Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 9.djvu/1039

 TREATY WITH THE WYANDOTS. Artur. 1, 1850. 987 TREATY WITH THE WYANDOT INDIANS. Ap»¤1.m<>. Articles of a Convention concluded in the city of Washington, this agionsgiiiagfslgi, first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and ffty, by and 1852; I ti between Ardavan S. Loughery, Commissioner especially appointed mdgocggs gid: by the President of the United States, and the undersigned, Head 1850- Chief and Deputies of the Wyandot Tribe of Indians, duly authorized and empowered to act for their tribe. [Wnsnuss, the people composing the Wyandot tribe or nation of In- ·Pw¤¤b1•· dians have manifested an anxious desire to extingui h their tribal or national character and become citizens of the United States- believing their condition will, thereby, not only be ameliorated, but their welfare and prosperity greatly promoted. They have arrived at this conviction in view of the fact that a new territory will, at no distant period, be organized by the government of the United States, which will embrace within its limits their present lands and possessions, and thus they will again be surrounded by citizens of the United States. After a full consultation with their people, and upon mature reflection, the undersigned, representatives of the Wyandot nation, entertain the belietl that the evil effects always to be apprehended from such a state of things will be avoided by their becoming citizens of the United States, and having the lands and other property accruing under treaty stipulations, now held in common by their people, fairly and equally divided among the individual owners, and secured to them in scveralty : And, whereas, by the first article of the treaty concluded between the United States and the Wyandot nation or tribe of Indians, on the 17th day of March, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the said nation ceded and relinquished to the United States all the lands and possessions owned or claimed by them, within the limits of the States of Ohio and Michigan —in consideration of which cession, the United States, by the second article of the treaty aforesaid, stipulate and agree to " grant to the Wyandot nation a tract of land west of the Mississippi River, to contain one hundred and forty-eight thousand acres, and to be located upon any lands owned by the United States, now set apart, or may in future set apart, for Indian use, and not already assigned to any other tribe or nation."And in further consideration of the aforesaid cession by the Wyandot nation, the United States, by the third and succeeding articles of aid treaty, agree " to pay the Wyandot nation a perpetual annuity of seventeen thousand five hundred dollars ($17,500) in specie,” beside making other provision for the benefit of said nation, as follows: Blacksmith and assistant, _ $750 — iron and steel for shop, $270 — and for education purposes, 8500-—all of which to be furnished and paid annually. It being expre sly stipulated in the 3d article of the treaty before mentioned, that the annuity of seventeen thousand five hundred dollars should include " all former annuities? And, whereas, the Wyandot tribe of Indians were not put in possession of the one hundred and forty-eight thousand acres of land, as stipulated in the second article of the treaty aforesaid; and they aver that, in consequence of the United States having failed to comply with that stipulation, by not designating and conveying to them a country Et for farming purposes and suited to their wants, they were compelled to purchase a home, of which they were then destitute, from another tribe of Indians. Accordingly, on the fourteenth day of December, one