On the early Wednesday morning of October 5, 1898, a handful of young Pillager Ojibwe men held off approximately 100 U.S. soldiers on the shores of Sugar Point, in a firefight that resulted in seven dead and ten wounded with no casualties reported on the Ojibwe side, and the soldiers were eventually forced to retreat to Walker, Minnesota. The event came to be recognized as the last military conflict between the U.S. and American Indians. Tensions leading to the battle grew from lumber companies swindling the Ojibwe out of large amounts of money, mistreatment and injustices by U.S. marshals and other agents, kickback schemes involving federal agents and local hotel and railroad men, false charges used to bring Ojibwe to court in Duluth, delayed timber payments, and repeated arrests in weak bootlegging cases. After leaders of the Pillager tribe sent an unacknowledged letter to the U.S. government asking for an investigation, relations worsened further. Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, an elder Pillager man who had been arrested in April 1898, released for insufficient evidence, and left to make the 135-mile trip home largely on foot, vowed never to be arrested again. When later called as a witness in another bootlegging case, he ignored a marshal's warrant, and when he and Sha-Boon-Day-Shkong were detained while collecting annuity payments in Onigum, other Ojibwe secured his release. Although officials claimed they had been surrounded and attacked by more than 200 warriors, the account given here says it was a small group of Pillager band members, reportedly fewer than 20 people, mostly women. After the U.S. Army was informed, wanted notices were issued and 77 additional soldiers were requested from Fort Snelling. The soldiers left Walker by boat, arrived at Sugar Point, failed to find Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig, and set up camp. The start of the battle was disputed: the Pillager held that soldiers fired on a canoe carrying two women and a child, while the military claimed a rifle discharged accidentally toward the Ojibwe side. An intense firefight followed and continued into the night. No Ojibwe were injured except Indian Officer Gay-Gway-Day-Be-Tung, also known as George Russell, who was allegedly shot by mistake by a soldier who thought he was with the Pillagers. Six U.S. soldiers were killed and ten wounded that night, and on the morning of October 7, 1898, the soldiers retreated battered, hungry, and cold. News of the battle produced fears of an Indian uprising, brought additional troops and calls for protection, and stirred sensational comparisons to Custer's defeat at Little Big Horn. After several weeks tensions eased, but relations between the Ojibwe and their non-native neighbors were never the same. With attention focused on Leech Lake, the U.S. government was forced to hear Ojibwe grievances. Several Pillagers later turned themselves in on warrants related to Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig's escape, though he himself was never tried or jailed again, most served between two and six months, and all received a full pardon from President McKinley soon afterward. Later investigations revealed damage done to the Ojibwe by logging companies, and reforms in timber management on the Leech Lake Reservation eventually led to the establishment of the Chippewa National Forest. None of the Pillagers who fought at Sugar Point were tried or punished for their involvement, Bug-O-Nay-Ge-Shig lived another 18 years in the area, and the U.S. Army never returned to the shores of Sugar Point on Leech Lake, its final battle and defeat in the period now known as the Indian Wars.