Chapter 19

|Tribes. |Date of treaty.| Amount. |Disposition of the funds.| |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| |Miamies, |Oct. 23, 1826 | 2,000 00|Choctaw Academy. | |Pottawatamies, |Oct. 16, 1826 | 2,000 00| do. | |Do. |Sept. 20, 1828 | 1,000 00| do. | |Do. |Oct. 27, 1832 | 2,000 00| do. | |Winnebagoes, |Sept. 15, 1832 | 3,000 00|School, Prairie du Chien.| |Chippewas, |Sept. 24, 1819 | 1,000 00|Baptist Gen. Convention. | |Chippewas, } |Aug. 11, 1827 | 1,500 00|Protestant Epis. Church. | |Menomonies, &c.} | | | | |Menomonies, |Feb. 8, 1831 | 500 00| do. | |Sacs, Foxes, & others,|July 15, 1830 | 3,000 00|Choctaw Academy. | |Kickapoes, |Oct. 24, 1822 | 500 00|School in the nation. | |Shawanees & Delawa's, |Oct. 26, 1832 | 500 00| do. | |Choctaws, |Sept. 27, 1830 |12,500 00| do. | |Creeks, east, |Mar. 24, 1832 | 3,000 00|Choctaw Academy. | |Cherokees, west, |May 6, 1828 | 2,000 00|School in the nation. | |Floridas, |Sept. 18, 1823 | 1,000 00|Choctaw Academy. | |Creeks, |Feb. 14, 1833 | 1,000 00| do. | |Quapaws, |May 13, 1833 | 1,000 00|Not disposed of. | |Otoes and Missourias, |Sept. 21, 1833 | 500 00| do. | |Pawnees, |Oct. 9, 1833 | 1,000 00| do. | |Chickasaws, |May 24, 1834 | 3,000 00|Choctaw Academy. | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

These tables exhibit the number of teachers and pupils at the schools, of the condition of which reports have been received.

In all of them instruction is imparted in reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography. At many of them the boys are initiated in branches of the mechanic arts, and cultivate the soil. At the Tuscarora station, in New York, tuition is imparted on the plan adopted for infant schools, and with marked success. The temperance society contains eighty members, the sabbath school thirty pupils, and fifty are united to the church. The children at the Mohegan school, in Connecticut, are employed on farms cultivated by natives: others of the youth of this band enter on board the ships in the whale fishery: and, as an indication of a spirit of enterprise and industry, the wish of some to cultivate the mulberry-tree, with a view to the establishment of a silk manufactory, may be cited.

The American Board of Foreign Missions propose to print at the Union station, in the Cherokee country west of the Mississippi, books in the languages of the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Osages; and the Rev. Mr. M'Coy, under the auspices of the Baptist General Convention, has issued proposals for publishing a semi-monthly periodical at the Shawanee mission, three hundred miles west of St. Louis. Several books have been printed at this press in the languages of the different tribes. The object of Mr. M'Coy and his associates is to furnish historical sketches of past, and notices of present occurrences, including the transactions of the general government and of societies.

The Choctaw academy, in Kentucky, contains one hundred and fifty-six pupils; this number will be increased by fifteen Chickasaws, as the chiefs of that tribe have recently requested their education money might be expended at this institution. The inspectors, in their last report, represent the academy to be in a highly prosperous condition; the buildings erected to be upon a plan convenient and economical; the provision made for the comfort and health of the scholars to be liberal; and the care taken to promote their moral and intellectual advancement kind and parental. The buildings and school apparatus are valued at eight thousand dollars. The cost of winter clothing for each scholar is estimated at forty-six dollars and twenty-two cents, of the summer clothing at thirty-one dollars and eighty-six cents. This academy, conducted judiciously, will, at no distant day, send forth scholars competent to teach others, and thus accomplish the object of Congress, indicated by its legislation at the last session.

Upon the recommendation of two members of Congress, aid has been rendered to Morris B. Pierce, a Seneca, who is now at Thetford academy, Vermont, fitting himself to enter Dartmouth college, in New Hampshire.

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_An Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian Tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers._

SEC. 1. _Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled_, That all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi, and not within the States of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas, and also that part of the United States east of the Mississippi river, and not within any state to which the Indian title has not been extinguished, for the purposes of this act, be taken and deemed to be the Indian country.

SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That no person shall be permitted to trade with any of the Indians (in the Indian country) without a licence therefor from a superintendent of Indian affairs, or Indian agent or sub-agent, which licence shall be issued for a term not exceeding two years for the tribes east of the Mississippi, and not exceeding three years for the tribes west of that river: and the person applying for such licence shall give bond in a penal sum not exceeding five thousand dollars, with one or more sureties, to be approved by the person issuing the same, conditioned that such person will faithfully observe all the laws and regulations made for the government of trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and in no respect violate the same. And the superintendent of the district shall have power to revoke and cancel the same, whenever the person licensed shall, in his opinion, have transgressed any of the laws or regulations provided for the government of trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, or that it would be improper to permit him to remain in the Indian country; and no trade with the said tribes shall be carried on within their boundary, except at certain suitable and convenient places, to be designated from time to time by the superintendents, agents, and sub-agents, and to be inserted in the licence; and it shall be the duty of the persons granting or revoking such licences, forthwith to report the same to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for his approval or disapproval.

SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That any superintendent or agent may refuse an application for a licence to trade, if he is satisfied that the applicant is a person of bad character, or that it would be improper to permit him to reside in the Indian country, or if a licence previously granted to such applicant has been revoked, or a forfeiture of his bond decreed. But an appeal may be had from the agent or the superintendent, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs; and the President of the United States shall be authorized, whenever in his opinion the public interest may require the same, to prohibit the introduction of goods, or of any particular article, into the country belonging to any Indian tribe, and to direct all licences to trade with such tribe to be revoked, and all applications therefor to be rejected; and no trader to any other tribe shall, so long as such prohibition may continue, trade with any Indians of or for the tribe against which such prohibition is issued.

SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That any person other than an Indian who shall attempt to reside in the Indian country as a trader, or to introduce goods, or to trade therein without such licence, shall forfeit all merchandize offered for sale to the Indians, or found in his possession, and shall moreover forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars.

SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That no licence to trade with the Indians shall be granted to any persons except citizens of the United States: Provided, That the President shall be authorized to allow the employment of foreign boatmen and interpreters, under such regulations as he may prescribe.

SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That if a foreigner shall go into the Indian country without a passport from the War Department, the superintendent, agent, or sub-agent of Indian affairs, or from the officer of the United States commanding the nearest military post on the frontiers, or shall remain intentionally therein after the expiration of such passport, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars; and such passport shall express the object of such person, the time he is allowed to remain, and the route he is to travel.

SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person other than an Indian shall, within the Indian country, purchase or receive of any Indian, in the way of barter, trade, or pledge, a gun, trap, or other article commonly used in hunting, any instrument of husbandry or cooking utensils of the kind commonly obtained by the Indians in their intercourse with the white people, or any other article of clothing except skins or furs, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars.

SEC. 8. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person other than an Indian, shall, within the limits of any tribe with whom the United States shall have existing treaties, hunt, or trap, or take and destroy, any peltries or game, except for subsistence, in the Indian country, such person shall forfeit the sum of five hundred dollars, and forfeit all the traps, guns, and ammunition in his possession, used or procured to be used for that purpose, and peltries so taken.

SEC. 9. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall drive, or otherwise convey, any stock of horses, mules, or cattle, to range and feed on any land belonging to an Indian or Indian tribe without the consent of such tribe, such person shall forfeit the sum of one dollar for each animal of such stock.

SEC. 10. _And be it further enacted_, That the superintendent of Indian affairs, and Indian agents and sub-agents, shall have authority to remove from the Indian country all persons found therein contrary to law; and the President of the United States is authorized to direct the military force to be employed in such removal.

SEC. 11. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall make a settlement on any lands belonging, secured, or granted by treaty with the United States to any Indian tribe, or shall survey or shall attempt to survey such lands, or designate any of the boundaries by marking trees or otherwise, such offender shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars. And it shall, moreover, be lawful for the President of the United States to take such measures, and to employ such military force, as he may judge necessary to remove from the lands as aforesaid any such person as aforesaid.

SEC. 12. _And be it further enacted_, That no purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from an Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any validity in law or equity, unless the same be made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the constitution. And if any person, not employed under the authority of the United States, shall attempt to negotiate such treaty or convention, directly or indirectly, to treat with any such nation or tribe of Indians for the title or purchase of any lands by them held or claimed, such person shall forfeit and pay one thousand dollars: _Provided, nevertheless_, That it shall be lawful for the agent or agents of any state who may be present at any treaty held with Indians under the authority of the United States, in the presence and with the approbation of the commissioner or commissioners of the United States appointed to hold the same, to propose to and adjust with the Indians the compensation to be made for their claim to lands within such state which shall be extinguished by treaty.

SEC. 13. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen, or other person residing within the United States or the territory thereof, shall send any talk, speech, message, or letter to any Indian nation, tribe, chief, or individual, with an intent to produce a contravention or infraction of any treaty or other law of the United States, or to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the United States, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of two thousand dollars.

SEC. 14. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen, or other person, shall carry or deliver any such talk, message, speech, or letter, to or from any Indian nation, tribe, chief, or individual, from or to any person or persons whatsoever residing within the United States, or from or to any subject, citizen, or agent of any foreign power or state, knowing the contents thereof, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars.

SEC. 15. _And be it further enacted_, That if any citizen or other person residing or living among the Indians, or elsewhere, within the territory of the United States, shall carry on a correspondence, by letter or otherwise, with any foreign nation or power, with an intent to induce such foreign nation or power to excite any Indian nation, tribe, chief, or individual to war against the United States, or to the violation of any existing treaty; or in case any citizen or other person shall alienate, or attempt to alienate, the confidence of any Indian or Indians from the government of the United States, he shall forfeit the sum of one thousand dollars.

SEC. 16. _And be it further enacted_, That where, in the commission, by a white person, of any crime, offence, or misdemeanor, within the Indian country, the property of any friendly Indian is taken, injured, or destroyed, and a conviction is had for such crime, offence, or misdemeanor, the person so convicted shall be sentenced to pay to such friendly Indian to whom the property may belong, or whose person may be injured, a sum equal to twice the just value of the property so taken, injured, or destroyed. And if such offender shall be unable to pay a sum at least equal to the just value or amount, whatever such payment shall fall short of the same shall be paid out of the treasury of the United States: _Provided_, That no such Indian shall be entitled to any payment, out of the treasury of the United States, for any such property, if he, or any of the nation to which he belongs, shall have sought private revenge, or attempted to obtain satisfaction by any force or violence: _And provided also_, That if such offender cannot be apprehended and brought to trial, the amount of such property shall be paid out of the treasury, as aforesaid.

SEC. 17. _And be it further enacted_, That if any Indian or Indians, belonging to any tribe in amity with the United States, shall, within the Indian country, take or destroy the property of any person lawfully within such country, or shall pass from the Indian country into any state or territory inhabited by citizens of the United States, and there take, steal, or destroy any horse, horses, or other property belonging to any citizen or inhabitant of the United States, such citizen or inhabitant, his representative, attorney, or agent, may make application to the proper superintendent, agent, or sub-agent, who, upon being furnished with the necessary documents and proofs, shall, under the direction of the President, make application to the nation or tribe to which said Indian or Indians shall belong, for satisfaction; and if such nation or tribe shall neglect or refuse to make satisfaction in a reasonable time, not exceeding twelve months, it shall be the duty of such superintendent, agent, or sub-agent, to make return of his doings to the Commissioner of Indian affairs, that such further steps may be taken as shall be proper, in the opinion of the President, to obtain satisfaction for the injury; and, in the mean time, in respect to the property so taken, stolen, or destroyed, the United States guaranty to the party so injured an eventual indemnification: _Provided_, That if such injured party, his representative, attorney, or agent, shall, in any way violate any of the provisions of this act, by seeking or attempting to obtain private satisfaction or revenge, he shall forfeit all claim upon the United States for such indemnification: _And provided also_, That, unless such claim shall be presented within three years after the commission of the injury, the same shall be barred. And if the nation or tribe to which such Indian may belong, receive an annuity from the United States, such claim shall, at the next payment of the annuity, be deducted therefrom, and paid to the party injured; and if no annuity is payable to such nation or tribe, then the amount of the claim shall be paid from the treasury of the United States: _Provided_, That nothing herein contained shall prevent the legal apprehension and punishment of any Indians having so offended.

SEC. 18. _And be it further enacted_, That the superintendents, agents, and sub-agents, within their respective districts, be and are hereby authorized and empowered to take depositions of witnesses touching any depredations within the purview of the two preceding sections of this act, and to administer an oath to the deponents.

SEC. 19. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be the duty of the superintendents, agents, and sub-agents to endeavour to procure the arrest and trial of all Indians accused of committing any crime, offence, or misdemeanor, and all other persons who may have committed crimes or offences within any state or territory, and have fled into the Indian country, either by demanding the same of the chiefs of the proper tribe, or by such other means as the President may authorize; and the President may direct the military force of the United States to be employed in the apprehension of such Indians, and also in preventing or terminating hostilities between any of the Indian tribes.

SEC. 20. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person shall sell, exchange, or give, barter, or dispose of any spirituous liquor or wine to an Indian, (in the Indian country,) such person shall forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars; and if any person shall introduce, or attempt to introduce, any spirituous liquor or wine into the Indian country, except such supplies as shall be necessary for the officers of the United States and troops of the service, under the direction of the War Department, such person shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding three hundred dollars; and if any superintendent of Indian affairs, Indian agent, or sub-agent, or commanding officer of a military post, has reason to suspect, or is informed, that any white person or Indian is about to introduce, or has introduced, any spirituous liquor or wine into the Indian country, in violation of the provisions of this section, it shall be lawful for such superintendent, Indian agent, or sub-agent, or military officer, agreeably to such regulations as may be established by the President of the United States, to cause the boats, stores, packages, and places of deposite of such person to be searched; and if any such spirituous liquor or wine is found, the goods, boats, packages, and peltries of such persons shall be seized and delivered to the proper officer, and shall be proceeded against by libel in the proper court, and forfeited, one half to the use of the informer, and the other half to the use of the United States; and if such person is a trader, his licence shall be revoked and his bond put in suit. And it shall moreover be lawful for any person in the service of the United States, or for any Indian, to take and destroy any ardent spirits or wine found in the Indian country, excepting military supplies, as mentioned in this section.

SEC. 21. _And be it further enacted_, That if any person whatever shall, within the limits of the Indian country, set up or continue any distillery for manufacturing ardent spirits, he shall forfeit and pay a penalty of one thousand dollars: and it shall be the duty of the superintendent of Indian affairs, Indian agent, or sub-agent, within the limits of whose agency the same shall be set up or continued, forthwith to destroy and break up the same; and it shall be lawful to employ the military force of the United States in executing that duty.

SEC. 22. _And be it further enacted_, That in all trials about the right of property in which an Indian may be a party on one side, and a white person on the other, the burden of proof shall rest upon the white person, whenever the Indian shall make out a presumption of title in himself from the fact of previous possession or ownership.

SEC. 23. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be lawful for the military force of the United States to be employed in such manner and under such regulations as the President may direct, in the apprehension of every person who shall or may be found in the Indian country in violation of any of the provisions of this act, and him immediately to convey from said Indian country, in the nearest convenient and safe route, to the civil authority of the territory or judicial district in which said person shall be found, to be proceeded against in due course of law; and also, in the examination and seizure of stores, packages, and boats, authorized by the twentieth section of this act, and in preventing the introduction of persons and property into the Indian country contrary to law; which persons and property shall be proceeded against according to law: _Provided_, That no person apprehended by military force as aforesaid shall be detained longer than five days after the arrest and before removal. And all officers and soldiers who may have any such person or persons in custody shall treat them with all the humanity which the circumstances will possibly permit; and every officer or soldier who shall be guilty of maltreating any such person while in custody, shall suffer such punishment as a court martial shall direct.

SEC. 24. _And be it further enacted_, That, for the sole purpose of carrying this act into effect, all that part of the Indian country west of the Mississippi river, that is bounded north by the north line of lands assigned to the Osage tribe of Indians, produced east to the State of Missouri; west, by the Mexican possessions; south, by Red river; and east, by the west line of the Territory of Arkansas and the State of Missouri, shall be, and hereby is, annexed to the Territory of Arkansas; and that, for the purpose aforesaid, the residue of the Indian country west of the said Mississippi river shall be, and hereby is, annexed to the judicial district of Missouri; and, for the purpose aforesaid, the several portions of Indian country east of the said Mississippi river shall be, and are hereby, severally annexed to the territory in which they are situate.

SEC. 25. _And be it further enacted_, That so much of the laws of the United States as provides for the punishment of crimes committed within any place within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, shall be in force in the Indian country: _Provided_, The same shall not extend to crimes committed by one Indian against the person or property of another Indian.