Chief Buffalo

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Chief Buffalo (Ojibwe: Gichi Waish-Ke or Bizhiki(1759?-1855) was an Ojibwe leader from La Pointe, Wisconsin USA. He is most widely known for persuading President Millard Fillmore to allow the Ojibwe to stay on their lands on the south shore of Lake Superior.

1 Background
2 Ojibwe Removal
3 Trip to Washington
4 1854 Treaty
5 Legacy
6 Notes
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] Background

Buffalo was born around the year 1759 in La Pointe on Madeline Island in what is now Wisconsin. La Pointe at the time was the spiritual and political center of the Ojibwe world and also a key French fur-trading post on Lake Superior. His father was the hereditary chief Ou-daig-weos. In 1842, Buffalo won a major victory over the Dakota in the Battle of the Brule. Although the Ojibwe were highly decentralized at this time, the other bands in Wisconsin looked back to the La Pointe chiefs as representing the economic and spiritual center of the nation.

[edit] Ojibwe Removal

In 1825, Buffalo was one of forty-one Ojibwe leaders to sign the Treaty of Prairie du Chien. The treaty, which the US Government said was meant to end hostilities between the Ojibwe and Dakota, required all American Indian tribes and bands in and around Wisconsin to delineate where their territories began and ended. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which enabled the United States to move any Indian nations east of the Mississippi River across to the western side. With northern Wisconsin not being highly desired by white settlers, the Ojibwe were not among the first targets for the act. However, the Ojibwe watched closely as the government used the land claims outlined in 1825 to force numerous tribes in southern Wisconsin to move to Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and Oklahoma. Among these were the Potawatomi a closely related and allied tribe to the Ojibwe. In the next decades, with whites eyeing the mineral and timber resources of Ojibwe country, in 1837 and 1842 the Ojibwe signed treaties leasing much of their lands but reserving the rights to hunt, fish, gather, and move across these lands. They also obtained a guarantee that they would not be removed so long as they did not "misbehave." Still, with worries of removal on the horizon, Buffalo kept in constant contact with the other bands to make sure the Ojibwe kept their part of the bargain. Regardless, President Zachary Taylor signed the removal order on February 6, 1850 under corrupt circumstances, claiming to be protecting the Ojibwe from "injurious" whites. To force the Ojibwe to comply, the BIA stated they would only pay the annuities guaranteed by the treaties as Sandy Lake, Minnesota instead of La Pointe where they had been paid previously. The result was the Sandy Lake Tragedy where hundreds of Ojibwes starved or died of exposure in Minnesota and on the journey home when the promised supplies were late and inadequate. Back in La Pointe, Buffalo sent a letter in 1851 to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs with the Ojibwe's grievances. He and other leaders would continue to petition the government for the next two years to no avail.

[edit] Trip to Washington

In 1852, along with another chief O-sho-ga and his white adopted son and interpreter Benjamin Armstrong, the ninety-three year-old Buffalo traveled by foot, canoe, and railroad from La Pointe to Washington, DC to press the Ojibwe case directly. Millard Fillmore was president by then, and he met with the Ojibwe delegation and heard how they had been lied to in 1837 and 1842. Buffalo was able to persuade the president to cancel the removal order and negotiate for permanent reservations on Ojibwe lands in Wisconsin. Returning by rail, Buffalo gave the good news to each of the bands as he passed through on his way back to La Pointe.

[edit] 1854 Treaty

For full article see Treaty of La Pointe (1854)

With the experience of 1837 and 1842 fresh in their memory, the Ojibwe leaders controlled the negotiations in 1854. They secured guarantees to hunt, fish, and gather on all the ceded territory, and insisted on several reservations across northern Wisconsin. These would be the reservations of Lac Courte Oreilles, Lac du Flambeau, and out of the La Pointe Band, two reservations at Red Cliff and Bad River. The St. Croix and Sokaogon bands, for whatever reason, were left out of the negotiations. Buffalo, a Roman Catholic settled on the mainland at Buffalo Bay, the site of the Red Cliff reservation along with the christianized La Pointe Indians. Those from La Pointe who practiced the Midewiwin religion settled nearby at Bad River.

[edit] Legacy

Chief Buffalo is regarded a hero of the Lake Superior Ojibwe, especially those at Red Cliff. His descendents, many going by the surname "Buffalo" are widespread in Red Cliff and Bad River. He is buried in the Catholic Indian cemetery in La Pointe.