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Chippewa Halfbreed
Scrip
William Watts Folwell, in A
History of Minnesota, Appendix 9, pp. 470 - 478
As
usual in Indian treaties of the period, a gratification was provided in
the Chippewa treaty of 1854 for mixed-bloods of the bands, to secure
their desirable assistance in gaining the consent of the Indians to the
treaty, or at least to prevent their possible opposition. The
provision in this treaty was in the following clause of the second
article: "Each head of a family or single person over twenty-one years
of age at the present time of the mixed bloods, belonging to the
Chippewas of Lake Superior, shall be entitled to eighty acres of land,
to be selected by them under the direction of the President, and which
shall be secured to them by patent in the usual form." The treaty
was proclaimed on January 29, 1855. Early in that year Henry C.
Gilbert, the agent of the Lake Superior band, was instructed to report
the number of persons entitled to claim land under it. On
November 21, he reported 278 names and stated that the number could not
be "very materially increased." In a letter of February 17l 1856,
Agent Gilbert offered a suggestion that "certificates" be issued to the
persons entitled, for their convenience in locating the lands.
This suggestion met with the approval of the Indian office, but the
commissioner of the general land office filed an emphatic
objection. Patents, he held, "should issue to the rreservees
themselves, and not to asignees." The secretary of the interior
put a brief indorsement ... suggesting that "memorandums be given
Indians" with a clause forbidding "transfer, mortgage &c," and
declaring that patents should be issued to Indians only, so that no
benefit would ... to any other persons. The commissioner of
Indian Affairs ... interpreted this indorsement as authorizing what he
preferred to call "certificates" and accordingly he submitted a form
for the secretary's sanction. This was given. The form
contained a clause declaring that no certificate nor any right under it
could be sold, transferred, mortgaged, assigned, or pledged; and that a
patent would be issued directly to the person named. By the close
of the year 1856 Agent Gilbert, instructed to act with liberality
reported that he had issued certificates to substantially all the
beneficiaries, in number 312. It would naturally be supposed that
this part of the treaty was fulfilled.[6]
Eight years later there were issued two pieces
of scrip to members of the well-known Borup
family of St. Paul, who, though connected with the Chippewas of Lake
Superior, had not resided among them either at the time of the treaty
of La Pointe or thereafter. These claims had been filed on
September 3, 1857, by Henry M. Rice, and had been rejected by both the
Indian office and the department of the interior. On March 19,
1863, Rice renewed the applications before a new commissioner of Indian
affairs, of an accommodating temper, who ruled that it was a forced
construction that required residence on the ceded land. The
secretary of the interior sustained this ruling and the Borup scrip was
issued on January 29, 1864.[7]
Immediately there was a remarkable access of persons proud and happy to
be known as mixed-bloods of the Chippewa of Lake Superior. The
practice of the Indian office operated to swell the number of
applicants. On the ground that all Chippewa were related, it was
held that all were Chippewa of Lake Superior and that all half-breed
Chippewa were proper beneficiaries of the treaty. At once there
was a great industry in discovering widely scattered Chippewa
half-breeds and in making known to them their good fortune. A
"factory" was established by the United States Indian Agent at La
Pointe, Wisconsin, aided by willing or subsidized applicants, at which
over two hundred applications, some of them sheer forgeries, were
manufactured. On the basis of these applications, 199 pieces of
scrip were issued. A cooperative mill in St. Paul ground out 756
applications, of which apparently some 261 were approved. But the
search for mixed-bloods "entitled" was not confined to Wisconsin, and
Minnesota. In the spring of 1865 an enterprising notary in the
employ of the best-known trader at Pembina, after exhausting the
vicinity, traveled down the Red River as far as Fort Garry, now
Winnipeg. His diligence was rewarded with about 415 applications,
part or all of which were sent to Washington, and on them the
commissioner of Indian Affairs issued 105 pieces of scrip.
Probably not one of those whose names were signed to these applications
had any real right under the treaty.[8]
At this point it is in order to explain the remarkable activity
displayed in the search for mixed-bloods of the Chippewa of Lake
Superior, who were heads of families or persons twenty-one years old or
more in 1854. By the time of the issue of the Borup scrip in
1964, the certificates had become a desirable vehicle for the location
of pine timber lands in unsurveyed districts. A standard
procedure was soon developed. Notwithstanding the plain
declaration on the face of each certificate that it could not be sold,
transferred, mortgaged, assigned, or pledged, astute attorneys soon
devised a scheme to circumvent the benevolent safeguards of the
government. A mixed-blood having been discovered or imagined, he
was induced, for a trifling consideration paid or promised, to sign an
"application" to the Indian office for scrip. At the same time he
executed two powers of attorney in blank, one to receive and locate his
scrip, the other to sell the land when located. A single touch of
the pen is said to have sufficed for all the papers. The scrip or
certificate was then obtained from the department of the interior; and,
equipped with it and the powers of attorney, the dealer in timber lands
was free to locate according to his knowledge and judgment. He
naturally chose the finest pine timber he could find not already in
private hands. Whether such blank powers of attorney were legally
valid was a question not raised in the limited circle of persons
engaged in the business. That at least one commissioner of Indian
affairs received "a considerable portion of scrip," and that he refused
issues when a division was not accorded, is a matter of record.[9]
This
game went merrily on and in the sixteen months following the issue of
the Borup scrip 564 pieces were issued. Then came a discouraging
intermission. James Harlan became secretary of the interior under
Lincoln's second administration in 1965. On June 9 of that year
he sent back to the Indian office the application of Antoine Roy with a
statement that the treaty of La Pointe in 1854 did not "contemplate the
issuing of 'scrip,' but patents, for the land ... when selected and
described." The commissioner was directed to instruct his agents
that no more scrip would be issued to Chippewa half-breeds.[10]
This firm and just decision remained in effect for three years, one
month, and two days, during which no issues were made. It is
conceivable that some insignificant number of mixed-bloods entitled had
been balked of their right by negligence. it is certain that a
clique of operators who had acquired applications were hoping for some
turn of affairs which might enable them to recover their expenses and
add to their fortunes. Whatever influence they commanded as
brought to bear at Washington. Early in October, 1867, the junior
United States senator from Minnesota requested the secretary of the
interior to inform him as to the "proper method" by which an honest
claimant under the treaty might obtain his rights. The matter was
referred to the Indian office, which responded in a long communication
on the twenty-fifth of the same month. It contained a
recommendation that to mixed-bloods who should prove their claims,
certificates be furnished entitling them to select eighty acres of land
from any of the vacant public lands, whether surveyed or
unsurveyed. The claimant fortunate enough to obtain one of these
was authorized to present it at a local land office, to select his
land, and to receive a patent for it. The new certificate as as
convenient for the employment of blank powers of attorney as those
issued in 1864 and 1865.[11]
No time was lost in getting the new machinery into operation. A
man long resident in Minnesota, but then domiciled at Georgetown, in
the
District of Columbia, promptly laid before the Indian office 111
applications for scrip. They were examined so expeditiously that
on August 15 they were forwarded to the secretary with a recommendation
that certificates be issued. On the twenty-seventh such order was
made. On the thirty-first the full number of certificates was
issued to the attorney of the "scrippees." On the day following
the same industrious agent filed 202 applications. Action was
delayed while consideration was given to a request submitted soon after
by the same person that mixed-bloods entitled to land should be be
required to select their tracts from the areas ceded by the treaty, but
might be permitted to make their locations "upon any of the territory
acquired from their own people." Obviously the scrip earing this
generous construction would be better property for the deserving
mixed-blood or his assignee. The secretary of the interior became
convinced that it would be equitable to concede that privilege, and in
communications to the Indian office on October 28 and 2i he directed
that certificates thereafter issued should bear such privilege.
On
December 17, the man from Georgetown received 196 more pieces.
The two issues, aggregating over three hundred pieces, were Red River
applications of 1865 which remained in the hands of the operators
after the bars were put up by Secretary Harlan.[12]
Another batch of 122 applications, filed by the same attorney, did not
receive the same dispatch, however.
Under the new construction and orders, the
search for Chippewa mixed-bloods who might be entitled to claim land
under the treaty was renewed with great ardor. As the lists of
applications swelled, the authorities at Washington evidently became
apprehensive that some of them, at least, might not be
meritorious. Suspicious deepened into conviction, and on August
11, 1869, the secretary of the interior informed the general land
office that no more Chippewa half-breed scrip would be issued under the
treaty of 1854, but that parties entitled could make their selections
in person at land offices from surveyed lands. This ruling did
not dishearten the diligent searches for "half-breeds entitled."
In the three years following large numbers of applications were
accumulated and those of former years not granted were carefully
preserved. The attorneys for the holders were active and
demanding relief. The representative n Congress from the third
district of Minnesota on June 15, 1870, represented to the secretary of
the interior that the hardships of half-breeds who had to travel 250
miles to a local and office to locate their tracts, and recommended the
issue of scrip or certificates which could be located in person or by
attorney. The Indian office approved this recommendation but the
secretary did not act upon it.[13]
In the year following, under the ruling of August 11, 1969, which
permitted locations in person, a notable variation of procedure took
place. In the spring of 1870 Red River caravans, composed with
few exceptions of mixed-bloods, came down from Pembina and points below
for the usual trade. One, and perhaps another, bivouacked at St.
Cloud. The members of the party were taken in gangs to the land
office in that place, where they signed applications for patents for
lands previously selected for them by benevolent persons. They
also signed individual powers of attorney for the sale of their
selections. Each received from the friendly citizens who had made
known to him his goof fortune a sum of money ranging from fifteen to
forty dollars. The register of the land office later certified
that the applicants were mixed-bloods of the Chippewa nation, that the
witnesses were in most cases known to him to be reliable, and that he
believed the applicants to be entirely accordant with the rulings of
the department of the interior.[14]
Doubtless in the hope that the government as in previous years would
relax the rigor of its rulings and instructions on behalf of the
deserving half-breeds, the operators continued to accumulate
applications; and the Indian office was bombarded with demands for
relief. On July 20, 1870, the commissioner of Indian affairs
recommended to the secretary of the interior the appointment of a
special agent to investigate claims, to take evidence in the several
cases, and to prepare a roll of those found by him to be entitled to
land under the treaty. The commissioner further proposed the name
of a citizen of St. Paul as a competent person to perform the
service. The secretary approved the nomination and elaborate
instructions were prepared for the guidance of the special agent.
On March 11, 1871, the agent submitted a report of progress. He
had been well received by the mixed-bloods. The were almost
universally solicitous to obtain scrip free from embarrassing
restrictions. A large number of them had gone on their winter
hunts and were to be found with difficulty, if at all. He had
rejected a large number of applications, was holding others for further
investigation or instructions, and thought that four or six months more
time would be required to complete the work. Still, the agent was
able to show for his time and compensation a list of 135 claimants
whose
proofs of identity, with a single exception, he had found to be
"regular."[15]
The report was not satisfactory to Columbus Delano, the new secretary
of the interior, to whom complaints had been made of frauds practiced
and contemplated. He decided to appoint a special commission to
be composed of men, well informed on Indian affairs, whom he could
trust. At the head he put his fellow citizen of Ohio, Henry S.
Neal. The other members were the two agents of the Minnesota
Chippewa and the late special agent. On September 4, 1871, the
commission filed its report, the essential points of which may be
briefly cataloged:[16]
(1) Of the 321 certificates issued in 1855, known as the "Gilbert
scrip," 282 were unquestionably valid.
(2) The 199 pieces obtained by the agent at La
Point were based on fraudulent or forged applications.
(3) The applications collected by the St. Paul
attorneys, upon which 261 pieces had been issued, were involved in a
fraud, and as a rule the mixed-bloods had received little or nothing
for their claims.
(4) The applications on which the Pembina
trader had received 105 pieces were all fraudulent and in many cases
the half-breeds had received nothing for their signatures.
(5) Of the 310 applications for whom
"certificates of identity" were issued to the resident of Georgetown,
"probably not one ... had any claims under the treaty."
(6) The locations, 116, in number, made in
person at St. Cloud were every one fraudulent.
(7) Of the applications approved by the late
special agent, but one was found valid.
(8) There remained for investigation some
hundreds of applications, mostly accumulated after the ruling of August
11, 1868, submitted by attorneys few of whom cared to assist the
commission in its investigations. Out of 495 entries but eleven
are noted as approved.
(9) Twenty-seven applicatns appared in person
before the commission, five of whom were found entitled to land.
In the various lists of applicants the
commission found numerous departures from the provisions of the treaty
restricting the grants of land to mixed-bloods of Lake Superior who
were heads of families or single persons twenty-one yers old or
upwards. White person had pretended to be mixed-bloods, duplicate
aplications had been made by the same perosns by the use of different
middle initials, husbands and wives had been treated as being each the
head of the same family, persons who had received Sioux scrip had
applied, many considerably under age had appeared as claimants, and the
names of several who were dead at the dates of applications had been
included in the lists. The commission recommended that all
outstanding illegal scrip be cancelled, that no new certificates be
issued except by special act of Congress, that persons who had been
guilty of perjury, forgery, and embezzlement should not go unpunished,
and especially that no government officer should be allowed to enjoy
the furits of crime at the expense of his wards.
The revelations of the Neal commission
evidently suspended the issue of patents for land which ahdbeen lcoated
with Chippewa half-breed scrip. This was embarassing to persons
who had paid good money for it. As innocent purchasers they felt
themselves entitled to relief at the hands of a government which had
tolerated, if not invited, trading in this scrip. A body of
holders actuated by a common interest sought such relief. They
had the good fortune to secure the itnervention of the senior United
States senator from Minnesota, the more cheerfully rendered, perhaps,
because he had acquired an interest in some locations, and the more
effective because he was at the time the chairman of the Senate
committee on public lands. Upon his initiative, Congress on June
8, 1872, passed an act entitled, "An Act to perfect certain Land-titles
therein described." The rapidity with which the bill was
expedited to passage is noteworthy. The essentail part of the act
was that innocent persons who had acquired locations made in good faith
by claimants under the treaty of 1854 might complete their entries and
perfect their titles by paying such a price as the secretary of the
interior might deem equitable, but not less than one dollar and a
quarter per acre.[17]
On July 15, 1872, the commissioner of Indina affairs, under superior
direction, appointed the Honorable Thomas C. JPOnes of Ohio and two
others as a commission to investigate the claims which mght be made
under the act. They were instructed (1) to ascertain what persons
were entitled to the benefits of the act and (2) to advise the
secretary what would be an equitable "and proper" price. It found
thirteen individuals, firms, or corporations entitled to relief as
innocent purchasers in good faith of scrip notoriously fraudulent, and
approved 262 entries of eighty acres each, nearly all of "the best
quality of Government pine-land to be found in Minnesota." The
Jones commission also concurred with the Neal commission of the
previous year that all the so-called scrip except the Gilbert scrip and
forty-five other pieces were so tainted with actual and clearly
established fraud as to be of no value or validity. It found the
prsons whose cliams it approved to be in no way implicated in the
frauds. "Indeed, the testimony tends to show that these parties
had very little knowledge, and made no inquiry on that subject."
Those who had got up the scheme had managed it with such wonderful
prudence and caution as to conceal its fraudulent features from these
very capable men of affairs. They were, therefore, innocent
purchasers in good faith, entitled under the act of June 8, 1872, to
purchase directly from the United States the tracts designated by their
worthless certificates. According to the testimony taken the
value of the lands ranged from five to ten dollars an acre and was
increasing at a rate of twelve per cent a year. The commission,
however, advised the secretary that a prcie fo two dollars and a half
an acre would be "equitable and proper" for the resason that the
government would never get more at a public sale. At any such
sale, "a combination of bidders" would hold the price to that limit."[18]
Although the commission was constrained to recommend relief to those
innocent purchasers of fraudulent scrip, it declared that the
testitmony taken revealed "a reckless carelessness in making large
purchases, and ... on the part of many claimants, guilty participation
in an ingenious device to evade the orders of the Government, made
under the law." Every piece issued bore on its face the statement
that it was unassignable. The remarkable thing about this last
phase of the business is that no more experienced or astute dealers in
pine lands have been known in Minnesota than these "innocent
purchasers." It is no pleasure to tell this story.
Notes
6. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
2-4, 33-34-35-36-37-38 (42
Congress, 2 session, House
Executive Documents, no. 193 - serial 1513). In the
original issues of the scrip, the clause designed to protect the poor
Indians against the speculators read as follows: "It is expressly
understood and declared that any sale, transfer, mortgage, assignment,
or pledge of this certificate or any rights accruing under it, will not
be recognized as valid by the United States; and that the patent for
lands located by virtue therof shall be issued directly to the
above-named reservee, or his heirs, and shall in nowise inure to the
benefit of any other person or persons."
7. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
4, 38, 40.
Rice's argument was that, as the Indians concerned had
had no reservations and consequently no homes from 1842 to 1854,
mixed-bloods could not reside with them.
8. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
12-13-14,
55-62, 66-79, 110-133.
9. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
59-62. On March 11, 1870, William P. Dole, United States
commissioner of Indian affairs, sued Joseph P. Wilson of St. Cloud,
Minnesota, to recover the sum of $6,720 for twenty-eight pieces of
scrip sold by him to Wilson. To the complaint answer was made
that twenty-four pieces had been delivered, but that they were of no
value, because the commissioner had received them for services in
issuing like worthless certificates from parties not entitled to them,
in violation of his duty as commissioner and with the intent to
defraud. The investigating commission reported that it was "well
advised that the averments of Mr. Wilson's answer are correct and true."
10. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
5, 40.
11. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
6-7-8-9, 40-41-42-43-44-45; L.
Gordon to the author, June 8, 1904, Folwell Papers.
12. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
9, 45,
62. See also page 33 for forms of the certificates
used. One of the certificate issued on December 17, 1868, on
behalf of François Jondron, is in the Gordon Papers.
13.
Chippewa
Half-Breeds of Lake Superior, 10, 47.
14. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
14, 64,
134-143. In some of the cases the locations were sold by
the operators before the applications were obtained. 43 Congress, 1
session, Senate Executive Documents,
no 33, p. 48 (serial 1580).
15. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
11, 47-48-49-50-51-52, 155.
16. Chippewa Half-Breeds of Lake Superior,
12-13-14-15, 48.
The report occupies pages 53 to 157 of this report.
17. Statutes at Large, 17:340; 42
Congress, 2 session, Senate Journal,
564, 904, 979 (serial 1477); House
Journal, 1073 (serial 1501).
18.
42 Congress, 1 session, Senate
Executive Documents, no. 33 (serial 1580). The report of
the commission (pp. 9-19) is followed by a minority report (pp. 18-24),
the testimony taken by the commission (pp. 25-65), and a schedule of
the approved claims with the names of the "innocent holders." (pp.
69-75). |
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