Auglaize County, Ohio - The Shawnees, 1905 (part 2 of 2)

"Before the departure of the commissioner for Columbus, rumors began to circulate among the Shawnees that they had been grossly deceived, and cheated in their treaty, in almost every particular, in regard to the sale of their land." From some source or other the Indians learned that, by the terms of the treaty, they would fall very far short of receiving what they had been led to expect for their land, and that they would not receive an acre more of land where they were going than was guaranteed to them by a former treaty. Great excitement over wrongs real and imaginary prevailed throughout the Shawnee nation. In their distress, they applied to the Quakers, who were holding their yearly meeting at Richmond, Ind., for assistance. A deputation of Friends was appointed to proceed forthwith to Wapaghkonetta, and investigate the deceptions of which the Shawnees complained so bitterly. The committee lost no time in the discharge of the duties imposed upon them. After a careful examination, covering a period of three days, the committee reported to the Annual Meeting of Friends that the representations made by the Indians in their application for assistance were substantially correct. The report was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs. After a mature deliberation, the committee recommended that a petition to Congress be prepared and signed by the chiefs, setting forth their grievances and asking for an additional compensation to be allowed the Shawnees for their land in Ohio. Such a petition was accordingly prepared, and a committee of four chiefs appointed to present it to the proper authorities at Washington. The chiefs appointed were John Perry (head chief), Wayweleapy, Blackhoof (or Quasky), and Spybuck. Francis Duchouquet and Joseph Parks were also appointed to act as interpreters for the committee.

"A memorial was also prepared by the Society of Friends, asking relief from Congress for the Shawnees. In addition to the memorial, a committee, consisting of David Bailey and Henry Harvey was appointed to escort the Indian delegation to Washington City, and to give what information they possessed touching the manner in which the treaty had been conducted and to press the claim of the Shawnees on Congress and the Executive.

"The deputation left Wapaghkonnetta about the 1st of December, 1831, going by way of Columbus, Pittsburg and Cumberland. At the latter city Francis Duchouquet became sick, and was unable to proceed further. He was left in the care of friends, but before the return of the deputation he died and was interred in a cemetery near the city."

On arriving at Washington City the deputation was introduced to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War, by General Joseph Vance, a representative in Congress from Ohio.

"After a statement of their business to the Secretary, the deputation gave him an account of the manner in which the treaty was managed, and of the fact that the Shawnees, who were a party to that transaction and deeply interested therein, as their all was at stake, had never heard the treaty read, neither had they been furnished with a copy.

"General Cass at once ordered a clerk at the Indian Bureau to furnish the deputation with a copy in full of the treaty and requested the committee to take time to fully examine it, and to compare the amount they were actually to receive by the treatv with the amount offered them by the commissioner at his first council with them, when he produced his instructions from the War Department. He also requested the committee to report to him the results of their estimates and calculations on the subject, in order that he might lay the same before the President so that another treaty might be made with the chiefs in attendance."

After a careful examination of the treaty, as requested by the Secretary, the committee reported that the amount which the commissioner offered the Shawnees for their lands at Wapaghkonnetta and Hog Creek exceeded the amount which they were to receive, as shown by the treaty, in the sum of one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.

"The Secretary was so thoroughly convinced, after examining the evidence in the case, that he applied to the President for authority to set the treaty aside and to make a new one with the chiefs then present. The President, however, declined to do so, remarking that the Shawnees should fare no better than the Cherokees did.

"Being unsuccessful in their attempt with the Executive Department, the committee applied to Congress. The business was placed in the care of Joseph Vance, a representative from Ohio, a man of stern integrity, who was well acquainted with the Shawnees and who had great experience in and out of Congress. General Vance failed in his first and second attempts in bringing the subject before the House, but succeeded at length in having the subject referred to the Committee of Ways and Means. When the petition of the chiefs, and the memorial of the Society of Friends, was taken up by the committee, Henry Harvey and Joseph Parks were summoned to testify with regard to the manner in which the treaty had been conducted at Wapaghkonnetta. Several sittings of the committee were held, resulting in their reporting a bill in favor of the petitioners for thirty thousand dollars, to be paid in fifteen equal annual installments.

"The bill presented by the chiefs called for a hundred thousand dollars, but the committee, fearing that if they reported an allowance for that amount that it would be vetoed by the President, it was therefore reduced to thirty thousand and became a law. A bill was afterward presented by Thomas Corwin, of Ohio, and passed in 1853, allowing the Shawnees an additional amount for their lands of sixty-six thousand dollars.

"Thus, after a delay of more than twenty years, the government complied with the demands of justice so far as to grant the amount demanded by the Shawnees and Society of Friends on their behalf, demanded for them in 1832. This satisfied the Indians, and government was none the loser, as the interest at five per cent, would overreach the debt in that time.

"A lawyer, on the arrival of the money in the Shawnees' country, arrived there, too, with a demand of fifty per cent, of the whole sum, as his fee for urging the claim at Washington before the Department and the committees of Congress, although the testimony on which the claim was based had been in the Department ever since 1832; but he received only a few thousand dollars, and that from individuals ; the superintendent refusing to allow his claim to be taken from the money, on the grounds, that by Congress granting the amount, the demands of the Indians was recognized as just, and therefore, they were not bound to pay this man his claim to this large fee.

"At the conclusion of the treaty at Wapaghkonnetta, Gardner informed the Shawnees that he would remove them early the next spring to their new homes, and as they had a large number of cattle and hogs, beside a great deal of other property, that they could not take with them to their new homes, that they had better sell all except what would do them through the winter, and settle up their afifairs ; then in the spring their money for

"They took the advice of the commissioner, and sold about two hundred head of cattle, about twelve hundred hogs, and many other things, and with the proceeds, purchased clothing, some wagons, guns, provisions, and the like, and many of them settled up their debts with their white neighbors, so as to be in readiness to leave early in the spring following. But instead of receiving their money and starting on their journey early in the spring, as they expected, they did not receive any of their money until fall, and did not start on their journey until the 20th of the next November."

"The Indians, through their improvidence, began to suffer greatly for want of food before spring. Many of them were at the point of starvation before relief could be obtained from the Society of Friends, and from the government. Henry Harvey went a distance of over eighty miles over exceedingly bad roads to Waynesville on the Miami river, and begged a load of provisions for the children and old people. The evening before he started, two aged women from Hog Creek came to the Quaker Mission, and begged for bread for some little sick children in their neighborhood, and who would die if they did not receive assistance soon. The Friends gave them a portion of what they had, reserving barely enough for their own sustenance, until Harvey should return from Waynesville. A meal was prepared and set before the two exhausted, hungry women. They objected to eating anything, saying that 'we could not spare more than we had given them to carry to their children.' After repeated solicitation by Mrs. Harvey, they partook of the food, and stayed over night at the Mission."

Nothing further, occurred at Wapaghkonnetta, until October, when Gardner and the Indian agent, McLvaine appeared to pay the Shawnees their annuity and a small pittance of the amount that was promised them at the treaty. Judge Benjamin Linzee, then a small boy, came over from St. Marys, with his father to see the Indians, and to participate in the festivities on the occasion of the payment of the annuities. An incident that occurred at the time made a lasting impression on the mind of young Linzee. Along with the four hundred or more Indians there came a Miami warrior, having a string of scalps in his possession, that he asserted were scalps of white people. Being short of money to purchase fire-water for the festal occasion, he made numerous efforts to sell the scalps. His persistence, so enraged the Shawnees, that he was killed on the night following - his body being found the next morning, on the bank of the race, in the rear of the building known at the present time, as Taeusch's store.

The money used by the disbursing agent in the payment of the Indians was transported in ten wooden kegs, on horseback from Piqua, and paid out from Gardner's headquarters, in the Jones' woods, in the north-eastern part of Wapakoneta.

After receiving their annuity, the Indians entered upon a round of festivities and dissipation, that lasted in most instances until their money was spent. After recuperating from their dissipations, they began making preparations for their removal to their western home.

During the summer, they leveled the graves of their dead, over the entire reservation, and destroyed or buried the property they could not sell.

On the 20th of November, 1832, they commenced their journey of eight hundred miles, and proceeded as- far as Piqua the first day, where they remained two days to visit the graves of their ancestors. While they were encamped near the village, James Skinner, then a lad ten years of age, went out to visit them. During his visit he was persuaded by the Indian boys to cut buttons from his pantaloons, which - the young archers- used for targets. He was so liberal with his buttons that he experienced some difficulty in occupying his trowsers on his way home. From him we learn that there were many old Indians among their number. He saw one squaw who was a hundred and five years old, and other members of the tribe whose ages ranged from ninety to one hundred and three years. The old Indians and children rode in wagons, and the women on horseback, while the men and larger boys traveled on foot.

On the evening 'of November 23, they encamped at Hamilton. After a sojourn of three days at this point, they departed under the leadership of David Robb and D. M. Workman, government agents, on their western journey. They traveled until Christmas of that year, when they encamped at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri rivers. They suffered much on the journey, from the severity of the winter. They immediately commenced the construction of cabins, and by the latter part of February, they were so far completed as to protect them from the cold western winds. The Shawnees and Senecas who made the winter journey numbered about eleven hundred. They were joined the next spring by the Hog Creek tribe under the direction of Joseph Parks, and fared much better than those who preceded them, as they had the advantage of season, and a leader who gave them the proper care. The next year, (1833) Henry Harvey and other Quakers visited them, and obtained permission to establish schools and continue the work of the mission. The schools and mission were continued until 1842, when Mr. Harvey and his family returned to Ohio.

The system of schools and missions inaugurated by the Society of Friends at Wapakoneta, is still in operation in the Shawnee and Cherokee nations of Indian Territory.

Harvey states that when it became known among the Indians that he and his family were about to leave them, "we were visited almost daily by some of them. One of the chiefs visited us, and brought an interpreter with him. He told us that they had held a large council on the subject, at which many of the women were present, and that they had sent him to us with their last farewell. He had my family all collected in the house to themselves. After having been seated in silence for some time, he shook hands with us all, and then said: 'My brother and my sisters, I am now about to speak for all our young men, and for all of our women and children, and in their name to bid you farewell. They could not all come - it would be too much trouble to you to have them all here at one time - so I have been sent with their message. I was directed to tell you that all their hearts are full of sorrow, because you are going to leave them and return to your home again. Ever since you have been living with us, we can all see how the Quakers and our fathers used to live together in peace. You have used our children well, and have been kind to us all ; your doors were always opened to us. We were sometimes in distress, and you helped us ; many times our people were hungry, and you gave them victuals. You were always kind to us, and we loved you. Your children and our children lived together in peace at school, and learned together, and they loved one another. And now, my brother and sister, I bid you farewell ; and Caleb and his sisters, and the little boys and their little sisters, farewell/ He then came to me, and taking me by my left arm, close to the shoulder, and holding on for some time, crying like a child, in broken English said : 'Farewell, my brother !' then bid my wife farewell, calling her his good sister, and asking that the Lord might bless her for her kindness to them. Next he bid all our children farewell, and talked to each in Shawnee, knowing they could understand him. All wept bitterly, and our least children cried aloud as he held them by the hands and gave them his parting adieu, telling them never to forget him and the little Shawnee children, with whom they had lived in peace so long. When he had gone around the family in this manner, and, after again taking each one of us by the hand, he left us without saying another word.

"A few days afterward, all the chiefs, except George Williams, came early in the morning to see me. They told us, on their arrival, that George Williams had been sent a few days before to deliver a message and bid us farewell, on behalf, and in the name of the whole nation ; but now they had come on their own account, as the chiefs, to pass the day with us, and to talk over all their old matters with me, as we were going to leave them, for which they were very sorry, because we had been with them so much ; but they supposed we wanted to go to our home, and our friends and they must give us up. They then proposed to me that we should go into the yard to talk, as it was a pleasant day, and they would spit so much in the house.

"I had their horses put up and fed. There were about twenty chiefs and counselors present. We spent a happy day together, and I gave them a good dinner. In the afternoon they saddled their horses, and tied them near the bars, and then returned to where we had been sitting. When evening drew near 1 observed them become very solemn and thoughtful, and conversing among themselves, about returning home. Soon they divided something among themselves, that looked like fine seeds, which John Perry had wrapped in a cloth.

"They then loosened their hair and clothes. Henry Clay, one of the chiefs, who acted as interpreter, informed me, that they were now ready to return home. They wanted me to have everybody but my wife and children, to leave the house, and for us to arrange ourselves in order, according to our ages, so they could take a last look at each of us, and bid us farewell. Henry came to the door, looked in, saw us all standing in order on the floor, and then returned to the others, when they came into the house, one after another, according to their stations. John Perry came first. Each one, as he reached the door, put something into his mouth, (the seed I suppose), and chewed it. John Perry first took my hand, and said, 'Farewell, my brother.' Then taking my wife by the hand, said, 'My sister, farewell.' Tears streamed down his aged cheek, as he bid our children adieu, talking all the time in the Shawnee language. The others followed in the same way. Some of them were crying* and trying to talk to our children, as they held them by the hand. The children cried the whole time, as if they were parting with one another. The ceremony lasted for some time. When they were through,, every one started directly, and mounted their horses, John Perry leading, and the others following in order, one after another, they set off for their homes across the prairie. Not one looked back, but they observed the same order as if they were returning from a funeral. This was a solemn time to us. Here were the celebrated Shawnee chiefs, great men among the Indians, some of them called in time past, brave warriors, now here in mourning - in tears, and all this in sincerity, and for nothing more than parting with us. They surely did love us. Whether we were deserving of their heartfelt love and confidence or not, they thought we were. They were several times brought to great -straits, and to use their own term, I helped them. Sometimes some of their pepole were hungry, and we fed them. This they knew, and did not forget. After some poor little child was nearly naked, and they saw our own children's clothes on it, they would not soon forget that. In a few days from this time, we took leave of the school children, about forty in number. These children had been given to us on our arrival among the Indians, several of them being the children of those who had attended our school in Ohio. They had lived in our family two years ; had lived very peacefully with our children, had interchanged languages with them, and had become very much attached to one another; and the parting scene was very affecting indeed. We took leave of them in the school-house - all wept, from thesmallest to the largest. Some of the little girls followed us to- the wagon, and begged to ride across the fields with our girls. We let several of them ride, but when we stopped for them to get out of the wagon, they refused to leave our children. We had to put them out by force. They clung fast to our little girl,, and screamed as loud as they could, and so did our own poor little girl. We had .to tear them apart, and put them out of the wagon, and go off and leave them in this situation, which was a very hard trial to us.

"We confess that the gratitude so abundantly manifested by these poor souls toward us, and the consciousness of having done our duty, is a great, a rich, and lasting reward, which will console us now in our declining years, and, we hope, will continue to' do so, till the end of our pilgrimage here."

No apology need be offered for presenting Harvey's ministrations among the Shawnees, as narrated by himself. His unassuming manner and simple language enlist our sympathies in his Christian work to which he devoted the best years of his life.

In the twenty-one years, dating from 1833, there was no> occurrence of any kind to disturb the steady advancement of the Shawnees toward civilization. At the end of that time the work of the missions became perceptible in their manner of living and thought. The changes in their social conditions brought with them desires for a higher form of government. In 1850 they began to discuss the propriety of adopting a constitution and a code of laws for the government of themselves, and the protection of their persons and property. After discussing the subject for several months, it was referred to a council, consisting of Joseph Parks, the head chief, and eleven other influential men of the nation.

When the council convened, Parks in his opening address remarked that he should not say much to them on the purposes for which they were called together, but would leave the matter very much to them, as they knew he had urged them, for years, to make laws for their government, and in this way to alter their manner of getting along. He said he had been head chief now for several years, that strangers often visited the different missions among the Shawnees, and would ask him what kind of laws they had - the answer was, none ; they would ask if they had any chiefs, and who was their head chief - the answer was that they had, and that Joseph Parks was their head chief. The reply, generally, was - "Well, he is a good chief/' "Now," said he, "suppose I am a good chief, what can I do? How can I work without tools? You send me out to work without anything to work with. How can you expect me to accomplish anything without placing in my hands^the tools to do the work with?" He said that our young men (some of them) go into the state, and get liquor, carry it out by him, hold up the bottle to his face, and say, "Here is my whiskey, spill it if you dare !" "'Well," said Parks, "I have no authority to do anything, and these fellows know it. Now, you make laws, and I will very soon let these men see whether I will do anything with them or not."

The head chief was followed by Blackhoof, a son of the great Shawnee chief of that name, in a lengthy speech, in which he indorsed what had been said by the presiding officer, concerning drunkenness, and urged the enactment of a law, compelling men to pay their debts.

"Speeches of a like character followed in order until late in the afternoon, when the discussions were closed by George McDougal in an address, in which he compared their former nomadic life and hardships with their present condition, in which he was both eloquent and witty. He said, "he had tried both places - that he liked the ways of the white men much the best anyhow, he liked not only the ways of white people best, but he liked them the best anyhow, and if he knew he would live thirty years longer, that he would have a white wife if he could get one." This remark was followed by great laughter among the Indians.

"When the question was put to a vote, as to whether a constitution and a code of laws should be prepared for the government of the nation, there were ten votes for the measure and two against it. Accordingly, in the course of the next two years, a constitution was adopted, and a code of laws enacted, under which the nation lived until 1869.

The Shawnees at this time numbered about eight hundred, and owned a territory of six million, four hundred thousand acres, at the junction of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, and extending south and west. They had become cultivators and graziers. Hunting was still occasionally resorted to as a sport or amusement, but had been abandoned as a source of subsistence. The disappearance of game forced them to seek subsistence in some other manner, which ultimately overcame their aversion to labor. Schoolcraft, in describing their condition at this time says : "They drive oxen and horses trained to the plow. They split rails and build fences'. They erect substantial cabins and barns. They have old corn in their cribs from year to year. They own good saddle-horses and saddles, and other articles of caparison, and a traveler or visitor will find a good meal, a clean bed, and kind treatment in their settlements."

Many of the Indians in 1854-5 held slaves who tilled their farms and performed such other manual labor as was required. While the agitation of the Kansas-Nebraska bill was in progress, the slave-holding Indians became alarmed, and to secure themselves in the possession of their slaves, moved into Indian Territory and settled on unoccupied lands in the Cherokee Nation. The lands formerly occupied by them in Kansas, remained untenanted until 1869, and were known as "Abandoned Indian Lands." In that year the United States government purchased the entire Shawnee reservation in Kansas, and gave them lands in Indian Territory, in exchange for their Kansas property. The conditions of the sale and exchange can be readily understood from the following record of the "Articles of Agreement" taken from the Government Record of Indian Treaties :

Approved Ay The President June 9Th, 1869

Articles of Agreement, made and entered into at Washington, D. C., this 7th day of June, A. D. 1869, by and between H. D. Reese and William P. Adair, duly authorized delegates, representing the Cherokee Nation of Indians, having been duly appointed by the National Council of said Cherokees, parties of the first part, and Graham Rogers and Charles Tucker, duly authorized delegates representing the Shawnee tribe of Indians, parties of the second part witnesseth :

Whereas, It is provided by the fifteenth article of the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Indians, concluded July 19th, 1866, that the United States may settle any civilized

Indians, friendly with the Cherokees, and adjacent tribes, within the Cherokee country, on unoccupied lands east of the ninetysixth meridian, on such terms as may be agreed upon by any such tribe and the Cherokees, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, which shall be consistent with certain provisions specified in said article; and whereas, The Shawnee tribe of Indians are civilized and friendly with the Cherokees and adjacent tribes, and desire to settle within the Cherokee country on lands east of the ninety-sixth meridian,

That the sum of five thousand dollars belonging to the Shawnee tribe of Indians, and arising under the provisions of treaties between the United States and said Shawnee Indians, as follows, viz : For permanent annuity for educational purposes, per fourth article of the treaty of August 3d, 1795, and the third article of the treaty of May 10th, 1854, one thousand -dollars ; for interest, at five per centum on forty thousand dollars for educational purposes, per third article of the treaty of the 10th of May, 1854, two thousand dollars; for interest, at five per centum, on four thousand dollars for educational purposes, per the third article of the treaty of the 10th of May, 1854, two thousand dollars ;

For permanent annuity, in specie, for educational purposes, per fourth article of the treaty of the 29th of September, 1817, and the third article of the 10th of May, 1854, two thousand dollars ; shall be paid annually to the Cherokee Nation of Indians, the same as they have been the annuities and interest and investments of the Shawnee tribe of Indians. And that the sum of fifty thousand dollars shall be paid to the said Cherokees, as soon as the same shall be received by the United States for the said Shawnees, from the sale of the lands in the State of Kansas, known as the Absentee Shawnee Lands in the State of Kansas, in accordance with the resolutions of Congress, approved, April 7th, 1869: entitled: "A resolution for the relief of settlers upon the Absentee Shawnee Lands in Kansas," and the provisions of the treaty between the United States, and the Shawnee Indians, concluded, May 10th, 1854, and also that the said Shawnees shall abandon their tribal organization. And it is further agreed by the parties hereto that in consideration of the said payments and acts agreed upon, as hereinbefore stated, that the said Cherokees will receive the said Shawnees - referring to those now in Kansas, and also to such as properly belong to said tribe who may be at present elsewhere, and including those known as Absentee Shawnees, now residing in Indian Territory - into the country of the said Cherokees, upon unoccupied lands east of the ninety-sixth degree of longitude, and that the said Shawnees shall be incorporated into and ever after remain part of the Cherokee nation, on equal terms in every respect, and with all the privileges and immunities of native citizens of said Cherokee nation ; provided that all of said Shawnees who elect to avail themselves of the provisions of this agreement, shall register their names, and permanently locate in the Cherokee country, as herein provided, within two years from the date hereof, otherwise they shall forfeit all rights under this agreement. In testimony whereof, the parties hereto have hereunto subscribed their names, and affixed their seals, on the day and year first above written.

In 1870, in compliance with the stipulations of the treaty made the previous year, the Shawnees moved from their Kansas reservation to Indian Territory, and settled on unoccupied lands east of the ninety-sixth meridian, in the Cherokee country, and thereby became a part of that nation.

Since their union with the Cherokees, they have not yet advanced beyond a semi-civilized state. It is an important truth to be borne in mind, that the civilization of these two tribes is due in a measure to the white and negro members who at one time or another have been admitted by adoption, rather than to the Indians themselves. Pure-blooded Indians form only a small per cent, of the population. It is estimated that about fifteen or, at most, twenty per cent, of the Shawnees and Cherokees are of pure Indian descent. Even among those claiming to be Indians are many quarter-breeds and half-breeds. "It is doubtful, therefore, whether the advancement made by these tribesproves anything as to the capacity of the genuine Indian for civilization." The agricultural work is done principally by negroes,, as it was done before the Civil War, and the adoption of the Christian religion, the establishment of newspapers and schoolsis mainly due to the white element of the population. From the same cause, ninety per cent, attire themselves after the manner of American citizens. A few of the medicine men, and more turbulent characters, still adhere to their old heathenish faith and practices. The Cherokees have an alphabet in which their books and laws are printed. The Cherokee Advocate, the national organ, published at Tahlequah, is printed half in English, and half in Cherokee. The books used in all the public schools, however, are in the English language. The Cherokees expend half of the revenue received from the United States in the support of an orphan asylum, two seminaries, and one hundred primary schools. The number of children attending the public schools in 1890 was four thousand four hundred and thirty-nine. Separate schools are provided for negroes. The Cherokees have over fifty churches and about one hundred primary schools. The Methodist churches, followed in order by Baptists, Presbyterians, and Quakers.

The treaty of 1866 gives the Cherokee courts the authority to punish members of the tribe for violations of the criminal law. When an Indian is condemned to death, he is given a respite of thirty days, in which time he may go home and settle up his affairs. He is neither guarded nor watched, and when he has completed his business he bids his family good-by, returns at the date appointed, and is shot. There is no taxation, direct or indirect, the government revenue, and the interest on the funds held in trust by the United States, rents from leased lands, licenses to trade and "permits" given to intruders afford funds sufficient to meet the requirements of the Indian government. Since the lands are held in common, only the improvements on

The story of the wrongs imposed upon the Cherokees and Shawnees, by the United States government is a melancholy one - they are wrongs of which every fair-minded American citizen should feel ashamed. A partial recital of the wrongs of the Shawnees has been given in the preceding pages. The history of the Cherokees is equally as sad to contemplate. "The Cherokees of Georgia were the most civilized and humane of all the Indian nations. They had, to a certain degree, adopted the manners of the whites. They had pleasant farms, prosperous towns, schools, printing-presses, and a written code of laws. The government of the United States had given to Georgia a pledge to purchase the Cherokee lands for the benefit of the State. The pledge was not fulfilled ; the authorities of Georgia grew tired of waiting for the removal of the Indians ; and the legislature passed a statute by which the government of the Cherokees was abrogated and the laws of the state extended over the Indian domain. At the same time it was enacted that the Cherokees should not have the use of the State courts or the protection of the laws. This statute, however, was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. The Indians then appealed to the President for help ; but he refused to interfere between them and the laws of Georgia. He also recommended the removal of the Cherokees to lands beyond the Mississippi ; and with this end in view, Indian Territory was organized in 1834. The Indians yielded with great reluctance. More than five million dollars were paid them for their lands ; but still they clung to their homes. At last General Scott was ordered to remove them to the new territory, using force if necessary to accomplish the work. The years 1837-8 were occupied with the transfer of the Cherokees to Indian Territory."

The swindling of the Indians which began two centuries ago, has continued uninterruptedly up to the present. The "Indian Ring" at Washington is, and has been, as corrupt a gang of miscreants as ever went unhanged. It has brought to naught all the attempts to better the condition of the red men. It provided the Indians with bones for meat, rotting rags for blankets, took away their cultivated lands and gave them des-

It is to be regretted that the wrongs of the red men are not yet ended. At the present writing, the Dawes Commission is now engaged'in surveying and allotting lands in Indian Territory, that have been guaranteed to the Indians by a score of solemn treaties made by the general government.