OSHKOSH COURIER

March 14, 1855

Printed in the Oshkosh Courier From the Milwaukee Sentinel

AN INDIAN TALK.

The Menomonees Pleading their Cause.

Yesterday afternoon we received a visit in our sanctum from a deputation of the Menomenee Indians, who have been in our city for some days past. They were accompanied by Messrs. CHARLES and ROBERT GRIGNON, of Green Bay, Mr. WM. W. JOHNSON and Capt. WM. POWELL, who acted as interpreters between our Indian visitors and ourselves. After being shown through the Sentinel office, and looking, with considerable interest at the different portraits and pictures which adorn the walls of the Editor’s Room – a fine likeness of Gen. SCOTT especially arresting their attention, as the portrait of one whom they remembered having seen in the Black Hawk War – the Chiefs intimated that they desired to tell the editor the story of their wrongs, and through him, the public. - Accordingly, a select and attentive audience, made up principally of the men and boys about the Sentinel office, with two or three friends who chanced to drop in, listened to the following talk from OSHKOSH, Head Chief the Menomenees, done into English by Mr. GRIGNON and Mr. JOHNSON:

"We have called upon you and shaken hands with you, with a good heart. We have come to ask your aid. We want you to publish what we say. You see that I am growing gray. I am an old man. I have seen many years.

I was quite a young man when the Americans came to my place at Green Bay. It was in 1816. They shook hands with us and told us they come to live among us, and make us happy, and that if we followed their counsel we should have no trouble.

At a Council we held in 1827, at Little Butte des Morts, Gen. Cass told us the same thing – that the Americans were our friends, and if we followed their advice we should always be happy. Again, in 1836, at Cedar Point, we met Gov. Dodge, who came form the General Government to treat with us, and told us that whatever he promised, our Great Father, the President, would perform. Our Great Father, he said, was very glad that we had submitted to his wishes and made a treaty to cede a part of our lands. And he promised that our Great Father, the President, would always protect us like his own children, and would always hold our hands in his.

Gov. Dodge told us that our Great Father was very strong and owned all the country, and that no one would dare to trouble us, or do wrong to us, as he would protect us. He told us, too, that whenever we got into difficulty or anything happened we did not like, to call upon our Great Father and he would have justice done. And now we come to you to remind our Great Father, through your paper, of his promise and ask him to fulfill it.

We always thought much of Gov. Dodge, as an honest man, and we thought more of him, when he came to us on the part of the Government. We believed all that he told us. We have done what we agreed to do. – We have been always friendly with the whites and have even taken up arms for them against our Indian brothers. If any of our young men were foolish the Chiefs were the first to rebuke them and to give them good advice. We have respected our white neighbors. And now we want their help.

It was a the payment, at Lake Pauwaygan, made by C.L. Jones, that this boy was born. I then lived on the Wisconsin River, and was notified to come to the Payment with my tribe. The roll had been made up and the payment was to be made the next day. During the night this boy was born. I was told of it in the morning and asked Col. Jones to put his name on the roll. The Colonel said this could not be, but that if the Chiefs were all willing the child should have his share. They were all willing – the boy’s share was given to me and I gave it to his mother. It was this same child – the same one now taken from us. It is the truth I am telling.

And now we want your help to get back the child. We still hope to find him. We cannot give him up. We want you to satisfy the public that the child is ours. We hoped to take him home with us this time. We came from a great distance. Once before the child was carried off by force after the law had decided in our favor, and now he is carried away again. We are grieved and disappointed. This is why we now ask you to help us."

OSHKOSH having concluded what he had to say, again shook hands with us (the opening and closing ceremony of each speech) and gave way to SOULIGNY, the Head War-Chief, who, though 70 years old, has all the fire and energy of a man in the prime of life. After a hearty shake of the hands, SOULIGNY squared himself and spoke as follows:

"Now, my friend, listen to me. The one who spoke first, is our Head Chief. What he says is so. You see me, another old man, standing before you. I can remember my old Chiefs. They used to own this soil. – Green Bay was our principal village. There we lived when the Americans landed on the east side of FOX River, and crossed over and came to our wigwams. They asked leave to live among us, and said their Great Father had sent them to take the Menomonees under their wings, and shelter them from harm. They told us, too, that their Great Father had a very long arm, and that whenever any one did us an injury or took anything away from us, he would stretch out that arm and bring it back to us, no matter how far off. – And now we have lost something. We lost it at Waupacca Falls. It is a piece of our flesh. And to think, after all our Great Father promised, that this should have been taken from us by some of his children, by the whites, and that they should claim it as their own.

I cannot think, my friend, that the white man did this willfully. Those who took our child must be asleep, or dreaming it is theirs. We had heard that the child had been placed in safety in the white man’s Court, where all the wisdom and all the laws were, and we felt satisfied that justice would be done and our child given back to us.

I and the other Chiefs were called as witnesses. I was asked if I knew the nature of an oath. I said I did; that I knew there was a God above who would punish me if I did not speak the truth. And I was not afraid to kiss the book, because I told the truth. I said the child was ours. But after proving it ours and the decision given in our favor, the child was stolen from us in defiance of law.

We next heard of the child in Illinois, and all the Chief authorized Dr. Huebschmann, our new Superintendent, to go and get the child back again if he could. And he promised to do so. They gave the Dr. full power to act for them and to take the child wherever he could find him. It was their unanimous request and they selected Dr. Huebschmann, because he was the Agent of our Great Father. We were very glad to hear that the Doctor had found the child. We thought him safe in the jail, in the care of the officers; that none could get the child away from there, unless the law gave them the right. We cannot help but think it must be an Evil Spirit that got into the jail and took away our child. We thought the white man’s law strong, and are very sorry to find it so weak.

I shake hands with you, as a writer. I shake hands with the Great Father, the President, and those who make the laws. I appeal to them to return us our lost child. – When we get him again, we shall educate him like the whites. But let us have our child back. Write strong, my friend!"

With this closing admonition SOULIGNY shook hands and finishe dhis talk. Our readers are familiar with the wrong of which the Menomenees complain. It is the case of the boy claimed both by an Indian and a white mother. The case was fairly tried two year ago before Commissioner BUTTRICK, at Oshkosh. The Commissioner, after a patient hearing, decided in favor of the Indian claimants, and directed the Sheriff to give Nah-Kom her child. Before the order could be executed, a party of white men, sympathizing with the Partridges, took the child from the Sheriff’s charge and carried him off. After two years, Dr. Huebschmann, the Indian Superintendent, empowered and requested by the Menomonees to seek and reclaim the stolen child, succeeds in doing so. He is bro’t here, and the Partridges sue out a writ of habeas corpus before Judge SMITH.

Pending the hearing, the child, by direction of the Judge is placed for safe keeping in the custody of the Sheriff. On Monday last, Judge SMITH having no time to hear the case, directed the child be restored to Dr. Huebschmann, conditioned that the Doctor would remain here two days, to give the Partridges an opportunity to sue out a writ before some other Judge. But instead of appealing to the law, the Partridges have made off with the boy. He was enticed or smuggled out of the jail yard Monday afternoon, and has not since been heard of.

The Sheriff offers $100 reward for his recovery. For the credit of our State and of the white man’s law, we hope that the child may befound again and restored to his Menomonee kindred.

 

March 14, 1855

THE MYSTERIOUS BOY. – We learn that the Partridge boy has been spirited away again. No one seems to know where, or how, or by whom. Dr. Huebschmann is at much at a loss as any one. The boy has already made more fuss than he is worth, and if never heard from again the skies will not be likely to fall in consequence. - Wisconsin