Congress passes the Act of 1889
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
W.C.Hubbell was Secretary of the commission
and responsible for recording the full
minutes of the discussions . Mr. Hubbell
may at times have misunderstood, at times have mistaken the importance the
native speakers gave to their points, and may have omitted from the record
matters that the chiefs and headmen considered important. But he made a record,
and though it may be imperfect, it does tell something of the thinking of
members of the Red Lake and Pembina bands.
The agreement carries the signatures or
marks of 247 chiefs, headmen, and warriors of the Red Lake and
Pembina bands.
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.
May-dway-gwa-no-nind
82 years old when agreement was reached in 1889
A highly respected man of uncommon abilities
with permission of the Beltrami County Historical Society
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 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.
The Last Delegation from Red Lake, sent in 1909
photo courtesy the Beltrami County Historical Society
Caption under the photograph reads as
follows: Last official Red Lake Indian Delegation to Washington, D.C. 1909.
L.to R. [George Highlanding,] Everwind, John English,,
Chief Nodin, Ponemah,.Top row, Joe Mason, P.H.Beaulieu, Kingbird, Basil
Lawrence, Atty. John Gibbons of Bemidji, Alex Jourdain, Ba-bee-ge-shig,
Eh-nee-we-qua-nobe.
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; Buena Vista was
ready to grow and prosper.]
Historical Review of the Red Lake Indian
Reservation contains a chapter entitled Chronological
History of Red Lake and Vicinity. The section included in the
appended link carries the history to 1905.
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, complete the road between Bemidji and Red Lake. 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 on other reservations, 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.
Then, in 1948 and 1951, suit was again
brought, this time with the Indian Claims Commission. When the Claims
Commission expired, the federal courts took the responsibility. On July 26,
1997, the Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN) reported that five of the
thirteen claims of the Red Lake Nation had been settled for $27 million.
Seven other claims by Red Lake as well as claims by other Chippewa tribes
remain in negotiation.
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.