Island Treasure, The Apostle Islands Secret of the Anishinabe

By Dave Sullivan

The historic Apostle Islands National Lakeshore is the scene of deception and controversy surrounding the Hermit Island Casino, an Indian Gaming Casino owned by the Chequamegon Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, when a discovery is made that could change the Islands forever.
Retired lawyer and sailor, Jake Kingsley, and his friends Professor Charles Stanton and the Hansons agree to help Band members Pete Cadotte and Mary Pelletier to come to the aid of the Casino. They encounter unexpected violence and murder. Ancient mystical religious rites are involved. They end up fighting to preserve a secret the Chequamegon Band's Medé priests have protected for generations and save the Apostle Islands themselves!
From beginning to end, the characters face difficult questions:
1.Old Michael Cadotte: How will the Anishinabe secret by protected? ...and will it?

2.Mary Pelletier: Can she find out if the Casino is being cheated and, if so, fix it?

3.Chiefs Buffalo and Nagahnub: Can they assist the Indian Agents and persuade the other chiefs to agree to the much needed treaty?

4.The Chequamegon Medé priests: Can they protect Chequamegon lands and can they hide the secret from the white man?

5.Jake Kingsley: How can he help the Casino? Can he really be of much help? His business is, or was, the law. The law may not provide a solution here. Maybe something other than the law is needed. What? How? Will it succeed?

6.The Manidog of the Islands: What can or should they do to protect the secret, the Anishinabe and the Islands?

This is a story that takes place in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior's Wisconsin South Shore. It is fictional. The characters are fictional, save a few historical figures whose names are repeated here.
The area of the Apostles is very real, however, and more beautiful than it is possible to describe with words here by this author. The area is often referred to simply as the "Chequamegon" (pronounced "she-wam-i-gon" or just "shwam-i-gon"). The author has taken a few liberties with the topography, the surroundings and the history, but hopefully not so much that it will be terribly noticeable or interfere with the imaginations of those intimately familiar with the Islands and surrounding territory.
Beginning with the Prologue and ending with the Epilogue, the story, itself, is told in four parts;
Part One:The Anishinabe (1854 - 1861)
Part Two: Indian Gaming (20th Century)
Part Three: The Hermit Island Resort & Casino (The Present)
Part Four: Island Treasure (The Present)

The Anishinabe were first in these islands, dubbed Les Isles des Apôtres by the early French missionaries. They were on Lake Superior well before Christopher Columbus discovered America in the late Fifteenth Century. By the late seventeenth century they had settled in the Chequamegon and were discovered there by those French missionaries as early as 1641. The Anishinabe lived a semi-nomadic annual subsistence economy along the shores of Kitchigami, from the maple sugar groves in the spring to the winter hunt, from the Putting Away Snow Shoes Moon in early April to the Leaves Falling Moon in October and beyond to the still of snow-covered winter. They did have Medéwewin or Mystic Doings Societies. Their Medé priests did stay in contact with the lesser manidog, or gods. Their existence did revolve entirely around their woodland environment . . . until the white man came.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave Sullivan
• Release date: Dec 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311249296

Dave Sullivan

Dave Sullivan is a retired Minnesota State District Court Judge. After practicing law for thirty years in Duluth, Minnesota, he was appointed to the District Court Bench and was chambered in Duluth for ten years until his retirement in 2006. Dave and his wife, Kath, live in Madeira Beach, Florida and Bayfield County, Wisconsin.

Book preview

Part One: The Anishinabe (1854 - 1861)

Part Two: Indian Gaming (20th Century)

Part Three: The Hermit Island Resort & Casino (The Present)

Part Four: Island Treasure (The Present)

Note to Reader: An Apostle Islands chart is included in the Prologue which may be a useful reference when reading some scenes like sailing to Maggie's or Stockton's Singing Sand Beach, the discovery in Quarry Bay or the boat chase to Port Superior.

The Anishinabe were first in these islands, dubbed Les Isles des Apôtres by the early French missionaries. They were on Lake Superior well before Christopher Columbus discovered America in the late Fifteenth Century. By the late seventeenth century they had settled in the Chequamegon and were discovered there by those French missionaries as early as 1641. The Anishinabe lived a semi-nomadic annual subsistence economy along the shores of Kitchigami, from the maple sugar groves in the spring to the winter hunt, from the Putting Away Snow Shoes Moon in early April to the Leaves Falling Moon in October and beyond to the still of snow-covered winter. They did have Medéwewin or Mystic Doings Societies. Their Medé priests did stay in contact with the lesser manidog, or gods. Their existence did revolve entirely around their woodland environment … until the white man came.

Dave Sullivan

Blueberry Moon, 2013

PROLOGUE

It was promising to be a beautiful summer in the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. The summer did turn out to be beautiful. As usual in the Apostles, some would say, but changing events presented unusual and differing challenges and objectives for certain island residents that summer.

Jake Kingsley relaxed in the warmth of the late-May, mid-day sun in the cockpit of the ketch Resolution at her slip at Hanson's Marina in Raspberry Bay. The Marina occupies the water's edge in the tiny, quaint village in Bay Harbor, Wisconsin on Lake Superior's South Shore. Jake had retired or, some said, dropped out of his practice as a trial lawyer in Minneapolis. He had tried cases both for plaintiffs and for the insurance companies' defendants in Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and several other states in state and federal courts. His reputation was that he was highly skilled, hard-working, fair and reasonable. He was highly regarded among the bench and bar as honest, trustworthy and straight forward to deal with.

But something had happened. With nearly twenty years in the practice he became dissatisfied with the way the law was practiced by too many members of the trial bar. Perhaps he loved the law too much. In any event, his strong feelings about how the law should be practiced, the state of the practice and the different way in which it was being practiced, caused him to leave. He quit. He bought an expensive sailboat he could not afford, christened it Resolution and he retired to the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior where he had grown up summers under the tutelage of his grandfathers, Jake Reynolds and Bill Kingsley both of whom had cottages in Bay Harbor and boats on the lake.

Now, retired and only 45 years old, Jake and his friends Charles Stanton, Bert Hanson and Pete Cadotte had all the islands, docks and bays, anchorages and lighthouses, cities and towns to explore and enjoy. Pete was new this year to Resolution's crew, but Jake, Charles and Bert had been sailing Resolution in the islands for a couple of years.

Jake looked forward to the coming summer. It was, he believed, going to be a wonderful lazy summer of nothing but pursuing the quiet enjoyment of the Apostle Islands under sail.

As the summer began, Mary Pelletier pondered her own problem in the offices of the Hermit Island Casino.

Mary looked at the Apostle Islands chart on the office wall.. It certainly is a paradise, she thought. There on the chart she saw Raspberry Bay near the top of the Bayfield Peninsula, Oak, Stockton and Madeline Islands.

She looked more closely at the chart specifically to the location of the casino facilities, the casino and hotels on Hermit Island and the hotel, parking lot and ferry dock at Red Cliff Bay on the mainland.

She saw Hermit Island just north of Basswood Island and east of the mainland. The casino was on the south end of the island. Directly west was Red Cliff Point and Red Cliff Bay where the casino had its parking lot, ferry dock and a mainland hotel.

It was all marvelous and, thought Mary, the most marvelous thing was what it could do for the poverty ridden Chequamegon Chippewa people, who along with other Chippewa Bands had occupied the Bayfield Peninsula and the Apostle Islands for more than three hundred years.

But were they being cheated? Mary suspected that the revenues from the gambling were not what they should be. A friend from Cloquet had suggested the money coming to the Band should be a lot more. Her tribe, the Fond du Lac Band, operated two casinos and she knew the revenues which they produced.

At the Hermit Island Casino, the gambling receipts were handled by members of the Band under the direction of a management company from Minneapolis affiliated with a Las Vegas group. Mary didn't think Band members could handle any major skimming of profits on their own. The management company, on the other hand, was a different matter.

She stood on the upper deck of the Hermit Island Casino overlooking the small harbor and marina as the ferryboat Siskiwit arrived full of passengers eager to leave some of their money behind on the island. She vowed to find out if the Chequamegon Chippewa was being cheated and, if so, to do something about it. She would ask Peter Cadotte, the Band's lawyer, right away.

Later that summer, old Michael Cadotte sat in his shack behind Raspberry Bay and worried about his own problem and a problem for the Apostle Islands, themselves. The secret of the Chequamegon had been discovered ... discovered by white men, but maybe only two white men, so far. Old Michael smoked from the ancient ceremonial pipe and drank the bitter tea. His grandson, Peter, and Peter's friend, Jake, had just left. They now knew the secret, too. But, they would not tell. It was the other two white men who were the problem.

Old Michael was an Ojibway Indian. He was the last of the Medé priests of the Medéwewin Society of the Chequamegon Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. He lived in a shack in the forest on the edge of the swamp just south of Raspberry Bay on the Bayfield Peninsula where it was surrounded by the Apostle Islands. This land and the islands were his home and the home of the Chequamegon Band. He was the carrier of the oral history of the Band. It would be he who would have to take action.

He smoked and drank more of the bitter tea. The problem was not an easy one to solve. It would require strong action and perhaps considerable sacrifice. He recalled the stories the Medé had told over and over through many generations and had been told to him to remember and keep the history alive.

While they each wanted to see the best for the Hermit Island Casino, for the Chequamegon Chippewa Band and for the Apostles Islands, what Jake Kingsley, Mary Pelletier and Peter Cadotte did not and could not realize, but what old Michael Cadotte knew very well, was that the problem of the Chequamegon Chippewa was about to become much bigger than the problems with the casino and that the chain of events that would shape what was about to happen had been put into motion a long time ago . . .

PART ONE: THE ANISHINABE

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CHAPTER ONE

The month was September. The year: 1854. The place: the village of La Pointe on Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands. The problem: getting all of the chiefs to agree to the much needed treaty.

Chief Buffalo watched the other chiefs of the Ojibway, also called Chippewa, as they gathered on the lawn in front of the Madison house in La Pointe. The Indian agents had to bring them together in an accord and to sign the treaty for which they had all gathered. Buffalo would do everything he could to see that it happened. Chiefs had come from around the shores of Kitchigami, the Big Lake, and from the west along the upper waters of the Mississippi River. They were all bands of Chippewa who had any claim to the lands around Kitchigami. They came from the Lac du Flambeau Band and Lac Court Oreilles to the south, from the Fond du Lac Band further west on the lake and from the Grand Portage Band across on the north shore. Chief Buffalo was headman of the La Pointe Band which in reality was not just one band, but included the Bad River Band, the Red Cliff Band and the Chequamegon Band. It was here in La Pointe, on the big island called Madeline Island that the meeting had been called by the white men from Washington.

Chief Buffalo listened as Indian Agent Henry C. Gilbert spoke to the council. He wondered with some concern how these powerful Indian chiefs would react to what was about to be proposed to them. Gilbert was from the Mackinac Agency in Detroit. It was Gilbert who had arranged for this treaty council here at the Village of La Pointe on Madeline Island. It was he who had enlisted the aid of Indian Agent David B. Herriman of Crow Wing in the Minnesota Territory. They were here to deal with the Indians native to Lake Superior, but also with the possible claims of the Indians from the Mississippi, to the south and west.

On this September day, the sun was shining, but the air was cool from the breeze coming off the lake. Chief Buffalo wore a black woolen frock coat, a shirtwaist with knotted necktie and a waistcoat which made him feel dressed for this occasion and which kept him warm against the cool breeze. It was nearing the end of the Turning Leaves Moon. Soon the leaves would be in their fullest and richest bright colors, then the leaves would fall and winter would be upon the Islands.

The government agents came to him first because he was the great chief of the La Pointe Bands. All three, the Bad River Band, the Red Cliff Band and the Chequamegon Band, had their villages in the vicinity of the Chequamegon, the Apostle Islands and surrounding area.

The Indian agents had told him the purpose of this council. At the direction of George Manypenny, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Gilbert had arranged this treaty council to acquire for the United States the Indian claims of title to their lands at the western end of Lake Superior. Because there might be title claims from bands or tribes who had been pushed further west from these waters, he had asked Agent Herriman from the Minnesota Territory to bring chiefs from tribes from the upper Mississippi area. The United States would pay for the lands and preserve reservations for the several bands who still occupied lands along the shores of the Big Lake, Kitchigami.

Oh, Great Chiefs, began Gilbert, it is a great honor for us to be here to council with all of you. We are honored that you have accepted our invitation and traveled so far to be here with your fellow chiefs from other bands to arrive at a great treaty that will protect the Chippewa and preserve the homelands on which you have lived for so long. The Great White Father in Washington, President Pierce, has asked us to come together with you on this historic occasion to make this treaty with you. Here at the place of your origin, we will meet and discuss these matters and we will work with you toward reaching an accord, an agreement, a treaty of peace that promises posterity and protection for all of you and your people.

Do you think they believe all that?

Chief Buffalo turned at the sound of the deep voice and saw Chief Nagahnub at his side. He was the great war chief of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Buffalo had asked him to be his second here at the treaty council. They were alike, each a powerful chief in his band, and each concerned about the future for the Anishinabe, the future for their homelands.

I do not know, he answered. but the White Man has to make his speech.

Hmmh, Nagahnub nodded his agreement, and so will we.

Nagahnub was a powerfully built man. He had proved himself many times in battle, protecting the homelands from other tribes like the Lakota Sioux.

All of the Anishinabe had been at this island which they had called Chequamegon or Shauguamikon, pronounced she-wam-i-gon or shwam-i-gon. Some bands had moved further west. Nagahnub's band, part of the Marten clan had moved to the end of the lake, to Wi-a-quah-ke-che-gume-eng, meaning where the water stops, at the head of Kitchigami, the Big Lake, the lake the White Man called Lake Superior. The French fur traders had called the new home of Nagahnub's band Fond du Lac, for head of the lake. Nagahnub's people became known as the Fond du Lac Band.

Buffalo was glad for Nagahnub's presence here. He was a powerful leader, much respected in his band and in the tribe. The Fond du Lac Band was likewise respected for the courage and strength of its members as well as its leaders. Nagahnub, the Foremost Sitter, according to the meaning of his Ojibway name, was one of the most respected and revered of all of them.

Nagahnub also shared Buffalo's views about the future of their people and the future of their lands. They knew that there would be no treaty unless the Chippewa bands gave up most of the lands. The Chippewa held the land from the Canadian border on the north shore along the Lake to the Head of the Lakes and east along the south shore to La Pointe and beyond toward the Sault at the Lake's eastern end where its waters fell into the St. Mary's River and on to the lower lakes. These lands contained vast forests of pine, easily harvested and floated for timber. Beneath the soil lay minerals of considerable value to the Great White Father in Washington. Copper, iron, and other minerals the White Man wanted were there.

In return for the land, the Chippewa people would be paid annual payments for a period of years. Payments would be in cash, household goods and agricultural tools, cattle and building materials. Most importantly, reservations, although much smaller than their homelands, would be set aside for the Chippewa bands.

Buffalo and Nagahnub had thought about this much. They had discussed it much. They had smoked many pipes together over this subject. After much thought, discussion and smoke, they had agreed that such a treaty was in their people's best interest. Sitting in a wigwam built just east of La Pointe village, near the edge of the lagoon near the burial ground where Michel Cadotte and old Chief White Crane lay at the edge of the water, with the air full of acrid tobacco smoke, Buffalo and Nagahnub had come to agree on one very profound conclusion.

The white man would never let them simply keep all of their lands anyway. They would be invading them to hunt, to fish, and worse, to build their houses. The Chippewa wigwam went up easily in a day. The women built them. When they moved, the bark coverings were rolled and carried away while the framework of young saplings was left, soon to fall and be absorbed into the forest floor. But the houses of the white man stayed. They were built of strong, permanent materials. They did not look like they belonged in the forest. The white man's presence was obvious and inconsistent with the woodland, while the Indian blended in, using the natural materials easily at hand and moved on without permanently scarring the Mother Earth. No, whatever they agreed to or didn't agree to at this council, the white man would be coming to their lands. They were better with only part of their lands as these reservations where the white man would have no claim or right.

It was therefore after much thought, discussion and smoke that Nagahnub and Buffalo agreed to work with these Indian Agents and the Great White Father they represented. Together they would talk to the other chiefs and to the other bands and try to convince them. It would be a challenge, they knew, for some of their brethren were not at all trusting of the White Man and would be reluctant to agree to anything. But Buffalo and Nagahnub had agreed it would be worth it.

They would succeed.

There would be a treaty.

It was best for their people.

The people.

They called themselves Anishinabe, the people or the original people. Neighboring tribes had called them the Ojibway or Ojibwa from o-jib-i-weg, meaning those who make pictographs. The engraved birch bark rolls of the records of their religious Medéwewin Society set them apart from other tribes in terms of any written language or recording. The English, against whom they had fought alongside their fur trading partners, the French, had been the ones to corrupt the name into Chippewa.

From the history handed down though the telling of stories through the generations, and from dates and histories taught them by the missionaries, Chief Buffalo knew that they had begun far to the east, at the headwaters of a great river where the fresh water met the salt water of the great sea. With other tribes, and in the course of separation from other tribes, they had moved west and were the first to settle on Kitchigami, at first by what the French called the Sault de St. Marie. The Chippewa became known to the French as the Saulteurs, or People of the Rapids. By the seventeenth century, these westward moving Chippewa had settled on the south shore of Lake Superior with headquarters at La Pointe. This Chippewa settlement in Chequamegon Bay was the seat of power of the Lake Superior Chippewa. Jesuit missionaries visited in 1641.

Prior to the coming of the French, the Anishinabe lived in the woodlands and on the shores of Kitchigami as hunter-gatherers. They had settled there because of the abundance of game, fish, fowl, berries, maple sugar and other food. The forest offered the bark of the white or paper birch for covering wigwams and canoes and for the keeping of the pictorial records of the religious Medéwewin or Mystic Doings Society. The forest and the marshes offered the saplings and materials for building wigwams, mats or beds, tools and utensils, and the tiki-naagan, the papoose carrier for managing infants. The Anishinabe lived by the season. From the Crusted Snow Supporting Man Moon (late March) to the Putting Away Snow Shoes Moon (early April), families moved to the maple trees to collect sap which the women kept boiling throughout the day and night. At the Flowering moon in May, they moved to the fishing grounds and where the berry patches were most productive. They planted corn in the time of the Strawberry Moon in June. They harvested wild rice at the time of the Blueberry Moon in August or the Turning of Leaves Moon in September. In the fall, at the time of the Leaves Falling Moon, families moved to the duck hunting camps where they hunted waterfowl, small mammals, white-tailed deer, wolves and bear. These prizes provided not only food, but clothing and other essentials to the subsistence level existence of the Chippewa.

And now, said Indian Agent Gilbert, I ask my friend Chief Buffalo to speak. He is our host here on this island and in this Village of La Pointe where you all began many years ago.

Your turn, muttered Nagahnub, nudging Buffalo in the back.

And you next, Buffalo retorted as he straightened his white man's coat and started across the grass to the big head table. He nodded to Agent Gilbert, shook his hand in the white man's style and turned to address his brother chiefs.

Nind a-nam-i-kage! he began. At first in their own tongue, then gradually switching to English, he began a story, the story of life, the story of Chequamegon, the story of La Pointe.

Before the time of the Anishinabe, the People, on this Island, was the time of a great flood. So much rain fell from the sky above that all the land was covered. The burden fell upon Winabojo, our beloved hero and sometime rascal, to save the World. The water rose so high that Winabojo had to hang on to the highest branches of the tallest pine that stood higher than the rising water. Since he had something to do with this great deluge in the first place, he set out to fix it. He sent Nigig, the Otter, to find the bottom, but after a long while, the Otter floated to the surface of the water. He was dead. Winabojo blew the breath of life back into the Otter and then tried with Amik, the Beaver, but the same thing happened. Again he tried with Mang, the Loon, but the same thing. Winabojo gave the breath of life back to these animals, but they could not stop the water or return the Mother Earth.

Buffalo paused for a moment and adjusted the necktie which constricted his throat in a way he was not used to. Then he continued, the many chiefs and headmen listening respectfully.

"Finally, Winabojo saw Wajashk, the Muskrat. 'Help me, Wajashk!' he cried. 'Help me to save the Mother Earth! Dive to the bottom and bring me back some sand!' Like the others, the Muskrat was gone a long time and Winabojo feared the worst. And it happened. The lifeless body of the Muskrat floated up upon the surface. Winabojo breathed life back into the body of Wajahsk. As he did so, he noticed a few grains of sand between the Muskrat's claws. These grains of sand he dried in the sun and then he cast them upon the water.

"The grains of sand from the Muskrat's claws became the seeds of an island which grew and provided more sand with which to seed more lands. It all grew big enough that Winabojo could plant life and that was the beginning. That was the Chequamegon. That was La Pointe, where we stand today.

"Now, we are gathered here at our original home to make this treaty with the Great White Father. It is fitting that we should do this here, where we began our time at Kitchigami as we now protect our homelands, the places where we will continue to live in peace, protected by the treaty that this great council will reach here.

I call upon my friend Chief Nagahnub.

Nagahnub came to stand beside Chief Buffalo facing the crowd. He spoke to them. Great Chiefs. We of the Fond du Lac Band will stay in our home at Wi-a-quah-ke-che-gume-eng, at the head of the lakes, where the water stops. We were there many lifetimes ago, when my grandfather, Wa-me-gie-ug-o, built his wigwam there. We were of the Marten clan. We made war against the Lakota who lived south and west of there. We have been there many cycles of moons. It has become our homeland … and we will stay.

Buffalo stood listening, watching the many chiefs who were gathered there. Nagahnub had their attention. They respected him. They were afraid of him. They knew him to be a great war chief. They knew his words were backed by his strength, his courage, his experience and the wisdom that those things gave him.

We will stay in our homes … and you will stay in your homes. Nagahnub finished and stood tall and straight beside Chief Buffalo.

Gilbert was beaming. His broad smile showed his pleasure with how the treaty council was starting. He grasped Buffalo's hand and began pumping it up and down. Buffalo had seen the white man's handshake greeting many, many times and had done it himself more than a few times since so many white men lived in, worked in and passed through La Pointe. But he