The Chippewa Treaty at the Old Crossing of Red Lake River.

From the 1840's to the 1870's thousands of two wheel ox carts came and went from St. Paul Minnesota to the Red River Colony (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). They carried badly needed trade goods through forested and swampy areas of north western Minnesota. The route used between St. Paul and Winnipeg became known as the "Woods Trail" because of the forested area south of Detroit Lakes. Locally the trail is called the Pembina Trail. The more westerly trail along the Red River of the North was dangerous because of attacks by the Dakota Sioux, so ox cart drivers began using the Woods Trail which was in an area controled by the Ojibwe then known as the Chippewa. In 1863, the lands in Northwestern Minnesota belonging to the Ojibwe were ceded to the United States at Hout, Minnesota.

The Red Lake Band and the Pembina Band of Ojibwe signed away their ownership to over 5,000,000 acres of very fertile lands of the Red River Valley land extending 30 miles on each side of the Red River of the North. This was the sixth session of land in Minnesota by the Ojibwe and it opened up homesteading after the Civil War primarily as a reward to the displaced veterans who had served the Union Forces. There was also pressure from an influx of immigrants from northern European countries looking for land.

The treaty was misrepresented to the Ojibwe bands with some show of force as a needed route for trade and travel and not as a land grab. Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple stated sometime after the treaty was signed that the treaty was "from beginning to end a fraud...".

Federal Airborne Reaction Twits (F.A.R.T.) screw Minnesotans

The Devils Lake Journal reported in an article titled "clearing air may raise power costs in MN, ND", that a federal program to "cut haze in natural areas like national parks" will raise electric rates even more. The only haze that is polluting this area of Minnesota and North Dakota is from the hot air coming from politicians and bureaucrats.

Kristi Schlosser Carlson, an attorney for Minnkota, said early tests also show the EPA's technology will not work with the lignite coal used in Minnkota's plant. Schlosser Carlson said the cooperative prefers a technology that cleans the air without more big rate increases for members. What the EPA wants would cost a half billion dollars but visibility improvements would not be noticeably. Half a billion dollars from the people of Minnesota and North Dakota who cannot afford it with no visible improvements and no one will say anything because no one want to be accused of being on the side of pollution. Just shut up and pay the bill even if it is a stupid fix that does not work.

Bufo hemiophrys (Canadian Toad)

While mowing the lawn I came across quite a few of these little toads. The Canadian toad also known as the Dakota toad or the Manitoba Toad is remarkable because it survives the cold winters of this area. The cranial boss or bump between the eyes is the only way to distinguish this toad from the American toad. This little guy survives the winter in a burrow below frost line. Many will overwinters communally within small earth mounds, called mima mounds. These mounds sometimes hold several hundred toads over the winter. It would be interesting to find one of these mounds in the fall and spring to see what it looks like. Canadian toads have glands in their skin that puts off a bad tasting liquid that can make animals that try to eat them sick. You will find that this liquid squirts out of them as soon as you try to pick one up.