CHAPTER LVII.
Home matters--Massachusetts Historical Society--Question of the U.S. Senate's action on certain treaties of the Lake Indians--Hugh L. White--Dr. Morton's Crania Americana--Letter from Mozojeed--State of the pillagers--Visit of Dr. Follen and Miss Martineau--Treaty movements--Young Lord Selkirk--Character and value of Upper Michigan--Hon. John Norvell's letter--Literary Items--Execution of the treaty of March 28th--Amount of money paid--Effects of the treaty--Baron de Behr--Ornithology.
1836. June 16th. My winter in Washington had thrown my correspondence sadly in the rear. Most of my letters had been addressed to me directly at Mackinack, and they were first read several months after date. Whilst at the seat of government my duties had been of an arduous character, and left me but little time on my hands. And now, that I had got back to my post in the interior, the duties growing out of the recent treaties had been in no small degree multiplied. While preparing for the latter, the former were not, however, to be wholly neglected, or left unnoticed. I will revert to them.
April 28th. The Massachusetts Historical Society this day approved a report from a committee charged with the subject--"That, in their opinion, the dissertation on the Odjibwa language with a vocabulary of the same, contemplated by Mr. Schoolcraft, would be a suitable and valuable contribution to our collections, and that he be requested to proceed and complete the work, and transmit it to the society for publication." This was communicated to me by Hon. Thomas L. Winthrop, their president, on the 2d of May, and opened an eligible way for my bringing forward my investigations of this language, without expense to myself. The difficulty now was, that the offer had come, at a time when it was impossible to complete the paper. I was compelled to defer it till the pressure of business, which now began to thicken on my hands, should abate. It was in this manner, and in the hope that the next season would afford me leisure, that the matter was put off, from time to time, till it was in a measure cast behind and out of sight, and not from a due appreciation of the offer.
May 17th In the letter of appointment to me, of this date, from the Secretary of War, to treat with the Saginaws, it is stated: "You are authorized to offer them the proceeds which their lands may bring, deducting such expenses as may be necessary for its survey, sale, &c. You will take care that a sufficient fund is reserved to provide for their removal, and such arrangements made for the security and application of the residue as will be most beneficial to them." These instructions were carried out, in articles of a compact, in which the government furthermore agreed, in view of the lands not being immediately brought into market, to make a reasonable advance to these Indians. Yet the Senate rejected it, not, it would seem, for the liberality of the offer of the nett proceeds of the lands, but for the almost per necessitate offer of a moderate advance, to enable the people to turn themselves in straitened circumstances, which had been the prime motive for selling.
The advance was, in fact, as I have reason to believe, a mere bagatelle, but the chairman of the Indian Committee in the Senate was rather on the lookout for something, or anything, to embarrass or disoblige General Jackson and his agents, having fallen out with him, and being then, indeed, a candidate for President of the U.S. himself, at the coming election. If I had not heard the pointed expressions of Hon. Hugh L. White, on more than one occasion, in which my three treaties were before him, in relation to this matter of not affording the presidential incumbent new sources of patronage, &c., I should not deem it just to add the latter remark. He was a man of strong will and feelings, which often betrayed themselves when subjects of public policy were the topics. And, so far as he interfered with the principles of the treaties which I had negotiated with the Lake Indians in 1836, he evinced an utter ignorance of their history, character, and best interests. He violated, in some respects, the very principle on which alone two of the original cessions, namely, those of the Ottawas and Chippewas and of the Saginaws, were obtained; and introduced features of discord, which disturb the tribes, and some of which will long continue to be felt. And the result is a severe caution against the Senate's ever putting private reasons in the place of public, and interfering with matters which they necessarily know but little about.
16th. Dr. Samuel George Morton, of Philadelphia, makes an appeal to gentlemen interested in the philosophical and historical questions connected with the Indians, to aid him in the collection of crania--to be used in the comprehensive work which he is preparing on the subject.
26th. Hon. J. B. Sutherland expresses the wish to see an Indian lexicography prepared under the auspices of the Indian Department, and urges me to undertake it.
30th. Mozojeed, or the Moose's Tail, an Ojibwa chief of Ottawa Lake, in the region at the source of Chippewa River of the Upper Mississippi, dictates a letter to me. The following is an extract:--