Civilization of the Indian Natives / or, a Brief View of the Friendly Conduct of William Penn Towards Them in the Early Settlement of Pennsylvania

by Halliday Jackson

In 1825, the school continued to be attended by about twenty children, whose conduct and improvement were satisfactory. Many of the natives had become increasingly sensible of the need they had of further instruction, especially in those branches of domestic economy in which females are commonly engaged.

The Friend and his wife, who had long resided at this settlement, having withdrawn therefrom, for a considerable time, another Friend, with his wife and a single female, offered their services, and proceeded to that settlement in the summer of this year, to unite with the two Friends there, in their arduous and interesting service. A school was established for the instruction of young females, and in 1826 the accounts were encouraging, of the progress made by the Indian girls in their studies, as well as in knitting, spinning, and other employments adapted to their sex. The school for the boys was also regularly attended, and their conduct satisfactory. Between school hours, they were employed on the farm at agricultural labours, or otherwise in the shop at some mechanical business; and the regular industrious habits thus encouraged and inculcated among the youth, it was evident, would have a beneficial effect in the formation of their future character.

From a more particular investigation into the state of the Indians at the Alleghany settlement, about this period, it appeared that eighty families, composed of four hundred and thirty-nine individuals, possessed four hundred and seventy-nine head of cattle, fifty-eight horses, three hundred and fifty hogs, and six hundred and ninety-nine acres of improved land, in which seventy acres of meadow were included; two hundred and thirty-nine acres were the last season planted with corn, forty-two with potatoes, thirty-eight sown with wheat, and one hundred and sixteen with oats, besides a quantity of buckwheat, and divers sorts of vegetables. But notwithstanding these encouraging circumstances in agricultural pursuits, and the prosperous state of the schools of both sexes, affording strong ground to believe, that this people might be essentially and permanently benefitted by the labour of Friends, yet their situation, at this period, was particularly trying, and critical, from the great liability to be dispossessed of their possessions. The continued applications in various ways of those claiming the pre-emption right, and the evident influence they were gradually making on the minds of some of the Indians, gave uneasiness to others more considerate and reflecting among them, and their fears in this respect soon became realized; for the Seneca nation, finally, were induced to part with large bodies of their lands in different places to the pre-emption holders. These sales (the amount of which I have not ascertained) were parts of the Cattaraugus, Buffalo, and Tonewanta reservations, and some smaller reservations near the Genessee river. The reservation at Alleghany, where the greatest improvements in agriculture were made, remained in the hands of the Indians; and could this avaricious disposition on the part of the whites to obtain their land be here restrained, and the natives left in the undisturbed possession of their rightful inheritance, the Seneca nation have yet a sufficiency of land to accommodate their numbers, and with industry and care, in pursuing their agricultural labours, they might obtain all the necessary comforts of life.

The progress made by the Indians at the Cattaraugus settlement, and the favourable situation of their land for cultivation, with proper attention on their part, had induced Friends to withdraw their aid for several years past, as it regarded an instructor among them. And the settlement, having been now continued among the Indians at the Alleghany for about thirty years, it was believed the time was nearly come to withdraw from them; and, accordingly, the Friends residing at Tunesassa, returned home in the year 1828, and left the Indians to improve on the instructions already received from the long and arduous labours of the society of Friends.

Having no official means at command, of obtaining correct information of their real situation at present, I am not able to bring this account to as satisfactory a close as would be desirable; but from the best information I can obtain on the subject, it appears, that the Indians continue to progress in agricultural pursuits, and in some of the mechanic arts; and some of their own people have kept schools for the instruction of the youth.

But it is also said, that the constant pressure upon them to obtain their land, affords strong ground to fear, that their former sales were only a prelude to their parting with the remainder, at no very distant period.

It is, however, a consoling reflection to the society of Friends, that they have extended a benevolent hand to this poor, degraded, and much injured people; and even should they finally be induced to part with, and relinquish the remnants of their present possession, and migrate to a more distant clime, the instruction they have already received in the mechanic arts, together with their knowledge of agriculture, will greatly contribute to their happiness and comfort, in the land in which they may settle, and not only so, but the benefits resulting from their knowledge of civilized habits be extended to more distant and savage tribes.

In concluding this account of the proceedings of Friends of the Yearly Meeting of Philadelphia, it may be proper to state, that many individuals, both male and female, from an apprehension of duty, have, at different periods, devoted many years of their time to the instruction of the natives, and have had the consoling evidence of peace for their labours. But as this benevolent work could not be accomplished, without very considerable expense to the society, voluntary subscriptions were raised, at different periods, to a large amount, in which it is but just to acknowledge, that the society of Friends in England, feeling a lively interest in this righteous work, liberally contributed to a fund for that purpose, which the Yearly Meeting of New York and Baltimore partook of, for the purpose of aiding them in extending their benevolent views, in promoting civilization among various tribes, and of whose proceedings therein, a short account will be here subjoined.

A brief account of the proceedings of Friends of the Yearly Meeting of New York, in promoting civilization among the Indians, residing in that state.