Chapter 3
-- Compiled by the Cumberland Women's Club
and Published by the Cumberland Advocate
1874-1974
(used by permission of the Cumberland Advocate)
Donated by Linda Mott
Please
Note: This page is information intense! Please be patient
while some portions are
loading -- it will be worth
your wait! Thank you.
Sand Lake Indian History
by Mary Curnow
On September 30, 1854, a treaty was signed between the U.S. Government and the Chippewa Indians of Lake Superior, the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers at LaPointe on Madeline Island. Franklin Pierce was President.
Some of the names on that document
are familiar. The signature of Benjamin J. Connor,
as a witness, is there. He had a trading post at LaPointe and he later
married a Chippewa woman. Their son, Zacharia settled in Cumberland. Today
in 1974, two sons, Roy and Ben, and a daughter, Ada, survive him. On the
treaty, signed by Xs are the names of O-SHE-NAW-WAY
(Skinaway),
SHE-COG
(Chicog),
MAY-CAW-DAY
(Bear's Heart), Kind and others whose descendants
live today in this area. The signer for the St. Croix Valley tribe was
Chief
Little Buck; here begins the story of the "Lost Tribe."
Many of the Lost Tribe lived in pockets around the island and on the island when Cumberland was settled in 1874. There were settlements at Silver Lake of the Bisonette and Robinson families. According to Archie Mosay and Mary Wake-Me-Up, there were "always Indian towns on Bone Lake and Round Lake." There were reported to be Littlepipesand other families on the island of Beaver Dam Lake who were moved to Reserve, near Hayward, when the whites came.
Chief Little Buck demanded his band retain their land when he signed the treaty. Other Chiefs selected land left by the treaty, at Lac Courte Oreilles; another reservation was chosen on the Bad River area on Lake Superior. The Red Cliff reservation at the tip of Bayfield county peninsula was formed, and the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Vilas County. When Chief Little Buck signed the treaty, the disposition of the land of the St. Croix Valley tribe was not settled and he died shortly after.
The leaders of the tribe made
many appeals and trips to Washington through the years with few matters
ever settled. An 1837 treaty had guaranteed them "the privilege of hunting,
fishing and the gathering of wild rice on the lands, the rivers and the
lakes included in their territory ceded during the pleasure of the President
of the United States." The treaty of 1854 was regarded by the Indians in
the same light. Chief Little Buck had asked for this stipulation, so that
many of the tribe refused to go to a reservation and tried to live on as
before. The lands of this area were rich in game, rice and berries. Corn
was planted in the spring. The families moved about by canoe or they simply
walked to where the food was more plentiful. The food was eaten then or
dried for the long winters. Life in a tepee in the winter was hard; often
cold and hunger were
present. Mats on which to
sleep about the fire were made of reeds, grasses and furs. They shared
what they had and they survived. The government wanted the Indians to farm
the reservation with an agent to teach them the white man's way.
Descendants of Chief Little Buck moved to Round Lake, which was made into a reservation in the 1930s. Big Sand Lake, now termed the Maple Plain Reservation, was known as a homestead until the middle 1960s.
Joe Littlepipe, "Cutlip", who used his real name of Ogitakum in all his correspondence, was well known to the pioneers. He left Reserve near Hayward and came to Sand Lake as the first Chief. His correspondence of 1895 and 1896 is still in existence in the Cumberland Library. It deals with the selling of his timber rights at La Courte Oreilles. He received $119.04 for 48,650 feet of cut pine. His daughter, Maggie Littlepipe, became the wife of Frank Bearheart, a chief in later years.
Also at Big Sand lived the Bisonettes, John King, the Kasabin families, the Scotties and the Rogers. One of the Bisonettes married Bill Roberts, who used to have a saloon in Cumberland. Their son, Charlie Roberts, was a graduate of Carlisle, a well known athlete and once a coach at the local high school. The Coons, Merrils, John and Henry Hart families are all descendants of the old Indian families. There are many more related to the early Indians who live today at Hertel, Webster, Danbury (Burnett Co., WI) and Hayward as well as Big Sand and Round Lake (Sawyer Co., WI).
Today the chiefs at the Maple
Plain Reservation are John and Ed Bearhart and at Round Lake, Archie Mosay,
and Henry and Jim Merril. New homes are being
built and many are employed in local industries. For many years Bert
Hines, a son of a pioneer family, has employed the Indians in his
rutabaga venture. No longer are the children sent to reservation schools
but
attend local ones. By choice,
however, most high school students attend the Flamdreau Indian High School
in South Dakota.
The Lost Tribe has retained
and cultivated their traditions, culture and religion. Their ceremonies,
dances and bead work are famous and beautiful.
to History
of the Early Norwegian Settlers - Cumberland and Section 10
Thanks for stopping by!
[an error occurred while processing this directive]