| Show A RECORD OF INFAMY in my article the history of a crime I 1 set forth the outline and main points of the history of the isabella reservation and the fate of the indians indiana who were placed there at the merey mercy of methodist priests and other white skinned but thieves I 1 promised another article setting forth the frauds practiced upon the indians indiana I 1 will do that now to some extent but can only show you in a limited way what actually was done I 1 have sufficient clent material relating to that reservation to make a good sized book and I 1 collected it all myself and know it to be true in the same way I 1 know what I 1 am about to write here is true and you can rely upon it I 1 will show bow christian people treated the indiana ou on a reservation not far removed from civilization but in the midst of it in the heart of the state of michigan which has been boasting for years that it is one of the most enlightened advanced civilized and christian states in the union remember that the indians too were not savages not dangerous but christians christian also then too they were largely mixed with white christian blood the white christians not tonly only robbed and debauched indians they were doing the same thing to men and women who were often as white skinned as themselves remember I 1 too that th at in 1852 the state of michigan admitted to citizenship all her indians who would break up their tribal relations and in every treaty made between the michigan indians and the united states since that time this relation has been recognized and admitted by the general government ern ment these white christians were therefore not only robbing fellow christians many of who whom m were related to them by blood bu but t they were also robbing fellow citizens the isabella indians have voted ever since they entered upon the reservation and their vote has simply been another means by which scoundrels have degraded them you can easily see how the isabella reservation being in a civilized state it was nece necessary amry for the thieves to remember that there were laws and that it was necessary to move in their thieving schemes in such wise as to cover their tracks or at least to keep themselves in position to defy the law the worst thieves were those who had studied law among that class clams were two men who went to the reservation er penniless adventurers and inside of three years claimed to own over acres of the ind indian ian land these men are known all over isabella county and far beyond it they made a firm for law and real estate business when they went to the reservation what law and business meant to them I 1 will show you as I 1 proceed the indians indiana could not read few of them could speak or understand our language none of them knew the meaning of 1 deeds notes bonds it was easy to deceive and rob them thus thug a white would go to an indian buy his hie oak ak aeb pine er other timber for a trifle the indian put his mark on what was explained to him to be a timber deed the white would have that recorded as a warranty deed of the indiana indian Is land then the land would be sold to a white settler and if the indian protested his signature was wap shown show shonnon non on the deed witnessed by some halfbreed balt hali breed interpreter breter who knew the fraud he be was helping the indian would be told to go to hell I 1 have an affidavit from one of the indians setting forth the following ai git patent frum 40 acres john leaton he offer me 15 fur my oak timber bamby leaton he be ask me bring my patent to brown leaton offis I 1 bring im leaton he be take my patent look at put lim im way say not time see now come agin I 1 come tomorra brown he say come next day I 1 come an come beep come day long longtime time bamby he say go to hell bell you damn injun I 1 not got your r patent tent I 1 nestr nev get my patent an lose my land for 15 11 1 an old half blind squaw received a patent for 80 acres she told me her story through an interpreter one of the most reliable men on the reservation L went to her house with a half breed interpreter and offered her 15 for her timber she was afraid to sell knowing how her people were robbed and refused L kept raising his offer until he reached 45 the old lady was too much tempted and yielded she put her mark on a timber deed and received what L said through h his interpreter was a 45 bill he we borrowed the squaws squads patent telling her that he must have it to get his timber deed recorded the old lady never 9 aaa her patent agabo and was forced off her land by law the forty five dollar bill was wag 5 and thit was all ail she ever got for all she ow owned nod in the world chero were hundreds of such cases there were plenty of half broods breeds who were mean enough to become the tools toola of the whites ia their infamous work one interpreter named B borrows delpe I 1 B and L to many a lot jot of land he had forty forby acres acre himself he died and left the land to his two sons mere boys the men who h hid id used barrows to help them rob other men man robbed the boys of their land I 1 have material copied from the records of isabella county to sul sub every statement I 1 make I 1 la a regard to the transfer of lands I 1 have evidence against one man who has been governor of michigan another who has ha been mayor of saginaw and others who write hon 11 before their names and men who are am worth millions of dollars one man forged his bis own fathers father Is name to papers marking transactions with indians indiana because he did not dare darb let his own name appear I 1 have in my possession an old note made and executed by a saginaw man who is said to be worth millions the note is given to au an old indian and is for payable at stated times aud and is a consideration for the pine pi oe timber ou the back the indian agrees that if one wf half of the timber is off at a given time thou then the shall hall be payment for the land on the back of the note are sundry endorsements in the hawl writing of the christian 7 white millionaire in two instances lie has written 1120 20 11 0 20 O 1 they are marked by a nondescript twirl of the pen that might pass for or i that was guarding against thelah the law 1 to the indian they were madeko made to represent dollars for 40 cents the indian was charged 40 40 the timber was secretly cut and stolen before the time named on the note and the indian lost both land and timber when the old indians began to die off there arose a new scheme of robbery it was to rob the heirs the indians knew no more about ut heirs bip claims than about deeds the thieves would go off to wis counsie or canada and hire indians indiana to come to tile the the reservation aud personate heirs of dead indians and then buy their claims and record them and the real heirs would beaird bead to go 90 to hell bell why was W enot not stopped because all were guilty the lawyers the judges the sheriffs the constables constable the preachers the teachers all alike were there to make money out of the indians exactly as the lawyers and most of the officials and all the preachers have come to utah since 1850 for what money they could make out of the mormons cormons Mor mons an old indian india died leaving 80 acres of valuable land to his little daughter when she was 14 years old an ignorant indian girl knowing nothing about her rights in the property or its value B bought tier her heiro heis bip in the property for 10 she had no right to sell being beauga a minor B knew this but he also knew that if the girl diled died before she came of age and did not revoke this sale the land jaud woul be his cairl a a girl of 14 she was perfectly well but in a few ft w months she suddenly died there are those who say she was poisoned on the reservation were a very oki indian arid and squaw hey rhey r owned eighty acres of valuable lay land rhe squaw was blaud the orian man was bedfast one night two men went to lo their log jog cabin raised the old man in bed put a pen in his hand guided his hand to make a mark ou on a sheet of paper then let him biln fall hick upon his poor bed it was on a lonely road in a forest no help was near before beffie morning the indian was do id d the old woman heard no voices paw law nothing she only knew something terrible was being done and that her husband was dead soon she died A deed was recorded of that land signed by the indian but the names were of no persons known in time the land passed from oue cue to another until it came into the hanus hanos of well known thieves who had bad doubtless robbed the old indian on his deathbed death bed in june 1882 there was a curious case in the circuit court in C chancery hanc for isabella county henry strong arid and eva robinson both indians were complainants against again at peter pay mos e gay and others the others were B and L the suit was for the post assion of forty acres of land patented to evas first brat husband and held in trust for him and his heirs by the united states under the original treaty of 1865 1855 evab first husband also an indian was a union soldier and died or was killed in 1863 years afterwards for B and L took possession of the laud land as an heir odthe of the dead indian soldier eva had a child when her husband joined the ar army ny but it died the same year that he lost his life the child being bein dead claimed to be sole so ie heir on the ground that the child died before the father ather and therefore he was next of kin eva denied and claimed that the father died biret leaving his bis child sole heir and bece her balm lalm claim upon the land the principal witness for eva was an ind indian ian woman who had been the wife in earlier years of a very honorable indian she had however lio wever been turned from her bouse by her husband for bad conduct and had bad fallen low becky as ais she was called told a straight story that made a strong impression upon the court she swore that evas dead hus husbands bandIs body was brought home when the indians were on the plains picking blueberries blue berries that is in the summer she was positive in regard to that she was equally sure that evas child died the same year when the leaves were falling that is in the autumn her testimony could not be shaken then L who was counsel for the he other side undertook to break her testimony by forcing her to im peach her own character I 1 have said she had bad years before when a beautiful indian girl been married to an upright honorable man of her own people and had been turned from his home for adultery from that time he the t had gone down hill bill but still she was arid and is yet a bright woman L pressed her with questions that made her hang bang her head iu in shame aud threatened her with imprisonment if she did not answer finally he wrung from her an answer that confirmed his statements as to backys character turned to the court with a leer of atrium triumph b and sat down but becky goad goaded by the sneer turned also to the court and with tears streaming down hr dusky cheeks she pointed at L and declared the he was the cause of my ruin he was the cause of my separation from my husband he would send bond my husband off to look land and come to my house with whiskey to make me drunk and baul bau A more tragic situation was never witnessed in a michigan court the womans comans manner left no room for doubt her charge was in keeping with the character of her accuser he was overcome by the denunciation and attempted no reply and eva won take it all in all there has never been a more robbery or a more infamous degradation of a body of I 1 Ind nd blaus ianson on the th continent than was perpetrated upon the ignorant help ess esp friendless Chipp chippeway ewas uthe Isa isabella uella reservation and it was done by christians that is by church members one of them had been educated for the catholic priesthood and it la in said mid he be has boasted that for and a flask of whiskey he had staid all night with a squaw and got her patent for 40 acres of landl land one wonders what had become of the native courage of the indiana that they did not kill their oppressors as they should have done it bad oozed out in fear of hell taught them by missionary frauds in all the hundreds of cases of robbery I 1 could learn of but one indian who had bad the pluck to make the thieves toe the mark of justice he was a full blooded indian who had no faith in missionaries under cover of a timber deed his land had been stolen and sold to a white immigrant he walked into the office pi of the thieves with his gun to his shoulder and drove the men to the courthouse court house and compelled them to deed his land back to him those men not dot only robbed the indians but they robbed the unsuspecting whites who came in from canada and bought lands from them that they did not own in another article I 1 may tell you how I 1 put a stop to that work also several of these thieves finding that they were being condemned for their treatment of the indians attempted to stop talk by aiding churches chur while their victims came to their back doors and picked scraps from swill tubs tube to appease their hunger when I 1 tell you that I 1 have pub dished their infamy all over the east you need not wonder that they fought me and persecuted me or that they continue to do so go but were I 1 to meet the same state of affairs again I 1 should do as I 1 did in this case he who stops in the shadow of a crime t to count the cost of doing his bis duty will not expose it but in his failure to set he becomes a party to the crime while I 1 I 1 live I 1 ve and can use my voice and perk pen the oppressed are the brothers and sisters who shall have my heart and hand the oppressors need no help while the christian church stanus stands as the apologist for and the protector of thieves and scoundrels it shall have no burd of praise from me CHARLES eue |
