When the Act of 1867, establishing White Earth reservation, and which Judge Burch has discussed, was put into effect, a great number of Indians by hard work, notably the chief of the entire five living bands of Chippewa, a grand old man, whose name is Me-zhuck-ke-ge-shig, took advantage of this and earned many acres of land. This chief was looked up to by the Indians, was a good man himself, and many of his friends followed his example, worked hard and earned forty, eighty or one hundred and sixty acres. Imagine the surprise of these Indians when, at the time the pine lumber was allotted, some one in Washington announced that the Indians who had received farm lands could not participate in the pine allotting. In other words, the French-Canadians, the mixed-bloods and such full-bloods as had not worked and were not industrious, received pine tracts valued from few to many thousands of dollars, and those who had obeyed the wishes of the Indian Office, had advanced by hard work along the “road to civilization,” were debarred from participation. It was precisely as if a college passed its drones and conditioned its honor-roll men. No wonder these White Earth Indians do not care to work, and say they “cannot understand Washington.” If whoever was responsible for such a ruling had sat down and deliberately tried to figure out the most certain way of injuring the Ojibwa Indians, he could not have conceived a better plan. Immediately after I was appointed on the Board of Indian Commissioners, a correspondent wrote me from Wisconsin that the Ojibwa Indians at White Earth were in bad condition. The Indian Rights Association had made a similar complaint. Rev. Charles Wright, Episcopal missionary at Cass Lake, shortly after the scandals began to develop, on his own responsibility borrowed money and in spite of the opposition of the Indian Agent, Simon Michelet, he went to Washington to lay the grievances of the Indians before the President. He bore letters of introduction from Governor John A. Johnson and United States Senator Knute Nelson. The lumber companies, it was supposed, wired the Indian Commissioner of Wright’s mission. He did not find favor at Washington, never succeeded in seeing the President, and sorrowing and sick at heart he was compelled to return to Minnesota. The Board of Indian Commissioners having no funds, I asked the Indian Office to appoint me as Special Agent with full powers, and send me to White Earth. This was done about March 1st. I spent five weeks investigating conditions in the southern part of the reservation, Pine Point, and returned to Washington the latter part of April, 1909. The first of July, Inspector E. B. Linnen and myself were sent to White Earth with full authority. We employed a total force of thirty-seven persons and made a complete investigation.