The earlier attitude toward the Ojibwes of Minnesota is illustrated by C.R.Ruffee in his 1875 report The Condition of the Chippewa in Minnesota.. His attitude, typical of writers of his time, is that the more the members of a tribe approached standards of the White Man's civilization, the better off they were. "Civilizing the Indians" was United States policy.

The Ojibwe upon these several reservations, with the exception of those at White Earth, live in wigwams, constructed in the primitive manner so well known, affording but poor protection from the elements, and none of the conveniences essential to a civilized life, and are clad only with the blanket and breech-clout . . . .

Ruffee's report is very sympathetic and supportive of the Ojibwe claims, but his particular admiration is for the inhabitants of White Earth:

. . .several hundred, who six years ago were as repulsive in all their habits and characteristics as any in the State, but who now live in comfortable dwellings; are clad in the habits of their civilized neighbors; own, possess, and care for personal property; successfully cultivate with their own labor large tracts, and produce by their own industry sufficient to supply themselves with most of the necessities of civilized life.

The administration by the Whites tried hard to bring "civilization" by making the Native Inhabitants farmers, a pursuit at odds with their hunting and gathering culture. The United States also provided annuities. Whatever their intention, they made the recipients more dependent upon the goods, "necessities," and equipment that money could buy.

Probably the institutions most disturbing to the old ways of living were the boarding schools, where children wore the clothing of the Whites, learned their lessons in English, and learned the religion of the white man as well. In the boarding schools, students were kept away from their families for years in order to acculturate them to white civilization. Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families 1900-1940 by Brenda J. Child (University of Nebraska Press, 1998) is a "study of the boarding school experience from the perspective of the American Indian students and their family members who lived in or lived with these institutions for many decades." It makes use of letters from both students and their families. Many children from the Red Lake Reservation were sent to the off-reservation boarding schools she discusses, especially Haskell in Lawrence Kansas and Flandreau in South Dakota.

We Choose to Remember has reminiscences of schooling on the reservation.

Erwin Mittelholtz edited in 1937 Historical Review of the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Mittelholtz has moved a good way beyond Ruffee in his attitude toward native people.. For his volume, Mittelholz had Rose Graves join him as Tribal Editor. He wanted to be fair, accurate, and supportive of the Red Lake band.

Mittelholtz, publishing in 1937, might well handle some of his topics differently if he were writing today. Also, like most recognized historians of his time, Mittelholtz looked particularly to written accounts, though he by no means confined himself to them The problem for the historian is that such sources may put an emphasis on reports from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and from missionary societies, on appointments to postmasterships and other positions, on economic reports such as the number of board feet turned out by the saw mill. Such material does not and is not intended to speak for the members of the Red Lake band. The report writers may understand the concerns of the band, but not necessarily as the members themselves feel them.

Mittelholtz showed his interest in a new kind of history by including the minutes of the seven conferences held in 1889 between the President's commissioners and the chiefs, headmen, and warriors of Red Lake and Pembina. There the modern reader can see the beliefs and convictions the tribal elders brought to their meeting.

May-dway-gwa-no-nind, the Head Chief, understood history as a continuum in which he occupied one spot, and the young men and women, who don't get into many histories, occupied another: ". . . .we make a mistake, it is for a lifetime. I ask you to be very patient." "I ask that you reserve the whole of the lake as ours and that of our grandchildren hereafter. . . . "
 

Members of the Red Lake band should certainly speak for themselves on what affects them and their history, and they are beginning to do so. Students of the Red Lake High School, Project Preserve, have published two books. One is To Walk the Red Road: Memories of the Red Lake Ojibwe People, 1989. The other is We Choose to Remember: More Memories of the Red Lake Ojibwe People, 1991. Both these books contain reminiscences of the elders and stories of the past as well as pictures that take readers back to an earlier time. Project Preserve continues with videos and other projects.

Project Preserve Members, 1993

Left to right: Justina Pemberton, Lynette Bedeau, Bridget Stately, unknown

Salena Branchard, Kelly Green, Fred Auginash

These young people are learning to speak for themselves.

There is a sixteen-page tribal newspaper published bimonthly, The Red Lake Nation, now in its eighth volume. It is devoted to news and stories of the Red Lake Indian Reservation, Tribal Council minutes, and stories on the national scene on such subjects as health and politics that would be of interest to the Red Lake Band.

The Ojibwe News, a weekly newspaper published in Bemidji, has as its focus the interests of Native Americans at Red Lake, Cass Lake, Leech Lake, and the White Earth Reservation, though it also carries news of events elsewhere.

Recently, the story of the Red Lake Reservation from the point of view of one Anishinabæójibway has been told by Wub-e-ke-niew in We Have A Right to Exist, New York, 1995. He has done a great deal of research to tell the history of the tribe and the reservation the way he thinks it should be told.

As might be expected, more and more pages on the internet are being devoted to the interests of the Ojibwe. Many of the reservations, including Red Lake, are represented.

Doubtless the story of the tribe, its accomplishments, its adversities, and its culture will be told again and again as descendants of the men who ceded or were deprived of their territory become interested and especially knowledgeable in their history. At the beginning of the century white men, usually sympathetic white men, spoke for them. Those who are on the reservation no longer want that. They feel it is they who should decide what a history of the Red Lake tribe should be.

The earliest holdings of the Red Lake and Pembina bands stretched from about Devils Lake, ND, to the holdings of the Cass Lake and Leech Lake (Pillager and Mississippi) bands. The first attempt to make inroads into the Ojibwe lands was made by Gov. Ramsey in 1851. As explained by Winchell, the Pembina band would have ceded 5,000,000 acres in the Red River valley for $230,000. This treaty was not confirmed by the U.S.Senate.

This treaty took from the bands and gave to the government the Red River of the North, the most important north-south navigation link to Canada. It also took for the United States the Red River valley, the most fertile land of the entire area. It also took and made available for homesteading the valuable prairie lands of the present western Polk and Red Lake counties and Marshall and Kittson counties, all in northwestern Minnesota.

Mays-co-co-caw-ay (Red Robed)
commonly called Moose Dung
courtesy Beltrami County Historical Society

Several events prior to 1889 combined to bring pressure on both the government and the Red Lake Reservation to explore additional cessions. In the Old Crossing Treaty of 1863, Congress authorized the cutting of a road from Leech Lake to Red Lake, and progress was made on this project. In 1873 and 1874, Congress appropriated money for a road from Red Lake to the White Earth Reservation; that road -- the Red Lake Trail --was completed in 1875. Then in 1888 the Great Northern completed its line from Crookston to Fosston, near the western edge of the Red Lake Reservation. The stage was set for easy access by settlers and lumbermen to the lands of the Red Lake band.

The allotment act of 1887 prepared the way for the act of 1889 and the policy that was to follow. By its terms, any Indian, as a parallel to the homestead law, could select (from a specified area) and receive 160 acres and citizenship in the U.S. by staying on the land for five years. Unlike the homestead law, the allotment law did not require payment of $1.25 per acre after five years to gain a perfect title.

A number of treaties were made with different bands. All except Red Lake and White Earth were required to relinquish in writing all their title and interest in all reservation lands. Treaties had to be "made and assented to in writing by two-thirds of male adults over eighteen years of age of the band or tribe" belonging to such reservations.

Early Red Lake
courtesy Beltrami County Historical Society

Red Lake was the first reservation the commissioners visited. The first day's proceedings were taken up with reading and interpreting the act of 1889. It was explained how the treaty would benefit them and their children.

On the second day, July 1, head chief May-dway-gwa-no-nind, who was not present on the first day, reported that his people had not completed their deliberations and asked for further explanation of the act.
 

On the third day, July 3, "Chairman Rice reminded the Indians that they were promised all the time they needed for deliberations but that the Commission had fixed three different times for them to meet and the Indians had failed to appear. Several speakers said they wouldn't sign anything. They complained of the fires being set on the reservation May-dway-gwa-no-nind spoke against the allotment plan. Rice tried to keep the conference on a cordial note, but said they were listing past grievances.

On the fourth day, July 4, May-dway-gwa-no-nind made the point that the members of the band wanted to own everything in common. Rice explained that allotments could not be made at this time because the reservation had not been surveyed. The commission was mainly interested in setting boundaries. There was again a question about land the lumbermen had taken over without paying anything. Another member talked of the way pine was being stolen from the reservation. The head chief told his fellows not to be too hasty in signing the agreement.

On the fifth day, July 5, the question of the boundary running south of Thief River to include Moose Dung and his group was raised by Shaw-wun-ah-cunig-ish-kung. Also he reported cuttings were being made on the reservation by a man called T.B.Walker. Bishop Marty said everything would be reported to Washington. Bishop Marty asked for all the men, including the young ones to speak. Way-Way questioned the commission's authority since they were appointed by a President who was not now in office. At the end, Bishop Marty became very stern, objecting to the insults offered. He said those that were willing to accept should come at nine o'clock and the rest should stay away.

On the sixth day, July 6, the council was the largest held to date. Several speakers expressed their respect with seeming apologies. One asked the head chief what he had to say. Details of the boundaries and also details of the cost of pine were mentioned. There were other details of roads and boundaries that showed the members of the band were going to sign. Pus-se-naus asked that no liquor be introduced on the reservation.

May-dway-gwa-no-nind, then 82, said, . . . we make a mistake, it is for a lifetime. I will ask you to be very patient. We are willing to make an arrangement, but we must be very careful and make no mistake. He spoke, as others had, against mingling their moneys with those of other tribes or bands. I ask that you reserve the whole of the lake as ours and that of our grandchildren hereafter. Rice assured the Indians that they would part with nothing nor sell nothing until an agreement on the boundaries was reached and to the satisfaction of all."

The seventh and last council was held on July 6, 1889. Rice asked those who lived a long way away to mark out the part of the reservation they wished to retain. May-dway-gwa-no-nind, still patiently bargaining, said that he would accept the commissioners' proposition if they would also accept theirs. . . .

Then, Interpreter Beaulieu said Moose Dung had forty-two families and wanted land on Thief River. [Granting this request would lead within a few years to the next diminishment of the reservation.] Other questions of roads and boundaries and the status of some groups were raised.

Rice made some suggestions about boundaries. He said a few changes in boundaries should be made, but they would be made to the satisfaction of the Indians. Rice was mistaken when he thought the changes would be satisfactory. The attempt to detach the west shore of Lower Red Lake from the reservation was objected to and defeated, but the whole of Red Lake was not retained by the tribe. Part of Upper Red Lake is still outside the reservation. Other questions about downed timber and about having an agent in their midst were raised. The commission would report to the President, but settling these matters was beyond their authority.

May-dway-gwa-no-nind was the first to sign the agreement. He was followed by the other chiefs. I-een-ge-gwon-abe, the "pagan" chief across the lake, did not sign. Two hundred and forty-seven chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Red Lake and Pembina bands signed the agreement Among them was later Chief Nodin, son of May-dway-gwa-no-nind.
 

Chief Nodin
courtesy Beltrami County Historical Society

The Red Lake Reservation was reduced.

Even considering the problems of translation and explanation, the minutes as produced by Mr. Hubbell seem rather short. Also, the insults about which Bishop Marty complained do not seem very clear.

Still, there is a discernible movement to the negotiations. The members of the band at first are opposed to the agreement. They delay, asking for more explanation and then present their complaints to the commission. On the fourth day, as May-dway-gwa-no-nind says, they will not be too hasty about signing the agreement. On the fifth day a climax in the negotiations is reached with, as Bishop Marty saw it, insults offered to the commissioners. On the sixth day, as if acting in concert, the speakers conciliate the commissioners, offering compliments without directly apologizing. May-dway-gwa-no-nind says that he will touch the pen and then makes a very moving appeal both for the Red Lake tribe to keep their land for themselves and to keep their own moneys separate from the other tribes and bands. The head chief in his remarks is addressing the men under his chieftanship as well as the commissioners. It would seem he has decided, along with the other chiefs, that there is more to be gained by cooperation than disagreement. Indeed, some of his arguments did make an impression, for they finally kept their land in common and their moneys separate.

Before the former Red Lake lands could be sold or settled, they had to be surveyed. The money from the sale of agricultural and of pine lands was to go into a trust fund for the benefit of the bands. The first survey was so inept and/or fraudulent, that a second survey was ordered. Finally in 1896 the survey was accepted and the former Red Lake lands were opened.

[Among the tracts opened was the northern half of the land that what was to be the town of Buena Vista. Jimmy Cyr had homesteaded the southern half of the tract, which was not on reservation land. On the first day the reservation lands were opened for homesteading (May 15, 1896), J.W.Speelman moved a prefabricated shack onto the shore of Lake Julia to claim what was to be the last part of the Buena Vista townsite that remained on reservation land.  The full townsite was established and Buena Vista was ready to grow and prosper.]

The Red Lake Railway, originally strictly a logging railroad, had carried logs from Nebish and other points to the shore of Red Lake at Redby. It was sold in 1905. The purchasers, renaming it with the ambitious title Minnesota, Red Lake, and Manitoba Railway and adding a passenger car, extended the rails south to Bemidji. Members of the Red Lake Nation for the first time had easy movement to and from their reservation.

The wisdom of May-dway-gwa-no-nind and his fellow chiefs and warriors is apparent today. Of the Ojibwe who took allotments, many have long since sold or lost title. But the Red Lake Nation, which holds its land in common and operates communal enterprises, still has its land and its common heritage. It stands as one of only two closed reservations on land never ceded to the United States

One more chapter is still to be written in the history of theft from and deceit of the Red Lake nation. In the 1920s and 1930s the Chippewa of Minnesota brought suit against the federal government for fraud and theft in the selling of their lands and fraud in the handling of the proceeds. These claims were rejected by the first court to hear them.

This settlement comes a century after many of the wrongs were committed and some eighty years after the first suits were filed. The Red Lake leaders who made the agreement of 1889 are gone. But, as May-dway-gwa-no-nind would have been pleased to know, some justice is being done to the generations that have followed for whom he spoke.