Conference focuses on Indian treaties

Treaty lawyer

to speak today

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

MORTON -- A wealth of information not often found in history books was revealed Wednesday at a treaty conference relevant to the Mdewakanton and other Sioux Indian treaties at Jackpot Junction Hotel.

Hosted by the Lower Sioux Treaty Council, the conference included comments by Master of Ceremonies Sheldon Peters Wolfchild. A Lower Sioux member, Wolfchild has appeared in several movies.

Conference-goers received information on the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, copies of Sioux treaties dating back as far as 1805 and those of 1837, 1851 and 1858. Handouts were available on the Dakota Conflict trials of 1862 and tribal and indigenous sovereignty issues of the 1800s.

The Treaty with the Sioux of 1805 allowed the U.S. to establish military posts on 9 square miles of land at the mouth of the St. Croix River, including St. Anthony Falls, extending 9 miles on each side of the river.

In return, the Sioux were to receive $2,000 or the value of goods and merchandise that included $200 and 82 gallons of whiskey, according to Wolfchild.

He said he had a copy of letter written by President Thomas Jefferson to the U.S. War Department in 1803 regarding the creation of government trading companies geared "to get Indian chiefs and sub-chiefs to go into debt so it would be easier to sign treaties with them."

Years later, private companies also got into the trading business with Native Americans, Wolfchild said.

After the 1851 Treaty with the Sioux-Mdewakanton and Wahpakoota, traders began marking up items 22 percent and charged 42 percent annual interest, knowing they would be paid from gold shipments intended for Indians, according to Wolfchild.

"Many books said Indians weren't very good farmers," Wolfchild said. "That wasn't true. We raised 5,000 acres of corn and potatoes until the drought of 1861 when all crops failed and the gold didn't come. We did our end of the bargain. It was the U.S. government that didn't live up to the treaty. One of the traders (Andrew Myrick) told our starving people to eat grass or their own dung."

Wolfchild told a story of his great-grandfather and his friends who had their feet and hands bound before they rode from the Lower Sioux Agency through New Ulm to what he called a "concentration camp" at Fort Snelling after the 1982 conflict. The men were nearly beaten to death as they rode through New Ulm, according to Wolfchild.

He credited Bishop Whipple with saving many deposed tribal members after the 1862 Dakota conflict. Whipple protected tribal members after they joined the Episcopal church on land that later became the Lower Sioux Reservation near Morton.

Meanwhile, the U.S. troops hunted for Native Americans thought to be hiding in western parts of Minnesota after the government put a bounty on their heads.

More recently -- Wolfchild -- who made a video exposing injustices to disenfranchised Dakota elders, spoke in opposition to a rule that would restore full faith and credit Minnesota tribal courts.

If the Supreme Court accepts the rule, orders, judgements and acts of any tribal court will be "rubber-stamped" into the Minnesota court system. It would give them more weight than a comparable decision of a Minnesota district court, since district court decisions can be appealed while tribal court decisions may not.

Wolfchild augmented his testimony with charts showing problems with Dakota enrollment and the interlocking system between tribal attorneys and tribal court judges in Dakota communities, according to the Native American Press/Ojibwe News.

Dr. Barbara Feezer Buttes, an author, anthropologist and assistant professor of American Studies at Arizona State University West, talked about inaccurate accounts of Indian history. Much of the information she presented will be printed in her forthcoming book "Beyond Sovereignty: The Mdewakanton Identity Heist."

Buttes said several accounts of Father Hennepin's "capture" by a Sioux "war party" was grossly inaccurate.

"Father Hennepin thrust himself upon the Sioux," Buttes said. "Historians pay little detail to the actual details of this. The story is marred by intrusions of author's egos and sweeping judgements."

Buttes said many authors' accounts were "disjointed narratives of unrelated bits of minutiae." She said many authors were unable to understand the complexity of their subject matter and ignored written records in favor of "unscholarly observations."

Open to the public and free of charge, the conference continues at 8 a.m. today when spiritual leader Chris Leith begins opening ceremonies. Lectures start at 9 a.m. Treaty lawyer James McGuire will speak later in the day followed by a panel discussion, dinner and an open microphone for anybody wishing to speak.

Dr. Robert Venables, American Indian Studies director and senior lecturer at Cornell University, who was to give an historical presentation was unable to attend the conference.