Treaty Broken by White People

     "The treaty that was made at the aforementioned council has been broken by some of the white people, which I now intend acquainting the Governor with. Some white people are not willing that the Indians should hunt any more, whilst others are satisfied therewith; and those white people who reside near our reservation, tell us that the woods are theirs, and that they have obtained them from the Government. The treaty has also been broken by the white people using their endeavors to destroy all the wolves, which was not spoken about in the council at Fort Stanwix by General Putnam, but has originated lately."

     Corn Plant further complains that "white people could get credit from the Indians and do not pay them honestly according to agreement;" also that "there is a great quantity of whiskey brought near our reservation, and the Indians obtain it and become drunken." He complains further that he has been called upon to pay taxes, and says: "It is my desire that the Governor will exempt me from paying taxes for my land to white people, and also to cause the money I am now obliged to pay be refunded to me, as I am very poor."

     "The Government has told us that when difficulties arose between the Indians and the white people they would attend to having them removed. We are now in a trying situation, and I wish the Governor to send a person authorized to attend thereto the fore part of next summer, about the time that the grass has grown big enough for pasture.

     "The Government requested me to pay attention to the Indians and take care of them. We are now arrived at a situation in which I believe the Indians cannot exist unless the Governor shall comply with my request, and send a person authorized to treat between us and the white people the approaching summer. I have now no more to speak."

     This singular production of Corn Plant was of course dictated to an interpreter, who acted as amenuensis, but the sentiments are undoubtedly his own. It was dated in 1822, when the lands reserved for the Indians in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania became surrounded by the farms of the whites and some attempt was made to tax the property of the Seneca Chief, in consequence of which he wrote this epistle to the Governor.

     The letter is distinguished by its simplicity and good sense, and was no doubt dictated in the concise, nervous and elevated style of the Indian orator, which has lost much of its beauty and poetical character in the interpretation. His account of his parentage is simple and touching-his unprotected, yet happy home, where he played with the butterfly, the grasshopper and the frog is sketched with a scriptural felicity of style. There is something very pathetic in his description of his poverty when he grew up to be a young man, and married a wife, and had no kettle nor gun, while the brief account of his visit to his father is marked by a pathos of genuine feeling. It is to be hoped indeed that as the account states the father was non compos mentes.

Previous | Index | Next

Abeel and Allied Families

Free Genealogy | Indian Genealogy | Abeel and Allied Families