The American Indian in the United States, Period 1850-1914: ... The Present Condition of the American Indian; His Political History and Other Topics; A Plea for JusticeMoorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
History
The American Indian in the United States, Period 1850-1914: ... The Present Condition of the American Indian; His Political History and Other Topics; A Plea for Justice
Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Government relations -- 1869-1934
Mr. John H. Hinton was appointed Special Agent and sent to White Earth
to make a new roll of the Ojibwa. I was informed he added many names,
but Mr. O’Brien’s recent letter indicates that this is not correct. The
“interests” responsible for the White Earth scandal, petitioned Congress
a year ago to make a new roll of the Ojibwa. This bill nearly passed. A
Commission of two is now making a roll of allotments, which Mr. O’Brien
assures me are not included in the suits.
All lovers of justice may pray that no new roll be attempted. The
Linnen-Moorehead list is accurate and has stood the test.
Having assembled as our witnesses the most reliable old Indians, we were
able to check up the many errors in the Government roll. Frequently
there would be as many as forty or fifty Ojibwa assembled in the
schoolroom where our hearings were held. When the interpreter called out
such a name as Min-de-moi-yen, or E-quay-zince, or Mah-geed, the other
Indians would shout with laughter, and when they had recovered
sufficiently they would state they did not know what individual Indian
was named as there were a score who might respond to that appellation.
The Ojibwa Indians have had a number of attorneys in the past twenty, or
twenty-five years. None of these men seem to have concerned themselves
with the prevention of the wholesale thefts of land and timber. The
gentleman who acted as attorney at the time of our arrival, became
active toward the end of our investigation, and did what he could to
secure justice for the Indians. But he had done nothing previously along
such lines, and his activities savored of a death-bed repentance. The
Secretary of the Interior did not approve his re-election. The
full-blood Indians were against the employment of the attorney, and the
mixed-blood Indians, headed by Gus Beaulieu, were very insistent that
the attorney be retained. During the three years prior to 1909, the
attorney had received in salary and expenses about $20,000.
A large council was called in July by the Indians to talk over the
attorneyship. Mr. Linnen and myself were spectators, and while we could
have helped the poor, ignorant full-bloods, because of our official
position, we were compelled to sit in silence and see Gus Beaulieu and
John Carl, Rev. Clement Beaulieu and others manipulate the meeting. The
first morning, there were sufficient full-bloods to have outvoted the
Beaulieu element, two to one. But Gus Beaulieu and his brother, Rev.
Clement Beaulieu, consumed the time in speech-making, while Ben
Fairbanks sent mixed-bloods in teams all over the reservation to bring
in those who would vote according to Gus Beaulieu’s desires. At the
afternoon session the full-blood Indians might have carried their point,
but they spent their time answering the arguments of the two Beaulieus
and others, being cleverly heckled into making long speeches.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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