Part 34

The treaty concluded the 24th of May last, with the Chickasaws, has altered the relations in which they were placed with the United States. The proceeds derivable from a portion of their present possessions have been assigned to them, and reservations have also been provided for such as choose to become citizens of the United States. Their future condition now depends upon their own views and experience, as they have a right to remain or remove, in conformity with their own judgment. The means placed at their disposal are fully adequate to their permanent comfortable establishment, and it is to be sincerely hoped that they will apply them wisely.

The acts of the last session of Congress, on the subject of Indian affairs, have introduced important changes into those relations. Many of the provisions of former laws had become inappropriate or inadequate, and not suited to the changes which time and circumstances had made. In the act regulating the intercourse with the various tribes, the principles of intercommunication with them are laid down, and the necessary details provided. In that for the re-organization of the department, the number of officers employed has been much reduced, and the current expenses diminished.

Any changes which experience may show to be necessary in these acts, can from time to time be provided, until they shall become fully adapted to the situation and condition of the Indians, and to the intercourse, both commercial and political, which ought to exist between them and our government and citizens. The system of removal has changed essentially the prospects of the emigrants, and has imposed new obligations upon the United States. A vast tract of country, containing much more than one hundred millions of acres, has been set apart for the permanent residence of these Indians, and already about thirty thousand have been removed to it. The government is under treaty stipulations to remove nearly fifty thousand others to the same region, including the Illinois and Lake Michigan Indians, with whom a conditional arrangement has been made. This extensive district, embracing a great variety of soil and climate, has been divided among the several tribes, and definite boundaries assigned to each. They will there be brought into juxta-position with one another, and also into contact, and possibly into collision, with the native tribes of that country; and it seems highly desirable that some plan should be adopted for the regulation of the intercourse among these divided communities, and for the exercise of a general power of supervision over them, so far as these objects can be effected consistently with the power of Congress, and with the various treaty stipulations existing with them. It is difficult, indeed, to conceive how peace can be preserved, and the guaranty of protection held out to the eastern Indians fulfilled, without some legislative provision upon this subject. LEW. CASS.

CONDITION OF THE ARMY.

Extract from the Report of the Major-General of the Army.

Since my last annual report, the five companies of the regiment of dragoons, which remained to be raised, have been recruited; and, after having been organized at Jefferson barracks, they took up their march to Fort Gibson, where the head-quarters of the regiment were established, preparatory to entering the Indian country, in conformity to your instructions.

In consequence of the lateness of the arrival of these companies at Fort Gibson, and a variety of unforeseen difficulties in obtaining the proper arms and equipments for the regiment, the movement to the west was delayed until the 15th of June.

In the mean time, General Leavenworth, who had been appointed to the command of the troops on the western frontier, south of the northern boundary of the State of Missouri, detached one company of that regiment as an escort to the caravan of traders to Santa Fe, in Mexico. He also employed detachments of the third and seventh regiments of infantry in opening roads between the posts on the Arkansas and Red rivers, and in establishing new posts beyond the settlements of the emigrated Indians, for the purpose of facilitating the movements of the expedition, and covering the country occupied by those Indians, in the event of a failure to secure a friendly intercourse with the wild tribes inhabiting the country beyond them.

These arrangements having been made, the expedition, consisting of nine companies, under Colonel Dodge, was put in motion, accompanied by a deputation from the several tribes of friendly Indians, to act as guides and interpreters, and to aid in bringing about a general good understanding between the several nations; and in order that the friendly intercourse might be further promoted, two Indian girls, the one a Pawnee, and the other a Kiowa, who had been captured by the Osages, also accompanied the expedition for the purpose of being delivered to their friends.

Owing to the sickness which prevailed among the troops, the command, on reaching the river Washita, about one hundred and eighty miles west of Fort Gibson, was so much reduced as to render a re-organization of the companies necessary. Colonel Dodge accordingly, out of the effective force, formed six companies, each forty-two strong, and, under instructions from General Leavenworth, continued his march to the Pawnee village, situated on a branch of the Red river. Here Colonel Dodge held a council with the Camanches, the Pawnees, (or Toyaslas,) the Kiowas, and the deputation of Indians which accompanied him, amounting in all to about two thousand persons. He explained the object of the expedition, and was instrumental in bringing about a friendly intercourse between several hostile tribes. He also obtained the surrender of the son of a Mr. Martin, an American citizen, who had been murdered by the Indians, and of a black boy captured by them. A more particular account of the interview between Colonel Dodge and the assembled tribes will be found in the journal of the expedition, annexed to this report.

After delivering the two Indian girls to their parents, Colonel Dodge, accompanied by several of the chiefs of the Camanches, Pawnees, and Kiowas, returned with his command to Fort Gibson, whence the regiment proceeded to take up the positions previously fixed on. Four companies, under Colonel Dodge, marched to Fort Leavenworth, on the Missouri; three companies, under Lieutenant-colonel Kearney, to the Des Moines; and three, under Major Mason, to a point on the Arkansas, about eighty miles above Fort Gibson. These companies have arrived at their destinations, and are engaged in preparing their winter quarters.

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Operations under the Indian Department during the year 1834.

Measures have been adopted for the execution of the several treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Appalachicolas, Quapaws, the united bands of Otoes and Missourias of the river Platte, and the four confederated bands of Pawnees of the Platte and the Loup Fork, all of which were ratified at the last session of Congress. Preparatory steps have also been taken for the removal of the Creeks and Seminoles, and it is expected that a considerable portion of those tribes will be removed beyond the Mississippi during the ensuing season, and find a happier home in the domains set apart for their residence, under the guaranty of the United States.

In pursuance of instructions from the department, General William Marshall, Indian agent for the Miamies, opened a negotiation recently with the chiefs of that tribe, for the purchase of their land in the State of Indiana. He has succeeded in procuring from them a cession of two hundred thousand acres, on terms advantageous to themselves and the United States. It may be considered the precursor to a total cession of their remaining land in that State, and their consequent emigration to the western territory; a result desirable in many respects, especially connected with advantages to a portion of our citizens, and doubly gratifying from its being compatible with the best interests of the tribe.

The alteration proposed by a resolution of the Senate at the last session of Congress, in the boundaries of the land granted by the Chicago treaty of 1833 to the united nation of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawatamie Indians, has received their assent under certain modifications, specified in their agreement of the 1st of October last.

No material alteration has taken place during the past year in the condition of the Cherokees. The question of emigration finds them still divided, and a considerable portion appear to be insensible of the manifest benefits accruing from its adoption. Without tolerable unanimity, it is impossible to proceed with it advantageously to all parties interested in the general issue. In the mean time, the division has engendered much malignancy, and the opposing parties appear to evince a rancour bordering on hostility. Occasionally their animosity has broken out into acts of violence, and, in one instance, resulted in the death of a very meritorious and much regretted individual. On his return from their National Council at Red Clay, in August last, where the question of emigration was agitated in a tumultuous and excited meeting, John Walker, jun. one of their leading men friendly to its adoption, was waylaid and shot. The necessary orders for the arrest of the assassins were promptly issued by Governor Carroll, the present executive of Tennessee. Several persons are now in confinement on a charge of having taken part in the murder. Should the occasion call for it, the military will be ordered out for the protection of those who decide on emigration, and of the emigrating officers of the government engaged in this hazardous and responsible service.

A negotiation has been commenced by Governor Lucas, of Ohio, with the band of Wyandots in that State, for a cession of their remaining land, and their removal to the west of the Mississippi; and recent communications furnish strong grounds of belief that under his judicious management it will be eventually brought to a successful close.

The expedition to the far West, under the command of General Leavenworth, undertaken in compliance with orders from the War Department, for the objects therein detailed, proceeded on its route through regions almost unknown, and amid difficulties of the most perplexing nature. In consequence of the death of that brave and lamented officer while in the performance of duty, the command devolved on Colonel Dodge, who returned with the expedition to Fort Gibson, bringing along a number of the chiefs of the Pawnee and Kioway Indians,--bold and warlike tribes, who have entertained no very friendly feelings towards our citizens, between whom and them there had hitherto been but little intercourse. These tribes being borderers on the newly occupied Indian territories, it became imperative to repress their hostile disposition, under the guaranty of the United States to afford adequate protection to the emigrating Indians.

With the view of establishing pacific relations between these and other tribes, a general council was held under the auspices of Colonel Dodge and Major F. W. Armstrong, which resulted in mutual engagements of peace and friendship, fortified by proper intimations on the part of those officers, on behalf of their government, of support to the injured, and punishment to aggressors.

At the general council, impressive speeches were delivered by several chiefs of the Creek, Cherokee, Osage, and Choctaw tribes. In their addresses to the warlike chiefs then assembled, they took occasion substantially to observe, "that their people had opened their ears to the advice which had been given to them, and adopted the habits of the white man, and that by so doing they had become peaceful, prosperous, and happy; that they had relinquished the chase, and cultivated the earth, and that by becoming agricultural they lived in peace, and in the enjoyment of abundance; and that the same inestimable benefits would assuredly await all the tribes who would walk in the same path."

The duties and services of the commissioners west have closed by the expiration of their commission, according to the provisions of the act under which they were appointed. Great benefit has resulted to the various tribes by virtue of their mission. Important treaties were concluded by them, existing divisions were healed, difficulties that threatened collision were settled, and a spirit of peace and conciliation was infused among the Indians through their instrumentality.

There is little mention to be made of Indian hostilities during the past year: they have been few, and those not of an aggravated nature. A steady and onward course is observable among the Indian tribes towards the grand point of civilization. Their long imputed indomitable spirit of revenge, and their eager thirst for war, have undergone a sensible change in the process of meliorating circumstances. The happiest consequences may be anticipated from extending the means of tuition among their young people, from the introduction of mechanical arts into the different tribes, and from the increased attention bestowed on agricultural pursuits, under the patronage of government, throughout the territories of emigration; nor can the gratuitous but useful labours of the missionary, and the inculcation of the pure doctrines of Christianity, be overlooked in the enumeration of means that are conducing to the great end so precious in the sight of the philanthropist, and so dear to the finest sympathies of our nature--the transformation from the cold and barren confines of savage life to the sunny and fertile regions of civilization and religion.

INDIAN SCHOOLS.

The annual donation to the Baptist General Convention is 2,000 dol.; to the American Board of Foreign Missions, 2,200 dol.; to the Roman Catholic Church, 1,300 dol.; to the Methodist Episcopal Church, 400 dol. Other donations are made, upon representations entitled to favourable consideration.

The number of Indian children receiving instruction at the different schools is eighteen hundred. Exclusively of these, there are one hundred and fifty-six Indian scholars at the Choctaw academy in Kentucky, the expense of whose education is defrayed from funds appropriated by the Indians themselves, under treaty provisions with different tribes for this particular object. The flourishing condition of this academy furnishes the best evidence of the sound views and philanthropic motives of those with whom it originated, and leaves the question of Indian improvement in letters and morals upon the social basis no longer doubtful.

Statement, showing the number of Indian Schools, where established, by whom, the number of teachers and pupils, and the amount allowed by the Government.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Names of tribes. | By whom established. | No. of |No. of |Amount | | | |teachers.|pupils.|allowed.| |---------------------|-----------------------------------------------------| |Mohegan, Connecticut,| | 1 | 22 | 500 | |Senecas, New York,|Baptist Gen'l Convention, | 4 | 140 | 200 | |Tuscaroras, do. | do. do. | 2 | 71 | | |Ottawas, Michigan | do. do. | 3 | 40 | 450 | | Territory | | | | | |Chippewas, do. | do. do. | 3 | 48 | | |Cherokees, North | do. do. | 2 | 21 | 600 | | Carolina, | | | | | |Menomonies, Michigan,|Protestant Episcl. Church,| 5 | 66 | 500 | |Winnebagoes, do. ) | | | | | |Menomonies, do. } |Catholic Church, | 3 | 150 | 1000 | |Ottawas, do. ) | | | | | |Shawanees west of |Methodist Episcl. Church, | 3 | 27 | | | Mississippi, | | | | | |Delawares, do. | do. do. | 2 | 23 | | |Peorias, do. | do. do. | 2 | 18 | | |Kickapoos, do. | do. do. | 2 | 70 | | |Cherokees, do. |Baptist Gen'l Convention, | 2 | 25 | | |Creeks, do. | do. do. | 4 | | | | | |--------------------------| | | | 38 | 721 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------