Assassination of Hole in the Day

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63 3 Testing His Mettle Bagone-­ giizhig the Elder in the Early Treaty Period Hole-­ in-­ the-­ Day was the only man in the nation who was feared by the traders and Government officers. I do not mean that they feared personal injury, or were in danger of coming into personal conflict with him; but they feared his influence with his people. —Julius T. Clark1 U ntil the late 1830s, American officials lacked the military power and diplomatic groundwork to seize Indian lands in Minnesota. But the declining fur trade put pressure on Indian communities to find other ways to acquire trade goods. Fort Snelling had established a firm American military presence near present-­ day St. Paul. Perhaps even more importantly, American treaty negotiators had come to know Minnesota’s Ojibwe leaders and established a useful rapport with them. The Treaty of 1837 and Its Aftermath On July 29, 1837, the first major land cession treaty was signed with the Minnesota Ojibwe. The Treaty of 1837 was negotiated at St. Peters, near Fort Snelling, and signed by large delegations of the Ojibwe leadership from central and eastern Minnesota and western Wisconsin . Bagone-­ giizhig the Elder was prominent among the delegates . Although only one of his formal speeches was recorded, his diplomacy played an important role in intratribal negotiations and the Ojibwe’s final acceptance of the treaty.2 The negotiations were dramatic. The Ojibwe delegations from Lac Courte Oreilles and Lac du Flambeau arrived late, only to find that the Mississippi Ojibwe had begun negotiations for the sale of 64  Assassination of Hole in the Day Wisconsin Ojibwe lands without the presence of any delegates from Wisconsin other than St. Croix. This upset them, the traders who arrived late with them, and some American officials. More than fifty traders made financial claims against the payments intended for the Ojibwe. Trader Lyman Warren, based at La Pointe, Wisconsin, demanded large quantities of the 1837 Ojibwe annuity payments to cover debts incurred at his post. Both Warren and William Aitkin represented the American Fur Company and had especially large claims. Warren was following an established European trader practice of inflating Indian debts, creating false claims, and using them to gouge money from the Indians’ government annuities. This ultimately forced Indians to buy the goods they needed with credit, not with cash, which started the vicious cycle again.3 At the treaty signing Warren also served as interpreter for many of the Wisconsin bands, even though his business interests were counter to those of the Ojibwe. His claims were so outrageous and forcefully stated that Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro pulled his revolver and threatened to kill Warren if he did not sit down. It is impossible to tell how much Taliaferro’s dramatic actions were a response to false trader claims and how much to his mistake of having allowed negotiations to begin with so many important people absent . Bagone-­ giizhig was indignant at the outrageous trader claims and undoubtedly concerned that the arrival of so many Indians from regions beyond his influence would detract from his central role in the negotiations. “Shoot him, my father,” he yelled to Taliaferro. Henry Dodge, the governor of Wisconsin Territory, intervened before events turned bloody.4 Bagone-­ giizhig was impressed with Taliaferro’s public stand against Warren. That trust, along with abundant good food and liquor , led Bagone-­ giizhig to advocate strongly for accepting the terms of the Treaty of 1837. Although Bagone-­ giizhig was only one of forty-­ seven chiefs and warriors who signed the treaty—he was not noted as a principal chief or speaker in the treaty record—his advocacy had a significant impact. Traders engaged in gouging unjustified amounts from U.S. government annuity payments to Indians plagued the Ojibwe at every successive treaty signing and annuity payment. Many traders had mixed Ojibwe and European heritage. Typically, however, they did not identify as Indians, did not participate in traditional native re- Testing His Mettle   65 ligious ceremonies, and did not live in Indian villages. But when Indians were being paid for sale of tribal lands, the traders made sure that they and their families received payments as if they were regular village Indians and partial owners of the land being sold. These payments were garnered in addition to payments from their employers for their inflated claims of Indian credit purchases and payments from the government for services rendered as witnesses...