The education of the children is in excellent hands; the Franciscan Sisters conduct the Catholic schools. Lieutenant Mercer reports that "the boarding and day schools under the charge of the Catholic Church are efficiently managed and doing much good." It is evident that the seed of Christianity, sown with so much labor and personal privation by Father Baraga, upon the soil inhabited by the Chippewas of the littoral of the head-waters of Lake Superior, more than half a century ago, took such deep root that it yielded and continues to yield an abundant harvest of Christian souls. Congress, in 1889, appropriated $165,000 for the Chippewas of this reservation, for the promotion of civilization generally; which included the cost of the erection of houses, the purchase of agricultural implements, stock and seeds, breaking and fencing of land, for payment of expenses of delegations of Chippewa Indians to visit the White Earth Reservation (west of the Mississippi), for educational purposes, surveys, etc.

This money was an advance made by Government, for the purposes stated, from the interest fund of these Chippewa Indians." West of the Mississippi, White Earth Indian Agency consists of three reservations: White Earth, Beeker County, Minn.; Leech Lake, Cass County, Minn.; and Red Lake, Beltrami County, Minn.; having a total of nearly four and a half million acres. these reservations are:

On

White Earth, the headquarters of the agency, is 22 miles distant from Detroit City, on the line of the Northern Pacific Railroad, which is the nearest railroad point. Leech Lake is 105 miles, and Red Lake 100 miles from headquarters. The former is 45 miles northeast of Park Rapids, on the Great Northern Railroad, and the latter 60 miles from Fosston, on the line of the same railroad.

The tribes comprising this population are descended from those represented by their chiefs at the treaty of Fond du Lac, at the

head-waters of Lake Superior, negotiated by General Cass and Colonel McKenney in 1826, seventy years ago.

In his report for 1894, Robert M. Allen, United States Indian Agent, says:

"They are composed of nine distinct bands, scattered over 200 miles of territory, and some of these bands have little or no communication or relation with each other, All now wear citizen dress and live in houses of some character. When free from whiskey they are generally peaceable and not hard to manage, but aside from living in houses and wearing clothes I cannot see wherein the full-bloods have made much advancement. They are constitutionally opposed to work and refuse to do it, and it is simply a question whether the Government will furnish them with supplies or allow them and their families to half starve.

It is evident, from Agent Allen's report, that the full-blood Chippewa of 1894 has not degenerated from that high standard and that supreme disgust of labor for which his father and grandfather were distinguished sixty or more years ago. The Agent continues:

"During the long years of residence of these tribes in this locality a great many whites have settled among them and married Indian women, and their offspring now comprise a large portion of the population, and especially is this true of the White Earth Reservation. These mixed-bloods are the prosperous Indians, who do most of the work and furnish the best examples of thrift, making the good showing upon this agency in gardening, farming and stock-raising now to be seen. Here and there a full-blood can be found who is educated, trying to live right, and prospering. But this is the exception, as most all of the pure-bloods remain in idleness and show little disposition to engage in labor of any kind, all the roseate and sentimental reports to the contrary notwithstanding.”

From the further details of this report it is painfully evident that but little progress has been made in agriculture; this may be owing to the indifference of former Indian Agents, for Mr. Allen states that corn, the greatest economic factor of an Indian's household, can be raised, at least some varieties which grow quickly, but no attention has been paid to its cultivation, apparently, by his predecessors. He proposes to introduce and distribute among the Indians seed corn of the variety best adapted to the climate.

The production of corn will be followed by the raising of pork, and both will greatly conduce to the comfort of the Indian families. In such a large area of territory one would suppose game would be plenty. It was formerly, and was of great advantage to the Indians in its food and in the product of its furs; but the loud. whistle of the locomotive and the rattle of the wheels of railroad trains on the steel rails of the great lines of railroads traversing the territory, and the cutting of timber, have long since alarmed the more valuable species of wild animals and they have fled far beyond the hunter's range.

Climatic effect or some other causes have operated adversely to the natural sources of support, which in former years were available to the Chippewa women and children of the White Earth Agency. Wild rice, blueberries, cranberries and snake root were gathered in considerable quantities in former years, and added materially to the means of support.

But these are now rarely to be found. Maple sugar was formerly made in considerable quantities, but the maple forests were cut down and the timber sold. "The lakes, where rice grew so abundantly in former years, have become almost barren, and this is largely true of the cranberry marshes, so that these small industries have gone." As an evidence, both of the indifference of former Indian Agents to the Indian's welfare and of the shiftlessness of the Indian himself, it is stated there are thousands of acres of wild prairie grass on the White Earth Agency that makes the best of hay. So small a portion of this grass has been cut in former years that much of the stock of the Indians has starved during the long winters for want of food, an abundance of which might have been procured from the prolific source described.

Although the country is adapted to the raising of wheat, oats, roots and other vegetables, a mere fraction, less than 10,000 acres, of this vast area is under cultivation, but little more than an acre per capita. We are inclined to believe that, although the climate of the White Earth Agency may be severe, during the winters especially, its soil will richly repay agricultural labor, as appears from competent and reliable evidence. This agency furnishes a scandalous example of Government neglect of the Chippewa people who had been removed from their homes and colonized at this locality.

That this neglect has resulted from laziness, indifference, or cupidity, or from a combination of these vices, operating through Government Indian Agents, is but too evident from the condition of the people of this agency as described by Mr. Allen, the present Indian Agent in his report to the Indian Bureau at Washington.

The White Earth Agency offers a good example of what little progress a large colony composed exclusively of Chippewa people, will make, when given the opportunity to labor and become prosperous, when this people are permitted to be guided by the traditionary instincts of their unfortunate race.

The religious welfare of the Chippewa Catholics of the White Earth Agency, of which there are probably 4000 souls, of whom 1200 are communicants, has of late years fallen under the direction of the Bishop of Duluth.

1 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, p. 150.

The headquarters of missionary work is at White Earth Agency, where the Benedictine father, Aloysius Hermanntz, has a church, boarding school and orphan asylum; the two latter institutions are conducted by Benedictine sisters.

There are churches at Cass Lake, Leech Lake and Red Lake, the latter in charge of the Benedictine father, Thomas Boryerding. The fathers of the same order make regular visits to missionary stations established elsewhere in this extensive Chippewa Agency.

In 1875, the government granted a tract of 171 acres to the Roman Catholic Mission of White Earth. In 1889 another grant of 160 acres was made for a Catholic school, and in 1894 a grant of 80 acres for mission and school in this agency. Special grants were made in 1889 for church, presbytery and school at Red Lake.1

The Protestant Episcopal denomination directs the most active non-Catholic missionary work in the White Earth Agency; while they have 8 churches, 6 schools, 7 parsonages in the agency, and a hospital at White Earth, I white and 8 Indian missionaries, the total number of their members is given at only 300.

Over 600 acres have been granted by Government to the respective missionary establishments of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this agency.

In North Dakota, at Turtle Mountain Agency, there are about 2000 Chippewa Indians, of whom nearly 300 are full blood. This agency is located in Rolette County, near the boundary line of the Dominion of Canada; it includes 46,000 acres of land, 15,000 being tillable.

Besides the enrolled Chippewas of the agency, 60 families of mixed blood aggregating 250 souls, reside on the reservation.

It is officially reported, that this reservation is not a proper place to locate Indians or mixed bloods with the expectation of building them up to the standard which the Government expects and civilization demands. It is too small and too near towns; moreover, it is not a country where farming can be made successful.3

Year after year, crops have been to a great extent destroyed by excessive cold or heat; while, what the elements may have spared, the gophers have destroyed.

The best disposed among those seeking support by agriculture, have become discouraged by repeated total or partial failure of

1 Report of the Com. of Indian Affairs for 1894, p. 481.

* Report of Robert M. Allen, U. S. Indian Agent White Earth, in Com. Rep., 1894, who also states that the Catholics have large and substantial brick buildings for school and church purposes, page 152.

3 Report of the Com. of Indian Affairs, “E. W. Brenner's Report to Indian Agent, 1894," page 219.

their crops and have turned their attention in other directions to provide the means of support.1

The agent has this to say of the Chippewas of pure blood: "This report would be incomplete did I not call attention to the condition of our full blood Chippewa Indians-the Turtle Mountain Chippewas-287 individuals, out of the 2000 who make up the census."

They should receive the attention of the Government, but they have been overlooked.

They have gradually removed from the reservation, selling out what little improvements they had made, and two-thirds of them are now located outside its jurisdiction.

They cultivate on an average half-acre patches.'

They have gathered near the town of Dunseith, where they are exposed to many temptations; they are retrograding and have nearly reached the limit of worthlessness.

So far as the welfare and progressive improvement of the Chippewas of the Turtle Mountain Agency is considered, the operations of the Government in this direction have been a failure.

It is well known that more than twenty years ago missionary work in North and South Dakota was begun and continued by the late Bishop Marty; this venerable prelate was the apostle of the Indians colonized in these states as at present constituted.

However unfortunate the temporal condition of the Indians may have been heretofore, and as at present described, their religious interests have been well cared for by Benedictine fathers, and the education of the children by Benedictine sisters. The result is, that to-day the great majority of the Chippewas of the Turtle Mountain Agency are Catholics. North Dakota now comprises the diocese of Jamestown, with Fargo as the residence of the bishop. The Sisters of Mercy and the Gray Nuns have been associated with the Benedictine Sisters in the education of Indian children.

In the Dominion of Canada, beginning at the river Thames, which flows into Lake St. Clair, there are settled on both banks of this stream 442 Chippewas who cultivate the soil to advantage; they are solidly Protestant. Not far distant, on Walpole Island, in the river St. Clair, there are 649, 10 of whom are Catholics and 6 pagan. These Indians are all farmers, they have good

1 3800 acres were cultivated in 1894, mostly by mixed bloods; wheat, oats, barley, roots and vegetables were sown, the seed for all of which was furnished by the Gov

ernment.

2 The labor required is most probably performed by the women.

3 Seed for each yearly planting has been furnished gratuitously. In 1894 30,000 pounds of beef, 100,000 pounds of flour, 20,000 pounds of pork, 1000 pounds of rice, 2000 pounds of sugar and 200 pounds of tea were given as rations.