Page 110 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

106 WISCONSIN IIISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.

Those who took our child must be asleep, or dreaming that it is
theirs. We had heard that the child had been placed in aafety
in the White Man's Court, whero all the wisdom and all the
laws were, and we felt ~atisfied that justice would be done, and
our child given back to us. I and the chiefs were called as
witnesses. I was asked if I knew the nature of an oath. I
said I did, that I knew there was a God above, who would pun-
ish me if I did not speak true. And I was not afraid to kiss
the book, because I told the truth. I said the child was ours.
But after proving it ours, and the decision giren in our favor,
the child was stolen from us in defiance of law.
"We next heard of the child in Illinois, and all the Chiefs
authorized Dr. ~IUEBSCHMANN, our new Superintendent, to go
and get the child back if he could. And he promised to do so.
They gave the Doctor full power to act for them, and to take
the child wherever he could find him. It was their unanimous
request, and they selected Dr. HEUBSCHMANN, because he was
the Agent of our Great Father. We were very glad to hear
that the Doctor had found the child. We thought him safe in
the jail, in the care of the officers; that none could get the
child sway from there, uilless the law gave them the right. We
cannot but think, it must have been an Evil Spirit that got into
the jail and took away our child. We thought the white man's
law strong, and are sorry to find it so weak.
LLI shake hands with you, as a writer. I shake hands with the
Great Father, the President, and those who make the laws. I
appeal to them to return us our lost child. When we get him
again, we shall educate him like the whites. But let us have
our child back. Write strong, my friend!"
With this closing admonition SOULIGNY shook hands and fin-
ished his talk. Our readers are familiar with the wrong of
which the Menomonees complain. It is the case of the boy
claimed both by an Indian and a white mother. The case was
fairly tried two years ago before Commissioner BUTTRICK, at
Oshkosh. The Commissioner, after a patient hearing, decided
in favor of the Indian claimants, and directed the Sheriff to