Reflections
from the Ahnishinahbæótjibway (We, the People)
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1910 letter questions
how W.E. Natives establish blood
quantum
June 10, 1910
Hon.
E. H. Long
Spe’l.
Ass’t. to Att’y. Gen’l.
Detroit,
MN
Dear Sir:
I have the honor to submit
the
following matter for your consideration:
While engaged at White
Earth, in
notifying applicants for fee simple patents to appear at your office in
Detroit, there to establish their status as to blood, I had occasion to
visit
the tent occupied by Mrs. Delia Gubins and Elizabeth LeClair, her
sister, and
while there they made the following statement, to wit,
You dont want to take us
for
Indians for we are not. This is the
first time we have ever camped out: we belong in St. Paul, and are
french and
not Indians. Our fathers name was
Benjamine La Fond; he was a black-smith, our mothers name was Margbaret
La
Fond; they both received half-breed scrip but we never claimed to have
Indian
blood until Gus Beaulieu came to us in St. Paul, and told us that he
would get
us on the White Earth rolls and get us good allotments and find buyers
for
them. That the tribal fund would soon
be divided and we would get a share; we would be fools not to take a
chance
like that to get some of the tribal money.
Then they made a complaint
that
their parents had been beaten out of their scrip; that their mother
Margaret,
sometimes known as Maria La Fond, had sold her scrip to Isaac Van
Ettan, “a man
who was married to a cousin of Gus Beaulieu,” for $40 and later their
father
had sold his and they understood that it had been placed on land in the
Iron
range, that was worth Millions of dollars.
They wanted the Government, to get the land for them as their
parents
had been swindled out of their scrip. I
advised them to report the matter to you and see what you could do; I
asked them
to do this for the reason that I did not have a witness with me when
they told
me the story and I think that it will be of interest to us if we wish
to show
how people have become enrolled on this reservation.
Yours respectfully
Thomas E. Harper
Special Agent
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