ALLOTMENT TIMBER.

If allotments are yet to be made upon the Minnesota National Forest Reserve, the timber on such allotments should be cut and disposed of for the benefit of the general fund, and not sold and credited to the allottee. There will be ample agricultural land upon the reserves to meet all requirements of those who may be added to the allotment rolls, and there would be no justification for allowing timber allotments to be taken by a favored few.

THE $5,000 ANNUAL APPROPRIATION.

The Red Lake Indians believe that they are united with a very large majority of the Minnesota Chippewa Indians in objecting to the $5,000 annual appropriation sought by the representatives of the general council for their expenses.

THE RED LAKE TITLE.

The Red Lake Band own their diminished reservation free from valid claim by any other Indian tribe or band, in discussing which subject reference is made to plates 33 and 34 of Royce's cessions, the numbers thereon indicating the tracts referred to. The pretended claim recently asserted at hearings before this honorable committee by the representative of the body denominating itself "The General Council of Minnesota Chippewas," clearly ignores the following facts:

The Indian title to all of northern Minnesota prior to July 29, 1837, was in Chippewa Indians.

On July 29, 1837, the Chippewa Nation ceded to the United States tract No. 242, Royce's cessions.

On August 21, 1847, the Pillager Band of Chippewa ceded to the United States tract No. 269, Royce's cessions.

On September 30, 1854, the Chippewa of Lake Superior and the Mississippi ceded tɔ the United States tract No. 332, Royce's cessions, out of which tract there was reserved for two of the Lake Superior bands (the Fond du Lac and the Grand Portage) tracts Nos. 338 and 339, respectively.

On February 22, 1855, the Chippewa of Mississippi, of which there were six distinct bands, ceded to the United States tract No. 357, Royce's cessions, out of which there was set apart a separate reservation for each of the six bands, the same being Nos. 453, 454, 455, 456, and 457. By the same treaty three tracts within the boundaries of the cession were reserved for the Pillager and Lake Winnibigoshish Bands.

NOTE. In this treaty the Chippewa of the Mississippi also cede "All interest they may have in Minnesota or elsewhere.

On October 2, 1863, the Red Lake and Pembina Bands of Chippewas ceded to the United States the tract No. 445, Royce's cessions, and retained tract No. 446 for their own reservation.

At this point attention is called to the following facts:

1. Up to this time the Red Lake Band had not participated in any Chippewa cessions of land to the United States, nor had they received any benefit from the United States or the other bands of Chippewas in the State.

2. None of the other bands of Chippewas joined with the Red Lake and Pembina Bands in the cession No. 445, and no interest in the reservation of No. 446 was assigned to any of the other bands.

3. Until the act of January 14, 1889, tɔok effect, no other cession of land was made by the Red Lake Band to anyone, and no further reservation was made for the band; so that tract No. 446 remained the home and the sole and exclusive property of the Red Lake Band from 1863 down to 1889.

Meanwhile, on May 7, 1864, the Chippewa of the Mississippi, joining in a treaty with the Pillager and Lake Winnibigoshish Bands, ceded to the United States the six reservations set apart for them by the treaty of 1855, and in lieu thereof received tract No. 507, Royce's cessions.

On April 7, 1866, the Bois Fort Chippewas, one of the Lake Superior bands, ceded to the United States tract No. 482, it being then the only remaining unceded and unreserved land in the northern half of Minnesota. Under the same treaty there was set apart for the Boise Fort Band as reservations the two tracts No. 483 and No. 484. On March 19, 1867, the Chippewa of the Mississippi ceded to the United States the two tracts marked 507 on Royce's cessions, and received in lieu thereof reservations No. 508 and No. 509, Boyce's cessions.

Thereafter, and until 1889, there were only minor changes in the status of the reservation holdings of the several other bands of Chippewas, and none in the holdings of Red Lake Band.

On March 3, 1873, a township of land, tract 542, was purchased from the Mississippi Bands out of the White Earth Reservation (tract 509); on October 29, 1873, by Executive order, there was set apart as an addition to the Lake Winnibigoshish Reservation, Tract No. 549: on November 4, 1873, by Executive order, there was set apart as an addition to the Leech Lake Reservation tract No. 550; on May 26, 1874, by Executive order, there was set apart as an addition to Leech Lake Reservation tract No. 567; on March 18, 1879, by Executive order, there was set apart an addition to the White Earth Reservation tract No. 610 (being in two separate parts), which was by a later Executive order, July 13, 1883, restored to the public domain; on December 20, 1881, by Executive order, there was set apart a very small additional reserve for the Bois Fort Band, tract No. 629; on June 30, 1883, by Executive order, there was formerly set apart for the Boise Fort Band tract No. 484, which had been reserved under the treaty of April 7, 1866.

By way of preface to the consideration of the act of January 14, 1889, it may be said of northern Minnesota in those days that "there were giants in the land.' The latter required for their growth and develop ment vast quantities of pine timber for daily consumption.

The most valuable and expensive uncut pine timber in 1889 lay within the Chippewa reservations. There was a Federal statute which made it very inconvenient to remove such timber from the forest to the mills without express consent from the United States and the Indians. However, such removal was accomplished to a considerable extent. Especially was this true in the region of the Red Lake Reservation; and the Red Lake Indians were aware of that fact.

Accordingly, for several years prior to the act of January 14, 1889, there had been pronounced activity in efforts to secure such legislation by Congress as would make the Red Lake pine timber more easily available for the giant mills. The Red Lake Band were Indians in fact as well as in name. To them the value of their resevation was actual, and when negotiations began for the acquisition of their pine they foresaw the dange of impending losses; the resistance they would offer to interference with their possession and ownership was patent to those who hoped to see their lands ceded and thrown upon to white settlers and their timber cut and sent to the mills.

On January 14, 1889, the act "An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota" was passed. By the terms of the act the cession and relinquishment of Chippewa Indian lands therein provided for became valid and binding upon the Indians of the several reservations, if made and assented to in writing by twothirds of the male adults of 18 years of age of the band or tribe of Indians occupying such reservations, except as to the Red Lake Reservation; as to the latter, it was not necessary to obtain the assent of any part of the Red Lake Band, because the act provided in effect that the Red Lake Reservation might be ceded by the assent of the other bands or tribes of Minnesota Chippewas, in the event the Red Lake Band did not give their assent, the extract provision being: "And as to the Red Lake Reservation, the cession and relinquishment shall be deemed sufficient, if made and assented to in like manner by two-thirds of the male adults of all the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota."

The commission appointed to negotiate for the cession of the lands on the several reservations appealed to the Red Lake Band first. Councils were held with the Red Lake Band daily from June 29 to July 6, 1889. There is a report of these councils, so far as the same was made by the commission, published on pages 67 to 87, inclusive, of House Executive Document 247, Fifty-first Congress, first session. This document is available, and will doubtless be carefully read and considered by the committee in arriving at its conclusion with reference to the rights of the Red Lake Band of Indians in and to their present diminished reservation.

Comment upon the manner and methods employed by the commissioners in dealing with the Red Lake Band, is superfluous to anyone who reads the text of the minutes of the seven councils reported. The religious zeal with which the welfare and interest of the Indians was kept in mind throughout, the clear perception that the Indians showed of the real purpose of the negotiations, the efforts made by the mature and responsible members of the Red Lake Band to oppose and withstand the disregard of encroachment upon their rights, the tenacity with which they held on, as long as their endurance would allow, to at least the cardinal principles of self-protection on the major points involved, and the final inducements that were offered by the commissioners to overcome the opposition of the Red Lake Band, furnish food for thought, at a time when legislation is being proposed to "wind up the affairs of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota."

In 1837, when the first Chippewa cession in the State of Minnesota was made to the United States, the Red Lake Band occupied the very land that is now their diminished

reservation, and have continuously occupied it ever since, independently and exclusively of the three Lake Superior Bands (Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, and BoiFort), the Pillager Bands (Otter Tail, Leech Lake, Cass Lake, and Lake Winnibigosh, ish) and the six Mississippi Bands (Gull Lake, Mille Lac, Rabbit Lake, Sandy Lakes Rice Lake, and Pokagomin-or white Oak Point).

Prior to October 2, 1863, five vast cessions of and lying within the State of Minnesota were made by bands of Chippewa-the Pillager Bands, the Chippewa of Lake Superior and the Mississippi, and the Chippewa of the Mississippi, but in none of these did the Red Lake Band participate.

After October 2, 1863, three important cessions were made by the Chippewa of the Mississippi, the Pillagers, and the Bois Fort Bands, but in none of these did the Red Lake Band participate.

Between the date of the last treaty with the Mississippi Bands, March 19, 1867, and the act of January 14, 1889, there were numerous additions made by Executive order to the reservations of the Mississippi, and of the Pillager Bands, in none of which did the Red Lake Band participate.

In 1872 there was purchased from the Mississippi Bands residing on the White Earth Reservation a home for the Otter Tail Pillagers on that reservation; in 1873 a like purchase was made on the same reservation for the Pembina Band. The Red Lake Band participated in none of the proceeds of these sales.

The northern boundary of the Red Lake possessions in 1863 was Canada, the western boundary was a well-defined line far west of Minnesota.

The eastern boundary and a part of the southern boundary of the cession made in 1863 were the same lines used by the Mississippi Bands in the description of their northern and western boundary, eight years before, in their cession under the treaty

of 1855.

So far as we can learn, no part of the annuities provided for the Mississippi Bands under the treaty of 1855 was ever claimed by the Red Lake Band; nor was any part of the annuities set apart for the Red Lake Band under the treaty of 1863 ever claimed by the Mississippi Bands.

So matters stood when the act of January 14, 1889, was submitted, translated, and interpreted to the Red Lake Band by the commissioners on the part of the United States sent to negotiate an agreement with the band, and when the band signed the agreement, under positive express promise that the diminished reservation then being set apart for them should thereafter belong exclusively to the Red Lake Indians.

It seems remarkable that during the 30 years since this agreement was made, in which time the Red Lake Band has, pursuant to legislation by Congress, been selling and disposing of much of its land and timl er within the diminished reservation, no claim was suggested, until comparatively recently, by anyone that the Red Lake Band's ownership was not exclusive, and then that the claim should be put forth by those members of the Mississippi Bands in control of the "general council" organizations who have already received so largely irom the general fund.

THE JURISDICTIONAL BILL.

As the Red Lake Band desire to submit an original and independent jurisdictional bill, and will offer such a measure as soon as the Red Lake Council have had opportunity to consider and agree upon it, the representative of the band on this point will advance this one suggestion, namely, that the Red Lake Indians are strongly in favor of legislation that will give the Court of Claims full jurisdiction to determine the rights, legal and equitable, of one and all of the bands of Minnesota Chippewas; but asks that such legislation leave each band free and independent to press its own claim, whether they be against the United States, the State of Minnesota, or against one or more of the other bands of Chippewas in the State; and that the legislation be so framed as to imply or impose no prejudice against any of the parties to the suits that may be instituted thereunder.

Respectfully submitted.

PETER GRAVES,

Delegate of the Red Lake Band.

DAN'L B. HENDERSON, Attorney for the Red Lake Band.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, Mr. Ballinger, in closing the argument for your side, there is three-quarters of an hour left and I think it only fair that you should at least concede a little of that time to Mr. Meritt.

Mr. BALLINGER. Mr. Chairman, I am subject entirely to the desires of the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. I think if you have 30 minutes, we ought to give the commissioner 15 minutes.

Mr. BALLINGER. Mr. Chairman, we have had a morning and a half; Mr. Meritt took more time than we took.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, you took some of his time, too, you know. Mr. BALLINGER. And then the others have followed. I leave the matter entirely with the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. I think it would be perfectly fair, and I think the rest of the committee would agree with me that if he has 30 minutes, Mr. Meritt, and you have 15 minutes to close, don't you think that sufficient?

Mr. RHODES. Yes; I think so.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, if that is understood, he can go ahead for 30 minutes and we will try and let him have his own way.

Mr. BALLINGER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, in the inception of this hearing the general council through me as its spokesman requested these gentlemen who have appeared before you to-during the course of their remarks before this committeepoint out specifically and definitely any injurious provisions contained in this legislation. Up to this time, I have been able to ascertain but two objections, namely, first that the legislation deals with the Red Lake Reservation and they want the Red Lake Reservation let alone.

Second, some of them object, as they say, to the provisions of this legislation on the alleged ground that it will divest the department of the control of the Chippewa estate and put it in the hands of the general council. Now, Mr. Chairman, there is not a line in any bill that has been presented to this committee that divests the department of its jurisdiction or that confers that jurisdiction upon the general council. Let that be clearly and distinctly understood. The legislation does give the general council a minority representation, one out of three on some commissions to be appointed. The department has two-thirds of the membership of each commission so that the general council's representation will be wholly in the minority.

Now, Mr. Chairman, I want to come to this Red Lake situation squarely. I regret that the opposition has not met the issue squarely and meet a direct proposition with direct answer. In my opening remarks I laid down a definite proposition with reference to the Red Lake title, and I desire now in one or two minutes to restate that, and I shall pause at the proper time to see whether or not any man in this room controverts it, and if so, I will ask him to produce the evidence upon which he bases his contention. Under the treaty of 1854 the Chippewa Tribe divided. Those who went west were known as the Chippewas of the Mississippi. The cession of the western lands was to the Chippewas of the Mississippi. I read now, so that there can be no question about that, the cession provision of the first article:

The Chippewas of the Mississippi hereby assent and agree to the foregoing section and consent that the whole amount of the consideration money for the country ceded above shall be paid to the Chippewas of Lake Superior, and in consideration thereof,

the Chippewas of Lake Superior hereby relinquish to the Chippewas of the Mississippi all their interest in the claim to the lands heretofore owned by them in common lying west of the above boundary line.

Now that put the title in the Chippewas of the Mississippi to all the lands in the then Territory of Minnesota and that title included the title to the lands on the present Red Lake Reservation.

I pause now, Mr. Chairman, and I inquire of Mr. Meritt, I inquire of Mr. McDonald, or of anyone else in this room to cite us to a provision of a treaty under which the Chippewas of the Mississippi ever ceded or relinquished the lands within the boundaries of the present Red Lake Reservation, except by the agreements of 1889?

Mr. MERITT. We will answer that statement at the proper time, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. McDONALD. Because of the fact that I will not be here later in the day, I desire to state that it is our contention that the territory involved in the Pembina treaty so called, and the territory involved in the Red Lake Reservation, the original reservation belonged to the band of Red Lake Indians. The Pembina Indians, and those bands were never considered by anybody as members of the Mississippi Chippewas, and they are not included in the treaty referred to by counsel. We also contend that the Red Lake Reservation was not a reservation; it was not reserved by the Government for the Chippewas; it was Indian territory and was the remnant of Indian territory, and is not created by any treaty or by any act of Congress. It was in the territory, and the diminished reservation is still Indian territory belonging to all Red Lake Indians.

Mr. BALLINGER. Every acre of the Red Lake Reservation was embraced in the cession under the treaty of 1854 to the Chippewas of the Mississippi. Now, Mr. Chairman, when Mr. McDonald read to you the treaty of 1855, 10 Statutes, 1165, he read to you from the first section and I am going to read to the point where he read and then stop there; and then I will read the balance to you. He read:

The Mississippi, Pillager, and Lake Winnibigoshish Bands of the Chippewa Indians hereby cede, sell, and convey to the United States all their rights, title, and interest in and to the lands, now owned and claimed by them in the Territory of Minnesota. That is where he stopped. That would take all the lands within the State of Minnesota, but what follows:

and included in the following boundary.

Now, what was that cession? There it is, gentlemen, delineated in light blue [indicating on map]. Here is the territory that was not ceded, and the territory not ceded by the treaty of 1855 embraces the diminished Red Lake Reservation, the title to which was reserved in the Chippewas of the Mississippi, and they never relinquished their title to that. So it was when they came to deal with the Red Lake Band in 1889 they did not deal with it as a band; the Indians residing on the Red Lake Reservation were not even legally known as the Red Lake Band, but the Indians living there were made up from all the original Mississippi Chippewas, and the only reason that they were dealt with up there on the Red Lake Reservation separately was because they had settled there and they were living there. The agreement and I read now from the official document-recites these facts: "We, the undersigned, being male adult Indians over 18 years of age, of the tribes or bands of Chippewa Indians occupying and