JENKS] INDIAN NEED OF WILD-RICE FIELDS 1097 
at the Pointe... [they should be] paid not later than the first of 
July [in which case] they can reach their rice fields in time to harvest.” ? 
One of the chief things the Indians desired in being located on 
reservations was the presence of rice fields, as is seen in the following 
cases. The first is a ‘‘ Petition of the head chiefs of the Chippewa 
tribe of Indians on Lake Superior,” February 7, 1849, as follows: 
That our people, to-wit, sixteen bands, desire a donation of twenty-four sections 
of land, covering the graves of our fathers, our sugar orchards, and our rice lakes and 
rivers, at seven different places now occupied by us as villages, viz: At View Desert, 
or Old Garden, three sections; at Trout Lake, four sections; at Lake Coteré, four 
sections; at La Pointe, four sections; at Ontonagon, three sections; at La Ance, three 
sections; and at Pah-po-goh-mony, three sections. That we desire these lands for 
the purposes specified. * 
In 1858 the agent at Fond du Lac (Lake Superior) wrote: 
The Indians at this place are disappointed and sore with regard to the boundary 
lines of their reserve [made according to treaty of September 30, 1854]. They state 
that the ‘Rice lakes’? [Perch lake and others of its vicinity] which were to be 
included in their reservation have been entirely overlooked and left out, and they are 
unwilling to relinquish their claim to them. These lakes lie a few miles south of the 
present reserve, and abound in fish and wild rice, which constitute the principal 
subsistence of these Indians, and their attachment to them is very strong... . 
They wished me to say to their Great Father that they are willing to give up a large 
portion of the land contained in the present reserve if he will attach to the remainder 
the coveted lakes.* 
The agent for these Indians reported, November 29, 1860, that the 
reservation should have included ‘*‘ Perch lake” which was the only 
section of the country where they could support themselves the year 
round. There they obtained an abundance of ‘*field-rice and fish,” 
sugar, and game. There also was their chief settlement. After the 
boundary was made to include this lake, he said: 
It was gratifying to us to witness the pleasure with which the Indians received the 
intelligence that their farms and rice fields had at last been secured to them, and 
that they might now go on and cultivate their lands and garner their rice without 
the fear of being molested or driven away by the white man. 
In 1863 Hole-in-the-day (Ojibwa chief) spoke for his people at St 
Paul, June 7, as follows (they had been moved from Wisconsin to 
Minnesota, and he asked that they might be removed to a new reser- 
vation): ‘* Say that strip of land lying on the Wild Rice river between 
47° and 48° north latitude, and east of the Red river. There is every 
advantage of good soil, game, fish, rice, sugar, cranberries, and a 
healthy climate.” He asked for a land that will ** combine all the ele- 
ments of comfort and content to our people; that is, good land, game, 
fish, rice, sugar. Here we have neither, to any considerable extent. 

1Brunson, manuscript letter book, p. 50,in Wisconsin Historical Society’s manuscript collection 
These last facts Mr Brunson also wrote under date of July 20, 1843, to Robert Stuart, Acting Superin 
tendent Indian Affairs at Detroit; see manuscript letter book, p. 104. 
2 House Mise. Doc. 36, Thirtieth Congress, second session. 
Indian Affairs Report, 1858, p. 48. 
