KinSource - Tale of the Week - Kick On The Squatters

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The St. Paul Daily Globe, November 21, 1889, p. 1

KICK ON THE SQUATTERS.

Mille Lacs Indians Say the Whites Are Too Rapid.

Special to the Globe.

LITTLE FALLS, Nov. 20 - Shaw-bosh-kung, the aged chief of the Mille Lacs Indians, and his squaw, Wa-we-she-go-qua, each nearly ninety years of age, are in this city to-day, accompanied by their son and several Chippewa braves, for the purpose of consulting their consul, Hon. N. Richardson, in regard to the late treaty of the United States with them. They complain that since the treaty was signed white settlers in large numbers have squatted on some of their best lands, even going so far as to erect a shanty on Pin-de-ga-ge-shic's potato patch. They want white settlers to leave until the Indians select their lands in severalty, and talk as though there might be trouble, as the white men have no business there at present. They say we are old, but not foolish, and will not be robbed of our homes. They intimate that the great father's agents are not good men and true, or they would not let the whites crowd the Indians back. They have an interpreter, John Sloan, with them.