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COPE: MENOMINEE DIARY
last few years, but very few of them made any attempts to draw their sustenance from the soil. Now 104 families derive their support mainly from agriculture. Of these, 57 live in good substantial log houses of their own con¬ struction. They have under cultivation 200 acres of land, well cleared and fenced. They are reported to have raised, the past season, 6000 bushels of corn, 500 bushels of potatoes, 125 bushels of oats; collected 1000 bushels of rice and made 30,000 lbs of sugar. When it is considered, that this infant settlement was commenced five years ago, by wild Indians, with no resources but their hands, and but slight aid from the Government, it may be adduced as evidence of a fixed purpose, on their part, to make full proof of the advantages of farming over the chase for support.
"Their example is having its influence on other portions of the tribe. The last season, Oshkehennanew joined the farming band. He is regarded as an important accession from the pagan ranks. Besides this brother of the Head Chief, a very influential chief has also lately joined the farming band.'""
Two schools are reported to be in prosper¬ ous condition, in which 48 children—24 of each sex—are instructed in English. The pu¬ pils attend pretty regularly, though some live at a considerable distance from the school- houses; the settlement being scattered along the lake shore for eight miles.
How cruel, after exciting the desire for im¬ provement and imparting a foretaste of the superior comfort and happiness of a settled life, just when they had fairly engaged in the mighty effort to discard deeply-rooted and time-honoured usages and assume habits of living heretofore strange and odious, thus to obscure the light that was dawning upon them, and plunge this people again into the darkness of barbarism. . . .
"TV URING the absence of the Commissioner ^-^ many rumours were set afloat of schemes concocting to upset the awards agreed upon by the chiefs. Their publication in the Green
^- Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 30 Congress, 2 session. House Executive Doc¬ ument no. 1, pt. 1, pp. 566-568. The reporting sub- agent was Albert G. Ellis.
Bay Advocate had given the discontented in¬ formation upon which to act. Oh, that mine enemy would write a book, then I could pen him in a corner! They espied weak points, as they thought, which the Commissioner would not be able to maintain. But happily he had proceeded by the letter of his instruc¬ tions and his position was not to be disturbed. But in addition to this defence he was forti¬ fied by the testimony of good, competent, and disinterested men.
One who had held a judicial station called at the Fort and voluntarily declared that "It was the most satisfactory apportionment that any Commissioner to that country had ever made; and though not without defect, he thought any attempt at amendment would be unsuccessful, and in all probability, result in something less satisfactory". . . .
Many bugbears were conjured up to scare the Commissioner withal when he should reappear at the Bay. Some of the Mixed- Menominees, used to the lion's share of Indian plunder, got around the Interpreter [Jean Baptiste Jacobs, Jr.] and raised such a clatter about his ears because he had not got the chiefs by the nose and led them in a track more to their liking that he grew nervous, not knowing what retaliation they might visit upon him. To re-establish himself in their good graces he too came to the Fort to protest, gently, against that which he had countenanced before. Being asked why he did not make his objections before the Commissioner in coun¬ cil, he excused himself on the ground that Lamotte absolutely controlled the council and all hands were afraid of him.
The Indian agent likewise had his complaint to make, not of the intentions but of the con¬ clusions of the Commissioner. He was one of those who wanted the council to be open. In consequence of the method pursued, he al¬ leged, "Numbers of the mixed blood from a distance, and orphans who had no-one to rep¬ resent them, had been entirely overlooked."
The Friend replied to these and other ob¬ jectors that general allegations verbally made could not claim the serious attention of the Commissioner; that if certain parties thought themselves aggrieved they should state their grievances, in writing; that if they believed persons had been wrongfully enrolled they
219
Object Description
| Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 50, number 3, spring, 1967 |
| Article Title | Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 50, number 3, spring, 1967 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | State Historical Society of Wisconsin |
| Series | Wisconsin Magazine of History ; v. 50, no. 3 |
| Format-Digital | xml |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin). Image on p. 250 courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol50no030000 |
| Description | This issue includes articles on Theobald Otjen and the establishment of the Great Lakes naval training station in Milwaukee and the relationship of Progressivism to nativism in the career of politician Edward Ross. |
| Volume | 050 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Year | 1966-1967 |
Description
| Title | 219 |
| Page Number | 219 |
| Article Title | A mission to the Menominee: Alfred Cope's Green Bay diary (part iv) |
| Author | Cope, Alfred, 1806-1875 |
| Page type | Article |
| Format-Digital | jpeg |
| Publisher-Electronic | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| Rights | © Copyright 2007 by the Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, Wisconsin) |
| Publication Date-Electronic | 2007 |
| ISSN | 1943-7366 |
| Identifier-Digital | vol50no030027 |
| Volume | 050 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Year | 1966-1967 |
| Full Text | COPE: MENOMINEE DIARY last few years, but very few of them made any attempts to draw their sustenance from the soil. Now 104 families derive their support mainly from agriculture. Of these, 57 live in good substantial log houses of their own con¬ struction. They have under cultivation 200 acres of land, well cleared and fenced. They are reported to have raised, the past season, 6000 bushels of corn, 500 bushels of potatoes, 125 bushels of oats; collected 1000 bushels of rice and made 30,000 lbs of sugar. When it is considered, that this infant settlement was commenced five years ago, by wild Indians, with no resources but their hands, and but slight aid from the Government, it may be adduced as evidence of a fixed purpose, on their part, to make full proof of the advantages of farming over the chase for support. "Their example is having its influence on other portions of the tribe. The last season, Oshkehennanew joined the farming band. He is regarded as an important accession from the pagan ranks. Besides this brother of the Head Chief, a very influential chief has also lately joined the farming band.'"" Two schools are reported to be in prosper¬ ous condition, in which 48 children—24 of each sex—are instructed in English. The pu¬ pils attend pretty regularly, though some live at a considerable distance from the school- houses; the settlement being scattered along the lake shore for eight miles. How cruel, after exciting the desire for im¬ provement and imparting a foretaste of the superior comfort and happiness of a settled life, just when they had fairly engaged in the mighty effort to discard deeply-rooted and time-honoured usages and assume habits of living heretofore strange and odious, thus to obscure the light that was dawning upon them, and plunge this people again into the darkness of barbarism. . . . "TV URING the absence of the Commissioner ^-^ many rumours were set afloat of schemes concocting to upset the awards agreed upon by the chiefs. Their publication in the Green ^- Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 30 Congress, 2 session. House Executive Doc¬ ument no. 1, pt. 1, pp. 566-568. The reporting sub- agent was Albert G. Ellis. Bay Advocate had given the discontented in¬ formation upon which to act. Oh, that mine enemy would write a book, then I could pen him in a corner! They espied weak points, as they thought, which the Commissioner would not be able to maintain. But happily he had proceeded by the letter of his instruc¬ tions and his position was not to be disturbed. But in addition to this defence he was forti¬ fied by the testimony of good, competent, and disinterested men. One who had held a judicial station called at the Fort and voluntarily declared that "It was the most satisfactory apportionment that any Commissioner to that country had ever made; and though not without defect, he thought any attempt at amendment would be unsuccessful, and in all probability, result in something less satisfactory". . . . Many bugbears were conjured up to scare the Commissioner withal when he should reappear at the Bay. Some of the Mixed- Menominees, used to the lion's share of Indian plunder, got around the Interpreter [Jean Baptiste Jacobs, Jr.] and raised such a clatter about his ears because he had not got the chiefs by the nose and led them in a track more to their liking that he grew nervous, not knowing what retaliation they might visit upon him. To re-establish himself in their good graces he too came to the Fort to protest, gently, against that which he had countenanced before. Being asked why he did not make his objections before the Commissioner in coun¬ cil, he excused himself on the ground that Lamotte absolutely controlled the council and all hands were afraid of him. The Indian agent likewise had his complaint to make, not of the intentions but of the con¬ clusions of the Commissioner. He was one of those who wanted the council to be open. In consequence of the method pursued, he al¬ leged, "Numbers of the mixed blood from a distance, and orphans who had no-one to rep¬ resent them, had been entirely overlooked." The Friend replied to these and other ob¬ jectors that general allegations verbally made could not claim the serious attention of the Commissioner; that if certain parties thought themselves aggrieved they should state their grievances, in writing; that if they believed persons had been wrongfully enrolled they 219 |