mills, flour mills and electric plants were to erected." 

 The scheme presented was plausible and was gulped 

 down by the public. Furthermore, the Indians who 

 owned the lands surrounding the lake took the matter 

 to heart. They dug up an old treaty in which it was 

 stipulated that as a protection of their wild rice 

 fields, which furnishes their principal support, the 

 government guaranteed that no dam should ever be 

 put on Nett river deeper water would submerge 

 their fields too deep for the rice to grow. Immediate- 

 ly they began to storm the local Indian office, de- 

 manding that he take measures to stop the proposed 

 damming of the river; and also went to Duluth and 

 consulted lawyers about it. They also petitioned 

 congressmen and the Indian office to interfere in 

 their behalf. Bulky correspondence followed, and I 

 suppose this piece of fake writing has not ceased 

 to disturb the councils of the natives even yet, though 

 that was many years ago. It is also believed that 

 it had considerable to do with throwing the reserva- 

 tion open for settlement later. 



Ahead of the Times 



The Akeley Herald-Tribune in its issue of Novem- 

 ber 19, 1920, is not only ahead of the times, but ahead 

 of every other newspaper in the Northern part of the 

 state. "While its contemporaries are howling about 

 the wonders of their country and lamenting that un- 

 exampled ignorance and some unseen, malign in- 

 fluence is preventing an uninterrupted flow of settlers 



12 



