Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 19, 2006 15:38:25 GMT -5
Key events in tribe's troubled history
Larry Oakes, Staff Writer, Star Tribune
Last update: February 21, 2005 – 11:00 PM
www.startribune.com/103/story/58970.html
Key events in tribe's troubled history
OpEx: Perspectives on a disturbing series
Kids in crisis find a haven in one home in the woods
Beacons of hope
Pride and humor color this teacher's lessons
Less than 7 percent of the land originally reserved for the Leech
Lake Ojibwe remains in Indian hands. No other tribe in Minnesota
holds a smaller percentage of its original land.
As white settlement of Minnesota spread, the reservation's forests
and lakes proved too valuable to resist. Only recently has the trend
begun to reverse.
Many Leech Lake Indians see a strong link between this 150-year
history of loss and the high rates of addiction, violence and broken
families found on the reservation today.
1855
The Ojibwe of the Leech Lake region sign the first treaty giving a
large portion of north-central Minnesota to the United States,
retaining a 670,000-acre reservation for themselves.
1881
In part to provide steady water power for industry downriver in
Minneapolis, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins building dams at
the outlets of Winnibigoshish, Cass and Leech lakes, raising water
levels 7 feet and destroying Ojibwe burial grounds, shoreline homes
and beds of rice, their principal food.
1887
Congress passes the Dawes Act, which, combined with the Nelson Act
two years later, allots some reservation land to individual Indians
and allows other parcels to be sold or granted to timber companies,
railroads and settlers. Most of the Indians lose their allotments
through tax forfeitures, sales and fraud.
1896
The town of Walker is founded on the edge of the reservation, its
name honoring Thomas Barlow Walker, a white timber baron who later
endows the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis.
1898
Indian anger over aggressive logging and loss of land boils over on
Leech Lake's Sugar Point. Seven federal soldiers die in the ensuing
exchange of gunfire, which lasts three days and goes down in history
as the final battle between American Indians and the U.S. military.
Relieved to have avoided a major Indian uprising, the government
pardons the Ojibwe fighters.
1899
James J. Hill gets U.S. government permission to run his Great
Northern Railroad through the reservation, and two others follow.
Cass Lake is incorporated next to the tracks. Controlled by white
settlers, the town soon has one of the largest railyards in northern
Minnesota.
The town, lake and county are named for Gen. Lewis Cass, an explorer
and territorial governor who, as a soldier and later as U.S.
secretary of war, fought wars against Indians.
1908
Concern over runaway logging prompts the U.S. government to create
the first national forest east of the Mississippi, now called the
Chippewa National Forest. The 1.6 million-acre forest engulfs and
surrounds the reservation, taking more than 40 percent of its land
for $1.25 an acre, plus the value of the remaining timber.
1912
A white family opens the first fishing resort on Cass Lake, starting
what eventually grows into a second major industry on the
reservation: tourism. But, as with the timber industry that came
first, non-Indians reap the majority of profits.
1925
The J. Neils Lumber Co. of Sauk Rapids closes its Cass Lake sawmill
as the supply of available timber dwindles and the great logging boom
subsides.
1933
The U.S. Government Land Office in Cass Lake closes, ending a
homesteading boom that flooded the reservation with white settlers.
To this day, more than half the reservation's residents are white.
1937
The Leech Lake Ojibwe adopt a constitution.
1951
An oil pipeline is laid across the reservation.
1959
U.S. Hwy. 2 and state Hwy. 371 are rerouted around the town of Cass
Lake, another factor in the slow decline of its core business
district.
1965
The federal government's new Community Action Program enables the
reservation government to build Tract 33, a low-income housing
development on the north edge of Cass Lake.
1972
The tribe settles a lawsuit to become the first Indian band in the
state to reaffirm the right of its members to hunt, fish and gather
on their reservation free of state regulation.
1975
About 75 Indian students walk out of Cass Lake Junior-Senior High
School en masse, protesting what they call discrimination, racism,
and cultural insensitivity. The tribe opens Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, a
culturally based school for Indian students.
1983
The tribe opens the Palace, the first of its three casinos, after
federal courts rule that states can't prevent Indian tribes from
having gambling.
1984
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declares 125 acres on the
south side of Cass Lake a high-priority Superfund site, contaminated
by PCBs, dioxin and other pollutants. St. Regis Paper Co. of New York
ran a wood-treating plant there for almost 30 years.
1995
Two Ojibwe teenagers who took a culture class persuade the Cass
County Board to change the name of Leech Lake's Squaw Point to Oak
Point.
1996
With the tribal government in turmoil, three of its top officials are
convicted of conspiring to steal nearly $1 million from the band in
an insurance scam.
1998
Using a federal grant, the tribe forms its own police force and
begins enforcing its own civil regulations.
2002
For the first time, Cass Lake citizens, a majority now Indian, elect
an Indian mayor, Elaine Fleming.
Larry Oakes, Staff Writer, Star Tribune
Last update: February 21, 2005 – 11:00 PM
www.startribune.com/103/story/58970.html
Key events in tribe's troubled history
OpEx: Perspectives on a disturbing series
Kids in crisis find a haven in one home in the woods
Beacons of hope
Pride and humor color this teacher's lessons
Less than 7 percent of the land originally reserved for the Leech
Lake Ojibwe remains in Indian hands. No other tribe in Minnesota
holds a smaller percentage of its original land.
As white settlement of Minnesota spread, the reservation's forests
and lakes proved too valuable to resist. Only recently has the trend
begun to reverse.
Many Leech Lake Indians see a strong link between this 150-year
history of loss and the high rates of addiction, violence and broken
families found on the reservation today.
1855
The Ojibwe of the Leech Lake region sign the first treaty giving a
large portion of north-central Minnesota to the United States,
retaining a 670,000-acre reservation for themselves.
1881
In part to provide steady water power for industry downriver in
Minneapolis, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers begins building dams at
the outlets of Winnibigoshish, Cass and Leech lakes, raising water
levels 7 feet and destroying Ojibwe burial grounds, shoreline homes
and beds of rice, their principal food.
1887
Congress passes the Dawes Act, which, combined with the Nelson Act
two years later, allots some reservation land to individual Indians
and allows other parcels to be sold or granted to timber companies,
railroads and settlers. Most of the Indians lose their allotments
through tax forfeitures, sales and fraud.
1896
The town of Walker is founded on the edge of the reservation, its
name honoring Thomas Barlow Walker, a white timber baron who later
endows the Walker Arts Center in Minneapolis.
1898
Indian anger over aggressive logging and loss of land boils over on
Leech Lake's Sugar Point. Seven federal soldiers die in the ensuing
exchange of gunfire, which lasts three days and goes down in history
as the final battle between American Indians and the U.S. military.
Relieved to have avoided a major Indian uprising, the government
pardons the Ojibwe fighters.
1899
James J. Hill gets U.S. government permission to run his Great
Northern Railroad through the reservation, and two others follow.
Cass Lake is incorporated next to the tracks. Controlled by white
settlers, the town soon has one of the largest railyards in northern
Minnesota.
The town, lake and county are named for Gen. Lewis Cass, an explorer
and territorial governor who, as a soldier and later as U.S.
secretary of war, fought wars against Indians.
1908
Concern over runaway logging prompts the U.S. government to create
the first national forest east of the Mississippi, now called the
Chippewa National Forest. The 1.6 million-acre forest engulfs and
surrounds the reservation, taking more than 40 percent of its land
for $1.25 an acre, plus the value of the remaining timber.
1912
A white family opens the first fishing resort on Cass Lake, starting
what eventually grows into a second major industry on the
reservation: tourism. But, as with the timber industry that came
first, non-Indians reap the majority of profits.
1925
The J. Neils Lumber Co. of Sauk Rapids closes its Cass Lake sawmill
as the supply of available timber dwindles and the great logging boom
subsides.
1933
The U.S. Government Land Office in Cass Lake closes, ending a
homesteading boom that flooded the reservation with white settlers.
To this day, more than half the reservation's residents are white.
1937
The Leech Lake Ojibwe adopt a constitution.
1951
An oil pipeline is laid across the reservation.
1959
U.S. Hwy. 2 and state Hwy. 371 are rerouted around the town of Cass
Lake, another factor in the slow decline of its core business
district.
1965
The federal government's new Community Action Program enables the
reservation government to build Tract 33, a low-income housing
development on the north edge of Cass Lake.
1972
The tribe settles a lawsuit to become the first Indian band in the
state to reaffirm the right of its members to hunt, fish and gather
on their reservation free of state regulation.
1975
About 75 Indian students walk out of Cass Lake Junior-Senior High
School en masse, protesting what they call discrimination, racism,
and cultural insensitivity. The tribe opens Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, a
culturally based school for Indian students.
1983
The tribe opens the Palace, the first of its three casinos, after
federal courts rule that states can't prevent Indian tribes from
having gambling.
1984
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declares 125 acres on the
south side of Cass Lake a high-priority Superfund site, contaminated
by PCBs, dioxin and other pollutants. St. Regis Paper Co. of New York
ran a wood-treating plant there for almost 30 years.
1995
Two Ojibwe teenagers who took a culture class persuade the Cass
County Board to change the name of Leech Lake's Squaw Point to Oak
Point.
1996
With the tribal government in turmoil, three of its top officials are
convicted of conspiring to steal nearly $1 million from the band in
an insurance scam.
1998
Using a federal grant, the tribe forms its own police force and
begins enforcing its own civil regulations.
2002
For the first time, Cass Lake citizens, a majority now Indian, elect
an Indian mayor, Elaine Fleming.