Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point

Hole in the Day: Grafters and Warrants

Hole in the Day Grafters and Warrants This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank treacherous waves break overnight on leech lake lanterns out at the lakeside hotel on walker bay boats groan and beat an ominous air against the city dock natives shiver at onigum agency hungry children bound in blankets wait outside for late annuities demeaned by treaty ties federal legacies overrun by factors and shady agents bugonaygeshig bear island pillager midewiwin healer elusive warrior 39 more than sixty years the third native honored by the name hole in the day turns his eyes against the wind and rides the shadows with the ravens that cold morning at agency bay colonel tinker and deputy marshal robert morrison bold bounty hunters served warrants for the head count court money and seized hole in the day the pillager refused to testify in federal court against whiskey traders one more bogus bootleg trial mounted in duluth a hundred miles from sugar point 40 + Hole in the Day hole in the day roughly shackled hand to hand by unscrupulous federal force and treaty grounds shouted out near the agency boat dock where are my young men twenty warriors shrouded women brave children shy mongrels and the autumn wind circled the marshals bounty posse ravens bounced down the rocky shore a natural dance and the old warrior pillager of liberty escaped in the shadows at the tree line praised and protected by native warriors nearby at stony point federal mercenaries rightly shamed Hole in the Day + 41 by native resistance returned to walker and broadcast false stories disguised as justice about native fugitives the mercenaries overstated the deceptions of a native menace by telegram brashly warned send the army civil war generals brevet patriots proudly mustered by doughty dominion and martial sway third infantry soldiers with a gatling gun bugonaygeshig was Wrst arrested months earlier an elusive suspect named a wicked whiskey trader that april morning bound to court with no evidence but manifest manners 42 + Hole in the Day the federal judge listed at the throne envious of miters the scent of polished oak and gravely declared mainly the absence of any testimony or depositions by cause of justice and promptly dismissed the case hole in the day returned to the bears by natural reason heard the cause manners of court ordered in english clever comebacks in anishinaabe always misconstrued falsely summoned then abandoned by the court and federal agents bugonaygeshig boarded the train bound for bena leech lake reservation an unpaid witness Hole in the Day + 43 with no ticket marooned by race demeaned by customs money warrants rogue factors and posse grafters the callous conductor trenchant about natives stopped the train west of duluth and ousted the pillager bear ten miles out later that day twice menaced he was removed from an empty boxcar bear island warrior sixty years old walked alone a hundred miles back to leech lake and sugar point overcast with fury icy spring rain creases of abuse visions of resistance natural reason 44 + Hole in the Day wet and weary moccasins scored the old pillager chary of the shoreline cracked the thin river verge and bared four stately blueberries brightly frozen in the clear ice ravens bounce and crack the snow crowns over the white pines feathers shimmer lighten the shrouds shoulder to wing praised the summer in the spring by dream songs rosehip bellies scent of paper birch near sugar point hole in the day never trusted treaty talk warrants of commerce Hole in the Day + 45 federal mercenaries over white pine cedar and willow river otter never constitutions federal dams documents of credit court petitions legal precedent over bear and beaver moccasin Xowers natural reason anishinaabe survivance and cedar waxwings indian agents protect the grafters over native rights greedy timber barons with empty eyes scorched the pine slight a name cut the price tender fern wild roses bare and broken shadows rage near the stumps only stories stand on treaty land 46 + Hole in the Day the gichiziibi great river dominion dams on the mississippi headwaters deadly diversions manoomin wild rice and...