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Show THE HISTORY OF A CIUME. How an lttempt to "ClrHiie" Mtch-Iptu Mtch-Iptu Indians was Thwarted. I have freqienUy observed thai the DESERET Evmftsa NkmH has kind side for the Indians and It has occurred to me thai my person knowledge or one or our reserratlobs and the treatment tbe Indiana rice! ri-ce! ved thereon might be of Interest. In 1S55 the. United States ratified a treaty with the '-Saginaw, Hwau Creek and Black river hands ol Chippewa Indian'," of Michigan By terms or the treaty those Indian ceded to the United States all lamb then held by them and all unpaid annuities under a former treaty The lands thus ceded to th.s Unlteil Slates were at that time very valuable and aro today covered witb city, town, village and farm In the richest part of the State. In return for these lands and unpaid annuities the Indians received se viral tracts of land so far removed from what passed for "clvlllxation" that it a' thought the Indians would never again come In the wayof thowhltes. In addition to this land the Indians or those bauds only, the treaty said, were to receive, for various uses, sundry suras of money amounting tooveri223,000anJ $137,000 was to be paid in coin as annuities. ThU mouey was paid out to or forblefly for" theso Indians between lboo and 1S53. la 1S55 7 thelndlauf gathered on the Isabella reservation, the largest tractor tho lands alluded toabove, lo the numbertf 1500. One f tne tint freaks of the agent lu charge was to allow men and women, cbltfly women, who had for years been supposed to be white-, and u ho belonged to some of the old nrMocntlc families of Ditroli and Saginaw, to pruvo themselves members of those Chippewa bands by decent and to claim and receive mutinies and to f elect and obtain lands on the reservation. Probabii HB A;ent did it '-for a consideration." considera-tion." Ujvcrnment was very much Interested In-terested in the Isabella reservation, for It was thought a plan had been ulopted that would result la a sucedyclvlllzttlon of the Indians. Bythetermsofthetreatythelndians were to select lands as follows-Kcli follows-Kcli head of family, husband or widow, S3 acres; each orphan famly of two or more, SO: eeich single orphan under age, ; each single person of age, to. The selections as made wero to U-reported U-reported by the agent to the Secretary Secre-tary of the Interior aud recorded. To the selector a certificate Issued that guaranteed the land to the In-lian In-lian or heirs for ever and neither land nor timber could be alienated They coul I cut and sell their on n limber, but could not dlspcc of it arholesale standing. The government govern-ment furnished teams, agricultural implements aud seed; built smithy, arpenter shop, saw mill, gristmill, f.ur schoolboures, three or four cnurches and council house; fur nlshed mechanics, millet, teachers indsupcriutendeut. The agent was s Methodist print, the teachers were Methodists, the mechanics were Methodists and the agent mode his troth er-In-Jja, reservation "trader." the Indians built snug log houses, nany of them, and cleared little farms. They raised wheat, buckwheat, potatoes and other vegetables. They foil that they had located to stay and were full of hope, iiuttho trader eagerly trusted them to theamouutof their annuities annu-ities aud when the money cams his bills Wf re paid first and generally 'he Indians got liltlo or nolhlrg. lis charged them $5 apint for death-shot death-shot whiskey and five prices for everything they bought. .For a time the mill ground their grain, but soon the miller managed to be away when needed, tho grain was not ground and the Indians were forced to buy "feed" from the trader. They saw It was ueles to raise grain and quit Whites worked In among them and sw idled them out Of their teams and gradually many of them fell back into their old vvavsor living. The good in-tentlonor in-tentlonor the government was for-itten, for-itten, tbe agent, teachers and other employes simply drew salaries and let the Indians go as thev pleased. In tnenty.rlvo years only two Indians learned to write anil six to real in thoe government schools. Yuen the boom came there was a boom In pine lands. Then Ba-tinaw Ba-tinaw lumbermen became anxious to get hold ot the Isabella Reservation. Reserva-tion. Church members "laid in" Willi the Agent to get It. The Indians In-dians were taught that the reason they did not get rich "like white man" was because the government treated him "like child." The In-diacr In-diacr were induced to petition government gov-ernment to get their land In feu simple so that they could u e It like white man. The whites sent afll-Ivrlts afll-Ivrlts setting forth that they knew the Indians to be educated Christians capable of taking care or their property. Tho government yielded. In lS'Jt the treaty was amended so a to give the Indians their land in fee, butaatd they should flrtt be classified classi-fied into those "competent" and those "not so competent." The diet should get their patents with out restriction. The second could uot alienate their property. The classification could have been made ln a week, hut It was not made for several years. Why? Because the white Chris tlan (?) lumbermen wero not ready. Thoysent agents among tbe Iu dlans and an agreement was signed whereby the Indians bound themselves them-selves to sell to these whites all the land they had selected cr might selectaswcll as the price. They bound themselves not to chop over three acres a year for makiog farms an J not to remove a log oi burn a brush pile without the consent ot the whites who were GO miles away and no road between but the tralL Before the classification was made those whites had become the ostensible osten-sible owners of the reservation. Then the Indians were classified and out of 1,700 who were to receive re-ceive patents 1,652 were "competent" "compe-tent" and 13 "not so competent," Then tbo list or selections of land, was made out and sent to Washington. Washing-ton. The Saginaw whites got a copy of it although the government required that it should be kept Bee ret. A while man on the reservation, reserva-tion, knowing what the Saginaw men had done, sent to Washington and bribed somebody to give him a copF of tbe lift. iiMacg3gaiSaig'-":38''S3ss Hemadeslx copies and sold them to other whites at $50 carta. . Tb"S there were seven gangs b"l"l Saginaw fellows In the forests of Preservation lforen patent was iMuedstrlvlnsc to get the Indiana Stosllltothem. Government discovered the fraud, """J ft? re-elections add ordered jj to be made in secret. The wot was finished on a pft towns' government agent had to travel lis miles to reach a train. Tj thieves, went OU the stage and bribed the driver to arrive too late for the train. The agent .had I to remain re-main over Sunday. Tho thieves stole his list and copied It- f went back to the reservation and . be-f.. be-f.. tho mtents Issued they bail "clouts" or bogus c'alros on more than half or the reservation. Government Govern-ment discovered this fraud al'o and arrested the thieves. They were carried to Detroit for trial, but got clear on the technicality that they tial only "copied a public docu mnt." Government was o ln" different to follow It up and they escaped the penitentiary. Two of those three men have U-enhoundlng no for j ears because I exposed their rime stralnst the Indians. In 1ST1 2 patents were lued to I701! Indians on the rcservatlou, 1652 being "competent." Insldeor wo year thee were only two of these Indians who owned a foot of land. Or tie 4S "not'o competent" t white man now living told me that he paid the agent, a Methodist priest, SIO each to get 23 or them nanited to "competent" In Washington, Wash-ington, and that iiu (hen bought hem from the Indian. Such was tbe end ora L,rea.t experiment to Ivllizethr- Indians. The government govern-ment wasted a 'purler or a million dollar, permitted white thief's to ret it and tbe Indians were drlvn from their homes worse man ueinre the experiment began. The govern- .-..i was a pnrtv to the shameful wrong ot tno methods by whieh tbe thieves obtained the Indians' land I will give you some account In an-ther an-ther article. Here I can only say that hl-lory can hardly showa more-rutl more-rutl robbery and crime than the lespolllng of the Isabella Chlr-penas. Chlr-penas. Iu ISS2 I went to the reservation reserva-tion knowing what government had done and expecting to find a high legreo of civiiintluj ameng tne Indians. I found thai there were .nly about XH ot them and only three or four families that were net in a state ofbeggary. The man had lied or hunger and cold, or wandered wan-dered away. I at once began an exposure ex-posure o! tbe nialtrt-ainn-iit oi tin-Indians. tin-Indians. An Invsstlgation was ordered by President Arthur, but I the tblevis were all republicans. They broke it down by a-suring the lUtStoritii-a that ir it were allow ed to goon it would throw the bute Into the-hands of the democrats In 1SS1 In the fall of 1SS1 1 went to the reservation res-ervation ditcroilued to carry my work through under CIcvelind. I intended to remain three months, and gave Sunday lectures to cover my design, which was to get a complete history ot the frauus. When it was discovered what I was doing the thieves bought an outfit for a paper and hired n blackguard who would have been a bonanza .for the Salt Lake TVioune to fight me. They al-o employed a Methodist priest who had been con-vi con-vi ted of stealing from a child. I remained on the reservation eleveu month. Twice I was attacked by hired roughs. Tho thieves went to Washington and had me shut out of tbo Indian office. I appealed to Cleveland. He ordered I.ainar to Investigate. A special agent was sent. Ho and the Indian agent for the State spent tbne months aud sent in a report that corroborated my exposure of the frauds, and tbe acnt was instructed toobtilnevl-leuce toobtilnevl-leuce and proteinic as fast as posI ble. Had the work been done years before when government knew of tbe wrongs and the Republican party was in its Zenith of power th ore men woul 1 havu been s-ut lu the penitentiary When I filially compelled Vsastiinr-ton to look at the caso the limit of criminal prosecution prose-cution had long pasted. Hut a dozen men wet convicted In civil suits, all Christians, and some of them worth million-, aud the frauds were thoroughly broken up. Hie remnant of the Indians are better off todiy than for mauj years, but they have lot their trop-erty trop-erty forever. I!ut I have shown you only part of my work. The real friends of the Indians ln the East were working hard to have government rrcoguizo "the mau hots'' of the Indian and give him his lands in fee. In the Wet thieves were urging thesamc thlnir, knowing that once the Indian got bis pattnt a bottle of wlils.y, a gun, a pony, or a few dollars would soon relieve him of It. rfomc of th thieves whom I bad exposed were urging it. I at oncss soundej nil alarm. I showed what had resulted from the fee simple pi in on the Isa twlla reervallon. I warned tbe friends of the Indian that thev were only preparing a way lor bis destruction, des-truction, and urged that ail alotted lands should be held iu trti't. A copy of the Dawes bill was rent to me in 1S&J for an opinluu. I un;ed that the Indians be allowed to select and that their lands be held ln trust for a generation, ntlcait, and better, if for fifty years. When the bill became n law there was a proviso creating a trusteeship for 25 years and giving lhe President power to extend it ir the Indian wasthown to be then incompetent to take care ot his property and protect him-seir. him-seir. It is my satisfaction to know that I helped to secure that provision. It Is nil tho protection over S00.00J Indians have today against the white thieves who would rob them and destroy them without hesitation If they once became the owners in fee or the Iat c aim they have ou earth. For doing this wotk I hav.-been hav.-been persecuted by those Mlchlgau thieves without ceasing. They swore in ISSo that they would ' kill that d d tills, ir It cot 5100,000." I am on deck yet and expect to remain re-main so. But it seems that thev have followed me to ealt Lake. Ciiaiu.es Elms. |