Why do you think the
United States was
interested in the land of
Northern Wisconsin?
In 1837, the federal government negotiated a treaty
for the acquisition of 13 million acres of land in east
central Minnesota and northern Wisconsin.
The Chippewa believed
they had retained hunting,
fishing and gathering
rights to the ceded
territory.
As compensation for the ceded land,
they receive annuity payments for a
period of 20 years.
“My Father, Listen to me. Of all the
country that we grant you we wish to
hold on to a tree where we get our
living, & to reserve the streams where
we drink the waters that give us life.”
Spoken by Ma-ghe-ga-bo on July 27, 1837
at Treaty Negotiation between Gov. Henry Dodge &
Chippewa near Ft. Snelling
Additional to the treaty journal:
“This of course if nonsense– but is
given literally as rendered by the
Interpreters, who are unfit to act in that
capacity. I presume it to mean that the
Indians wish to reserve the privilege of
hunting & fishing on the lands and
making sugar from the Maple.”
From GLIFWC website
By 1842, the government had negotiated with the
Ojibwe headmen for the acquisition of 10 million
more acres in northern Wisconsin and Upper
Michigan.
From State Museum in Springfield, IL
The Ojibwe were allowed to remain on the ceded
territory “during the pleasure of the President”.
From Minnesota Historical Society website
For several years annuity payments were given
at La Pointe on Madeline Island.
Governor Ramsey and other
officials of Minnesota
Territory saw the benefits
these annual annuities
brought to people near La
Pointe. They began to plot
ways to have the annuity site
moved to Minnesota
Territory.
How would Minnesota
Territory benefit by the
moving of the location
for the annuity
payments?
As the talk of removal
increased in the late fall
of 1848, representatives
of the Chippewa Indians
(including those near
Lake Superior) left for
Washington to try to end
the threat presented by
removal.
These tribal representatives carried this
pictograph with them. The animals represent
the different clans traveling along Lake
Superior with the lines connecting them
representing their unity of purpose linked to a
chain of wild rice lakes in the ceded territories.
By February 1850 President Taylor had issued an
executive order calling for the removal of the Ojibwe to
areas west of the Mississippi River.
MINNESOTA
“The privileges granted temporarily to the Chippewa Indians of the Mississippi, by the Fifth Article of
the Treaty made with them on the 29th of July 1837, `of hunting, fishing and gathering the wild rice,
upon the lands, the rivers and the lakes included in the territory ceded' by that treaty to the United States;
and the right granted to the Chippewa Indians of the Mississippi and Lake Superior, by the Second
Article of the treaty with them of October 4th 1842, of hunting on the territory which they ceded by that
treaty, `with the other usual privileges of occupancy until required to remove by the President of the
United States,' are hereby revoked; and all of the said Indians remaining on the lands ceded as aforesaid,
are required to remove to their unceded lands.”
Z. Taylor
Executive Office
Washington City, February 6th, 1850
By the PRESIDENT
I. Ewing
Secretary of the Interior
What do you think
Wisconsin white settlers
thought of this potential
removal?
Meanwhile back home
in Wisconsin,
coalitions of
supporters including
missionaries,
newspapers,
businessmen, and
state legislators rallied
against the removal.
With the
encouragement
of Alexander
Ramsey and his
Indian subagent
John Watrous,
the site for the
annuities was
changed from La
Pointe on
Madeline Island
to Sandy Lake,
285 canoe miles
away.
Do you think these views
made any difference?
If so, how do you think they
changed the situation?
If not, why not?
From Patty Loew’s Native People of Wisconsin
Ramsey’s plan was to have the
Indians arrive in late fall and be
trapped at Sandy Lake by
winter conditions.
The tribes were told to be at
Sandy Lake by October 25, 1850
to collect their annuities.
Minnesota Historical Society website
Knowing the risks, would
you have gone? Why or
why not?
Despite some refusing to make the trip during the
winter months, approximately 5,500 Ojibwe made
the trip.
When they arrived in Sandy Lake, they found:
•no one there to distribute supplies– Indian
Subagent Watrous was in St. Louis
•no annuities had arrived yet
•wild game was scare and fishing poor
•wild rice supplies had been wiped out by
high water
Government workers ultimately gave them
river-soaked flour and pork from tribal
annuity stocks.
The Ojibwe found that the rotten food
“was so much damaged that [they] could
not eat it.”
The wife of a missionary wrote of a family returning to
Leech Lake:
“Three days’ march from Leech Lake, the two children
were taken sick, the oldest a boy of twelve years old.
The father was obliged to carry his sick son, and the
mother the daughter, until the last night before they
reached Leech Lake, when the boy died. The next
morning they set off again, the father carrying the
corpse of his son, and the mother a sick child. About
noon the girl died, but they came on until they
reached Leech Lake, bring the dead bodies of their
children on their backs”.
Soon harsh winter conditions
set in.
Only partial annuity payments
had arrived by December 2nd,
and these consisted only on 3
days worth of food and no cash.
Recalling the events of Sandy Lake, Reverend
John H. Pitezel said,
“Frequently, seven or eight died a day.
Coffins could not be procured, and
often the body of the deceased was
wrapped up in a piece of bark and
buried slightly underground. All over
the cleared land graves were to be
seen in every direction, for miles
distant, from Sandy Lake.”
Speaking of Territorial Governor Alexander Ramsey,
Flat Mouth of the Leech Lake Ojibwe said,
“Tell him I blame him
for the children we
have lost, for the
sickness we have
suffered, and for the
hunger we have
endured. The fault
rests on his shoulders.”
From Chippewa Treaty Rights by Ronald N. Satz
Approximately, 150 died at
Sandy Lake of dysentery,
measles, and hunger
Another 250 died on the
return trip to their villages.
Survivors refused to return to Sandy Lake
for the annuity payments in 1851 because
they viewed the site as a “graveyard”.
A delegation of Chippewa chiefs
and headmen traveled to
Washington once again. This time
to protest Ramsey’s removal
efforts and the suffering at Sandy
Lake.
From Ojibwe Journeys: Treaties, Sandy Lake & the
Waabanong Run by Charlie Otto Rasmussen
Chief Buffalo of La Pointe and other Ojibwe
headmen dictated a letter to Commissioner Lea.
The chiefs requested an audience with American
leaders in Washington D.C.
Buffalo, Chief Oshoga, interpreter Benjamin
Armstrong and four other Ojibwe headed east on
April 5, 1852. They gathered signatures on a
petition as they went.
From Ojibwe Journeys: Treaties, Sandy Lake & the Waabanong Run by Charlie Otto Rasmussen
The petition proclaimed “while [Ojibwe] removal
West would in Our opinion be a great damage to
them it would in no manner benefit the white
population of the Country.”
Image from Wisconsin State Historical Society website
When they arrived, Commissioner Lea told them to return
since they hadn’t been invited.
New York Congressman George Briggs and members of
President Fillmore’s staff were impressed by the
delegation and arranged a meeting with the president.
Oshoga explained how the Ojibwe interpreted the
terms of the 1837 and 1842 Treaties– they would
never be required to leave their homelands as long
as they maintained peaceful relations with white
settlers.
Millard Fillmore agreed to
rescind the removal order
and pledged to repay
overdue and future
annuities at La Pointe.
In 1854, the Ojibwe agreed
to give up land in the
arrowhead of Minnesota in
exchange for permanent
reservations in Upper
Michigan and Wisconsin.
THE END