The Secretary of the Bureau of Catholic Missions, Charles S. Lusk, wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in August, 1910, calling attention to the sad condition of these Indians, that the removal of a portion of them to White Earth had brought them under the influence of one Gus Beaulieu and other politicians. They were promised houses, lands and farming implements. In Washington three years ago I met a delegation of the Ojibwa. Three of the members of this body were personally known to me, and the Chief Ah-bow-we-ge-shig well known. They told me that the last thing that Darwin Hall did was to summon the Mille Lacs and persuade them to move a considerable distance from their homes. He left them in camp, promising to return shortly and move them to White Earth. These Indians waited two weeks. They had little food. Mr. Hall did not move them, and they suffered privations, and at last returned to their former homes. The story of the Mille Lacs reads as a page from Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Century of Dishonor,” yet this scandal did not occur in the old days, but is recent history. Who is responsible? Almost any other body of men and women in the world would be utterly discouraged if they had passed through the same experience that fell to the lot of the Ojibwa Indians of White Earth, Minnesota, during twenty-five years. I am acquainted with no community in the East where, in the minds and hearts of the citizens, there would remain even a particle of respect, or regard, or confidence, in any government, or culture, or civilization, responsible for such a condition. The sole saving grace is the natural cheerfulness and optimism of the Ojibwa people, as a whole. Many of them are discouraged, and most of them will not farm or work, for the reason that the farming and working in the past resulted in those who were industrious being disciplined, (see page 68) and those who were indolent being rewarded. No white man or woman would work under similar circumstances. Yet, contrary to all precedents, they are cheerful and optimistic. They have a keen sense of humor, they laugh and joke among themselves. I desire to vary the monotony of this recital of wrongs and sufferings, by illustrating a few incidents. The old witnesses and the interpreters, after dinner one noon hour, were having an animated discussion. A number of us were lolling about on the ground, smoking, and one of the officials happened at this moment to stretch and yawn. One of the old Indians immediately laughed and said something which caused the other Indians to shout with merriment. The interpreter turned to me and said, “Mah-een-gonce says, that that is the first white man he has seen to open his mouth and a lie did not hop out.”