United States Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents
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- Created Date
- 1850; 1851; 1852
- Description
Starting in the 1830s, U.S. officials employed treaties, deception, and force to try to 'remove' all eastern Indian nations onto lands west of the Mississippi. In 1850, the government decided to apply this policy to the Lake Superior Ojibwe. To induce them to leave their Wisconsin homeland, agent J. S. Watrous and other officials moved the location of the 1850 Ojibwe annuity payment, required by the Treaty of 1842, to Sandy Lake, Minnesota, rather than holding it at La Pointe, Wisconsin, as usual. In late November, about 3,000 Ojibwe traveled the 500 miles to Sandy Lake only to find no payment and no provisions for their return trip: the government had hoped to strand them west of the Mississippi. By the time they were able to make it home, about 400 people had died of hunger, disease, or exposure (more than 10% of the entire nation). These shameful actions by the government set the Ojibwe and many non-native citizens of the region against removal. Because of the uproar, the government
- Partner
- Recollection Wisconsin
- Contributing Institution
- Wisconsin Historical Society
- Collection
- Main Stacks
- Type
- text
- Language
- English
- Rights
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- Chicago citation style
- United States Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents. 1850; 1851; 1852. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/62211. (Accessed March 28, 2024.)
- APA citation style
- (1850; 1851; 1852) United States Bureau of Indian Affairs Documents. Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/62211
- MLA citation style
- Retrieved from the Digital Public Library of America <http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/62211>.