CHAPTER XXXVIII. TWO STORIES. UNWISE PURCHASES
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.
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_
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“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.
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“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.
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“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.”