*,.,'''"' -~'^' •' 'j .''"•""•"i" '^5-S^i, Wisconsin Magazine of History Wucott.nn: A Natural Laboratory for North /Imcrican Indian Studies NANCY OESTREICH LURIE General lidward S. I^rat/g in Mexico KKNNl<:TtI J. CKIKB The Wiscon.nn Loyalty Legion, 1917-1918 LORIN LEE CARY Procecdincj.s of the 125th Annual Bnsine.^.s Meeting Published by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. 53, No. 1 / Autumn, 1969 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Director Officers THOMAS H. BARLAND, President GEORGE BANTA, JR., Honorary Vice-President JOHN C. GEILFUSS, First Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Treasurer CLIFFORD D. SWANSON, Second Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Acting Secretary Board of Curators Ex-Officio WARREN P. KNOWLES, Governor of the State HAROLD W. CLEMENS, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, President of the Women's Auxiliary Terrti Expires, 1970 THOMAS H. BARLAND MRS. EDWARD C. JONES HOWARD W. MEAD DONALD C. SLIGHTER Eau Claire Fort Atkinson Madison Milwaukee JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERICK L OLSON DR. LOUIS C. SMITH Middleton Madison Wauwatosa Lancaster E. E. HOMSTAD CHARLES R. MCCALLUM F. HARWOOD ORBISON ROBERT S. ZIGMAN Black River Falls Hubertus Appleton Milwaukee Term Expires, 1971 ROGER E. AXTELL KENNETH W. HAAGENSEN MOWRY SMITH MILO K. SWANTON Janesville Oconomowoc Neenah Madison MRS. HENRY BALDWIN ROBERT B. L. MURPHY MRS. WM. H. L. SMYTHE CEDRIC A. VIG Wisconsin Rapids Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander H. M. BENSTEAD FREDERIC E. RISSER WILLIAM F. STARK CLARK WILKINSON Racine Madison Nashotah Baraboo Term Expires, 1972 E. DAVID CRONON MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE WAYNE J. HOOD Madison Hartland Genesee Depot La Crosse SCOTT M. CUTLIP ROBERT A. GEHRKE BEN GUTHRIE J. WARD RECTOR Madison Ripon Lac du Flambeau Milwaukee W. NORMAN FITZGERALD JOHN C. GEILFUSS MRS. R. L. HARTZELL CLIFFORD D. SWANSON Milwaukee Milwaukee GRANTSBURG Stevens Point Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, New London, Connecticut PRESTON E. MCNALL, Clearwater, Florida MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Berkeley, California JOHN C. JACQUES, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison BENTON H. WILCOX, Madison Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI ALICE E. SMITH The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, President MRS. GEORGE SWART, Fort Atkinson, Vice-President MRS. WILLIAM F. STARK, Nashotah, Treasurer MRS. CONRAD A. ELVEHJEM, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee Ex-Officio VOLUME 53, NUMBER 1 / AUTUMN, 1969 nsm |%#r^| |p|p^% l^m'm ^m g^ istorv WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor WILLIAM C. MAKTEN. Associate Editor Wisconsin: A Natural Laboratory for North American Indian Studies NANCY OESTREICH LURIE 3 A Badger General's Foray into Diplomacy: General Edward S. Bragg in Mexico 21 KENNETH J. GRIEB The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion, 1917-1918 33 LORIN LEE CARY Book Reviews 51 Proceedings of the One Hundred and Twenty-third Annual Business Meeting of the State Historical Society 68 Contributors 80 Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Wis. Copyright 1969 by the State Historical Society of 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed Wisconsin. Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Simeon to members as part of their dues (Annual membership, Mills Editorial Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. $5.00; Family membership, $7,00; Contributing, $10; Busi­ Wisconsin newspapers may reprint any article appearing in ness and Professional, $25; Sustaining, $100 or more an­ the WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the nually; Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, story carries the following credit line; Reprinted from the $1.25. Microfilmed copies available through University State Historical Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History Microfilms, 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. for [insert the season and year which appear on the Maga­ Communications should be addressed to the editor. The zine], Society does not assume responsibility for statements made •^y^ onographic Collect Coo-nu-gah (First Boy) and Big Bear, one in. the series of remarkable photo­ graphs of Winnebago Indians taken by H. H. Bennett of Wisconsin Dells around the turn of the century. WISCONSIN: A Natural Laboratory for North American Indian Studies By NANCY OESTREICH LURIE T? ROM treaty to termination the boundaries There are three formal intertribal organiza­ -*- of the state of Wisconsin encompass an tions in the city, one of which is over thirty astonishingly representative illustration of the years old, and a number of informal tribal total development of federal Indian policy and associations providing social activities, ma­ Indian adaptation and resistance to it. The terial assistance, and useful information to In­ Wisconsin Indian population today—at least dian people. Although most of the urban In­ 15,000 people—is the third largest east of the dians come from northern Wisconsin, the city Mississippi River. North Carolina and New also attracts Indians from all over the country. York have more Indians, but Wisconsin in­ Similarly, Wisconsin Indian people can be cludes a greater variety of tribal and linguistic found in all the other major urban Indian com­ proveniences and administrative complications. munities: Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Many western states, of course, have much Francisco, Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland, and New larger Indian populations than Wisconsin but York. only a few—notably Oklahoma, Arizona, New Generally lost to view in the cities, Indians Mexico, and California—offer more diversity are often deemed by the public at large and than Wisconsin's three major linguistic stocks, even the Indian Bureau as assimilated and no six broad tribal affiliations, and twelve sepa­ longer part of the so-called "Indian problem." rately identifiable Indian societies covering the Although a certain percentage of Indians do range of experiments in Indian policy from the assimilate, city Indians for the most part must founding of the republic to the present day. still be counted as Indians. They are travelers, In Wisconsin, as elsewhere, a quarter to a visitors, and communters exploiting urban, in­ half or more of the Indian population resides in dustrial opportunities without the same com­ cities. The intertribal population of Milwaukee mitment of other Americans, white and black, alone is in the neighborhood of 4,000 people.^ whose historic traditions define migration to the city as a radical, irreversible change in life style. EDITOR'S NOTE: In slightly different form this We tend to forget that at the time of Euro­ paper was presented at the 123rd annual meeting of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Lawrence pean contact and right up through the early University, Appleton, June 19-21, 1969. treaty period which created the reservations. ^ Statistics on Indian population can only be ap­ proximate. I have interpolated from 1960 census data, North American Indians were hunters and the Erdman Handbook cited in the bibliography, and gatherers or, in the perspective of the world­ some observations. Even the definition of Indian is wide diffusion of agriculture, they were but equivocal. There are people who do not qualify to be counted by the usual one-fourth Indian ancestry recent food producers. Gardeners rather than required for tribal rolls but who are sociologically farmers, they were still dependent on the hunt more Indian in behavior, identity, and attitude than some "full-bloods" who have cast off Indian identity for animal protein and used many natural re­ in their way of life. sources for a variety of purposes. Individual WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY AUTUMN, 1969 County are fair-sized areas according to the boundaries shown on standard maps, ranging from 125,000 acres for Bad River and 70,000 for the other two. Yet close inspection reveals a checkerboard within the boundaries of as much or more white-owned property, taxed by the state, as there is federally protected Indian land. Furthermore, title to the Indian land is held in some cases by individuals and in others by the tribe. The Chippewa reservations of Red Cliff in Bayfield County and Mole Lake in For­ est County are tiny, under 10,000 and 2,000 acres, respectively. All of Mole Lake is tribally held land, but a third of Red Cliif is held under Society's Iconogijphic CollcLtiun individual Indian title. The St. Croix reserva­ tion, also tribal land and embracing about the An unidentified family of Wisconsin Indians in their birchbark canoe. same acreage as Mole Lake, is scattered in five small parcels across Burnett, Polk, and Barron counties. Each Chippewa reservation is sepa­ mobility, resourcefulness, and adaptability, rately administered with its own locally elected coupled with a strong sense of responsibility to tribal governing organization. the community were necessary to survive. Eco­ nomics ol family life were centripetal in con­ Other Chippewa communities are scattered trast to the centrifugal nature of the agrarian from the St. Lawrence River in Canada, across household. Individuals and task groups in northern Michigan and Minnesota, North Da­ North America moved out frequently and for kota, Montana, and Saskatchewan. The distri­ varying lengths of time from the settled village bution reflects a westerly expansion of Chip­ or semipermanent camp to exploit the environ­ pewa, largely in historic times, to find new fur- ment in diverse ways and to bring the results trapping resources. of their efforts back to the home place. Archeo­ Near the Mole Lake Chippewa reservation in logical and ethnohistorical evidence make clear Forest County there are Potawatomi Indians that there was also widespread travel for pur­ who also have tribally held and federally pro­ poses of trade. tected land, but the Indian residences are dis­ Although increasing numbers of Indian peo­ persed over some twenty miles, with white ple now spend more time in the cities this is not neighbors in between them.