Documents of United States Indian Policy (Third Edition) Francis Paul Prucha
Published by University of Nebraska Press
Prucha, Paul. Documents of United States Indian Policy (Third Edition). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000. Project MUSE., https://muse.jhu.edu/.
For additional information about this book
Access provided at 25 Aug 2019 22:39 GMT from University of California @ Berkeley
https://muse.jhu.edu/book/11623
70
for the execution of the duties. And where any of the tribes are, in the opinion of the Secretary of War, competent to direct the employment of their blacksmiths, mechanics, teachers, farmers, or other persons engaged for them, the direction of such persons may be given to the proper authority of the tribe.
Sec. 10. [Compensation, travel allow- ances, etc.]
Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That the payment of all annuities or other sums stipulated by treaty to be made to any Indian tribe, shall be made to the chiefs of such tribe, or to such person as said tribe shall appoint; or if any tribe shall appropriate their annuities to the purpose of education, or to any other specific use, then to such person or persons as such tribe shall designated.
Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States, at the request of any Indian tribe to which any annuity shall be payable in money, to cause the same to be paid in goods, purchased as provided in the next section of this act.
Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That all merchandise required by any Indian treaty for the Indians, payable after making of such treaty, shall be purchased under the direction of the Secretary of War, upon proposals to be received, to be based on notices previously to be given; and all merchandise required at the making of any Indian treaty shall be purchased under the order of the commis- sioners, by such person as they shall appoint, or by such person as shall be designated by the President for that purpose. And all other purchases on account of the Indians, and all payments to them of money or goods, shall be made by such person as the President shall designate for that purpose. And the su- perintendent, agent, or sub-agent, together with such military officer as the President may direct, shall be present, and certify to the delivery of all goods and money required to be paid or delivered to the Indians. And the duties required by any section of this
act, of military officers, shall be performed without any other compensation than their actual travelling expenses. . . .
Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That no person employed in the Indian department shall have any interest or concern in any trade with the Indians, except for, and on account of, the United States; and any person offending herein, shall forfeit the sum of five thousand dollars, and upon satisfactory information of such offence being laid before the President of the United States, it shall become his duty to remove such person from the office or situation he may hold.
Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That the President shall be, and he is hereby, au- thorized to cause any of the friendly Indi- ans west of the Mississippi river, and north of the boundary of the Western territory, and the region upon Lake Superior and the head of the Mississippi, to be furnished with useful domestic animals and implements of husbandry, and with goods, as he shall think proper: Provided, That the whole amount of such presents shall not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars.
Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause such rations as he shall judge proper, and as can be spared from the army provisions without injury to the service, to be issued, under such regulations as he shall think fit to establish, to Indians who may visit the mili- tary posts or agencies of the United States on the frontiers, or in their respective nations, and a special account of these issues shall be kept and rendered.
Sec. 17. And be it further enacted, That the President of the United States shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations as he may think fit, for carrying into effect the various provisions of this act, and of any other act relating to Indian affairs, and for the settlement of the accounts of the Indian department. . . .
[U.S. Statutes at Large, 4:735–38.]
50. President Jackson on Indian Removal December 7, 1835
President Andrew Jackson held firm in favor of Indian removal. In his annual message to Congress in December 1835 he renewed his arguments for the removal policy.
71
. . . . The plan of removing the aborigi- nal people who yet remain within the settled portions of the United States to the country west of the Mississippi River approaches its consummation. It was adopted on the most mature consideration of the condition of this race, and ought to be persisted in till the object is accomplished, and prosecuted with as much vigor as a just regard to their cir- cumstances will permit, and as fast as their consent can be obtained. All preceding exper- iments for the improvement of the Indians have failed. It seems now to be an established fact that they can not live in contact with a civilized community and prosper. Ages of fruitless endeavors have at length brought us to a knowledge of this principle of inter- communication with them. The past we can not recall, but the future we can provide for. Independently of the treaty stipulations into which we have entered with the various tribes for the usufructuary rights they have ceded to us, no one can doubt the moral duty of the Government of the United States to protect and if possible to preserve and perpetuate the scattered remnants of this race which are left within our borders. In the discharge of this duty an extensive region in the West has been assigned for their permanent residence. It has been divided into districts and allotted among them. Many have already removed and others are preparing to go, and with the exception of two small bands living in Ohio and Indiana, not exceeding 1,500 persons, and of the Cherokees, all the tribes on the east side of the Mississippi, and extending from Lake Michigan to Florida, have entered into engagements which will lead to their transplantation.
The plan for their removal and reestab- lishment is founded upon the knowledge we have gained of their character and habits, and has been dictated by a spirit of enlarged liberality. A territory exceeding in extent that relinquished has been granted to each tribe. Of its climate, fertility, and capacity to sup- port an Indian population the representa- tions are highly favorable. To these districts the Indians are removed at the expense of the United States, and with certain supplies of clothing, arms, ammunition, and other in- dispensable articles; they are also furnished gratuitously with provisions for the period of a year after their arrival at their new homes.
In that time, from the nature of the country and of the products raised by them, they can subsist themselves by agricultural labor, if they choose to resort to that mode of life; if they do not they are upon the skirts of the great prairies, where countless herds of buffalo roam, and a short time suffices to adapt their own habits to the changes which a change of the animals destined for their food may require. Ample arrangements have also been made for the support of schools; in some instances council houses and churches are to be erected, dwellings constructed for the chiefs, and mills for common use. Funds have been set apart for the maintenance of the poor; the most necessary mechanical arts have been introduced, and blacksmiths, gun- smiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, etc., are supported among them. Steel and iron, and sometimes salt, are purchased for them, and plows and other farming utensils, domestic animals, looms, spinning wheels, cards, etc., are presented to them. And besides these beneficial arrangements, annuities are in all cases paid, amounting in some instances to more than $30 for each individual of the tribe, and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly divided and prudently expended, to enable them, in addition to their own exertions, to live comfortably. And as a stimulus for exer- tion, it is now provided by law that “in all cases of the appointment of interpreters or other persons employed for the benefit of the Indians a preference shall be given to persons of Indian descent, if such can be found who are properly qualified for the discharge of the duties.”
Such are the arrangements for the physi- cal comfort and for the moral improvement of the Indians. The necessary measures for their political advancement and for their sep- aration from our citizens have not been ne- glected. The pledge of the United States has been given by Congress that the country des- tined for the residence of this people shall be forever “secured and guaranteed to them.” A country west of Missouri and Arkansas has been assigned to them, into which the white settlements are not to be pushed. No political communities can be formed in that extensive region, except those which are es- tablished by the Indians themselves or by the United States for them and with their con- currence. A barrier has thus been raised for
72
their protection against the encroachment of our citizens, and guarding the Indians as far as possible from those evils which have brought them to their present condition. Summary authority has been given by law to destroy all ardent spirits found in their country, without waiting the doubtful result and slow process of a legal seizure. I consider the absolute and unconditional interdiction of this article among these people as the first and great step in their melioration. Halfway measures will answer no purpose. These can not success- fully contend against the cupidity of the seller and the overpowering appetite of the buyer. And the destructive effects of the traffic are marked in every page of the history of our Indian intercourse.
Some general legislation seems necessary for the regulation of the relations which will exist in this new state of things between the
Government and people of the United States and these transplanted Indian tribes, and for the establishment among the latter, and with their own consent, of some principles of in- tercommunication which their juxtaposition will call for; that moral may be substituted for physical force, the authority of a few and simple laws for the tomahawk, and that an end may be put to those bloody wars whose prosecution seems to have made part of their social system.
After the further details of this arrange- ment are completed, with a very general su- pervision over them, they ought to be left to the progress of events. These, I indulge the hope, will secure their prosperity and im- provement, and a large portion of the moral debt we owe them will then be paid. . . .
[James D. Richardson, comp., Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 3:171–73.]
51. Indian Commissioner Crawford on Indian Policy Extract from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
November 25, 1838 Commissioner of Indian Affairs T. Hartley Crawford had strong views on Indian policy, which he expressed in his annual reports. In 1838 he wrote, among other things, about manual labor schools, allotment of Indian lands to individual Indians, and confederation of the Indians in the West.
. . . . The principal lever by which the In- dians are to be lifted out of the mire of folly and vice in which they are sunk is educa- tion. The learning of the already civilized and cultivated man is not what they want now. It could not be advantageously ingrafted on so rude a stock. In the present state of their social existence, all they could be taught, or would learn, is to read and write, with a very limited knowledge of figures. There are exceptions, but in the general the remark is true, and perhaps more is not desirable or would be useful. As they advance, a more liberal culture of their minds may be effected, if happily they should yield to the influences that, if not roughly thrust back, will certainly follow in the wake of properly directed efforts to improve their understanding. To attempt too much at once is to insure failure. You must lay the foundations broadly and deeply, but gradually, if you would succeed. To teach a savage man to read, while he continues a
savage in all else, is to throw seed on a rock. In this particular there has been a general error. If you would win an Indian from the waywardness and idleness and vice of his life, you must improve his morals, as well as his mind, and that not merely by precept, but by teaching him how to farm, how to work in the mechanic arts, and how to labor prof- itably; so that, by enabling him to find his comfort in changed pursuits, he will fall into those habits which are in keeping with the useful application of such education as may be given him. Thus too, only, it is conceived, are men to be christianized; the beginning is some education, social and moral lives, the end may be the brightest hope: but this allusion ought not, perhaps, to have been made; upon it I certainly will not enlarge; it is in better hands. Manual-labor schools are what the Indian condition calls for. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episco- pal Church has laid before the department
