Shared leadership, a form of democracy is the political norm for most Indians
1850 - 1859
INDIAN HISTORY 1860 - 1869
INDIAN HISTORY Return to INDIAN 1700 - 1999 INDEX
George Simpson said if the destruction of the Indian Race is necessary
or desirable,
the withdrawal of the protection received from the Hudson
Bay Company
would be the readiest means of arriving at that end.
1850
Crazy Horse (1850-1877) is born of the Lacota clan of the Dakota.
Treaties signed this decade gave 20 Washington tribes half the States harvestable salmon and shellfish.
The Ojibwa Nation had evolved from five Totems, Clans or Dodaim in 1450 to some 21 this year.
Crane (Ujejauk) originally Businassee
Catfish (Manumaig) originally Awause
Bear (Mukwah) originally Noka
Marten (Waubishashe) originally Monsone
Wolf (Maheengun) originally Dakota (**)
Loon (Mong) originally Ahahwauk
These above noted clans represent 8/10th's of the total Ojibwa Nation.
Reindeer (Addick) originally Mousoneeg but absorbed
into the Monsone
Merman (Nebaunnaubay) originally Awause
Pike (Kenoushsy) originally Awause
Lynx (Besheu)
Eagle (Megizzee) originally Businassee
Rattlesnake (Cheshegwa)
Moose (Mous) originally Mousoneeg but absorbed into
the Monsone
Black Duck or Cormorant (Mukudashib) * originally
Ahahnauk
Goose (Nekah) * originally Ahahnauk
Sucker (Numabin) * originally Awause
Sturgeon (Numa) * originally Awause
White Fish (Udekumaig) * originally Awause
Beaver (Amik) *
Gull (Gyaushk) *
Hawk (Kakaik) *
* Very rare totems at this time, not generally known by many Lake Superior Ojibwa and are mostly located north of the lake.
(**) The water spirit or Merman Clan of the Dakota Sioux is traced to Ojibwa who intermarried into the Dakota Nation.
The Businassee (Crane) claims chieftainship over the other clans of
the Ojibwa, the Awause claimed this chieftainship through their pre-eminence
at Councils, the Ahahwauk claimed this chieftainship as a royal family
(inspired by the French). These claims find their origin in European
tradition not native tradition. The Ojibwa historically practiced
a form of shared leadership.
The hunting leadership differed from the war leadership, differed from
the treaty leadership as an example. Europeans could not understand
this democratic system and arbitrarily created chieftainships to meet their
own foolish needs. Unfortunately many of the People claimed to be
chief to satisfy various needs. Every family leader had become an
Indian Chief.
This year on orders of Alexander Ramsey a sub Indian agency of La Pointe is removed to Sandy Lake.
Loon-Foot an Ojibwa from the Fond Du Lac Band claims an ancestry back to about 1490 using 1 generation = 40 years;
1490 #1 Gijigossekot
1530 #2 Miskwandibagon
1570 #3 Mitiguakosh
1610 #4 Schawanagitik
1650 #5 Wajki
1690 #6 Wajawadajkoa
1730 #7 Matchinaijan
1770 #8 Bajasswa
1810 #9 Kadawibida
1850 #10 Loon-Foot
The chieftainship among the Red Lake and Pembina bands was in conflict. The Government wanted to recognize Wa-wan-je-guon but he was not of high influence with his band nor is he of the hereditary families of chiefs. Wa-wush-kin-ik-a (Crooked Arm) was the hereditary chief at Red Lake and was said to be much respected by his fellows. It is noteworthy that hereditary chiefs is an European tradition not an Indian tradition. The Governments forced the Indians into accepting an European form of Government to replace their democratic process of governing.
Historical rules defined Indians as both born and by adoption into that culture and had no relationship to land, creed or color. This year the Government restricted only those with a proper bloodline could occupy Indian reserve lands. This is no different than enacting a law that says only persons with an aboriginal blood line can occupy Canada. This change in law is based upon economic considerations not of what is right, equitable or just.
The Wishosk of the coast of Northern California were exterminated by the white American settlers. Those few who escaped became wanderers and lived without government support. These Algonkin speaking people might represent the ancestors of the Canadian Wishosk.
The Michigan Constitution read :Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, unless for the punishment of crime, shall be tolerated in this state." Some believe they didn't realize this constitution legalized slavery until 1963 when it was finally revoked.
The 1850's witnessed bands of California miners and vigilantes murder Indians with impunity.
1851
During the winter of 1850-51 famine visited the Ojibwa of Red Cass, Leech and Sandy Lakes as they had only received partial treaty payment last fall. Many died and a reports of cannibalism surfaced.
Various estimates of the number of buffalo vary from 75 million to 100 million and by 1900 there is less than 1,500 animals throughout the U.S.A. Of all the big game that has roamed the earth within recorded history, no species has ever equaled in numbers the animals that are known as Bison or Buffalo.
Governor Ramsey, Dr. Thomas Foster (Secretary of the Indian Commission), and Hugh Tyler, special agent and acting Commissary left St. Paul August 18 to conclude a Treaty with the Red Lake and Pembina Ojibwa. They were to purchase 5,000,000 acres of land in the Valley of the Red River of the North for $230,000. Thirty thousand of this was to be paid to the half breeds and $2,000 annually for agricultural and educational purposes. This treaty was not confirmed by the Senate at this time. The Ojibwa on the north side of Red Lake number some three hundred. The Red Lake and Pembina bands often join the Red River half-breeds on the buffalo hunt west of the Red River. The buffalo are still plentiful at this time. The Red Lake and Pillager bands claimed, by right of conquest and actual possession, a large tract of land lying west of the Red River.
California passed a law to allow settlers to keep Indians as slaves for 15 years.
July: At Traverse des Sioux the eastern Sioux signed away all their lands in Iowa and Minnesota except for a 20 mile wide reservation along the Minnesota River. The treaty was a fraud as the Sioux got almost nothing from Minnesota for their lands. Some consider this the most tragic interlude in Minnesota's history.
1852
Katimin a village of the Karok People on the banks of the Klamath River about a mile from the mouth of the Salmon River in California is burned by the white people. The Karok believed this location was the center of the earth and was a very sacred area. It was the scene of many yearly ceremonies.
1854
During August a Morman party in transit along the North Platte River, in Wyoming, lost a cow and erroneously reported, in Fort Laramie, that it is stolen by the Indians. This incident escalated and Lieutenant John J. Gratten insisted on the arrest of the innocent High Forehead. Gratten led an ambush force of thirty men with two cannon to the Brule Village. They open fired a howitzer into the village killing many women and children. Chief Conquering Bear, one of the spokesmen of the Dakota Sioux Nation is mortally wounded in the first unprovoked howitzer volley. Enraged at this barbaric attack the natives launched a counter attack in which they completely destroyed the detachment. Mahtoiowa a Brule Teton Sioux vhief led his men on to attack Fort Laramie in Wyoming where he is killed. Ltlle Thunder however continued the war.
One of the largest hunting party for pleasure is funded this year by a wealthy Irishman Sir George Gore who spent a half a million dollars on the hunt. They departed St. Louis and covered 6,000 miles over the next three years. He had 40 servants and a number of scientific companions. They traveled in great luxury bringing their own milk cows. The hunted beyond Fort Leavenworth and pushed deep into the Northwest. At Fort Laramie he engaged Jim Bridger alias Old Gabe a mountain man as a guide into Yellowstone and the mountains. They then hunted Rosebud and into the Black Hills. This party killed 2,000 buffalo, 1,600 deer and elk, 105 bears and endless prairie hens and other wild fowls. This destructive expedition caused great resentment among the People of the northern plains. They complained to the officials in Washington, but it did them little good. The Government often assigned high ranking Army officers and detachments of cavalry to assist the pleasure hunters. Army soldiers on frontier outposts often went on drunken buffalo hunting parties.
Four thousand Chippewa met at La Pointe (Wisconsin) September 30 to consider treaty. Eighty-five chiefs eventually signed the treaty. The American Government for treaty purposes recognized the Chippewa (Ojibwa) as four distinct clans.
Chippewa of Lake Superior - Kechegummewininewug (Men
of the Great Water)
Chippewa of the Mississippi - Kechesebewininewug
(Great River men)
Chippewa of the Pillager - Mukmedunwininewug (Pillagers)
Chippewa of Red Lake and Pembina - Betonukeengainubejig
(those who sit on the borders, Red Lake & Pembina bands).
The Ojibwa had finer destinations that separated the Munominikasheenhug (Rice Makers on St. Croix River), Wahsuahgunewininewug (Men of the Torches who live on the Head Waters of the Wisconsin and the Ottawa Lake men who occupy the headwaters of the Chippeway River) and Sugwaundugahwininewug (men of the Thick Fir Woods or Bois Forts (hardwoods)).
Little Thunder a chief of the Brule Sioux who was in command of the battle of Gratten near Fort Laramine, Wyoming was in fact six feet six inches tall.
Alexander Ward led 21 emigrants into the Boise Valley, Idaho and are killed by the Snake River Indians.
August: The commissioner of Indian Affairs George W. Manypenny directed agent Henry C. Gilbert of Detroit to arrange a treaty council with the Chippewa of Lake Superior.
1855
The Chippewa established reservations around their historic Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin. To the North of Bayfield a reserve called Red Cliff, east on Madeline Island and to the southeast the Ban River Reservation. Reverend Leonard H. Wheeler had a mission complex at Bad River (Wisconsin) south of Madeline Island. The Bay Mills Reserve near the historic Ojibwa town of Sault Ste Marie is also established.
Americans relentlessly seeking more and more of their territory by repeatedly cheating and defrauding them surround the Santee Dakota Sioux on the Minnesota River. A group of four young braves forced the issue by killing five settlers. Little Crow, a Santee Chief who previously argued for peace took up the cause of war. He had been refused credit with the following words; "as far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass." This became the rallying cry for all the Santee factions. In September 3,000 troops out of Fort Kearny, in Nebraska, under General William Harney swarmed over a Brule Village at Blue Water. They massacred 85 of the scattering Dakota Sioux taking 70 women and children captive.
Governor Isaac Steven of the Washington Territory attempted treaty with the Nez Perce (Chopunnish) of Oregon. Ole Joseph of the Wallowa Valley would not sign warning his people not to take presents from the whites or they will claim that you have accepted pay for your country. The Nez Perce raised horses and cattle, lived in fine lodges and took pride in maintaining friendly relationships for the past 75 years with the white people.
July 31: Detroit, in the State of Michigan, Treaty with the Ottawa and Chippewa Indians of Michigan, parties to the treaty of March 28, 1836.
August 24: George William Sharney, called the American Butcher, said; by God, I'am for battle, no peace, as he marches out of Fort Kearny, Nabraska to slaughter some Dakota Sioux.
1856
It is reported that George Simpson had written to John Ross saying if the destruction of the Indian Race is necessary or desirable, the withdrawal of the protection received from the Hudson Bay Company would be the readiest means of arriving at that end. The Indians are standing in the way of the Hudson Bay Company policy of selling land to white settlers and it is believed as the fur business declines the Natives will become a liability to the Company.
Leschi died February 19, 1857 chief of the Nisqualli and Yakima led an army of 1,000 men against Seattle, Washington. They were driven off by a warship in the harbor. Leschi was captured and hanged.
1857
The British House of Commons passed a law called "An Act for Gradual Civilization." That law on behalf of the Canadian Colonies was to encourage Indians (First Nations People) to relinquish their lands, language, culture and existing rights in exchange for full British Citizenship. It is noteworthy that future English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish would be asked to give up some of their rights for European Citizenship.
Legislation for Indian Assimilation contained criteria few Europeans could meet, the ability to read and write English or French, free of debt and of high moral character. If the savage is more civilized than the European he would receive an allotment of twenty hectare of reserve land, placed on a one year probation to give further proof of his being civilized and then to be given the franchise. R. J. Pennefather, head of the Indian Department received objections from the Indians. He replied "the Civilization Act is no grievance to you." In short shut up its not your concern. One Indian agent admitted that the objective for which the Indian Act of Assimilation is passed is not likely to be attained, for all practical purposes, it is a dead letter.
The Government came up with the ultimate integration tool, if an Indian got the vote, he was stripped of his Indian status, his culture and all associated rights and benefits.
1858
The Black Robe Francis Zavier arrived Fort Simpson in August to do battle with the predatory Anglicans, the Dene Medicine Men and the Inuit Shaman, the North's indigenous spiritual priest. The Oblate believed the children of nature, could not be civilized or Christianized until freed from a perfect net of superstitions. Dogged persuasion usually accomplished the job, but fisticuffs are used as a last resort.
Indian Portage
This painting is titled Indian Portaging Furs by Cornelious Kriegnoff.
The location is unknown. We sometimes forget that the Native people were
very actively involved in the fur trade, as Merchants, Voyagers, Explorers and
Trappers. History has not been kind to their valuable contribution in the
trade. The Indians and Metis used madumbi an Abnaki pack strap. The
leather head strap is used to carry small loads on their back, while their
shoulders supported the canoe.
Juan Nepomuceno Cortina led a Texas military force to wipe out the last band of Karankawas and by 1860 they were an extinct peoples.
The Mormons of Utah are migrating north into Idaho when attacked by the Bannock People at Fort Lemhi, Idaho. Two Mormons are killed before being drive back into Utah.
The estimated population of New Caledonia (B.C.) is 40,000 to 50,000 native Peoples.
March 13: Twenty six Dakota Chiefs were taken to Washington to meet president James Buchanan to discuss their grievances. They were held for four months before being told they had to move off more of their lands. This is tantamount to an act of war by any diplomatic standards.
1859
Peguis a Saulteaux Chief of the Indian settlement at Red River is much disturbed with the Hudson Bay Company. He proclaimed March 21, 1859 that they never sold their lands to the company or to the Earl of Selkirk and yet the Company marked out and sold lands without our permission, and without our receiving payment for same. I have asked the Company agent for payment and I asked Mr. McTavish last spring but still I get nothing. We have had enough of all Fur Companies. August 1, reports reached Red River that the Dakota Sioux had started on the warpath to avenge the recent massacre of their brethren at St. Joseph. The Dakota Sioux threatened to swarm into Chippewa Country (Red River) and claimed support from the Chippewa, Cree and Assiniboine as already being united. The Dakota Sioux are reported to have attacked a party of seventeen wagons on their way from Iowa to Oregon. It is reported they killed all but two men who escaped. Two women however are adopted into the tribe and one is eventually returned to her people. One dog face blue coat wrote I would feel the same as John Indian does if a pack of Chippewa had scourged down on Boston common and then told me to get off the grass.
The Stony People told Doctor Hector of the Pallisar expedition that the buffalo could not be depended on as before.
H.L. Hall a cattle supervisor for the Round Valley Reservation in California took a vigilante group of men on a hunt that killed 240 Yuki in revenge for the alleged killing of a stallion. He was never brought to justice,
July 28: Witnessed the sale of some lands in the Lake Superior Region as witnessed by R.J. Pennefather, George Ironside, Robert Law Ogilvy, F. Assikinack, interpreter and for the Ojibwa Joseph Nabahnagoojing of Sault Ste Marie and Gourlais Bay, Edward Nabahnagoojing, Mekahdokwahnahya, Mazhukeynosh of Batchewan, Louison Nabahwagoojing, Wahbeghukwa, Sauswe Nabahagoojing, Ahpauckwaush, Robert Waubooge, Elexis Biron, Pierre Lesage, Hanaush.
INDIAN HISTORY Return to INDIAN 1700 - 1999 INDEX