and elected twelve new ones, to serve one year; these were mainly from the younger members of the tribe who were in favor of civilization and progress. This was an important step toward breaking up the old style of tribal relations.
In 1872 we hear again from the “strays” in Wisconsin. The whites having complained of them, Congress has appropriated funds to move them to their respective tribes “west of the Mississippi;” but the removal has not been undertaken “for various reasons,” and the commissioner doubts “whether it can be accomplished without additional and severe legislation on the part of Congress, as the Indians are attached to the country, and express great repugnance to their contemplated removal from it.”
The poor creatures are not wanted anywhere. Spite of their being “steady, good hands” for hired labor, and useful to towns and villages in furnishing fruits and fish, the Wisconsin people do not want them in their State. And the agent of the Winnebago Reservation writes, earnestly protesting against their being brought there. He thinks they are in moral tone far below the Indians under his charge. Moreover, he says “the prejudice in the surrounding country is such” that he believes it would be bad policy to remove any “more Indians” there. Nebraska does not like Indians any better than Wisconsin does, or Minnesota did. He adds also that his Indians “would be greatly stimulated to improve their claims if they could secure the titles for them. They have waited three years since the first allotments were made. It is difficult to make them believe that it requires so long a time to prepare the patents, and they are beginning to fear that they are not coming.”
In 1873 the Winnebagoes are cited as a “striking example of what can be accomplished in a comparatively short time in the way of civilizing and Christianizing Indians. * * * Their beautiful tract of country is dotted over with substantially-built cottages; the farmers own their wagons, horses, harness,
