1. A look at the Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indians
Life for Wisconsin
Indians in the
19th & 20th Centuries
A look at the Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indians

2. Ojibwe Bands in Wisconsin
Red Cliff
Lac Courte Oreilles
Bad River
Lac du Flambeau
Mole Lake
St. Croix
All 6 of these Wisconsin tribes are part of the Lake Superior Bands of Ojibwe Indians.

3. Wisconsin Indian reservations as they sit today

4. How do the Ojibwe come to be on the reservations?
Series of treaties cedes land to government
Definition: to relinquish (hand over) lands in your possession

5. 1837 “Pine Tree Treaty” Results: ~1/2 of WI ceded
Why: Govt. wants pine in north woods
Terms:
Govt. pays Indians - $19,000
Indians retain “traditional” rights to lands
Problems
Division of $
Understanding meaning of languages

6. View from Lake Superior shoreline
1842 “Copper Treaty”
Cession of lands for mining around Lake Superior
Indians need money… agree
Treaty hints at removal
View from Lake Superior shoreline

7. Indians React Ojibwe send delegation to D.C. Issues to discuss
Leader: Chief Buffalo
Interpreter Benjamin Armstrong
Issues to discuss
Removal order
Wrongs done to Indians
“traditional rights” agreed upon in ceded areas

9. “Symbolic Petition of the Chippewa Chiefs, 1849”
Delegation to Washington carried this pictograph with them indicating their
wants. The animals represent the various Lake Superior clans traveling along
Lake Superior. Their unity of purpose is depicted by the lines linking together
Their hears and eyes to a chain of wild rice lakes in ceded territory south of
Lake Superior.

11. Indian pictograph that was sent to Washington to show the president how the Indians felt about him and what they were willing to do.

12. Result of trip: 1854 Treaty at La Pointe
Terms of Treaty
Refuse to cede more land until reservations in WI established
Takes 20 yrs for land to be chosen & given
Allotment of individual Indian lands
Individual Indians earn titles to land
Indians forced to sell lands… don’t understand TAXES

13. Life on the Reservations
1922 Lac du Flambeau Indian
Industrial Survey

14. What is the 1922 Industrial Survey?
Government wanted to know how Indians on the reservations were doing
Sent workers out to visit Indians to find out
Document is housed in the Regional National Archives in Chicago

15. Assignment
With a partner read your section of the 1922 survey and in your journals complete the following three parts:
1.What did you learn about the Lac du Flambeau Indians living on the reservation during this time?
- be specific with your observations & be sure to look at various aspects of their lives… what can you learn about them

16. Assignment continued
2. What questions do you have when looking at this document? What would you like to learn more about?
3. Make a comparison of life for the Indians on the reservations and life for white people not part of the reservations that we have learned about.
Create a Venn diagram to complete your comparison of the different cultures

17. 1922 Industrial Survey Discussion
What did you learn about life on the reservations during the 1920s?
What questions did you have while reading this survey?
What did you find particularly interesting about the survey?
Do you think that the surveyors held any bias while completing the survey of the Indians? If so explain.

18. The Depression and Indian New Deal
What are the conditions in Indian reservations at this time?
Government commissions a study to find out:
The Problem of Indian Administration, 1928 (the Meriam Report)
Actions after study:
Revised Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Reorganization Act

19. Assignment
Read the segment of the Meriam Report that is handed out and answer the six worksheet questions

20. Meriam Report: “The Work of the Government in Behalf of the Indians”
“The work of the government directed toward the education and advancement of the Indian himself… is largely ineffective.”

21. Some Findings on Government Management (Meriam Report)
Poorly trained educators for school & life
Lack of $ = poor health care system
Education in boarding schools most common
Poor diets, crowded living quarters
Under-trained teachers
Inflexibility of curriculum – expect same from all students (even those who don’t speak English)
Little Economic development on reservations
Little agricultural training
Few jobs on/off reservation
1. Lack of well trained professionals and lack of good broad educational programs. Education includes school training for children but also activities for the training of adults to aid them in adjusting themselves to the dominant social and economic life which confronts them. The educational program should include education in economic production & in living standards necessary for the maintenance of health and decency.
Lack of adequate funding has lead to a poor public health administration and medical relief work for Indians. The number of doctors, nurses, and dentists is insufficient. These health professionals can make more money in other areas of government work or the private sector. This lack of trained personal has lead the Indians to allow under-trained or poorly trained health professionals to treat their communities. Hospitals, sanatoria and sanatoriums are under equipped and under staffed. There also seems to be a lack of preventative health care among the Indians as little has been done to combat the two major health problems of TB and Trachoma.
Although the general policy of the Indian service has been directed away from the boarding school for Indian children and toward the public schools and Indian day schools it is still the fact that the boarding school, either reservation or non-reservation, is the dominant characteristic of the school system maintained by the national government for its Indian ward. The survey staff found that the provisions for the care of the Indian children in boarding schools are grossly inadequate. Many of the children are below normal health. The diet is deficient in quantity, quality, and variety. Major diseases also spread because of the poor diet and crowded living conditions (TB & Trachoma).
Lack of properly trained leadership on reservations. With the idea of making the Indians into farmers, there has been little training of the Indians and therefore little success in becoming farmers.

22. Indian Boarding School – Tomah, WI
Date: 1912
Date:

23. Life on the Reservations
Lac du Flambeau family – notice what’s in the background.

24. Discussion… speculation!!
How do you think the Great Depression affects Indians on the reservations?
Why do you think life on the reservations was so poor at this time?

25. “Indian New Deal” 1924 – Indians received full citizenship
John Collier – commissioner of Indian affairs (appointed by FDR)
Indian Reorganization Act 1934
Moves away from assimilation toward Indian autonomy
Helps restore some reservation lands to tribal ownership
Indian New Deal
1924 – receive full citizenship by law
1933 – FDR appoints John Collier as commissioner of Indian affairs
Collier helps create Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
This act marks an extreme change in government policy
Moves away from assimilation and toward Indian autonomy
also helps to restore some reservation lands to tribal ownership

26. John Collier – Commissioner of Indian Affairs

27. “Indian New Deal” continued…
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 (IRA)
Mandates changes in 3 areas
Economic – Indian lands would belong to entire tribe… prevents lands from being sold off
Cultural - # of boarding schools cut & children allowed to attend reservation school
Political – tribes given permission to elect tribal councils to rule their reservations
1. Economic – Lands belong to an entire tribe. This provision strengthened Indian land claims by prohibiting the government form taking over unclaimed reservation lands and selling them to people other than Indians.
2. Cultural – The number of Indian boarding schools is finally reduced and now Indian children can attend schools on their home reservations instead of being shipped out to these boarding schools.

28. Mixed Reactions to IRA: 174 tribes accept / 78 tribes reject
Like
Regained lost reservation lands
Moved forward in education / cultural preservation
More control over affairs
Dislike
Indians disliked changes of govt. structure
Underestimates diversity of tribes
white men still telling Indians what’s best for them

29. End of Indian Reorganization Act…
WWII

30. WWII – Iconic Images Turn to page 788 in your text.
Class reading & discussion of questions

31. A Closer Look at Ira Hayes
Pima Indian (Arizona)
Chief told him to be a “honorable warrior”
Joined Marines – parachutist
“Chief Falling Cloud” – respected marine
Became part of Iwo Jima battle & helped raise flag
Play Johnny Cash’s “Ballad of Ira Hayes”

32. The Picture Changed His Life…
Traveled country as hero
Struggled w/ “hero” status
After publicity tour returned to his reservation
Wants anonymity… people write hundreds of letters / stop by to see him
Uses alcohol to ease pain
Dies of exposure at age of 33
3 of 6 flag raiser were killed shortly after
Hayes goes home a hero but struggles w/ the concept… At the White House, President Truman told Ira, "You are an American hero." But Ira didn't feel pride. As he later lamented, "How could I feel like a hero when only five men in my platoon of 45 survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed to escape death or injury?"
Couldn’t understand why people insisted he was a hero when he “hadn’t done very much” – plus b/c of the positive publicity the photo had for military he couldn’t say anything
Eventually even stated he wished he hadn’t been one of the men in the photo
Becomes an alcoholic & gets into trouble, arrested
Says he’s “cracked” just thinking about all of his buddies that never made it back home
Never married… buried at Arlington Cemetery a “hero to everyone except himself”

33. How involved were Indians in WWII?
No group that participated in World War II made a greater per capita contribution, and no group was changed more by the war.
44,000 Indians saw service / 350,000 Indians in U.S. (Roughly 12% of the Indian Pop.)
This represented 1/3 of all able-bodied Indian men from 18 to 50 years of age
How involved were Indians (as a whole) in WWII? Is the story of Ira Hayes one that we learn just because he was on a famous picture?
- Yes & No: Yes specifically we look at Ira Hayes because of this picture and his recognized status as a “hero” but there is also a larger story here we should recognize – the role of Indians in WWII and it’s effect on them.

34. Navajo code talkers in the Pacific - USMC
Indians in WWII
Pearl Harbor awakens “warrior spirit” among Indians
Many volunteer
Indian Nations declare war on Axis powers
Indians distinguish themselves as warriors
Navajo “code talkers” allow U.S. to send messages that would never be broken by Japanese
Indian men look at wars (WWI & WWII) as a way to prove themselves as warriors. In Indian tribes being a warrior really defined a young man’s status
Indians also look at this as an economic opportunity – both in the service and working in the factories at home for the war effort
A 1942 survey indicated that 40 percent more Native Americans voluntarily enlisted than had been drafted.
Because Indian tribes were considered sovereign nations they declared war on Germany and the Axis powers b/c of that
According to the Selective Service in 1942, at least 99 percent of all eligible Indians, healthy males aged 21 to 44, had registered for the draft.
If you’ve seen the movie “Wind Talkers” w/ Nick Cage you should understand that the personal body guards assigned to the code talkers were not supposed to kill them before falling into the hands of the Japanese, but to protect them from their own… Many soldiers hadn’t seen Indians before and there could be some mistakes about what a “Jap” looked like or to make sure prejudice didn’t get in the way of letting the code talkers do their work.
Also you should realize that the Navajo language wasn’t the first Indian language used in war… WWI they used the Chactow language for code (Michigan & Wisconsin Indians were involved in this unit during WWI)
Even the Germans were aware of this… between WWI & WWII they sent Germans posing to be anthropologist to Indian reservations in the U.S. so that they could learn the language and culture of the Indians so when war broke again they’d be prepared.
Navajo code talkers in the Pacific - USMC

35. Indians in WWII
Not all served in the military… many were in the factories
~40,000 Indians work in factories
Purchase war bonds
Donated money to Red Cross
Women learn new roles – on & off reservations

36. WWII Impact on Indians Causes Indians to move to cities
Exposes Indians to white man’s world…
+ Learn about education, health care, economic possibilities, many opportunities
Don’t want to lose tribal identity & custom… work to further promote their interests
** Begin to work within both worlds

37. Navajo Code Activity GOOD LUCK!!
Complete the Navajo Code Activity Sheet
GOOD LUCK!!

38. Ojibwe Treaty Rights… Today
The Wisconsin Spearfishing Controversy

39. What was the issue?
During the 1980s many Ojibwe Indians decided to use their off-reservation hunting rights as given to them by mid-19th Century treaties
Some non-Indians felt that this would lead to the closing of certain bodies of water to sport fishers who wanted to fish walleye and eventually hurt tourism in Northern Wisconsin

40. This is an example of the spear used by today’s Indians
Spear fishing takes place at night w/ use of a light
Boat landings become prime spot for protests… they become increasingly violent
This is an example of the spear used by today’s Indians
Traditional spearfishing took place at night with the use of a spear and fire

41. Spear This!
Notice anything out of place???

42. The State Acts
Gov. Thompson – wants an injunction to stop Ojibwe from spearfishing to prevent more violence
Judge rules that Ojibwe broke no laws and therefore should not be punished… more severe punishments were applied to militant protesters
Judge does require Ojibwe to limit & monitor fish harvested

43. This is an example of an Ojibwe spearfishing permit.
The Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) was created to regulate and restock the lakes – both on and off the reservation.
This is an example of an Ojibwe spearfishing permit.
Indians go to the game warden (GLIFWC) and get permission to fish each day they want to fish. They will also be directed to a specific lake and are required to keep specific records as to what they catch.

44. How are things today?
Peace has returned to the Northwoods, but what are today’s issues?
Read the assigned article for tomorrow: From Enemies to Allies: Native Americans and whites transformed violent treaty conflicts into a powerful environmental movement in Wisconsin.