While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
In the year 1846, on the 16th day of May,
about forty of the Tuscarora immigrated from
the reservation to their new homes in the
Indian Territory, and in one year about
one-third of them died on account of the
sufferings they endured. They were destitute
of everything, and the Government was to
have sustained them for one year, and to
build houses for them, and provide all the
necessaries of life, but they failed in
fulfilling their promises on account of the
misconduct of Dr. A. Hogeboom, the
moving agent of the emigration party.
By reference to official documents in the Indian department it
appears that a petition from a small party of discontented
emigrationists at the Tuscarora village, dated March 4th, 1845,
was sent to the President of the United States, expressing a
desire to remove to the West. It also further appears that a
letter had been received by the department from a certain D. G.
Garnsey, dated May 8th, 1845, stating that a portion of the
Seneca, and others of the Six Nations in western New York, were
now ready to remove. The Government, justly fearing that there
might be persons so anxious to possess themselves of the moneys
appropriated by law for the removal and support of emigrating
Indians, as to resort to fraudulent means for the purpose, by
letters warned the Indian agent at Buffalo to be on his guard
against such imposition. Afterwards, several petitioners from
small fragments of the Seneca and other tribes, were prevailed
on to sign memorials to the President, asking to be removed, and
begging appropriations for that purpose. To those well
acquainted with these movements, there was sufficient evidence
that persons interested in their removal were at the bottom of
all this business.
Of the Six Nations, once the owners and lords of the
soil within the boundaries of the great Commonwealth of New
York, there were many small remnants scattered over the western
part of this State in a condition of wretched vagrancy; reduced
by idleness and intemperance to poverty, and ready, for a
trifling compensation, to have their names attached to any
memorial, without regard to its objects, for a small sum of
money they would lend themselves to the service of any artful
intriguer whose designs were to defraud the Government.
By an act of Congress passed on the 3rd day of April,
1843, the sum of twenty thousand four hundred and seventy-seven
dollars and fifty cents was appropriated for the removal of two
hundred and fifty Indians to the countries west and south of the
Missouri river.
This appropriation was granted in consequence of repeated
assurances made to the Indian department that this number were
anxious to emigrate. The glittering prize thus hung up in the
face of the noon-day sun was so bright and alluring that a
goodly number of hungry candidates were soon seen entering the
lists and struggling for the prize. But, alas! for the
conditions; unless two hundred and fifty Indians could be
procured to enroll themselves on the emigration engagement, and
actually embark for the West, the stakes could not be legally
won. Here was the great difficulty. And yet one would suppose
that out of four thousand eight hundred and eighty-five Indians,
belonging to the following tribes, to wit: the Seneca, Onondaga,
Cayuga, Tuscarora, Oneida, St. Regis, Stockbridge, Munsee and
Brotherton, by taking up all the poor, degraded individuals, and
gathering together all the sincere emigrationists, such a small
proportion of the whole might easily be procured; especially if
these candidates for an agency had told the truth when they
asserted that large bodies of the Indians were anxious to remove
. By these movements the Government had been induced to believe
that there really was an emigration party sufficiently large to
meet the objects of the late appropriation, and to warrant the
appointment of an emigration agent. Under this impression, the
Secretary of War, by a letter dated Sept. 12, 1845, addressed to
Dr. Abraham Hogeboom, appointed him to that office, instructing
him, however, that no movement was to be made unless the full
complement of emigrants should desire, in good faith, to remove
to the West, and Hogeboom was also explicitly informed that "the
Government would not undertake the emigration of these Indians
unless two hundred and fifty of them, then residing in the State
of New York, exclusive of the Canada Indians, should muster
themselves and actually go with the agent."
As if to leave no door open for misunderstanding, the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington addressed a letter
to Hogeboom, dated Oct. 2nd, 1845, in which it was expressly
declared that "two hundred and fifty Indians is the smallest
number that will be emigrated."
On the 27th of that month, Hogeboom wrote to the
department giving it information that two hundred and nine
Indians had enrolled themselves, and some of their chiefs had
assured him that at Buffalo, Cattaraugus and Alleghany there
would be twenty more. Thus the utmost number that the Doctor
could dare to hope for was two hundred and twenty-nine. If that
letter was written in order to feel after the temper of the
department, and to ascertain how far it was disposed to relax
its determination to send no less away than two hundred and
fifty, he was not long in suspense, for by a letter dated Nov.
4th the Secretary of War again reminded him that he, was
"selected to act as emigrating agent only in the event that two
hundred and fifty would go." But on the 7th of that month
Hogeboom again writes to him, dating his letter from Buffalo,
saying he had ascertained that two hundred and sixty, Indians
had enrolled themselves, and had fixed on the 20th of that month
as the time for starting. This sudden and unexpected movement
was not agreeable to the Secretary on account of the advanced
state of the season; but, hoping they might get out before the
lakes and rivers should be impassable on account of the ice, he
immediately ordered provisions for their sustenance at their
intended homes, to be procured and be in readiness at the time
of their arrival.
Notwithstanding all these assurances on the part of
Hogeboom, when the time for telling the truth came the whole
scheme failed; a sufficient number of Indians could not be
persuaded to go. The emigration was therefore indefinitely
postponed.
It will be seen by the foregoing statement that on the
27th day of October Hogeboom wrote to the department that only
two hundred and nine had enrolled themselves, and he then
admitted that only twenty more could be hoped for in addition;
of course there was no prospect of emigrating that season.
Indeed the Doctor says in that letter, speaking of the Indians,
"they do not think they will be able to obtain the number of two
hundred and fifty to emigrate this fall." Up to this time
nothing had been done to induce the war department to advance
any money to the agent. So, not only had the emigration scheme
failed, but, so far as the Doctor had been moved by pecuniary
motives, he had also failed. This was no doubt a trying
circumstance, but the trial did not long continue, for only ten
days after he had written to the war department that the Indians
did not think they could emigrate this fall, he wrote again to
the Secretary of War, under date of Nov. 7th, 1845, saying "I
have ascertained that two hundred and sixty Indians have
enrolled themselves for emigration, and have fixed the time for
starting on the 20th inst." The following is an extract from a
letter from the department to Hogeboom, dated Nov. 14th, in
answer to his of the 7th. It was no doubt a letter such as the
Doctor much desired:
Sir;
I have received your letter of the 7th inst., informing the
department of the enrollment of two hundred and sixty New York
Indians for emigration to their western homes, and proceed, now
that there appears to be no doubt of the movement taking place ,
to give you some instructions, &c. A requisition for $10,000 has
this day been issued in your favor, with which you will be
charged and held accountable for, under the head of "removal, &c.,
of New York Indians," per act March 3rd, 1843.
(Signed) W. Medill, Commissioner.
Thus the Doctor was put in possession of the sum of ten
thousand Dollars, and we hear no more about the two hundred and
sixty Indians, nor of any more trouble about Indian emigration
during the remainder of the year.
The proceedings of Dr. Hogeboom; and other persons
interested in removing the Seneca, necessarily produced great
agitation, and a very unsettled state among those who had no
idea of emigrating. The chiefs on the reservations of Alleghany
and Cattaraugus, harassed and perplexed by this vexatious state
of things, at length determined to address the President on the
occasion. This application procured the appointment of the
council which was held at Cattaraugus on June 2d, 1846.
In the spring of 1846 Dr. Hogeboom, hearing that the
Government had called a council of the Seneca, for the express
purpose of inquiring officially whether there was an emigration
party among them, and, if there was one, what its number, made
great exertions to push off his emigrants. Regardless of the
positive instructions of the Government, and without its
knowledge, he hastily collected as many of the Indians as he
could bring under his influence, and with them embarked in a
steamboat at Silver Creek, on Lake Eric, near Cattaraugus
Reservation.
The circumstances and manner of the embarkation throws
much light on the motives and conduct of this emigrating agent.
The subject is graphically related in a speech of Israel
Jemison, as made in a council of 1846, and addressed to the
Commissioners of the United States, as follows, to wit:
"Brothers! The question relative to emigration being
disposed of, I will explain the manner in which this removal of
the Indians to the West has been effected. I believe it was
irregularly conducted. Indeed, I may say, of this I am
convinced. The agent who came to execute it was duly notified,
that the Government had called the present council for the
consideration and investigation of this matter. As soon as it
was known that this had been determined on, great efforts were
made to hurry off the emigrants and induce them to leave before
the council would meet . I am satisfied that many were decoyed
away by various contrivances and gross misrepresentations on the
part of the emigrating agent and his emissaries. I myself
remonstrated against these proceedings, and asked if it could be
proper to inveigle and deceive the Indians in this manner. In
reply I was desired to be silent, to which I rejoined that many
of them whom they had decoyed on board were then drunk, and in a
state of unconsciousness! This remonstrance's availed nothing,
and the whole were hurried away. If any showed an unwillingness
to go they were told they might return if they chose, should
they not like the place when they got there."
The painful, and indeed the awful result of this
inhuman conduct of Dr. Hogeboom will be seen by reference to the
memorial of the Seneca chiefs to the President of the United
States, invoking the aid of the Government to bring back the
wretched surviving remnant of the poor duped people. It is as
follows:
To His Excellency, James K. Polk, President of the United
States :
The memorial of the undersigned chiefs and warriors of
the Seneca Nation of Indians, residing in the State of New York,
respectfully showeth, That a party of the Seneca Nation,
consisting, as your memorialists have been informed, of
sixty-two persons, together with a portion of the Cayuga,
Onondaga and Oneida, residing with us, and a party of the
Tuscarora, residing near Lewiston, in Niagara county, left the
State of New York last spring to settle in the country west of
Missouri. That your memorialists have been credibly informed by
letters received from individuals among them, and by the
statements of such as have returned, that great distress has,
from their first arrival there, existed among them, and does
exist without mitigation, in consequence of the insalubrities of
the climate; that twenty persons of the sixty-two Seneca were
already dead some six weeks since, and about the same proportion
of our friends of the other tribes; that many others were sick;
that three of the leading Seneca chiefs, one of the Onondaga,
one of the Oneida, and a leading man of the Tuscarora, were
dead; that the remnant of the people, with very few exceptions,
were very anxious to return, but were destitute of the means of
doing so; that many of them have sent earnest requests to us for
assistance to enable them to do so; but that only a few families
among us are able to furnish efficient relief to their suffering
friends. In view of all these facts, we would respectfully
request the Vice President to furnish the necessary assistance
to bring back the remnant of the party to their former homes,
and to arrange for the payment of the annuities belonging to
them, so that in future they may receive them here. Although
they went out from us against our earnest remonstrance and
entreaty, and some of them mocking our expressions of concern
for them as we stood around the boat when they were going on
board, still we shall rejoice to have them home again amongst
us, for they are our brethren and their sufferings grieve us to
the heart. Thirteen of the Seneca have already returned, and
three others, we have heard, are on the way. This makes the
condition of those unable to return the more lonely and
wretched. We hope the President will not say it was their own
fault that they went there, for even if they were to be blamed
for doing so, they had already suffered a fearful punishment.
But we think that if the President were acquainted with the
circumstances he would pity rather than blame them for going.
Notice had been repeatedly given from the War Department that
unless a company of two hundred and fifty emigrants could be
organized, none would be removed. Such a company having failed
to be organized in the fall of 1845, we were told that the
Department had required the removing agent to refund the money
he had received for the purpose of removing them. In the spring
of the present year certain men were running from house to house
among our people saying that the agent still held the money in
his hands, and would remove all who wished to go, upon the
opening of navigation. Directly after, notice was received from
the Government that commissioners were appointed, and that a
Council would be held on a specified day to ascertain if the
requisite number wished to emigrate. When this became known it
was immediately reported that the removing agent (Dr. Hogeboom)
had already contracted for their passage that the steamboat
would take them in at Cattarangus Creek on a certain day, and it
was not necessary for them to wait for the action of the
Government. The agent soon after appeared, accompanied by two
individuals from Buffalo, who, as we were afterward credibly
informed, instigated him to practice this fraud upon the
Government, and endeavored, by representing the country west as
a paradise, to induce a large company to go on board their boat.
Some of our friends, who had not disposed of their effects, were
told not to mind their stuff, for the country to which they were
going was so rich, and they would prosper there so rapidly that
they would never feel the loss of it, and one family were
hurried away from their table, leaving everything upon it just
as it was when they arose from their dinner. We have reason to
believe that the whole company, except a few leaders, most of
whom are now dead, were deluded by these flattering but fate
representations of those white men, and inasmuch as the removing
Agent appeared on the ground, with the money in his hand, these
simple people were made to discredit the orders received from
the department, relative to the council of the 2d of June.
Justice would indeed seem to require that these white men should
repair the injury they have done to us, and not to us alone, but
also to the government.
But we have no power to compel them. Our only resource
is to appeal to the government in behalf of our afflicted and
desponding brethren, who are perishing under the accumulated
pressure of disappointed expectations grief for the dead and the
heavy hand of disease upon their own persons. We trust our
appeal will not be disregarded. We think it is the dictate of
humanity, and we confidently believe that the voice of the whole
country would approve the course of the President if he would
grant the needed relief. We would beg leave further to request
the President to make known to us through our friend Philip E.
Thomas, of Baltimore, who will present our memorial, the
decision he may make in regard to it.
And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever
pray, &c.
Cattaraugus Reservation, Dec. 16, 1846.
(Signed)
James X Shongo
Moses Stephenson
N. T. Strong
William X Jones
Robert X Gordon
Zachariah X L.
Jimison
Daniel Two Guns
Samuel X Wilson
William X Johnson
John X Bolden
Benjamin Williams
George Lindsay
John Kennedy, Jr.
George Greenblanket
David X Snow
John Huson
Solomon W. Lane
Jim X Junius
Henry Two Guns
Little X John
John Talor
John X Luke
Governor X Blacksnake
Israel X Jimison
William X Patterson
John X Greenblanket
S. M. Patterson
Moses X Pierce
James X Stephenson
Abraham X John
Jabez X Stephenson
Peter X White
Charles Graybeard
In reply to this memorial, the
following answer was received from the Indian Bureau at
Washington:
War Department, Office of Indian Affairs, Feb. 23rd, 1847.
Sir:
The application for the removal of the Seneca Indians
back to New York who emigrated West from there last summer has
been duly
considered. With every disposition to gratify the wishes of the
Society of Friends, and of the New York Indians, so far as it
could properly be done, I have to inform you that the Executive
Department of the Government has neither the authority nor the
means to justify a compliance with their desire. In this
particular Congress only could authorize the measure and provide
the requisite means for the expense it would invalue.
Respectfully your ob't servant, W. Medill.
To Philip E. Thomas, Esq., Baltimore, Md.
When the chiefs were made acquainted with the result of
this application, they addressed the following communication to
the joint committee of Friends:
Cattaraugus Reservation, March 22nd, 1847.
Respected friend, Philip E. Thomas: Permit us to
address you a few lines, and, through you, the committee of the
four-yearly meetings of the Society of Friends, in reference to
the condition of our suffering friends and brethren still
remaining in the country west of the
Mississippi. We suppose the committee are already thoroughly
acquainted with the means used to decoy those Indians off, in
contravention of the instructions of the Government to the
removing agent. They were flattered with prospects of almost
unbounded prosperity. The country was described as a paradise;
and they were told that there friends here, who might now refuse
to accompany them, would soon be compelled to follow, and that
it would be better to go now and get well started in their
improvements, &c., as soon as possible. But, when they reached
that country, instead of being a paradise, they found it rather
a land of desolation, disease and death, and a large proportion
of them are now lying beneath the turf. The survivors are
discouraged and broken-hearted, in addition to the sufferings
from the disease which has swept off their companions, and they
are anxious to return. Application has been made to the
Government in their behalf, without obtaining relief, and, from
a recent letter from Dr. Wilson, we learn that a similar
application to the Legislature of this State is likely to fail.
We cannot make any appropriation from our national funds until
the meeting of our national council, as a law has been passed
which would forbid it, but if we delay till that meeting it will
expose our friends to the horrors of the sickly season once
more, and doubtless many more of them will perish in
consequence. Under these circumstances we see no other resource
but to look again to those kind-hearted friends who have done so
much already to relieve us in our distresses. Our obligations
are already very great, and we cherish deep feelings of
gratitude for past favors. We would not willingly burden your
kindness now were it not for the peculiarly difficult and
perplexing condition of things just at the present time. But we
feel that humanity towards our own people demands of us to make
this application in their behalf, as well as of ourselves, for
we will always cherish a lively remembrance of your kindness.
Wishing you the reward of the benevolent in the great
day, we subscribe ourselves your obliged and sincere friends,
In presence of Asher Wright,
Henry Two Guns
William Krouse
George X Button
John X Greenblanket
Abraham X John
James Spring
Daniel Two Guns
Notwithstanding the fact that these Indians were
carried away without the knowledge or sanction of the
Government, and consequently without the requisite preparation
for their comfort and subsistence in the western country, yet
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, as soon as he was apprised
of the movements of Dr. Hogeboom, anxious to afford them all the
relief in his power, promptly ordered arrangements for their
reception at the place of their destination, as will be seen by
the following documents in the War Department, to wit:
War Department, Office of Indian Affairs, June 10th, 1846.
Sir: Information has been recently received at this office that
A. Hogeboom had started for St. Louis with a party of New York
Indians, in number about two hundred. This act of starting with
a less number than two hundred and fifty, in connection with the
recent action of this office, looking to a suspension of the
emigration for a time, was wholly unauthorized, and of course
unexpected, but as the party are without the reach of the
Department, measures must be taken to subsist them. I have
therefore to request that you will give directions to the Osage
sub-agent to invite proposals as contemplated in my instructions
to you of the 14th November, 1845, to which you are referred.
Respectfully, &c.,
W. Medill.
To T. W. Harvey, Esq., Supt. Indian Affairs, St. Louis, Mo.
Notwithstanding this humane effort on the part of the
Commissioner to make provision for the reception and
accommodation of these emigrants, it appears that from the
hardships and exposures to which they were subjected, and from
the unwholesome nature of the climate one-third of them perished
within six months after their arrival at their intended
residence. When their distressed situation was made known to the
Department, the Commissioner immediately addressed a letter to
the Indian Agent at St. Louis, calling his attention to their
case, from which the following is extracted:
War Department, Office Indian Affairs. October, 29, 1846.
Sir: I transmit herewith a copy of a letter just
received from James Cusick, one of the party of the New York
Indians removed west last summer by Dr. Hogeboom, from which it
appears that there has been much sickness and mortality among
those Indians, and that they are in a distressed situation. Mr.
Cusick's letter, supported by Capt. Burbanks, is calculated to
excite much anxiety on account of these Indians. They were
removed contrary to the instructions and expectations of the
Department at the time, and their having gone west was not known
until they were some distance on the route. There was,
consequently, no opportunity for making the requisite
preliminary arrangement for their comfort and welfare on their
arrival west. After giving you the instructions of June 10th for
their subsistence, such had to be left to the judgment and views
of duty, under these circumstances, of yourself and the Osage
Sub. Agent, under whose immediate supervision they came, in
regard to what further required to be done for them. In my
letter of the 30th ultimo your attention was especially called
to their situation, and no doubt is entertained, that your
answers to that communication will show you have done, or caused
to be done, all that could be done, under the circumstances, for
their relief. Should the amount now remitted not be sufficient
to cover the expenses of what you have already done, or what it
may be, in your judgment, further requisite to do for them in
addition to their subsistence, for which there is a special
appropriation, you will please report promptly accordingly, and
the necessary funds will be furnished. Funds will also be
remitted on account of their subsistence when this office is
informed that they are needed.
Respectfully,
W. Medill.
Thomas H. Harvey, Esq., St. Louis, Mo.
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Legends, Traditions, and Laws of the Iroquois, or Six Nations and History of the Tuscarora Indians
