red pupils at the school, representing many tribes of
Indians. There are descendants of the children who were educated at this
school now in Minnesota, who are citizens of high standing, who are
indebted to this institution for their education and position.

In the year 1830 a Mr. Warren, who was then living at La Pointe, visited
Mackinaw to obtain a missionary for his place, and not being able to
secure an ordained minister, he took back with him Mr. Frederick Ayre, a
teacher, who, being pleased with the place and prospect, returned to
Mackinaw, and in 1831, with the Rev. Sherman Hall and wife, started for
La Pointe, where they arrived on August 30th, and established themselves
as missionaries, with a school.

The next year Mr. Ayre went to Sandy lake, and opened another school for
the children of voyageurs and Indians. In 1832 Mr. Boutwell, after his
tour with Schoolcraft, took charge of the school at La Pointe, and in
1833 he removed to Leech lake, and there established the first mission
in Minnesota west of the Mississippi.

From his Leech lake mission he writes a letter in which he gives such a
realistic account of his school and mission that one can see everything
that is taking place, as if a panorama was passing before his eyes. He
takes a cheerful view of his prospects, and gives a comprehensive
statement of the resources of the country in their natural state. If
space allowed, I would like to copy the whole letter; but as he speaks
of the wild rice in referring to the food supply, I will say a word
about it, as I deem it one of Minnesota's most important natural
resources.

In 1857 I visited the source of the Mississippi with the then Indian
agent for the Chippewas, and traveled hundreds of miles in the upper
river. We passed through endless fields of wild rice, and witnessed its
harvest by the Chippewas, which is a most interesting and picturesque
scene. They tie it in sheaves with a straw before it is ripe enough to
gather to prevent the wind from shaking out the grains, and when it has
matured, they thresh it with sticks into their canoes. We estimated that
there were about 1,000 families of the Chippewas, and that they gathered
about twenty-five bushels for each family, and we saw that in so doing
they did not make any impression whatever on the crop, leaving thousands
of acres of the rice to the geese and ducks. Our calculations then were
that more rice grew in Minnesota each year, without any cultivat