This branch of the Austrian Hesch family is descended from Johann Hesch and his wife Marya (Schlinz) Hesch, who came to America from Oberschlagles, Bohemia with three sons: Paul, Mathias, and Anton. +++Johann & Marya settled in Buffalo County, Wisconsin but moved to Pierz, Mn in about 1885. .+++Mathias settled in Waumandee, Wisconsin and moved to Pierz in 1911. +++Anton never married but farmed with his dad in Agram Township, where he died in 1911.+++And Paul, my great grandfather, settled five miles away, in Buckman, Minnesota. He died there in 1900.

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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

1898--Game Warden Hubris

Larry found this incendiary article last week in a San Francisco newspaper of December 4, 1898.  I'm sure it went out on the wire and was picked up because it supported the impression that Minnesota was one of some unsettled, dangerous places 'up north'.  And, why not make the headline as scary as possible?
Was the deputy thoughtless, or stupid?  Obviously, things escalated quickly, but damn.  It was December and the Ojibwe had to eat, too.  Besides, fourteen against one seems like a foolhardy ratio...
                                            .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
THREATENED UPRISING OF CHIPPEWA INDIANS

Resist Arrest by a Deputy Game Warden for Having Shot Deer Out of Season.


St Paul, Dec. 3--Another uprising of the Chippewa Indians is threatened.  The Game Warden at Sauk Rapids has had a fight with fourteen red men, whom he attempted to arrest, in which he was badly whipped, and State Game Warden Fullerton has ordered that the Indians be taken into custody, be the result as it may.  The Indians declare they will resist all attempts to capture them and will organize a rebellion.

The Sauk Rapids deputy met the Indians in the woods, and as each one was carrying the carcass of a deer he attempted to arrest them on a charge of having violated the game laws. In the fight that followed the deputy was severely punished and his rifle taken from him.  The Indians warned him against  following them _____ they would never be taken alive, and threatening to begin shooting the moment a posse appeared in sight.  
Game Warden Fullerton has notified the authorities that he will pursue the Indians with a posse, and serious trouble is feared.
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

Ok--here's a quote from the Wikipedia article about the Ojibwe (Chippewa) people:
"Often, earlier treaties were known as "Peace and Friendship Treaties" to establish community bonds between the Ojibwe and the European settlers. These earlier treaties established the groundwork for cooperative resource-sharing between the Ojibwe and the settlers. The United States and Canada viewed later treaties offering land cessions as offering territorial advantages. The Ojibwe did not understand the land cession terms in the same way because of the cultural differences in understanding the uses of land. The governments of the US and Canada considered land a commodity of value that could be freely bought, owned and sold.
The Ojibwe believed it was a fully shared resource, along with air, water and sunlight. At the time of the treaty councils, they could not conceive of separate land sales or exclusive ownership of land"..... 
...or the right to limit hunting for food, either.
I wonder what happened next, don't you?

1 comment:

  1. There IS more to this tale, but things just fizzled away as they often do in this sort of situation. Tempers flare, you get some chest-beating and sabre-rattling from both sides, then they come to their senses and cooler heads prevail. This game warden had a real spotty career it seems and I don't get the impression that small-town MN had much use for him or his deputies.
    L

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