• Ojibwe Land Rights (1825 Treaty)
• Pine Treaty (1837 Treaty)
• Copper Treaty (1842 Treaty)
• Move to the Reservations (1854 Treaty)

Native American relations with the U.S. Government have never been the best. The relationships between the two groups started to take a downfall as the U.S. Government started to sign Treaties with Native Americans. The U.S has signed many different Treaties with many different Tribes, but in this exhibit we will look at the Treaties that affected the Ojibwe Indians.

Ojibwe Land Rights (1825 Treaty)back to top

The first Treaty to be signed was the 1825 Treaty. This Treaty established the land rights between the Sioux and the Chippewa Indians. It also called for a peaceful relationship between the Chippewa and Sioux. These two tribes had been at war for many years and this Treaty was suppose to bring peace to the two tribes. This is a very important Treaty because it is the one that gives the Ojibwe Indians the right to the land that they would soon cede over to the U.S. Government. It was also the Treaty that would set up for the rest of the treaties to come.

Pine Treaty (1837 Treaty)back to top

The Chippewa Valley served as a great place to log because it was so rich in lumber and the river was a great source of transportation for the logs. One problem…who owned all this land?? It was the Ojibwe Tribe that was given to them in the Treaty of 1825. This major problem leads to the signing of the Pine Treaty. The Pine Treaty, also known as the Treaty of 1837, {Link to Treaty}{Map of area ceded} said the Ojibwe nations in Wisconsin ceded their land to the United States, but reserved the right to hunt, fish, and gather traditional resources. This Treaty was not signed because white people needed a place to live, but rather because of the vast amount of timber found in the area. It was an area that could be clear-cut for a very little amount and the Chippewa River served as a way to move the logs to other sawmills or all the way to the Mississippi River. The explorers and settlers who saw this great opportunity to log in the Chippewa Valley would be made possible because of the Treaty of 1837.

Copper Treaty (1842 Treaty)back to top

The Copper Treaty, also known as the Treaty of 1842, did not effect the Ojibwe tribe located in the Chippewa Falls, but did effect them about 60 miles north of Chippewa Falls. This Treaty just like the Treaty of 1837 ceded away their land in northern Wisconsin and reserved the right to live off the land. The reason they passed this Treaty was because the lumber industry was starting to slow down a little and people found an abundance of copper in northern Wisconsin. The Ojibwe people had still owned this area so the U.S. Government once again passed a treaty that ceded the land to the Government, but still gave the Ojibwe people the right to live on the land. Most of the Ojibwe tribe was upset with the U.S. Government because they had not followed through the promises they had told them in the 1837 and 1842 treaty. One Chief wrote a letter to President Polk asking for the stipulations they had promised and said this, “We are on good terms with the whites who live among us and they do not wish us to go”(footnote)This shows that the Ojibwe people in this area where on good terms with their neighbors and that it was the U.S. Government whom they left and betrayed them.

The Ojibwe tribe believes that they were tricked into signing these Treaties. Both sides had misinterpreted the Treaties. The language barrier between the two groups of people did not help at all. The Ojibwe people believed they had signed off the right to the resources on the land, but not the land itself. This leads to the hostile relations that form between the Ojibwe people and the U.S. Government and also between the citizens of Chippewa Falls.

Move to the Reservations (1854 Treaty)back to top

The final treaty we will look at is the Treaty of 1854. This Treaty is the one that establishes the reservations for the Ojibwe Indians to move to. This treaty created the reservations and also guaranteed tribal sovereignty. Native Americans were the first to inhabit this area and over a course of a hundred some years, from the first known interactions between Ojibwe Indians and white explores in the Chippewa Falls area, they are now being pushed off their land. They had used the land as a source of food, shelter, and it was very sacred to them. As white explores started to enter Wisconsin and see the rich resources that lay with it, they slowing pushed the Ojibwe Tribe off the land they had inhabited for many years and unto reservations that the U.S. Government had made for them. The process of moving all the Native Americans onto the reservations was a very slow process. This was not something that took place over a matter of days, but something that took many years. Many of the Native Americans thought it was wrong of the Government to push them off their land and that is the reason why it took so long.
The Chippewa Indians started their trek to the reservations starting in 1828. Indians started to make their way to the reservations after the Treaty of 1825. The maps on the left show the reservations that are in Wisconsin and there relevance to Chippewa Falls.

It would take just over thirty years with the Treaty of 1854 before the U.S. Government would force all Indians to reservations. The Treaty of 1854 was signed into affect as a last effort to move the Indians onto reservations. Though the Treaty of 1854 called for a reservation it was not until 1873 that the reservation was established. These Indians as they left Chippewa Falls moved north along the Chippewa River and established many strong ties with the people they stayed with. Flambeau Farms is located north of Chippewa Falls on the Chippewa River and many of the Indians that left Chippewa Falls lived here for many years. Here they established many positive relations with the settlers in this area and many of them even intermarried. A lot of strong ties were formed as Native Americans left Chippewa Falls and headed up the Chippewa River to the reservations.

These letters on the left were written from Chippewa Indians to the Indian Commissioner and many of them talk about the rough life they had and how the government was not following through on the things they promised in the Treaties. There are thousands of these letters that were written to the Indian Commissioner regarding the concerns that Chippewa Indians had.

The move to the reservation was not something that took a couple weeks or months. It was a process that took many years for the Indians to move there. Some of the Indians moved to the Reservation to get their allotment of land and then moved back to the Chippewa Falls area. As you look back on the history of Chippewa Falls and realize that Native Americans had once lived here all by themselves and lived off the land and as more white settlers started to move into the area they were slowly pushed off. The white settlers wanted the land and resources the Indians owned and through many Treaties the land was slowly given up and this would lead to the Indians having to leave their land and move to reservations.