54 THE VERMILION IRON-BEARING DISTRICT. 



run off from this road, so that the country to the north and south of it 

 inust be reached by means of the few homesteaders' trails that exist, or 

 else by tramping- through the woods. East of Winten the traveler can 

 proceed in summer only on foot and by means of canoes. 



IKDIAK RESERVATIOlSr. 



3n Sucker Point, a large point of land projecting northeast into 

 Vermilion Lake just across the bay from the mill at Tower, there is a 

 reservation which is occupied by the Bois Fort band of the Ojibwa or 

 Chippewa Indians. According to the last report of the Comnaissiouer of 

 Indian Affairs, there were 808 Indians living on this reservation on June 

 30, 1900. Of these, however, a considerable number really live outside of 

 the ]-eservation, many of them being located in the vicinity of Ely. The 

 Indians are found in large numbers near the reservation only about the 

 Fourth of July, and at the times when the regular Government payments 

 are made. During the winter they are widely scattered over the country, 

 hunting and trapping, and in summer are encamped on the shores of 

 the lakes, where fish and berries are abundant. In 1898 the Grovernment 

 selected a location on Sucker Point and erected thereon a number of 

 ciimmodious buildings to he used for dwellings for the teachers and Indian 

 children and for school purposes, but these Indians are not progressive, and 

 do not take kindly to the advantages offered them by the Grovernment to 

 become educated agriculturists, or otherwise good citizens. They are very 

 apt in acqtiiring the vices of civilization; and instead of cultivating the 

 available land on their reservation, they prefer to gain a precarious liveli- 

 hood by hunting, fishing, and trapping. Only a very small portion of the 

 arable land on the point is cultivated. 



