Becker County, Minnesota - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1907 (part 4 of 16)

Audubon describes one which he witnessed: "It was in 1819, when we were descending the Ohio river in a flatboat, chiefly with the intention of seeking for birds then unknown to us. About 100 miles below Cincinnati, as we were floating down the stream, we observed a large number of squirrels swimming across the river, and we continued to see them at various places until we had nearly reached Sniithland, a town about 100 miles above the mouth of the Ohio. At times they were strewn, as it were, over the surface of the water, and some of them, being fatigued, sought a few moments' rest on our long steering oar, which hung into the water in a slanting direction over the stern of our boat. The boys along the shores and in boats were killing the squirrels in great numbers, although most of them got across."

They were very numerous in the primitive forests of Indiana and their depredations were a serious matter for the pioneers. They hid near the cornfields, and as soon as the seed corn was covered they began to dig for it. Old farmers used to tell how accurately a squirrel would follow the row and dig into a hill of corn till he found the grains. Later, when the cars began to form, the squirrels attacked them. Some years they were worse than others, and the years 1824, 1834 and 1836 are numbered as especially bad ones.

During the squirrel visitation the farmer put forth his utmost efforts to protect his crop. The best marksman in the family took the gun, and the rest, women and children, rang bells, rattled "horse-fiddles," pounded on dead trees and made all sorts of noises. Sometimes a man was paid to work one half of the day and shoot squirrels the other half.

A local historican of Johnson County says: "Mrs. Mollie Owens says there were seasons when she could stand in her door and see fifteen or twenty squirrels on the fence at any morning hour. James Owens, her husband, killed 200 in one day. Jacob Bower shot twenty-six on one occasion without moving out of his tracks. William Freeman, without rising from his chair at the breakfast table, shot nine from a hill of ripening corn in the garden in the front of his cabin door. Thomas Patterson shot two from a neighbor's chimney and they fell into the fireplace within."

The small, red, timber squirrel is found in considerable numbers in Becker County, and is more widely distributed throug-hout the northern part of the United States than any other animal, being found in every state from Maine to Washington, wherever there are any groves or forests of timber. It is so well known that it is useless to undertake to say anything about the interesting little animal, that is not known to people in general. It is bright, cheerful and harmless, building its habitations, and rearing its young in the trees near our homes whenever it can find a hollow large enough

When we lived on our homestead at Oak Lake, one of them made a nest in an old vinegar keg that stood at the end of our house, and that reminds me that once Mrs. Wilcox set a hot custard pie on a stump near the house to cool, and before she was fairly back in the house, a red squirrel landed on top of the pie with all four of his feet. It gave three or four squeals and ran up a tree, jumping around among the limbs, chattering, and holding up and shaking first one foot, then another, for the space of three or four minutes.

This animal is occasionally found in Becker County. It is a little larger than the common red squirrel and resembles it in general appearance, except that it is provided with a membrane or skin, connecting and filling the intermediate space between the fore leg and the hind leg on each side of the body. This web or membrane is an extension of the skin covering the body, and is about an inch in width. It cannot be said exactly to fly, but with help of its extended legs and the consequent spreading of the membrane connecting the fore legs with the hind legs, it can sail from the top of one tree to another tree at a considerable distance, rising slightly above its starting point at the first leap and then gradually inclining downwards, using its tail as a rudder, it can land on the ground or on the branch of another tree at a distance of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet from the place of starting. There was a family of flying squirrels in the grove of timber surrounding my house at Oak Lake, in the summer of 1873. They appeared to be easy prey to my old cat. When sailing overhead they more resemble the outstretched skin or pelt of some small animal than a squirrel. The flying squirrel is provided with a fine soft fur, of much finer quality than that of any other specie of squirrel in this part of the county. It is an expert climber always nesting in hollow trees.

inches in length and a tail half as long. At lumber camps and at houses newly erected in the woods they are quite neighborly, coming in and making themselves at home, and one time in the fall of the year they came near taking possession of my camp. When unmolested they become quite tame about a camp, and more than once I have had them eat out of my hand.

The pocket gopher, as its name indicates, is pro\ided with hirge pouches or pockets connecting with its mouth, on each side of its head and neck. It has long been a matter of dispute as to wliat the gopher carries in its pockets, some people believing that they carry the dirt of which the mounds are made that dot the prairies. This I believe to be a mistake, as' nothing is ever found in their pockets but food. They have enormously large fore parts, and in working under ground, after they have loosened the earth, they push it ahead, propelhng themselves along by their hind legs, with their head quite buried in the mass of soil. Coming as they do up the slanting passage, when they reach the surface they give the load of dirt a quick and vigorous flirt, which throws the dirt at some distance. The method may be compared to a snow plow, only the dirt is pushed ahead instead of being dumped to either side.

The pocket gopher is a very common animal in l^eckcr County, but is the most secretive, and less is known of its domestic affairs than of any animal in the country. Kverbody knows a gopher knoll when he sees it, and when the farmer comes to a shock of wheat with the inside all gone, and a stack of loose soil nearly as high as the original shock built up in its place, or when he comes to six or eight hills in a row of potatoes in which the bottom has dropped out, potatoes and all, he knows that a pocket gopher has been operating a mine in the neighborhood.

On the 28th of July, 1886. the Board of Count}- Commissioners of Becker County passed a resolution to pay a bounty on gopheis and blackbirds, the price set on the heads of gophers being two dollars per himdred.

were four farmers on the board at that time, and all four of them were unanimous in the opinion that all burrowing animals of the squirrel tribe should be considered as gophers, and although this decision was not placed on record it w^as the understanding that the scalps of all pocket gophers, gray gophers, speckled gophers and chipmunks should be paid for at the rate of $2.00 a hundred. Whether this ruling was adhered to, for any length of time or not. I do not know, as I left the auditor's office at the close of the year, but judging from the amount of money recpiired to pay the subsequent bounties, there must have been a general slaughter of all four of the species of animals named above.

The county commissioners yesterday voted to discontinue the payment of gopher and blackljird bounties in this county. The effort to exterminate these Httle pests has thus far cost the county about $5,000, and a decrease in the number is scarcely perceptible.

Of the $5,000 referred to about $2,500 was paid out for gopher bounties, which means that about 125,000 of these little animals must have been slaughtered in less than three years in this county.

^^^ J. ]\lorrow, who was count}- auditor during nearly all of this bounty paying period, estimates that the above figures are approximately correct and that at least 125,000 animals belonging to the gopher family were slaughtered during that time.

The gray gopher, or ground squirrel, as it is sometimes called, is very common in 15ecker County. They are nearly as plentiful now as they were when the country first began to settle up. They are not as destructive to grain fields and gardens as the pocket gopher, and when given a chance the}- l)ecome (piite tame.

In the month of September, 1871, I was camped at the north end of the lake that reaches up across Section 6, in Lake Park Township, and for several days I was there all alone, doing m\- own cooking. Among other things I used considerable corn starch which I made into a kind of pudding.

A gray gopher was living in a hole only a few feet frt)m my tent and it was not long before he began to show a disposition to get acquainted, and to pick up the bits of corn starch pudding that fell from the table. In a da}^ or two he became so tame that he would take lumps of pudding from my hand the same as a kitten, only with this difference, that as soon as he had swallowed two or three mouthfuls, he would invariably break and run for his hole. He would never stay under ground however more than a minute, when he would come back and hunt around for more pudding. On one occasion he w^ent through the rounds of swallowing the pudding, running into his hole and back to the tent again, five or six times, until he finally got so full that he could squeeze himself into the ground no longer, but stuck fast in the hole. I pulled him out and let him go. He was aroimd again the next day, when I made a noose on the end of a string, which I placed over the hole, and when he came out I pulled on the string and caught him around the body and pulled him out, and kept him tied up for a few hours. This however did not affect his appetite in the least, for he ate all the pudding he could find during his confinement. I moved away that day and turned him loose, but he was still hunting the ground over for something to eat when I came awav.

The speckled gopher is very common on all the prairies of Becker County. Every school-boy on the prairie knows the little animal that stands by its hole on its hind feet as straight as a picket, with its fore legs hanging by its side, and when alarmed, or its curiosity satisfied drops into its burrow so quickly and silently you hardly miss him, and in less than a minute bobs up again almost as suddenly as he disappeared.

Everybody knows the common field mouse. It is an irritable, pugnacious little creature, standing up on its hind legs and fighting for itself against its enemies at great odds.

The wood mouse is a pretty little animal, three or four inches in leno-th, with a tail a little less. It is of a buff' or fawn color, darker along- its back, with its under parts pure white. It is sometimes called the deer mouse or white-footed mouse. Their natural home is in hollow trees, where thev store away acorns and hazel nuts for the winter, divesting them of the shuck or shell before putting them away. Many a time in the older states I have cut down trees in which I found two or three quarts of beech nuts already peeled by these little creatures, and which we always greedily appropriated to our own use. They frequently make their nests in the house of some settler, where they make bad work destroying clothing, as they never discriminate between your old clothes and your Sunday suit, being equally as liable to chew up and appropriate one as the other, when it comes to making their nest. We had a family of them in the grove on our homestead at Oak Lake, and they made us a lot of trouble.

This little rodent, with a head and body not much larger than your thumb, is quite a factor in the animal kingdom. It is said to be a foreigner, smuggling itself into this country on shipboard from Europe, nearly two hundred years ago. It certainly has improved its time and opportunities, for it has kept pace with civilization, and there is scarcely a family household in America that has not its quota of these little "varmints." It is the pest of housewives and housemaids, who keep up a constant warfare against it with a hostile array of cats, traps, brooms and rat poison. Yet it does not seem to diminish in numbers. It is a terror to them, whether dead or alive, for a single mouse running across the floor will stampede a whole roomful of women as effectually as if a coyote or a wild-cat had been turned loose in the room. Some of them are brave and skillful trappers of the little beast, but their trouble only just begins when he is caught, for they generally have to call one of the boys to take the mouse out of the trap. There is no danger of the species ever becoming extinct.

It has some of the characteristics of the kangaroo ; inasmuch as it travels by jumping with its hind feet. When alarmed it starts off in a succession of astonishing leaps, making eight or ten feet at a jump, using only its hind legs, but when not in a hurry it walks on all fours like any other animal.

This tiny creature is about three inches long, head and body, and its tail is nearly twice as long as both. It has light fore-quarters, strong hind-quarters, and very long hind legs.

The mole is too well known to require an extensive description. It is about two and a half inches long, with a short tail and powerful fore parts especially adapted to digging.

The eyes are very small and covered with a membrane, and investigation shows that the eye is much degenerated, and of but little use as an organ of sight. Moles are subterranean in their habits, and live exclusively on animal food. All kinds of worms, grubs and caterpillars are readily eaten, and in captivity, meat, small birds and even other moles are greedily devoured. Their limbs, although short, are capable of very rapid movements, and wdien in quest of their food, moles frequentl}- travel long distances underground so near the surface that the earth becomes raised u]:» above the tunnel which it makes.

Moles generally dwell in underground encampments built by themselves of mud and clay, which, when c()m])lete(l and dried out, become hard and water-proof. These little camps arc usuall\- called mole hills.

Becker County, lying as it does between the great forest region of northwestern Minnesota and the treeless plains to the westward, is ideally situated for presenting within its boundaries a great variety of bird life. The western one-third of the county is rolling prairie, sloping from elevations of 1400 to 1500 feet along the forest border, toward the Red River Valley in the tier of counties adjoining it on the west. This, with several isolated areas of prairie in the forests farther east, provides congenial homes for a large number of prairie loving birds. Among these are a few species belonging more appropriately to the high Cotcau regions of North Dakota, as, for example, the Lark Bunting, Sprague's Pipit, Chestnut-colored Longspur, Burrowing Owl and several others. The remaining two-thirds of the county are more or less thickly covered with forest. Pine trees, spruces and fir balsams are found throughout much of this area. Deciduous trees of many species are abundant or predominate in the southern and central portions of the county, but in the northeastern quarter the forest becomes more distinctly coniferous and both the fauna and the flora present the typical Canadian aspect. Thus there is presented in the timbered regions of the county a diversity of conditions which attracts almost all the avian forest dwellers of the state.

The prairies and forests of Becker County are diversified by over 88,000 acres of water in the form of lakes and ponds and many streams. Thus an immense number of aquatic birds here find congenial surroundings and ample opportunity to disport themselves, feed and raise their young. With the advent of man and the inevitable and largely unavoidable destruction of primitive conditions, there has been a widespread and wholesale diminution in the numbers of the water birds, extending in some instances to almost the entire disappearance of species once conspicuous features of the bird life. Some of these birds, as the swans, geese, pelicans, curlews, avocet and godwits cannot live in the wild state in associai6o A Pioneer History of Becker County.

tion with civilized conditions an}- more than could the buffalo, antelope or elk, and there is no hope that they will ever again be restored to the old places where they were once so abundant. A few have left their names attached to lakes and rivers, as empty reminders of their early occupancy of the land.

The following list of birds of Becker County has been compiled from information in the possession of the Minn. Nat. Hist. Survey derived from several sources. In the early eighties Prof. W. W. Cook, now connected with the Biological Survey, Washington, D. C, was stationed at White Earth Agency and collected much information in regard to the bird life of that locality, which has found its way into print in several connections, particularly in his well known "Migration of Birds in the Mississippi Valley." In 1883, Mr. Foster H. Brackett, of Massachusetts, who died a few years ago, prepared an annotated list of birds observed about Detroit in the month of May of that year. This list was published in the Otiartcrly Journal of the Boston Zoological Society, Vol. II, 1883. The writer spent nine weeks in the summer of 1902 studying the birds of the Lake Itasca region, immediately adjoining the northeastern corner of Becker County, and the information there obtained applies equally well to the evergreen forests of the county under consideration. The data from these three sources have been used, supplemented by safe inferences from what is known of the general distribution of our birds. In this manner a list has been prepared which will, it is hoped, give to the general reader a fair idea of the bird life of Becker County. To the bird student, who may have opportunity to give close attention to the subject it will at least provide a basis for future more exact annotation.

A western species, probably occurring occasionally in the lakes and marshes. 2. HoldoEi^l's Grebe, Red-necked Grede (Colyinbus holbccllii) Undoubtedly breeds in colonies in the marshy bays of the larger lakes, as it does in Grant County and at Leech Lake.

podiceps). The common species of grebe, breeding abundantly in all shallow lakes and sloughs. The grebes all construct floating nests of water-soaked, decayed vegetation, depositing the oval-shaped, much stained eggs in a shallow depression in the top. In the absence of the parent bird the eggs are covered with wet material and it is generally thought that incubation is partly accomplished by the action of the sun upon this mass of damp vegetation.

A common and well-known bird. The two large olivegray, black-spotted eggs are usually deposited in a depression on an old muskrat house on the edge of open water.

The only gull found during the summer months. It breeds in colonies in sloughs and marshy lakes. The farmers call it the "Prairie Dove" and it may often be seen foli62 A PioxKKR History of Becker County.

Similar to the last in size and general appearance. A migrant, spring and fall, breeding in the far north. Often seen in great tiocks late in the fall.

A summer species, breeding in the sloughs and marshy ponds in company with Black Terns. This bird with its black cap, pearl gray mantle, long. forked tail, and snowy white under parts, well merits the name of "Sea Swallow," sometimes applied to the Terns.

An abundant and, in the breeding season, noisy bird, nesting everywhere in sloughs and wet marshes. It constructs a rather neat but frail nest of fine stems on floating vegetation and lays from two to four dark, spotted, strongly i)yriform eggs, similar in appearance to those of most Terns. The black body-plumage of the adult bird renders it very unlike its snow-white relatives, in appearance.

dilophiis) . A common bird, congregating in certain localities where they build their nests in the tops of trees or on the ground, usually on islands in large lakes. It has rapidly decreased in numbers of late years. Cormorant Lake in the southwestern part of the County derived its name from the presence in former years of a colony of these birds.

This large bird, - formerly abundant, nesting on the ground in colonies, - is now greatly reduced in nvmibers, occurring chiefly in small wandering companies.

A common duck, nesting in bollow trees. Remains late in the fall, often in rapid places in streams, when all still water is frozen over. A beautiful bird but the flesh usually "fishy" and indifferent eating.

Breeding commonly in marshes and sloughs, especially in the prairie portions of the county. This, like all the ducks, has been reduced deplorably in numbers of late years. Still an abundant migrant spring and fall.

This gorgeously colored and valuable duck is rapidly decreasing in numbers everywhere with the advent of civilization. The Wood Duck, as its name implies, is partial

A less common breeder, but numerous spring and fall. This and the last species are fond of the wild celery and congregate in the fall in great flocks on lakes where this plant is abundant.

A common and valuable duck, breeding in the marshes and appearing as a migrant in great numbers spring and fall. In size and appearance very like the Lesser Scaup, but the wing patch, or speculum, is bluish gray instead of white as in the Scaup.

This and its two congeners, the American and Surf Scoter, are chiefly birds of the sea-coasts and high northern regions, but are occasionally found in the interior and an individual belonging to this group may now and then be taken spring or fall or even during the winter months

This curious little cluck with its spike-like tail is a common bird in reedy, marshy lakes, and nests commonly about their margins, floating its bulky nest among the rushes and cat-tails. It is an expert diver and generally adopts this method of escape when hard pressed, after the manner of grebes.

The Hutchin's Goose and the Cackling Goose, varieties of the Canada Goose, probably occur during the spring and fall migrations. The true Brant {Branta hernicla) is rarely if ever found in Minnesota, despite the many records to the contrary. The Snow Goose is so universally known among sportsmen by the name of Brant, that it has led to much confusion in statements regarding these birds.

Of these two species the Whistling Swan breeds in the far north and is only found in Minnesota during migrations and is then an uncommon bird.

The Trumpeter Swan formerly bred commonly from Iowa northward, as evidenced by the many bodies of water named after this bird. Now few, if any, remain to breed within our territory. Small parties of the latter species are still to be found, however, during the migratory seasons.

This slender, curious little bird is common among the rank growth of the marshes, especially among the quillreeds ; but its elusive habits result in its being little known.

A common bird about the shores of lakes and along the banks of streams. Nests in colonies in the tops of tall trees, often in company with Cormorants. This bird is popularly known by the name of "Crane ;" but, though it has long legs and a long neck, it belongs to a different family from the Cranes proper.

This and the preceeding species are the common Rail birds of the marshes, the Sora, however, far out-numbering the larger and longer-billed Virginia Rail. The Sora remains until the marshes freeze in the Fall, when they disappear in a night as if by magic.

Prof. W. W. Cooke has seen this little Rail once at White Earth Agency in the latter part of June, which would indicate it as a breeding bird. On account of the dense marshy growth, which it frequents, and its indisposition to take

The Florida Gallinule (Galliinila galcala) may occasionally occur in similar surroundings, though it is naturally a more southern bird. The red bill and frontal shield will distinguish it from the Coot, in which the bill is white with brown shield. The Gallinule, in habits, is more like a Rail than a Coot.

This gentle, graceful bird is a common summer resident on the prairie meadows. Contrary to the usual custom, the female Phalarope is the gay-colored member of the family, and leaves the incubation of the eggs and care of the young to her plainly-colored mate.

A common bird in meadows and along tlie marshy borders of lakes and streams, especially in spring and fall, a few nesting in such localities.

56. LoNG-iULLED DowiTCiiER,, Red-brcasted Snipe {Macroshaiiipliiis sci^lopaccus) . Breeds in the far north ; migrates through our state in little flocks, when it is to be found frequenting sloughs or marshes.

Once an abundant and conspicuous summer resident over all the prairie regions of Minnesota, but now so reduced in numbers as to be almost uncommon.

Both these long-legged snipe are common and early migrants and their loud "Tell-tale" cries are well known sounds about mud flats and marshy lake-sides. A few are to be found during the summer months, but they breed almost entirely in the far north.

A common migrant found chiefly about ponds and streams in wooded regions. A few pass the summer and probably nest in such localities. The nest is a rarity and there is reason to believe that the eggs are deposited in the deserted arboreal nests of other birds.

Once one of the most characteristic birds of all our upland prairies ; but on account of its palatable flesh and tame and unsuspicious nature, together with the destruction of its natural habitat for purposes of agriculture, it has been reduced almost to the verge of extermination where it was once most abundant. The "passing" of the Upland Plover is much to be deplored, and it is doubtful whether it can ever be reinstalled, even with the most rigid protection.

Occasionally encountered during migration in compact flocks of many individuals, frequenting the dry prairies in the neighborhood of lakes and watercourses.

The day of this large and conspicuous bird with its long curved bill has nearly passed in the settled portions of Minnesota. It was once a common summer resident on our prairies.

Formerly an abundant migrant over the prairie regions of the interior, but now like the Passenger Pigeon, apparently a bird of the past. The explanation of its singular disappearance is not apparent.

Air. D. W. Meeker, of Moorehead, states that this 1)ird has of late years become a permanent resident in moderate numbers in the southern part of Becker County. This is probably the most northern locality for the state.

87. Prairie Hen, Pinnated Grouse, Prairie Chicken (Tyiiipaniichus amcricaiiiis ) . This bird has extended its range northwestward until it is now found in almost all parts of Minnesota, where the character of the surface is suited to its wants. It reached the western part of Minnesota twenty-five or thirty years ago.

88. Sharp-tailed GrolisE. "Prairie Chicken" [Pcdiocccfcs phasiaiiclliis campcsfris). This was the original Prairie Chicken of the western part of our state. It is rather more frecjuently found among scattered timber and in brushland than the Pinnated Grouse.

Formerly an abundant bird throughout all the woodlands of the state, now probably entirely extinct everywhere. Brackett reports seeing near Detroit in May. 1883, "a few small flocks," and adds that it was "ver}- abundant a little later."

A common bird, often mistaken, when in flocks, for the last species, accounting for some of the reports of the latter bird being seen during late years.

Occurs as a summer resident in the forest-covered portion of the county. A single individual seen by the writer at Elk Lake near the northeastern corner of Becker County in July, 1902.

A common bird seen hunting low over the marshes and prairies. Its food consists largely of meadow mice, frogs, snakes and large insects. It is therefore a useful bird and should not be thoughtlessly destroyed.

This trim little hawk is a summer resident and fairly common. It is rapid of flight and daring in pursuit of its prey. It is powerful for its size and destroys many birds and where opportunity offers does much damage among young poultry.

Found chiefly in the winter time, but a few may breed in the heavy forests. A large, powerful bird that preys almost entirely upon rabbits, squirrels, grouse, ducks and poultry when the opportunity offers.

This hawk, together with the last two species and the Duck Hawk, to be mentioned later, are the outlaws among the diurnal birds of prey. They do far more harm in securmg their chosen quarry, than can be condoned by the small amount of good they do in the destruction of injurious rodents and other animals. In the case of all the other hawks the balance is in their favor and they are of real benefit to the farmer and are worthy of protection even if they do destroy an occasional domestic fowl.

of the fanner, feeding as it does almost entirely upon gophers, squirrels, mice, grasshoppers and other insects with a few snakes, lizards and frogs, and, less frequently, wild birds and poultry. However, its few harmful deeds give it a bad name and it is relentlessly pursued and destroyed by every poultry raiser, when the real offender is usually one of the smaller species mentioned above.

A light colored variety of this bird, known as Krider's Hawk, and a dark western form, known as the Western Red Tail, may be looked for as of occasional occurrence.

A common species. This bird feeds almost exclusively on striped gophers and mice, grasshoppers and crickets. At times it destroys large numbers of locusts and large grasshoppers, which it secures by beating low over the prairie and seizing them as they tiy up from the ground. It is thus an eminently beneficial bird and should be recognized and carefull}- protected.

A medium sized hawk that rarely kills birds and is distinctly of benefit to the agricultural interests. An abundant species, loi. American Rough-legged Hawk (Arcliibiitco lagopiis saiictijohannis).

Chiefly a winter bird in the United States, but Prof. Cooke tells us that he has seen them in Becker County, presumably at White Earth Agency, as late as the first of June ; which would seem to indicate that they formerly, if not at present, bred in the secluded parts of the county.

for many years past in a large pine tree on the west shore of Elk Lake, but a short distance north of the northeastern corner of Becker County. The writer inspected and photographed this eyrie, containing two young eaglets in July, 1902. The Bald Eagle makes bold to capture a few squirrels, rabbits, gophers, and an occasional bird ; but for the most part secures its living by robbing the Fisk Hawk of its hard-earned prey. It is, also, not averse to carrion when hard pressed. A noble record for the bird selected as our national emblem !

An abundant and beautiful little hawk to be seen sitting motionless on the top of a stub or fence post, or poised on rapidly-beating wings, as it looks for the mouse or grasshopper in the grass below. A very useful bird that has been all too greatly reduced in numbers of late years. Nests in holes in trees. no. OsPREY, Fish Hawk (Fandioii halicctiis caroliiicnsis) .

A few pairs nest about the larger bodies of water. They were to be seen daily about Lake Itasca in the summer of 1902, securing their prey by bold dashes into the water, often from a considerable height. They seize the tish in their talons and bear it off to be devoured at some con-

This is the common little owl that comes so fearlessly about farms, hunting for mice among the out-buildings and about the grain stacks. Remains through the winter.

The commonest large owl. Found chiefly in heavy woods. This bird is large and powerful and very destructive to mammals and birds of many species. It kills a large number of rabbits and works havoc among the Ruffed grouse during the late fall and winter season, when other food is not as easily obtained.

The owls are, for the most part, beneficial to agricultural interests, as they destroy, in their nocturnal prowlings, an immense number of mice, other small injurious mammals, and insects, some of them of the most damaging varieties. The Great Horned and the Great Gray are the only two species an inventory of whose food would show the balance to be seriously against them. The farmer, who kills the smaller owls, is thoughtlessly destroying most valuable allies in the constant warfare which it is necessary to wage against his natural enemies.

A winter visitant, sometimes appearing in considerable numbers, usually in open country. It is a powerful owl, destructive to birds, mammals and fish, but its munbers are usually so limited that it is not a disturbing element of much importance.

A rather common winter visitant throughout the forests of northern Minnesota and a few probably remain to breed. This owl is said often to hunt its prey, hawk-like, in the daytime.

The popular idea that owls are able to see but very imperfectly in the daytime is not entirely correct, for most, if not all, varieties can see well enough to get about with perfect ease when forced to move, and several other species besides the Hawk Owl occasionally hunt by day.

The cuckoos are rather common but shy birds and little seen as they inhabit the thick underbrush. Their loud, rattling call is, however, well known ; and the belief, that they utter it usually just preceding storms, has given to them the common name of "Rain Crow." They are about the only birds that will eat, in any considerable numbers, the hairy caterpillars which are often such a pest; and they are therefore, among our most beneficial birds. Unlike the European Cuckoo they build their own nests and rear their own young.

A common summer resident. This bird from its habit of piercing the bark to secure the sap, does much injury to many varieties of trees, incluchng cultivated fruit and ornamental species. It is therefore to be regarded in the light of a pest - the only outlaw among the woodpeckers, which are, as a family, among the most useful of all our birds.

This, the largest of our woodpeckers, is still rather common in the primitive forests. It is a most useful bird and should never be ruthlessly destroyed simply because it is an object of curiosity, as is so frequently the case.

Woodpecker (Colapfcs aiiratiis hifciis). A familiar bird known to everyone. More terrestrial in habit than the other woodpeckers, feeding extensively on ants which it secures by thrusting its long, sticky togue into their burrows. ^33- Whip-poor-will {Anfrostoiiiiis vocifenis) .

Frequent in heavy timber about lakes and along watercourses. Builds its nest in a cavity in a tree. This is the Flycatcher that almost invariably places a cast-off snakeskin in its nest.

Common, frequenting chiefly willow^ groves and low-lying brush land. Probably, in part, at least, the variety known as the Alder Flycatcher.

Common, noticed chiefly in the winter time as it then forages about lumber camps and forest dwellings. In the early spring it retreats to nest in the most inaccessible spruce and white cedar swamps.

Occurs cliiefly as a late fall, winter and early spring- visitant from the north, feeding- about camps and along- the shores of lakes and rivers.

An abundant bird in all prairie meadows. Called Rice Bird in the south where it is very destructive in the rice fields; in the north a harmless or beneficial bird.

Common. A parasitic bird, never building a nest of its own, the eggs being deposited in the nests of other birds, usually a species smaller than the cow bird. The voung are cared for by the foster parents.

Abundant in all (juill-reed and cat-tail swamps. A powerful bird, doing much harm to corn, oats and wheat but also feeding extensively upon grasshoppers and locusts.

An abundant and destructive bird although the injury it does to grain is somewhat compensated for by the numerous number of injurious insects and weed seeds wdiich it consumes.

Brackett says, "Quite common" at Detroit in May, 1883, but this is so near the northern limit of its distribution that one would expect it to be of infrequent occurrence.

Common, breeding. Most noticeable in the late summer and fall when thev congregate in loose flocks, feeding about farm-yards, fields and lawns, destroying a large number of injurious insects and grubs that compensate in some measure for the injury that they do to the farmers' crops.

A \vinter visitant, appearing in small flocks. Tame and vmsuspicious in habits. Feeds largely on fruit of the boxelder, maple and hackberry.

Introduced into the United States in 1850, this bird has spread until it is now a resident in almost every state and territory of the Union and in most parts of British America.

What is known as Gambel's or the Intermediate Sparrow, a western variety of this species, occurs regularly during the migrations, often in considerable numbers.

Infrequent, probably reachino^ the northern hmit of its distribution in the open woodland of the southern part of Becker County. Prof. W. W. Cooke states that he did not see it during a three years' residence at White Earth Agency ; but Mr. B. T. Gault reported seeing several. May 27th, 1893, in going from Detroit to Lake Lida. .\t the latter place several were encoimtered June 15th of the same year in a brushy pasture. The writer did not see it at Lake Itasca, but it occurs at Leech Lake.

A summer resident, frequenting chiefly grass, clover and grain fields, where it nests in late June and July. Becker County is near the northern limit of its range but it has been found nesting in Polk County, still further north and it has been reported from Marshall County.

A western species occurring on the prairies of the western portions of the county. This bird soars and sings high in the air like the English skylark and our own horned lark.

An abundant summer resident throughout tbe coniferous forests. Its wonderful song could be heard coming from all directions until far into the twilight every evening at Lake Itasca during June and July. 1902.

A common and familiar bird, nesting not only in boxes about habitations, but very commonly in holes in tree stubs standing in open places in the forest.

^lany of the birds that were common in Becker County in early days have become rare and some of them almost extinct in this localit}-. This is especially true of the swan, pelican, whooping crane, sandhill crane, blue heron, cormorant, wood duck, wild pigeon, woodcock and bald eagle.

The last named, the emblem of the nation, formerly nested in the county ; and the last nest, of which there is a record, was in a large tree which stood on an island in Cotton Lake. This

In 1897 a whooping crane was found dead in Town Lake, south of Frazee. The bird had been shot and had probably flown some distance before his wounds proved fatal. Albert Higbee, in the history of Walworth, also mentions the killing of one in that township in the early eighties.

Cormorants and pelicans formerly nested in Becker County and the fact that two lakes were named after these birds is due to this fact. The cormorants formerly nested on the islands in the lake of that name, in the southwestern part of the county, but were forced to vacate by the settlers.

There were several colonies of blue heron in the county, but now the nests are widely scattered. During the summers of 1886 to 1889 the Indians cut down about thirty pine trees each year on the shores of Rice Lake, north of Height of Land Lake, in order to get the young birds for food.

The wild pigeon, which at one time was found everywhere in North America, from Mexico to Hudson's Bay and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rocky Mountains, has entirely disappeared. These birds nested in Becker County and as far north as Hudson's Bay. Until the seventies the wild pigeon was very plentiful and countless thousands of them were killed in this locality. The last one seen in Becker County, of which there is a record, was observed by Mr. Wilcox in 1888. This bird was crippled and remained through the summer of that year in a little grove of pine trees on the banks of the Otter Tail River about eight miles north of Frazee.

Woodcock never were plentiful in Becker County and for many years have been very rare. This is one of the game birds that is rapidly disappearing and will soon be referred to only in the past tense.

The finest of all our ducks, the graceful, beautifully plumaged wood duck is another favorite that is becoming rarer each year. This bird formerly nested in holes in trees near the lakes and streams of Becker County and some of them still breed in remote sections of the county. Old settlers recall seeing the mother bird carrying her young, one by one, in her bill to the water from the nest in the tree.

The (leniand for game birds for the eastern markets well nigh caused the extermination of the ruffed, pinnated and sharp-tailed grouse by the market hunters, aided and abetted by traders in the villages. Since the sale of all game has been prohibited in Alinnein the woods. Limiting the open season, also the number that may be killed in a day, are factors that aid their protection. It will be necessary, however, to enact and enforce more stringent laws, else these birds will, like the buffalo, soon be exterminated.

The ruffed grouse, the king of game birds of Minnesota, is found in all the timbered parts of Becker County. This splendid bird is also called "partridge" and "pheasant," because of their resemblance to their Euro])ean relatives. Dr. Coues says, "The bird itself is unmistakable ; no other species has the conspicuous ruffle of lengthened, broad, soft, silky (purple-black) feathers on the neck." No one who has heard the whirr of the ruff'ed grouse, when taking wing, could mistake this peculiar, startling sound for any other. Nor can one mistake the drumming sound made by the male bird, by rapidly vibrating his wings, while standing on a log or stump. The home of the ruffed grouse is in the woodlands - in the summer they are found near openings and around berry patches, but as the leaves fall and winter approaches they seek the cover of heavy timber and wooded swamplands. They pair in the early spring ; nest upon the ground in the shelter of brush, a fallen log or in a hollow between the roots of a tree. The number of eggs varies from ten to sixteen ; and the newly hatched chicks quickly hide under leaves or brush when the mother bird sounds the note of alarm. She will pretend to be wounded in order to lead an intruder from the vicinity of her brood, and will attack one who continues to approach after the little brown shadows have disappeared.

No game bird is more difficult to shoot. Their colors blend so completely with their surroundings that it is difficult to distinguish them until they are awing - then the hunter often has only a glimpse of a whirring, brown body, darting to the cover of nearby brush or timber. The flesh is white, extremely delicate, and highly prized.

Comparatively little is known of the Canada grouse, or, as it is commonly named, the "spruce grouse" or "spruce hen." This bird was also called the "fool hen" because it had not learned to fear man. With the ap])roach of civilization it has retired to the dense forests and dark swamps where it is rarely seen. In summer it feeds upon berries, the buds and leaves of plants and shrubs and insects. In the winter its food is mainly the buds and leaves of pine and other coniferous trees.

The sharp-tailed grouse was the original "prairie cliicken" of the west and was plentiful in Becker County, especially in the western part where prairie and woodland meet. They are about the same size as the pinnated grouse, and the distinguishing marks are : the pointed tail ; lighter colored plumage, especially on the breast and lower part of the body ; heavier feathering of the legs and extending well upon the feet. Its home is in the rolling country where there is brush or stunted growth of timber. A favorite bird with sportsmen, as they lie close for the dog ; usually rise singly, and when flushed will fly but a short distance. In summer they feed upon berries and insects, in the winter upon buds of brush and trees.

The pinnated grouse or prairie chicken was driven west by the advance of civilization and for many years has been found upon the prairies and in the openings in the timber of Becker County. The pairing season begins with the breaking up of winter, when the booming of the male bird sounds like the beating of a mufiled drum. This sound is made by inflating the orangecolored receptacles at either side of the neck, and issuing the call for the female, which is at the same time a challenge to other males. Their nest is a crude affair of grass on the sod or in the stubble. The number of eggs laid varies from eight to sixteen and the female has entire charge of incubation and the care of the young. Coveys remain together until late in the fall when the birds "bunch," the flocks often numbering from one to two hundred. Early in the fall the birds lie well to the dogs and, unless scattered, nearly all of the covey will take wing at the same time, the mother rising slightly in advance of her young. As the season advances the birds become wilder and, when disturbed, fly a long distance. They feed upon small grain and seeds, which are invariably picked from the ground, and are fond of grasshoppers and other insects. In the winter they roost in trees, feed upon buds, around straw stacks and in cornfields and weed patches. The flesh is dark, of a gamey flavor and is highly prized. Distinguishing marks are, the short rounded tail and the little wings of narrow, straight, pointed feathers at either side of the neck.

Quail have several times reached the southern townships of Becker County where several bevys were hatched in 1906. These birds resemble young ruffed grouse with abbreviated tails. They are very prolific, the female laying from twelve to twenty eggs. Both parents aid in the process of incubation and in the care of the young. They feed mainly upon seeds and insects and from an economic standpoint are considered the most valuable of all birds. The call of this beautiful bird resembles the name by which it is known in some localities - "Bob White." Quail are difficult to shoot on account of their extremely rapid flight. They live through a winter when the snowfall is light; but when the snow is heavy they find it difficult to procure food. As they roost upon the ground, huddled together in some sheltered spot, they are often smothered by drifting snow.

Many varieties of wild ducks, besides the wood duck, still nest in the unsettled parts of the county. During the seasons of migration, in the spring and fall, the ducks tarry with us until they leave, on the northern journey for their breeding grounds ; and in the fall for their winter homes. The lakes and marshes of Becker County, where wild rice and celery thrive, are favorite haunts for these birds and there the hunters seek their quarry.

L pland plover still breed extensively on the prairies and meadows of Becker County and leave, late in the summer, for southern climes. Late in the fall the golden plover stop over a few days before proceeding on their journey to the grassy ranges of Texas and Northern Mexico.

In the fish that inhabit the lakes and streams, nature endowed Becker County with a goodly heritage. In them the Indians found one of the principal sources of their supply of food - one that was inexhaustible, for the Indian never was guilty of wanton destruction, nor would he capture more fish or game than he could make use of. It is to be regretted that his white brothers did not learn from him the lesson of moderation ; for, if they had, they would never have fed fish to their swine or used them to fertilize their fields.

The early settlers, like the Indians, found in the fish a staple article of food, and this was one of the reasons why they located as near as possible to a lake or stream. The white man brought improved implements for capturing fish ; and these were readily adopted by his dusky brother of the forest.

As the country became more thickly populated and the lines of railroad were extended the demand for fish for shipment increased ; and the waters of Becker County became a favorite field for the netter and market fisher. For many years there was little or no restriction; and the game and food fish were slaughtered during the spawning seasons, for that was the time when they could be netted or speared with comparative ease. When the fish became scarce there came a demand for protection during the spawning periods; and laws were enacted prohibiting fishing in the early spring. These, like all other laws, were flagrantly violated by a certain class of citizens ; and it became necessary to pass more strict laws ; imposing more severe penalties, and making it the duty of special officers to enforce them. The sale of black bass is prohibited in Minnesota; also the taking in any other way than with hook and line. In this part of the state the bass do not leave their spawning beds until late in June, and the closed season should be extended from May 30th to July I St.

Several varieties of fish, that were not natives of Becker County, have been planted in its waters with varying success. Brook trout were placed in the streams flowing into Detroit Lake from the east and south, and they have thrived in those waters. Trout were also planted in the small streams tributary to the Buffalo and Wild Rice Rivers; but have not become numerous in those brooks. In 1874 the United States government planted "salmon," probably landlocked or lake trout in Detroit Lake ; but these were caught in a few years by the Indians near the mouth of he Pelican River, early in the spring. It was doubtless the same variety of fish that was planted in Hehrhold Lake by the government in 1896; but there is no record of any of them having been caught. The State Game and Fish Commission has planted crappies in the Detroit chain of lakes and these fine fish will, in all probability, become abundant in these lakes. Carp were planted in Oak Lake and are, doubtless, still there as they are only caught with net or spear.

The black bass, small and large mouth, are natives of Becker County, and the large mouth variety is found in practically all of the lakes. A description of these fish is unnecessary, for nearly every resident of the county has an intimate acquaintance with them. They are the game fish of North America and Dr. Henshall, the recognized authority, says, "Inch for inch, and pound for pound, the gamest fish that swims." The small mouth variety is the rarer, and many fishermen consider it the gamer of the two. The color in both varieties varies, even in the same waters ; age, depth and hue of water, and presence or absence of weeds about their haunts being factors. In the winter the black bass hibernate in deep water ; and authorities agree with the statement of Mr. John Eoff, found in the Report of the Smithsonian Institution, for 1854: "In the winter season they retire to deep, still water and apparently hide under rocks, logs, etc., and remain there until the first of April."

After leaving their winter quarters, the bass spend several weeks before they pair and begin preparations for breeding. Each pair makes a nest in shallow water, varying from two to six feet deep, in the lakes. The nests are shallow, saucerlike depressions, about twice the diameter of the length of the fish, from which the bass fan with their tails and fins, sand, silt and vegetable matter, leaving a bright, clean bed. The female deposits her eggs in the nest and they are fertilized by the male. The eggs are hatched in from one to two weeks, depending upon the temperature of the water. If the spawning period has arrived the fish will not spawn unless the temperature of the water is above 50 degrees ; and the eggs will die if it falls to 45 degrees after they have been deposited. It is the male bass that guards the nest and broods the newly-hatched fry for several days, until they scatter to the shelter of weeds and grass in shallow water. The young fish feed upon small crustacean and some of the larval forms of insects. In a month they are an inch long ; three to six inches in the fall ; and increase about one pound each year until the average maximum of five pounds is attained.

Black bass cannot be propogated artificially and breeding in captivity is still in the experimental stage. Fry for transplanting (in Minnesota) are obtained from the sloughs and shallows of the lower Mississippi. The large mouth is the Oswego.

The Rock bass resembles the black bass, but is deeper and more compressed, like a sunfish. It is olive green in color, much mottled ; head and mouth large ; eyes large and red. The rock bass, when fullgrown, is from ten to twelve inches in length and weighs about one pound. They are common in all the waters of Becker County and are an excellent pan-fish.

Wail-Eyed Pike, as they are commonly known, although in the "books" they are also called "Pickerel" and "Pike-Perch," are natives of most of the lakes of the county. Cormorant being a notable exception. The reason for the absence of the Pike from this lake has never been explained. This is one of the most valuable of the food fishes of the state. It is a trimly built, shapely fish with a long and rather slender body. The head is large, and the large eyes are "glassy." The color varies ; but is usually of an olive or greenish brown ; are rarely found in shallow water except early in the spring, when they spawn near the mouth of a stream. The pike are a quick growing fish, attain a length of three feet and, occasionally, a weight of ten pounds. They are found about sandy or gravelly bars and, as the season advances, seek deeper, colder water.

The pickerel is a native. This fish is not a favorite in Becker County, because the more desirable members of the finny tribe are so plentiful. It cannot be called a handsome fish, for it has too large a head and a mouth that is far too large for a thing of beauty. The pickerel is a valuable food fish, especially after it has attained a weight of three pounds or over. They spawn early in the spring in very shallow water along the marshy or grassy shores of the lakes and streams. The pickerel is easily caught, for it will bite at anything; and during the winter is speared through holes in the ice.

The yellow perch is another fish that is found in all the waters of the county. It is always found in schools - the fish in each school being about the same size. The fiesh is delicately flavored.

Catfish and bullheads are natives of the lakes and streams of the county. They are not favorites with fishermen, yet the flesh is highly prized in many localities.

The sucker family is well represented in the waters of the county. The red horse and other varieties of sucker are abundant. They are of little use as food fish as the flesh becomes soft early in the spring. The sucker is the w^orst enemy of other fish for it follows them during the breeding season and feasts upon their spawn. It is rarely taken except with net or spear.

The tullibee, or inland or mongrel whitefish, is a native of the deep water lakes of the county. It is a valuable food fish and one that is highly prized by those who live near the lakes. Its home is in the deep, cold waters, and it never comes near the surface except during the breeding season, which occurs late in November and early in December. The tullibee spawns near the surface ; and, when they are running, are caught in gill nets. Many people bury them in the snow and thus have a supply of fresh fish for the entire winter.

The minnows are, of course, numerous in all the waters of the county. Some of the darters are very beautiful, especially during the breeding season ; and on account of their brilliant colors, are said to occupy the same position among fishes that humming birds do among birds. The creek chub or horned dace, silver fin or "horny head," shiner, roach or golden shiner, red fin, l)lunt-nose, silversides, stickleback and stone rollers are common.

It is probable that all the fish found in the Red River of the North and its tributaries have been found in Becker County. There are records of sturgeon being taken in Detroit Lake ; and probably some of the "monsters," reported from time to time, are members of this family. Sheepshead, also called the fresh water drum, have been caught in Pelican Lake. The gold eyes, river chub and some of the minnows and darters are also found in the tributaries of the Red River that flow from the countv.

For a long- time it was the opinion of many intelligent people, who had investigated the subject, that the Indians were the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel. If it is a fact that they were actually lost, that might be a very reasonable theory, but although a good many Jews have been found in America in recent years, I have never heard of their claiming any relationship with the Indian.

George Catlin, an American artist, who had traveled among the Indians of the entire continent, and was undoubtedly better acquainted with the Indian character and traditions than any other white man, claimed to be firm in the belief that the Indians had an Adam of their own and that they were originally created on the American continent.

This opinion is corroborated by Dr. Eastman, a highly educated Sioux Indian of full blood, who says that he recognizes the names of several of the Japanese warships as familiar Sioux names, varying but little from those of his own tongue.

During the world's fair at St. Louis, in 1904, an educated Indian woman, of the Creek Nation, stated that during a conversation with some of the Filipinos, who were there on exhibition, that she could understand a large part of their language, and could converse with them in their native tongue with a surprising degree of intelligence.

But whether they were of Mongolian, Malay, Phenician, Scandinavian, American. Aztec, or Hebrew origin, or whether they were descended from the man in the moon, will probably never be known, and the imagination, unsupported by facts, may roam at will in the realm of ingenious, speculation, which it is unprofitable to pursue.

The Chippewa Indians

I am free to admit, that I take a different view of the Indian question, and that my feelings and sympathies run in a different channel from that of many of the American people.

Sixty years of my life I have passed among, or in close proximity to different tribes, and have traveled or lived among' more than twenty dift'erent nations of Indians, speaking as many different tongues.

When a child in my mother's arms, we were both saved from a watery grave by a squaw, belonging to the Alleghany tribe of the Seneca Nation, who forced her way in a canoe, through a raging flood, and rescued us from a block of ice that was hurrying us at a rapid rate, down the swiftly flowing waters of the Alleghany River.

It is true that I have been twice held up by the Sioux Indians, who each time considered all white men as trespassers on their lands, and I was once robbed by the Bannocks, but they were then at war with the United States, and only two months before nearly three hundred of their warriors had been slain by our soldiers in a single battle.

I have lived for more than thirty-six years as a near neighbor to the Chippewa Indians here in Becker County, and feeling myself duly qualified to render an impartial opinion in their case, I pronounce them, with the exception perhaps of the Flatheads and Fend' Oreilles in Montana, to be the most honest, peaceable and trustworthy nation of Indians in the United States. Of course there have been criminals among them, like Bach-i-na-na, Bo-anece and Bobolink, who have been guilty of the crime of murder, but during the brief history of our county, twice as many murders have been comiuitted by white men.

During my ten years' experience in logging on the Otter Tail River, I have had many losses from theft by white men, but never lost the value of a penny through an Indian.

Bishop Whipple once told of making a trip many years ago with a party of Indians, and one morning, as they were about to start out on a hunt, the l)ishop asked the chief what he had better do with his watch and pocketbook, as he did not like to carry them around through the brush and swamps, and he was afraid they would be stolen if he left them in camp. The chief replied, "hang them up on a tree, they will be safe ; there is not a white man within fifty miles of here."

Ever since the discovery of America there has been a class of white men on the frontiers, who have considered the Indians as legitimate victims of plunder and rapine, and in some sections, and at dififerent periods of our country's history it has been the height of ambition with some of this class of bravados to kill one or more Indians. Adam Poe, notorious as the slayer of Big Foot, a Wyandot chief, near the Ohio River, in West Virginia something like 100 years ago, once remarked that "he had killed 'bars' and 'painters' (bears and panthers) to his heart's content, but that there was no game like Injuns,"

W. W. Warren, the historian of the Chippewa Nation, himself one-fourth of Chippewa blood, in the preface to his interesting work makes the following touching and elocjuent plea in behalf of his kindred race :

The red race of North America is fast disappearing before the onward, irresistless tread of the Anglo-Saxon. Once the vast tract of country, lying between the Atlantic seaboard and the Mississippi, where a century since roamed numerous tribes of the wild sons of nature, but a few, a very few, now exist. Their former dominions are now covered with the teeming towns and villages of the "pale face," and millions of happy freemen enjoy the former homes of these unhappy and fated people.

The few tribes and remnants of tribes, who still exist on our Western frontier, truly deserve the sympathy and attention of the American people. We owe it to them as a duty, for we are now the possessors of their former inheritance, and the bones of their ancestors are sprinkled through the soil on which are now erected our happy homesteads.

The red man has no powerful friends, such as the enslaved negro once could boast, to represent his miserable, sorrowing condition, his many wrongs, his wants and wishes. In fact, so feebly is the voice of philanthrophy raised in his favor, that his very existence appears to be hardly known to some of the American people, or his character and condition

Much has been written concerning the red race, by travelers, missionaries and by some eminent authors; but the information respecting them, which has thus far been collected, has been superficial and inaccurate.

It is true that the Indians are possessed of traits of character and an individuaHty peculiarly their own, and in most cases a white man who expects to deal with them by following the business rules and principles of the white men, will at first become puzzled and disappointed, but after a better acquaintance, and gaining their confidence will find his business with them very much simplified and more satisfactory. The following extract from the rep<^rt of Indian Commissioner Leuj^p, for 1905, touching these peculiar characteristics of the Indian are well worthy of record.

I copy the folloAving article from the \Mute Earth Touiahai^'k. Of this report the editor says : "All those who may read the following extracts from the report of Commissioner Leupp, cannot help but admit that he has a sincere regard for the Indians. Notwithstanding that he may have overdrawn their virtues, there it not an Indian in America who should not feel grateful for the Commissioner's report as a whole."

The commonest mistake made by the white wellwishers in dealing with the Indian is the assumption that he is simply a white man with a red skin. The next commonest is the assumption that because he is a non-Caucasian he is to be classed indiscriminately with other non-Caucasians, like the negro, for instance. The truth is that the Indian has as distinct an individuality as any type of men who ever lived, and he will never be judged aright till we learn to measure him by his own standards, as we whites would wish to be measured if some more powerful race were to usurp dominion over us.

Suppose, a few centuries ago, an absolutely alien people like the Chinese had invaded our shores and driven the white colonists before them to districts more and more isolated, destroyed the industries on which they had always subsisted, and crowned all by disarming them and penning them on various tracts of land where they could be fed and clothed and cared for at no cost to themselves, to what condition would the white American of to-day have been reduced? In spite of their vigorous ancestry they would surely have lapsed into barbarism and become pauperized. No race on earth could overcome, with forces evolved from within themselves.

the effect of such treatment. That our red brethren have not been whollyruined by it, is the best proof we could ask for the sturdy traits of character inherent in them. But though not ruined, they have suffered serious deterioration, and the chief problem now before us is to prevent its going any further. To that end we must reckon with several facts.

First, little can be done to change the Indian who has already passed middle life. By virtue of that very quality of steadfastness which we admire in him, when well applied, he is likely to remain an Indian of the old school to the last. With the younger adults we can do something here and there, where we find one who is not too conservative; but our main hope lies with the youthful generation, who are still measurably plastic.

The thoughtless make sport of the Indian's love of personal adornment, forgetting that nature has given him an artistic instinct of which this is merely the natural expression. What harm does it do him that he likes a red kerchief around his neck, or feels a thrill of pride in the silver buckle on his belt? Does not the banker in the midst of civilization wear a scarf pin and a watch chain, and fasten his linen cuffs with links of gold? The highest of us is none the worse for the love of what is bright and pleasant to the eye. Our duty is plainly not to strangle the Indian's artistic craving, but to direct it into a channel where its satisfaction will bear the best fruit for himself and the world.

Abstract Of Title

It is customary among all careful business men, and particularly with dealers in real estate, before investing money in land or taking security in the same, to investigate the title to the land in question. Becker County is now nearly all, except what is on the White Earth Reservation, in the hands of white people as owners, and they, I believe feel secure in their right and title to their homes, and such other real estate as they possess, wherever they are able to trace the dififerent instruments of conveyance link by link in one unbroken chain back to the deed or patent from the United States Government.

But for the satisfaction of all such that have any fear that there may be a flaw in their title previous to Uncle Sam's patent, and for the satisfaction of any person who may on any moral grounds, or who may have any conscientious scruples as to whether Uncle Sam himself had a good and sufficient right, both morally and legally, to convey to us these lands, we will proceed to investigate the title to the soil of Becker County, back to the very beginning of the history of the real estate business on the American continent.

Becker County was a part of the Louisiana purchase, which was ceded or deeded to the United States by Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, on the 30th day of April, 1803. And now the gigantic question arises : how did France acquire a legal right to this country to begin with? And here we come to the first instrument of conveyance ever executed in writing afifecting the title to the farms and homes of the people of Becker County.

Early in the year 1689, Nicholas Perrot, a Frenchman, with a party of forty men, established a trading post at Lake Pepin, and commenced trading with the Sioux Indians. That same year he formally claimed the country in the name of France.

I, Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King at the post of Nadouessioux. and commissioned to manage the interests of commerce among the Indians, and to take possession in the King's name of all places where I have heretofore been, and whither I will go.

Father Marest of the Society of Jesus, Missionary among the Sioux; of Monsieur de Borieguillot, commanding the French in the neighborhood of the Wisconsin; Augustin Legardieur, Esquire; Sieur de Caumont; and of Messieurs Le Seur, Herbert, Lemire and Blein, declare to all whom it may concern, that being come from The Bay Des Puants, and to the Lake of the Wisconsins, and to the River Mississippi, we did transport ourselves to the country of the Sioux, on the borders of the River St. Croix, to the mouth of the River St. Pierre (Minnesota River), on the bank of which were the Mantantans; and farther up to the interior, to the northeast of the Mississippi, as far as the Menchokatonx, with whom dwell a majority of the Sioux who are to the northwest of the Mississippi, to take possession for, and in the name of the King, of the countries and rivers inhabited by the said tribes, and of which they are the proprietors.

We here find the Minnesota country west of the Mississippi River claimed by France, and this instrument is one of the Hnks in the chain of title by which our lands are held. But to a man of ordinary intelligence and moral sensibility we are still in the mire of doubt and uncertainty, and are far from "reading our title clear" to the soil we now occupy, and I here come to a question that has puzzled many an able writer, and been the theme of many a long-winded controversy.

When Washington Irving began to write up the history of New York, he encountered this same overshadowing question. He, however, met the question heroically, and came forward with an array of arguments and statement of facts that must forever settle the question of the right of the King of France to this section of our country to the entire satisfaction of all conscientious philanthropists and legal quibblers. He says :

The question which has thus suddenly arisen is: What right had the first discoverers of America to land and take possession of a country without first gaining the consent of its inhabitants? A question that has stood many fierce assaults, and has given much distress of mind to multitudes of kind-hearted people. And indeed, until it be totally vanquished and put to rest, the worthy people of America can by no means enjoy the soil they inhabit with clear right and title, and quiet, unsullied consciences.

The first source of right by which property is acquired in a country is discovery. For as all mankind have an equal right to anything which has never before been appropriated, so a nation that discovers an uninhabitated country and takes possession thereof is considered as enjoying full property, and absolute, unquestionable empire therein.

This proposition being admitted, it clearly follows that the Europeans who first visited America were the real discoverers of the same; nothing being necessary to establish this fact but simply to prove that it was totally uninhabitated by man. This would at first appear to be a point of some difficulty, for it is well known that this quarter of the world abounded with certain animals that walked erect on two feet, had something of the human countenance, uttered certain unintelligible sounds very much like language and in short, had a marvelous resemblance to human beings. But the zealous and enlightened fathers who accompanied the discoverers, soon cleared up this point, greatly to the satisfaction of his Holiness the Pope and all Christian voyagers and discoverers.

They plainly proved, and as no Indian writers arose on the other side to dispute the fact, it was considered as fully admitted and established that the two-legged race of animals before mentioned were mere cannibals, detestable monsters, and some of them giants; which last have always been considered as outlaws. Indeed the philosophic Lord Bacon declared the Indians to be people prescribed by the laws of nature.

Nor are these all the proofs of their utter barbarism. Ullo tells us, "Their imbecility is so visible that one can hardly form an idea of them different from what one has of the brutes. Nothing disturbs the tranquility of their souls, equally insensible to disasters and to prosperity. Though half naked, they are as contented as a king in his most splendid array. Fear makes no impression on them, and respect as little." And M. Bouguier says, "It is not easy to describe their indifiference to wealth and all its advantages. One does not well know what motives to propose to them to persuade them to any service. It is vain to ofYer them money; they answer they are not hungry." And Vanegas assures us that "Ambition they have none. The objects of ambition with us - honor, fame, reputation, riches, positions and distinctions - are unknown among them. In a word, these unhappy mortals may be compared to children, with immature intellects."

But the benevolent fathers advanced still farther, and stronger proofs, Lullus affirms: "The Indians go naked and ha\"e no beards! They have nothing of the reasonable animal except the mask. And even that mask was allowed to avail them but little, for it was soon found that they were of a hideous copper complexion, and being of a copper complexion it was all the same as if they had been negroes, and negroes are black, and black, said the pious father crossing himself, is the color of the devil." Therefore, so far from being able to own property, they had no right even to personal freedom, for liberty is too radiant a deity to inhabit such gloomy temples. All of which circumstances plainly convinced the righteous followers of Cortes and Pizarro that these miscreants had no title to the soil they infested - that they were a perverse, illiterate, dumb, beardless black seed - mere wild beasts of the forests, and like them should be either subdued or exterminated.

The right of discovery being fully established, we now come to the next, which is the right acquired by cultivation. To cultivate the soil we are told is an obligation imposed by nature on mankind. Now it is notorious that the Indians knew nothing of agriculture when discovered by the Europeans, but lived a most vagabond, disorderly, unrighteous life; whereas it has been unquestionably shown that Heaven intended the earth should be plowed, and sown, and manured, and laid out into cities, and towns, and farms and pleasure grounds and public gardens - all of which the Indians knew nothing about; therefore they did not improve the talents Providence had bestowed on them; therefore they were careless stewards; therefore, they had no right to the soil; therefore, they deserved to be exterminated.

It is true the Indians might plead that they derived all the benefits from the land which their simple wants required - they found plenty of game to hunt, which, together with the roots and wild fruits of the earth, furnished a sufficient variety for their frugal repasts; and that so long as these purposes were answered the will of Heaven was accomplished.

But this only proves how undeserving they were of the blessings around them: they were so much the more savages for not having more wants. Therefore, the Indians, in not having more wants, were very unreasonable animals, and it was but just that they should make way for the Europeans, who had a thousand wants to their one, and therefore would turn the earth to more account, and more truly fulfil the will of Heaven. Besides inany wise men who have considered the matter properly have determined that the property of a country cannot be acquired by hunting, cutting wood, or drawing water therein. Now as the Indians (probably from never having read the above decisions) had never complied with any of these forms, it follows that they had no right to the soil, but that it was completely at the disposal of the first comers, who had more wants and more desires than themselves.

But a more irresistible right than either that I have mentioned, is the right acquired by civilization. All the world knows the lamentable state in which these poor savages were found. But no sooner did the benevolent inhabitants of Europe behold their sad condition, than they immediately went to work to improve it. They introduced among them rum, gin, brandy, and other comforts of life; and it is astonishing to read how soon the poor savages learned to estimate these blessings. They likewise made known to them a thousand remedies by which the most inveterate diseases were alleviated and healed; and that they might comprehend the benefits and enjoy the comforts of these medicines, they introduced among them the diseases which they were designed to cure. By these and a variety of other methods was the condition of these poor people wonderfully improved.

Here, then, are three complete and undeniable sources of right established, any one of which was more than ample to establish a property in the newly discovered regions of America, and this all at once brings us to a fourth right, which is worth more than all the others put together; and this last right may be entitled the Right by Extermination, or, in other words, the Right by Gunpowder.

But lest any scruples of conscience should remain on this head, and to settle the question of right forever. His Holiness Pope Alexander VI. issued a bull by which he generously granted to the Catholic nations of Southeastern Europe all the newly discovered quarters of the globe. These nations having both law and gospel on their side, were clearly entitled to the soil, and also to the eternal thanks of these infidel savages, for having come so far. endured so many perils by land and sea, for no other purpose

In 1762 France ceded the whole of the province of Louisiana to Spain who was the sole and undisputed owner for thirty-eight years, when by the treaty of St. Ildefonso, Spain ceded the Province back to France on the first day of October 1800.

France never took formal possession of the entire province, but occupied a few places on the Mississippi River jointly with Spain, the most important of which was New Orleans ; both nations having troops stationed there at the same time. Finally on the 30th day of April, 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, by the treaty of Paris, as I have before stated, sold the province to the United States for $15,000,000.

Spain was displeased with the transfer of the province to the United States, and her minister at Washington was instructed to warn our government to suspend the ratification of the treaty of cession of Louisiana ; as the French government, in securing the province had contracted with Spain not to retrocede it to any other power, and France, not having adhered to that agreement, the treaty cession was declared void by Spain. This controversy was not settled until the 22nd of February 1819, when Spain ratified the treaty of Paris, and relin((uishe<l all adverse rights she may have possessed.

When our government took possession of the country, they found what is now northwestern Minnesota, occupied jointlv by the Sioux and Chippewa nations of Indians. Neil's History of Minnesota says :

For more than a century, there had been a westward tendency in the emigration of the Indian nations, and a frequent source of war among the Northwestern tribes, was the encroachment upon each other's hunting grounds.

In the hope that good might result from well defined boundary lines, on the igth of August, 1825, by order of the authorities at Washington, Governor Clark, of Missouri, and Governor Cass of Michigan, convened at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, a grand congress of Indians, among which were represented the Sioux and Chippewa Nations. After some discussion, it was agreed between the Sioux and Chippewas that a dividing line should be established between their respective countries. In Minnesota, the line of demarkation agreed upon began on the St. Croix River, a day's paddle above the head of Lake St. Croix; thence between two lakes, called Green

Lakes; from thence to the Standing Cedar that the Sioux split; thence to Rum River, crossing at Choking Creek, a day's march from its mouth; thence to a point of woods that projects into the prairie a half day's march from the Mississippi; thence in a straight line to the Mississippi River at the mouth of the first river above the Sauk; thence up that river to a small lake at its source; thence to a lake at the head of Prairie River, a tributary of the Crow Wing; thence to the portage of Otter Tail Lake; thence to the outlet of Otter Tail Lake; thence to the BufYalo River, midway between its source and its mouth, and down said river to Red River, and down Red River to the mouth of Goose River.

This division line placed nearly all of Becker County in the Chippewa territory, leaving about half of Cormorant Township and perhaps a small fraction of the southwest corner of Lake Park on the Sioux side of the line. By this treaty the Sioux title to nearly all the territory of Becker County was extinguished.

The only adverse claim to the soil of Becker County, now, was that of the Chippewa Indians, who had rightfully considered themselves the lawful owners of all of what is now northern ISIinnesota, from time immemorial.

I am indebted to Gus. H. Beaulieu for the following memoranda of treaties between the United States government and the Chippewa Indians, relating to the territory embraced in Becker County:

The first treaty was made April 7th, 1855, with the Mississippi, Pillager and Lake Winnebegoshish bands of Chippewas, and ceded the following tract of country to the United States Government:

Beginning at a point where the east branch of the Snake River crosses the southern boundary line of the Chippewa country, east of the Mississippi River, as established by the treaty of July 29, 1837; running thence, up the said branch to its source; thence, nearly north in a straight line, to the most westwardly bend of Vermillion River; thence, northwestwardly, in a straight line, to the first and most considerable bend of the Big Fork River; thence, down said river to its mouth; thence, down Rainy Lake River, to the mouth of Black River; thence, up that river to its source; thence, in a straight line, to the northern extremity of Turtle Lake; thence, in a straight line to the mouth of Wild Rice River; thence, up Red River of the North, to the mouth of Bufifalo River; thence, in a straight line, to the southwestern extremity of Ottertail Lake; thence, through said Lake, to the source of Leaf River; thence, down said river to its junction with Crow Wing River; thence, down Crow Wing River, to its junction with the Mississippi River; thence, to the commencement on said river of the southern boundary line of the Chippewa country, as established by the treaty of July 2g, 1837; and thence, along said line, to the place of beginning. And the said Indians do further fully and entirely relinquish and convey to the United States any and all right, title and interest, of whatsoever nature the same may be, which they may now have in and to any other lands in the Territory of Minnesota or elsewhere."

Within the above described territory ceded under this treaty, nine reservations were created, and established, viz.; Mille Lacs, Gull Lake, Rabbit Lake, Rice Lake, Sandy Lake, Pokegama, Leech Lake, Cass and Winnebegoshish reservations.

By a treaty made March iSth, 1865, with the Chippewas, all these reservations, except the Leech Lake, Cass Lake and Winnebegoshish were ceded to the United States, and in lieu thereof there was set apart for the Indians a long irregular strip of country reaching from a point on the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids, to the mouth of Thief River, and from there down Red Lake River to a point a few miles below Red Lake Falls, but which did not quite take in any of Becker County.

On the i8th of April, 1867, a treaty was made, by the terms of wdiich all that part of the last described reservation lying west of the Leech Lake and Cass Lake Reservations was set aside, and in lieu thereof the following was made a part of the treaty:

"And there is further reserved for the said Chippewas out of the land now owned by them such portion of their western outlet as may upon location and survey be found within the reservation provided for in the next succeeding section.

Article 2. - In order to provide a suitable farming region for the said bands, there is hereby set apart for their use a tract of land, to be located in a square form as nearly as possible, with lines corresponding to the Government surveys; which reservation shall include White Earth and Rice Lakes, and contain thirty-six townships of land; and such portions of the tract herein provided for as shall be found upon actual survey to lie outside of the reservation set apart for the Chippewas of the Mississippi by the second article of the treaty of March 20, 1865, shall be received by them in part consideration of the cession of lands made by this agreement-" Article two above quoted is the stipulation of the treaty of 1867 which established what is now White Earth Reservation. Hole-in-the-Day, Misquadace and Shab-aush-kung were the chiefs that negotiated the treaty. The treaty of 1S55 was negotiated by Hole-in-the-Day, Sr., Flatmouth, Sr., and other chiefs of the Mississippi bands.

It is very doubtful whether the Indians made a very good treaty in 1867, since they ceded a very large tract of country estimated to contain two million acres, although they got a part of White Earth Reservation in lievi of this cession. This was one of the causes which led to the assassination of Hole-in-the-Day by May-dway-we-nind and six other Indians, all of whom were cousins of the former. May-dway-we-nind was one of the Indians who stirred up the Bear Island outbreak, and who was afterwards convicted with eight others for resisting a deputy U. S. marshal, which was the only charge, under the law, over which the United States had jurisdiction in the Sugar Point fight. May-dway-we-nind froze to death at Leech Lake two years ago last winter.

In regard to the question about the cession of White Earth Reservation, the Indians, as you will notice by the cessions quoted herein, ceded the country which is now a part of the White Earth Reservation, in 1855; in 1865 the government ceded a large strip of country back to the Indians, which included a part of the reservation which was known as the "Western Outlet" of the Chippewas. Under the treaty of 1867. a part of this Western Outlet was retained, although it was the intention of the Indians to retain the whole of it, but they were over-reached in the wording of the treaty.

In the year 1864 the United States congress granted a charter to the Northern Pacific raihoad company accompanied by a land grant, which after a few alterations and amendments, including every odd numbered section of land belonging to the United States government for a distance of twenty miles on each side of the center of the main line of that road in Minnesota, and forty miles on each side in territory between Minnesota and Puget Sound. An additional strip of land was set aside to indemnify the railroad company for any land that had been sold or otherwise disposed of within the limits of this land grant. These indemnity lands included all odd numbered sections within the limits of a strip twenty miles in width on each side of the actual land grant in Minnesota, and ten miles on each side in Dakota. I think all these indemnity lands in i\Iinnesota finally passed into the hands of the railroad coinpany, and I am positive that this was the case in Becker County, with the exception of the lands on the White Earth Reservation, none of which were included in this land grant.

The date at which the title of the Northern Pacific attached, or on which their ownership began, was the time of the filing of the plat of the final location of their road with the commissioner of the general land office at Washington, and its acceptance b\- the secretarv of the interior, which for the lands in Becker Countv was the 23rd of September 1870, consequently any person with a preemption right, who settled on any of these odd numbered sections in Becker County before that date, could hold the land and make final proof and payment at the rate of $1.25 per acre.

A homestead would not hold on these lands, even if taken before they were withdrawn, as such right was held not to be good until a homestead was filed, and such filing could not be made until after the lands were surveyed and the plats returned to the land ofiice. and none of the plats of Becker County townships were returned to any land office for nearly a year after the odd numbered sections became railroad lands. At that same date, September 23rd, 1870, all even numbered sections within the twenty mile limit became double minimum land, and when taken after that date must be paid for when pre-empted, at the rate of $2.50 per acre. One hundred and sixty acres could be pre-empted at that rate, but only eighty acres could be taken as a homestead and when a homestead was commuted it must be paid for at the same price per acre. A soldier of the civil war, however, could homestead one hundred and sixty acres and, if he so desired, the length of time served in the army or navy could be deducted from the five year residence required.