1096 WILD RICE GATHERERS OF UPPER LAKES (EPH. ANN. 19 
1838 contains the following concerning the Ojibwa of Lake Superior 
and the Mississippi river: 
It is highly desirable that the annuity hereafter to be paid to the Chippewas 
should be paid between the Ist of June and last of August. [Some of these Indians 
had to make a total journey of 400 miles to get their annuity.] Their spring hunts 
are not finished before the former period, and they commence about the Ist of 
September to gather the wild rice, which is a great article of food with the interior 
Indians. As soon as they have finished gathering the rice, the fall hunt commences. 
If called together after the 1st of September, they will generally be more injured 
than benefited by the sum they receive.! 
Mr Alfred Brunson, Indian Agent, La Pointe, Wisconsin, wrote 
Governor Doty, under date of January 6, 1843, as follows: ** By the 
Chippeway treaty of 1837 these Indians are to receive $35,000 annually 
for twenty years, and by the treaty of 1842 they are to receive an 
additional annuity of $31,700 for twenty-five years, or a total annuity 
of $66,700.” ‘The annual products of these lands [between the 
Mississippi river and Lake Superior] are worth much more to the 
Indians than they are to receive... . The annual value of the furs 
are estimated at $25,000. There are about 1,000 families,” who make 
$30,000 worth of sugar. ‘*The same number of families average 25 
bushels of rice at $1, [which] is $25,000.” Canoe material he figures 
at $10,000, and game and fish at $100,000, or a total natural produc- 
tion of $190,000.° Subtracting the value of the canoe material and 
furs, we find that the value of the wild rice was about one-sixth of 
that of the total remaining (edible) production. 
The following protest, signed by ** Martin, head chief of the Ottawa,” 
representing Ottawa Lake, Chippewa River, and Lac Chetac bands, 
accompanied Brunson’s letter (the conditions of the treaty of 1842 
were not understood by the chiefs when they signed it): ** We have 
no objection to the white man’s working the mines & the timber & 
making farms. But we reserve the birch bark & cedar, for canoes, 
the Rice & Sugar trees & the privilege of hunting without being 
disturbed by the whites.”* 
Again, in 1843, Mr Brunson wrote to Governor Doty, under date 
of January 10: ‘* But what is of more importance to the Indians than 
anything else, in reference to their payment, 7s the time & place of it” 
(the italicized words are underscored in the letter). ‘* But selecting this 
place|La Pointe] to pay the Inds. of the Mississippi, is next to rendering 
their payment a nullity: because they loose more by it than their pay- 
ments are worth to them. If taken away from their Rice harvests they 
loose more than the whole payment amounts to, say about $7 per head. 
And if taken away from their fall hunts, itamounts to the same thing.” 
If the payment of all the Chippewas mzst [underscored in letter] be 


1[ndian Affairs Report, 1838, document 20. 
“Brunson, manuscript letter book, p. 25, in Wisconsin Historical Society’s manuscript collection. 
Ibid., p. 47. 
