Ojibwe workers organizing into Indian Workers’ Councils to fight for relief and land during the Great Depression in northern Minnesota’s White Earth Reservation.

‘Indian Workers Organize Fight on Government Robbery’ from The Daily Worker. Vol. 11 No. 10. January 11, 1934.

BAGLEY, Minn. Hundreds of Indian workers have organized in the Councils to demand of the Roosevelt government their payment out of the tribal funds. During normal times they received $100 annually. When the crisis commenced to deepen, the white ruling class that hold the Indian’s money reduced the payment to $25 a year.

And now with the fifth year of the crisis, when conditions are becoming unbearable, the Indian workers are faced with non-payment. The Indians on the White Earth Reservation know that mass action has won for the white workers and farmers. So they of the White Earth Indian Reservation are organizing into Indian Workers’ Councils to demand of the Wall Street government Roosevelt the following:

1. Full payment of $50 at once. 2. No discrimination on N.R.A. jobs.

3. More relief from the government for old and needy Indians. From the Farmer-Labor state government of Minnesota, they demand: 1. The right to hunt, fish and trap without license.

2. Protection of Rice Lake from being taken over by the white ruling class.

On the N.R.A. jobs the Indian workers get 30 cents per hour and work eight hours. The white workers get 55 cents per hour and work six hours. This is Governor Floyd B. Olsen’s Farmer-Labor relief. The Indians set up a committee to arrange meetings all over the White Earth Indian Reservation: Daigle’s Mill, Dec. 11; Pine Bend, Dec. 12; Twin Lakes, Dec. 13; Boulieu, Dec. 14; Manonen, Dec. 15; White Earth, Dec. 16.

Roy Lorinzen, of the Bemidji Unemployed Councils, and Edward C. Baumann, Clearwater Co. organizer of the United Farmers’ League, spoke at all of these meetings and brought greetings from the poor farmers and white workers to the hundreds of Indian workers.

Five big Indian Workers’ Councils were organized: one at Daigle’s Mill, one at Pine Bend, one at Twin Lakes, one at Boulieu and one at Manomem. At White Earth the Indian Council arranged the meeting. About 250 Indians were there, and the old Indians voted for united front action with the Indian Workers’ Councils and elected three delegates to attend a Reservation Conference at Twin Lakes, Dec. 24, of the Indian Workers’ Councils. It is also understood that the young Junior Indian Council of White Earth and Ponsforce will also send delegates to Twin Lakes Dec. 24 and will lay plans for an Indian Workers’ Conference of all Indian Reservations in Minnesota.

The Indian workers cheered when Lorinzen said that through mass action they would win their demands, also when Baumann, United Farmers’ League, said that the poor farmers and workers. both black and white, “are with you in struggle against our common enemy, the capitalist class, the class that robs all workers.”

(By a Farmer Correspondent)

‘Bemidji Indians Struggle for Payments Due Them’ from from The Daily Worker. Vol. 11 No. 16. January 18, 1934.

One Group Forms Council to Unite With White Workers and Farmers

BEMIDJI, Minn. – Indian workers in the Bemidji section, are beginning to struggle for their rights. The first year of the crisis and prior to that, the Indians received a per capita payment from their tribal fund of $100. The sum has continuously been cut, till last year they received only $25. Now, with the fifth year of the crisis, they are threatened with no payment whatever.

This situation led to the fact that on one reservation, the White Earth, a series of mass meetings were held. The total number of heads of families in all meetings was 550. At each of these meetings a committee was elected to represent the Indians at a reservation conference.

This conference, which was held on Dec. 24, undertook the task of beginning action on their demands for a per capita of $50. A petition committee was elected to draw up a petition to be circulated, not only on the one reservation, but on all reservations in the state of Minnesota, consisting mostly of the Chippewa tribe. These petitions have been sent to the various reservations through contacts received from the Indian workers on the White Earth.

The conference is a success. All work was left in the hands of the rank and file Indians. About 50 attended this conference. An Indian Workers Council has been established in one group. It is based upon practically the same principle as the Unemployed Council. It will, according to its constitution, participate in all struggles for the benefit of the Indian workers, as well as join hands with any other workers and farmers. The control in the organization is strictly in the hands of the rank and file. On Sunday, Jan. 7th, the Petition Committee will meet in Bemidji, where methods of work will be adopted for furthering the struggle for the payment. In the evening the Unemployed Council will hold a reception meeting, greeting the Indian delegation, and where the relation between the white and Indian workers can be very much improved, thus breaking the tactics of the Indian representatives in office, who have thus far, only been able to develop and hold the Indians prejudiced and even antagonistic between the white and Indian workers, but between the various reservations also. The Communist Party of the Bemidji section is active in giving the struggle correct guidance and leadership.

(By a Worker Correspondent)

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist.

PDF of original issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1934/v11-n010-jan-11-1934-DW-LOC.pdf