other
two killed the white man. During this summer the soldiers tried to get
the two Sioux who did this and could not find them.
“About a year afterwards, while at war, I killed a Sioux myself, and
about the middle of the winter when we were camping at Little Rock Lake
we heard that the soldiers were coming. The soldiers came and sent for
Hole-in-the-Day, who was head chief. After he had been with them a
little while the soldiers sent for me. I went over and found them eating
dinner. As soon as I was there, they told me to eat, which I did. The
Captain sat near me. The Captain said, ‘Did you kill the Sioux?’ and I
replied, ‘I am the man.’ Then he asked me how I killed him, and I said I
used my gun.
“He said, ‘What did you put in your gun?’ I told him, ‘I put in powder
and bullet. Then I shot him and scalped him.’
“Then the Captain said, ‘I am sent to come after you.’ I said, ‘I will
go along with you.’ He said, ‘Have you made up your mind fully to go
along with me?’ I again said, ‘Yes.’
“Hole-in-the-Day then stood up and said, ‘You cannot take him until I
give my consent. I will bring him myself after the ice goes out.’
“The Captain said, ‘You are a chief and you can bring him down when
convenient.’ The Captain shook hands with me and said to
Hole-in-the-Day, ‘Bring your son down to the fort in the spring.’
Hole-in-the-Day told our hunters not to go out but to go to Fort
Snelling, and about forty of us went down there in canoes. When we got
near there, we sent a letter by the interpreter saying we would arrive
about noon the next day. When we arrived at the landing a soldier tried
to shove our canoes back. Hole-in-the-Day jumped out and kept the
soldier from hurting us and sent word to the General that we were there.
Then some officers came down and Hole-in-the-Day tore all my clothes
off, leaving me naked. Hole-in-the-Day made himself naked and painted
himself red. We walked up the hill together, the Ojibwa back of us. We
were led to the flagpole. The General came out and shook hands with us.
Hole-in-the-Day said to the General, ‘I am here. I am Hole-in-the-Day. I
promised you I would be here at this time and bring my son. I am giving
my son to you. If you want to hang him, hang him; if you wish to punish
him, do so; if you care to place him in the guardhouse, put him there. I
give him to you.’
“I did not speak.
“‘Just a minute, Hole-in-the-Day,’ said the General. ‘I’ll wait until
the Sioux arrive and you tell me then the same words in their presence.’
Then the Sioux came. The General was in the center and 400 Sioux back of
him, with head men scattered in front. Then the General said,
‘Hole-in-the-Day, speak.’ And my chief repeated the same words he had
said before. Then the General spoke to the Sioux: ‘Hole-in-the-Day is
head chief here today and he has given me his son to punish as I see fit
and I shall do so accordingly.’
“After the General said this, the Sioux head man said, ‘Turn this man
over to us and we will punish him as we see fit.’ The General said, ‘No;
he was given me to be punished.’
“Then the soldiers came up and put handcuffs on me while all the Indians
looked on. The soldiers took me to the guardhouse and put me inside.
They let me look through a small window and see what was going on.
“The Sioux would speak and then Hole-in-the-Day would answer, and they
kept at it all day long. About evening I saw the soldiers with two Sioux
on whom they had fastened balls and chains, and they led them to the
guardhouse. The guards unlocked my door and brought me down to where the
two Sioux were. We were put in the same room and guarded there. Then the
guard took me back upstairs. Then I saw the Sioux march out of the fort
and the Ojibwa stayed.
“After the Sioux were out of sight my guard came, unlocked my door, took
off the handcuffs and hung them on the wall and brought me out. He took
me to the General and when I got there the General was laughing and held
out his arm and shook hands with me.
“The General patted me on the shoulder and said, ‘Thank you, thank you.
You have helped me capture the men I wanted.’ He said, ‘If ever you get
in trouble my authority will protect you.’ He wrote a paper and sent me
to a store nearby where I was clothed Then I returned to the General,
who had me shown about the fort, and we camped all day and were guarded
by soldiers so the Sioux would not bother us. Next day a steamer
arrived. We saw the Sioux prisoners march down and get on the steamer
and go away.
“After some time we went home and reached our country safely, being
guarded part way by the soldiers.”
THE STORY OF MAH-EEN-GONCE
Mah-een-gonce, or Little Wolf, was a rather small Ojibwa Indian about
fifty years of age. He was an inmate of the Indian boarding-house at
White Earth, Minnesota, in 1909. I observed that this Indian had lost
both legs at the knee, and walked about with great difficulty. On
Sundays, he arrayed himself in his best garments and strapped to his
knees two cork legs, on the feet of which he wore laced shoes. He
managed to walk fairly well when he had on what he called his “white
man’s legs”. I asked him how he happened to lose his feet and he told me
a remarkable story of his own suffering, and sacrifice on the part of
his grandfather.
“When I was twelve years old, I happened to be in camp with my parents
near Crow-wing, Minnesota. At this place there were four large wigwams
in which lived thirty or more Indians. One of the head men called us
together and made announcement that he would move the camp to a place
called Hackensack. Some of the Indians did not wish to go there, as it
was snowing heavily and we were comfortably located. But Say-kash-e-gay,
the head man, started in one direction with the main party, and my
mother, grandmother, grandfather and myself went in another direction.
Grandfather said that game was very scarce and food short in the
Hackensack region, and that he thought he could take us to a small lake
where we would be able to pass the winter without suffering.
“You must know that this was the winter of the great blizzard in
northern Minnesota, when some people died, many suffered, and much stock
of the white people froze to death.
“As we walked along, my grandmother said she did not feel well. It grew
exceedingly cold and the wind blew very hard. We traveled along slowly,
each helping the other through the drifting snow. We came to a little
creek, and my grandfather said, ‘Let us stop here’. Near this creek, my
grandmother sank down exhausted. Grandfather broke dry wood and made a
large fire. We put grandmother by the fire and she lay down while the
rest of us moved about to warm ourselves. During the night grandmother
died and grandfather carried her over the side of a big rock and placed
her there. We passed a hard night; it was bitterly cold and the wind
howled through the trees. Grandfather said the evil spirits in the pines
were laughing at us. In the morning I felt pains in my feet and spoke to
my grandfather and said, ‘Grandpa, my feet hurt very much. There is
something the matter with them.’ He built up a big fire and helped me to
remove my leggings and we warmed them by the fire, but I could not keep
my feet near the heat, because of the pain I suffered.
“We had eaten the last of our food the previous evening. It continued to
snow and was so cold that the limbs of the trees snapped with loud
noises. My mother died of the cold about noon. After she died, we
changed our position to the side of a sheltered hill and grandpa built
another fire. All that afternoon and night it continued to snow.
Grandfather lay down about dark near the fire, and he lay partly doubled
up with his face toward the fire, and his back away from it. He put me
inside the hollow his body formed, so that the fire warmed me, and his
body protected my back from the cold. I felt that I was freezing.
Grandfather could not keep up the fire, for he began to get stiff and he
told me to throw on the wood. He held me close to him all night and
said, now and then, ‘Are you warm?’
“The snow continued to bank up all of the next day. Grandpa could not
move about, but I managed to get wood enough to keep the fire burning.
The third day we were too weak to travel. Then the sun came out, it was
a beautiful day, and we heard a bell ringing in the distance.
“Grandpa said, ‘That must be the bell of the Mission church. We can hear
it because the air is still and cold.’
“After a long silence, grandfather said, ‘My son, I cannot live. Try to
get up and save your life.’
“I replied, ‘No, I will not leave you. I will die with you.’
“‘No,’ commanded my grandfather, ‘you must go. You must not stay here.
You are too young to die.’ And he gave me his papers, for he was a chief
and had papers from Washington and a medal, and other things. I shook
hands with him and told him goodbye, and started in the direction of the
bell. I cut two sticks for canes to help hold me up, as my legs were
like wood. I was very weak and hungry. Grandfather raised his body a
little—he was half sitting up, raising himself with his hands—when I
looked back at him, he looked at me and then put his head down. I went
along slowly for some time. I heard some one singing. Then I thought
that people were calling me. About noon I was weak and sleepy and could
not go on. My legs were heavy, like logs. But it had become much warmer,
so I cut down some small bushes, made a bed and lay down, very tired.
While lying there my grandfather seemed to come and stand by me, and I
said to him, ‘Are you going along?’ and he replied, ‘Yes, yes, don’t lie
here. Get up and exert yourself like a man.’
“When I woke up it was morning and I was very stiff and cold. I had to
roll over and get my feet and legs down a hill in order to stand up. I
cut two more canes with which to hold me up. I struggled on most of that
day and in the afternoon reached some cabins of my people. They carried
me in and gave me soup and afterwards some meat chopped fine. Then my
legs began to hurt me. They rubbed them with snow but that did no good.
Oh, what pain I suffered! In a few days my feet began to decay, and they
took me to a doctor, and he cut off both my legs. For many months
afterwards I suffered tortures and wished to die.
“A few weeks later, the people went out and found my grandfather dead by
the ashes of our little fire. They also recovered the bodies of my
grandmother and my mother. If grandfather had not held me next to the
fire, and protected me with his own body that long, cold night, I, too,
would today be in the Land of the Spirits.”
UNWISE PURCHASES
The educated Indians should take a more positive stand in the matter of
protecting their more unfortunate brethren. Far be it from me to cast
reflections on these persons, but truth compels the statement that a
number who should have been foremost in safeguarding the interests of
ignorant aborigines availed themselves of close association with their
fellowmen to secure property. At White Earth, of the thirty-seven men
and women mentioned in the Government affidavits as securing lands, at
least a dozen were educated Indians. This sad fact impressed Inspector
Linnen and myself, and we often talked regarding it. The temptation on
the part of some educated Indians is to follow the example set by white
men. Let me present an illustration. In Oklahoma I met Joe B——. He
informed me that forty acres of land were enough for any Indian. I said,
“Joe, how many acres do you own?” “Oh, about 2,000.” Joe was red, as to
color, but he had the heart of the white man.
[Illustration:
CARLISLE INDIAN SCHOOL—THE CAMPUS
]
Years ago the Department of Justice began an investigation of land cases
in the State of Oklahoma. Honorable A. N. Frost acted as Special
Assistant to the Attorney General. Mr. Frost was asked to resign from
his office a short time ago. He delivered a stirring address at the Lake
Mohonk Conference this year. In this address (of which I present a part)
Mr. Frost referred to the 30,000 Oklahoma land suits before the
Department of Justice. According to his published statement, Senator
Owen is concerned in 154 of these suits. I present excerpts from Mr.
Frost’s remarks herewith.
_Lake Mohonk Conference, Wednesday evening, October 14, 1914_
* * * * *
“Immediately subsequent to the removal of the restrictions act of 1908 a
veritable Saturnalia of deed-taking from the unrestricted allottees was
carried on by the hungry land-buyers, white, red, and black. The man who
has secured a prior deed from the now unrestricted allottee had the best
chance to secure a new one, and he did so in thousands of cases. Many
such had been secured by Senator Owen of Oklahoma, or by his agents for
him. There are today pending in these bills 154 so-called cases against
him for recovery of Indian lands, most of them involving restricted
allottees and many now unrestricted.
* * * * *
“Under the law a deed taken in pursuance of an illegal contract is as
void as the illegal contract is; in the absence of a new and completely
valid consideration. If the prior deed was invalid, if it was a
violation of the restrictions against alienation imposed by an act of
Congress and therefore totally and completely void, and if that
subsequent deed was in pursuance and in furtherance of that invalid
contract, then it is my firm belief that the second deed is as totally
and absolutely invalid as the first. Involved in this proposition is
necessarily the question of adequacy of consideration. Using the Owen
unrestricted cases again solely as an illustration, I do not know
whether an adequate consideration was paid or not, though an attempt was
made to secure from him the necessary information to determine it,
without success. If such was paid, of course, in his, as in all other
cases, no further action ought to be taken by the Government. I
presented this proposition of law to the Court; the Court said, that may
be so, you may be right in the principle of law which you have stated,
but the Government itself, the allottee being unrestricted, is without
any power to bring a suit on his behalf to have that second deed
cancelled. I urged upon the Department an authorization to appeal from
the decision of the Court for the reason that a remedy left to the
volition of the incompetent allottee is no remedy at all. Up to the time
of my ceasing to be connected with the work in Oklahoma, no appeal had
been authorized. I do not know why.
* * * * *
“A word in conclusion. It seems evident that there has been of late,
upon the part of the Washington departments dealing with Indian affairs,
a susceptibility to political influence in connection with Indian
matters. I want to lift my voice in emphatic protest against the
introduction of the spoils system into Indian activities. As an
illustration: Mr. Mott, than whom there was no more faithful servant of
the Indian people, and who has accomplished wonders in their behalf in
the matter of minors’ estates, was removed; he was replaced by Judge
Allen as counsel for the Creek tribe of Indians. At the time, there were
in the litigation I conducted some sixty odd cases to cancel deeds taken
by him personally, or by a company in which he was interested, from
members of the Creek tribe of which he was appointed counsel. Mr. Owen,
the United States Senator, as I have said before, is involved in some
154 cases, covering full-blood and mixed-blood lands, taken from the
Cherokee people. In charge of the litigation has been placed an official
commonly reputed to be a personal appointee of Senator Owen, the United
States attorney who was at one time himself a defendant in the suits. I
do not mean by this to imply that any one, or all of these gentlemen,
have not or will not accomplish much good for these people, but I do
wish to contend most emphatically for the utmost singleness of purpose
and freedom from all possible entanglements which might even
unconsciously warp judgment in the men selected to deal with these and
all Indian matters. I cite these illustrations, not for the purpose of
striking at anybody in high places. It is farthest from my thoughts and
I sincerely wish for them all the highest degree of success in their
efforts in behalf of the Indian. What I have said with reference to them
is true to an all too great degree among many other men of prominence in
Oklahoma. I wish to repeat that there should be selected in connection
with the litigation, in connection with all Indian affairs in the State
of Oklahoma, men absolutely free from all suspicion of influence, of any
kind, in order that their efforts and their work may be devoted, singly
and solely, to that which will benefit the Indian allottee; and in this
connection I want to say, too, that no man ever had associated with him
in public work a more loyal, efficient and devoted set of men than it
has been my privilege to have had in the years of my activity in Indian
matters in Oklahoma. I am not among those who decry the people of the
State of Oklahoma as a whole; I have lived among that people for a
period of six years; I have learned to love and respect them, and to
admire their enterprise and spirit of progress amid necessarily adverse
circumstances, not a little of which was caused by the work I was
engaged in, necessary as I believe it was.
“Arouse the citizenship of Oklahoma as you would the citizens of the
State of New York or of my own State of Massachusetts, and you will find
that it is composed of the same class and type of men, ready to respond
at once to the call of duty to suppress wrong.
“That there exists the other class is beyond question, just as it exists
elsewhere. The existence of the conditions which called forth the
litigation is proof of this; but, mark you, since the institution of
these suits, and as a consequence thereof, because of the work of the
Commissioner to the Five Civilized Tribes and the Superintendent of
Indian Affairs in the administration of their offices and in connection
with these suits, a much better feeling has existed among the citizens
of Oklahoma, and today you will find that except among such as have
heretofore taken widespread and universally of these lands and are
therefore interested personally, there are many who deprecate the wrongs
as much as you or I.
“Another wrong impression I want to attempt to correct. In consequence
of the litigation and other causes among them, too much generality in
the discussion of these matters, statements have been made that titles
in eastern Oklahoma are unsafe. Based upon my years of experience in
connection with this work, necessitating the reviewing of more titles
probably than ordinarily falls to the lot of any one man, I confidently
make the assertion that nowhere in the United States can there be found
any better titles than those in eastern Oklahoma once they have been
properly acquired.”
[Illustration:
AN OJIBWA WOMAN DYING OF CONSUMPTION
After hearing her story, I drew an affidavit containing her testimony,
to the effect that she was swindled out of $20,000 worth of
property, and left to die in poverty. Unable to sit up, she
requested that I take her hand and affix her thumb print to the
paper. The photograph was taken in a room where the light was very
poor, and it has been necessary to redraw it. March 1909, Pine
Point. Minn.
]