Collected & edited by Amorin Mello

The legendary Gichi-miishen (Michel Cadotte, Sr.) passed away days before the 1837 Treaty of St Peters was signed.  One year later his son Michel Cadotte, Jr. and son-in-law Lyman M. Warren were both publicly arrested at the 1838 Annuity Payments in La Pointe, clouding their families’ 1827 Deed for Old La Pointe and 1834 Reinvention of La Pointe.

Letters Received by the Office of Indian Affairs:

La Pointe Agency 1831-1839

National Archives Identifier: 164009310

April 6, 1836
from La Pointe Indian Sub-agency
via Fort Snelling
to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Received May 21, 1838
Answered May 22, 1838

Lapointe
April 6, 1838

C. A. Harris Esq’r

Com’r In Affs

Sir

I take the liberty of addressing you to ask whether in your opinion there is a probability that my salary can be increased by an act of Congress, or otherwise.  I make this enquiry because I feel desirous of keeping this office, and unless the salary can be increased I shall be compelled to resign; the great distance of this place from any market and the expenses of transporting property hither, together [with] the prohibition of entering into trade rendering it at present altogether insufficient.  A speedy answer is respectfully solicited.

I am sir with great
Respect your most obdt servant

D. P. Bushnell

American Fur Company public notice in newspapers nationwide about Lyman M. Warren being removed from La Pointe.

October 27, 1838
from Governor of Wisconsin Territory
to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
received November 19, 1838

Superintendency of Indian Affairs
for the Territory of Wisconsin
Mineral Point Oct. 27 1838.

Hon C. A. Harris

Com. of Ind. Affs.

Sir:

Henry Dodge

I have the honor to transmit the report of E. F. Ely, Esq. Sup’t of a school at Fond du Lac, Lake Superior, forwarded by Mr D. P. Bushnell, Sub agent at La Pointe, which had not been received at the time the other reports were transmitted.

Mr. Bushnell also informs me under date of the 18th Sept. that he has caused Lyman M. Warren, an American citizen, and Michel Cadotte, a half-breed, to be removed from the Indian Country, and has furnished the Dist. Attorney at Green Bay with the necessary evidence and requested him to commence suits against them, for violations of the 12th, 13th & 15th Sections of the act of June 30, 1834.  Mr Warren is now here, and suits have been instituted upon the representations of the sub-agent.  Further information will be furnished to you as soon as received.

Very respectfully
Your obed’t serv’t

Henry Dodge

Supt Ind. Affs

November 23, 1838
from Lyman M. Warren of La Pointe
via Governor of Wisconsin Territory
to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Received December 15, 1838
Answered December 22, 1838

Superintendency of Indian Affairs
for the Territory of Wisconsin
Mineral Point Nov 23, 1838.

T. Hartley Crawford Esq’r

Com. of Indian Affairs
Washington

Sir:

Copy of 1834 “Map of La Pointe” by Lyman M. Warren.

I have the honor to transmit enclosed herewith, a communication from Lyman M. Warren, recently of La Pointe, Lake Superior, who, upon charges of a violation of the 12th, 13th & 15th Sections of the “Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes &c,” was removed from the Indian Country.  Mr Warren has been long in the service of the American Fur Company at that post, and extensively engaged in Indian trade; and, from the hurried manner in which he was taken from the country, much of his business remains unsettled.  He now asks from the Department, for the reasons given in his letter, that he be permitted to return to La Pointe next Spring for the purpose only of settling his business; an indulgence which I think may be safely granted.  Mr Warren was the bearer of the information to the Dist. Attorney of the United States at this place, upon which suits were instituted against him, which fact, with that of his previous good standing and the respectability of his connection in this Territory, warrants me in the opinion that no detriment can arise to the Government from a compliance with his request.  I have also consulted with the Sub-agent at that station, Mr. Bushnell, who admits the propriety of permitting him to return to the country, for the purposes expressed in his letter, if the agent be not absent.  In case the Department should feel disposed to accede to his request, it would be well to instruct the District Attorney not to take any advantage of his absence at the Spring term of the Court, at which he is recognized to answer.

Very respectfully
Your obed’t Servant

Henry Dodge

Supt. Ind. Affs.

Prairie du Chein 7th Nov. 1838

To His Excellency

Henry Doge

Governor of Wisconsin

And Superintendent of

Indian affairs

Sir

Since Michel Cadotte and myself have arrived at this place and been served with process in the various suits brought against us in the name of the United States and given bail for our appearance at the May Term of the Crawford District Court in the Cases where bail was required, I have thought proper to address your Excellency in relation to the course that has been taken against me, and to request through your Excellency, some indulgence from the Department in the management of the Cases from the peculiar circumstances of my situation.

Your Excellency is aware that I was arrested at Lapointe on Lake Superior among the Chippewa Indians by a Military force, without legal process, and brought from thence by the way of the Sault Ste Marys, Mackinac and Green Bay to Fort Winebago from which place I came voluntarily and brought to the complaint against me to your Excellency that after giving bail in one Case at Mineral Point I came to this place whither the Deputy Marshall was sent to execute other process on me and Michel Cadotte.  I was arrested and brought away from Lapointe at a time when private business of the greatest importance required my presence there, and my arrest and removal and consequent losses have almost ruined me.  On my way I was robbed of upwards of One Thousand Dollars in Cash which is one of the consequences to me of the proceedings that have been commenced against me.  I believe that your Excellency is fully aware that if I had been disposed to disregard the laws and authorities of the Country and to set them at defiance the force which was sent for me was not sufficient to bring me away.  In fact the Indians in the vicinity were disposed to resists and to prevent my removal, and would have done so if I had not used my influence to restrain them.  I mention this as an evidence of my disposition to submit to the laws and authorities of the Government, rather than to oppose or violate either.

I have been a Trader in extensive business among the Chippeways on Lake Superior for upwards of twenty one years, an can appeal with confidence to all intelligent Gentlemen who have been acquainted with my course of conduct throughout that period for testimony that I have always conformed my conduct to the laws of Congress, and the regulations of the Department, when known and understood.  I have never knowingly violated either, and if I have ever in any case gone contrary to either, it has been when the law or regulation had not been made known at my remote and far distant station.

No one could expect that so far removed as I have been from settlements and civilization with so little intercourse with either, I could be so well and promptly made acquainted with the legislation and regulations of the Government as those who enjoyed the advantage of a residence within the more immediate sphere of its action and opperations.  In the present Case I feel perfectly conscious, that I am free from all blame, and believe that it will be found upon investigation, that the proceedings against me originated in malice.

It is expected I believe that the Half breeds of the Chippeways on Lake Superior will be paid their share of the money donated to them by Treaty, some time early next Spring.  It is of great importance to me and to others that I should be present at that payment.  I have of my own a large family of children who are interested in the expected payment.  Besides I am guardian of an estate which will require my personal presence at that place, in order that it may be settled.

Cadotte is also interested in the payment on his own account, and that of his children.  It will be impossible for us to go up in the Spring and return to the Spring terms of the Court at Mineral Point and this place.  I would therefore request it as a favor of the Department, if sufficient reason does not appear for dismissing the prosecutions altogether, that I may be permitted with Cadotte to attend at La Pointe in the next Spring season at the contemplated payment, or when ever the same may be made, and that no steps may be taken in the prosecution of the suits against us in our absence, and that the Attorney for the Territory may be directed not to take any default against us in any of the Cases either for want of bail, or plea, or other necessary propositions for our defense, while we may be absent on such business.

I hope that your Excellency will perceive the great importance to me of obtaining this indulgence, and sufficient reason to induce the kind interposition of your Excellency’s good offices to have it granted to me.

With great respect
I am your
Excellency’s Obedient Servant

L. M. Warren

W.718.

December 15, 1838
from Solicitor of the Treasury
to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Received December 17, 1838
Answered December 22, 1838
and returned papers
from US Attorney Moses McCure Strong
dated November 25, 1838

Office of the Solicitor
of the Treasury
December 15, 1838

T. H. Crawford Esqr.

Comm’r of Indian Affairs.

Sir,

Moses McCure Strong
~ 1878 Historical Atlas of Wisconsin

I have the honor to inclose to you herewith a letter received by this morning’s mail from Messr Strong, United States Attorney for the Territory of Wisconsin, with a copy of one addressed to him by D. P. Burchnell, Indian Sub-agent at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, in relation to sundry suits commenced by him, to recover the penalty incurred for the violation of the 12, 13, & 15 sections of the act of Congress of of 30 June 1834 intitled “an act to regulate trade and intercourse with indian tribes, and to procure peace on the frontiers.”; which suits he states were commenced at the request of Mr. Burchnell.

To enable me to reply to the District Attorney’s letter I shall be obliged by your informing me at your earliest convenience, whether you wish any particular [directions?] given to him on the subject.  Please return the District Attorney’s letter with its inclosure.

very respectfully Yours

H. D. Gilpin

Solicitor of the Treasury

December 28, 1838
from James Duane Doty
to Commissioner of Indian Affairs
forwarded to Secretary of War December 31, 1838
Received January 3, 1839
See letter to Solicitor of the Treasury dated January 3, 1838.

Washington
Dec. 28 1838.

The Hon. J. R. Poinsett

Secy of War

Sir,

1827 Deed for Old La Pointe from Madeline and Michel Cadotte, Sr. to Lyman M. Warren for 2,000 acres of unceded tribal land on Madeline Island to be held in trust for the Cadotte/Warren grandchildren and future generations.

A prosecution was commenced last fall by the Indian Department against Lyman M. Warren, a licensed Trader at Lapointe, Lake Superior and a half Indian by the name of Michel Cadotte, for accepting of a verbal gift to Warren by the Indians of a part of an Island in Lake Superior.  This gift I believe was intended to be in lieu of 14 sections of land given by the same Indians to the wife of Warren (an Indian woman, and his children, which had been reserved to them in the Treaty of Fond du Lac, but which was I am informed, stricken out, with other reservations of land, by the Senate.

It appears that Warren was ignorant of the act of Congress on this subject, and that so soon as he was informed, he desisted.  Some months afterwards, and without anything new having secured, the sub-agent (then 300 miles from Lapointe) obtained a military force to be sent from Fort Brady to arrest Warren and his interpreter Cadotte.  They made no resistance but voluntarily came with the soldiers to the Sault Ste Marie, and thence to Mineral Point 600 miles further.

Mr. Warren has been a Trader in that Country for the last 20 years, and I have personally known him there since the year 1820.  During this long period he has been much respected as an upright Trader, submissive to the laws, and at all times disposed to extend the power of this government over the Northern Indians, who it is well known have been most inclined to visit and listen to the British authorities.  I do not think there is another Indian Trader in the North West who has a greater influence with those Tribes than Mr. Warren.

The sub-agent, Mr. Bushnell, was a stranger in that country, but recently appointed, and, I cannot but think, has caused Mr. Warren to be arrested without a due examination of the facts of the case, or without giving a proper consideration to the effect it will be likely to have with the Indians of that country.

If Mr. Warren is compelled to defend this suit, whether it results in his favour or not, it must ruin him and his family, and I think the government will lose more than it will gain by continuing the prosecution.

From my knowledge of the parties, the facts of the case and the condition of the country I would respectfully recommend that the District Attorney be directed to discontinue the prosecutions against Warren & Cadotte upon the payment of costs and a stipulation not to prosecute Bushnell and the Commanding Officer at Fort Brady.  I have no hesitation in expressing to you the opinion, that if the prosecution is continued the judgement of the Court will be in favour of the defendants.

With much respect I am Sir your obdt svt

J. D. Doty