At last the full-bloods registered a protest, some of the Indians sent for their guns, and things took on a serious aspect. Presently by way of compromise it was agreed that for every mixed-blood that received a pine allotment a full-blood should also obtain one. This continued until all of the twenty or more miles of pine timber had been allotted in tracts of eighty acres each to the Indians.
OJIBWA CHIEF, KE-WAY-DIN, PINE POINT, WHITE EARTH RESERVATION, MINNESOTA, 1909 ]
The pine timber allotted these Indians ranged all the way from tracts worth $2,000 or $3,000 to those valued as high as $25,000. Since the lands were allotted, iron ore has been found in quantities under certain parts of the reservation. How extensive are these bodies, no man may know, and the value might be a few millions, or many hundreds of millions.
EVICTED INDIANS, TWIN LAKES, WHITE EARTH RESERVATION, MINNESOTA, 1909 ]
The effect of the allotment on the Whites near White Earth was immediate. Mushroom banks sprang up in the surrounding small towns. The Indians in their affidavits (of which Linnen and myself took 505) testified that lawyers, banks, county officials, and business men of prominence in Detroit, Ogema, Mahnomen, and other towns, joined in the scramble to secure their pine lands and farm tracts.
As few of these men spoke the language, it was necessary to have interpreters, and the educated Indians were soon divided into two camps, those who were willing for pay to interpret for the land-sharks and timber thieves, and those who would not help in defrauding their own people.
It is sad to note that in a hundred or more instances the Indians were purposely made drunk and their lands taken away from them while under the influence of liquor. Many of the Indians do not remember what kind of papers they signed, whether deeds or mortgages, or whether any papers were signed at all.
While our investigation was in progress, and we had moved over to Rice River, Mr. J. Weston Allen visited us for three weeks. He came as a representative of the Boston Indian Citizenship Committee, and because of his high standing in the legal profession, rendered valuable assistance in the investigation.
The key to the whole situation lay in the question of blood. As has been shown before, the mixed-bloods only could sell their land. The full-bloods could not. Consequently we assembled the old record-keepers, medicine men, chiefs, and Indians of prominence who knew their own people. Some of these were more than eighty-five years of age and none of them under seventy. When an Indian appeared before us to give his testimony, we first asked him whether he was a full-blood or a mixed-blood, and the names of his parents and grandparents. The old witnesses, probably twelve or fifteen, might not all know the parents or grandparents of the Indian testifying. But three, four, six, and sometimes eight of them would know the family history, and would be able to swear whether the Indian was a full-blood. If he was a mixed-blood, we told him with regret that we could do nothing for him.