Treaty with The Wyandot
January 31, 1855
Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded
at the city of Washigton on the thirty-first day of January,
one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by George W. Manypenny,
as commissioner on the part of the United States, and the
following-named chiefs and delegates of the Wyandott tribe
of Indians, viz: Tan-roo-mee, Matthew Mudeator, John Hicks,
Silas Armstrong, George J. Clark, and Joel Walker, they being
thereto duly authorized by said tribe.
Article 1.
The Wyandott Indians having become sufficiently advanced
in civilization, and being desirous of becoming citizens,
it is hereby agreed and stipulated, that their organization,
and their relations with the United States as an Indian tribe
shall be dissolved and terminated on the ratification of this
agreement, except so far as the further and temporary continuance
of the same may be necessary in the execution of some of the
stipulations herein; and from and after the date of such ratification,
the said Wyandott Indians, and each and every of them, except
as hereinafter provided, shall be deemed, and are hereby declared,
to be citizens of the United States, to all intents and purposes;
and shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities
of such citizens; and shall in all respects be subject to
the laws of the United States, and of the Territory of Kansas
in the same manner as other citizens of said Territory; and
the jurisdiction of the United States and of said Territory,
shall be extended over the Wyandott country in the same manner
as over other parts of said Territory. But such of the said
Indians as may so desire and make application accordingly,
to the commissioners hereinafter provided for, shall be exempt
from the immediate operation of the preceding provisions,
extending citizenship to the Wyandott Indians, and shall have
continued to them the assistance and protection of the United
States, and an Indian agent in their vicinity, for such a
limited period or periods of time, according to the circumstances
of the case, as shall be determined by the Commissioner of
Indian Affairs; and on the expiration of such period or periods,
the said exemption, protection, and assistance shall cease;
and said persons shall then, also, become citizens of the
United States, with all the rights and privileges, and subject
to the obligations, above stated and defined.
Article 2.
The Wyandott Nation hereby cede and relinquish to the United
States, all their right, title, and interest in and to the
tract of country situate in the fork of the Missouri and Kansas
Rivers, which was purchased by them of the Delaware Indians,
by an agreement dated the fourteenth day of December, one
thousand eight hundred and forty-three, and sanctioned by
a joint resolution of Congress approved July twenty-fifth,
one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, the object of
which cession is, that the said lands shall be sub-divided,
assigned, and reconveyed, by patent, in fee-simple, in the
manner hereinafter provided for, to the individuals and members
of the Wyandott Nation, in severalty; except as follows, viz:
The portion now enclosed and used as a public burying-ground,
shall be permanently reserved and appropriated for that purpose;
two acres, to include the church-building of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and the present burying-ground connected
therewith, are hereby reserved, granted, and conveyed to that
church; and two acres, to include the church-building of the
Methodist Episcopal Church South, are hereby reserved, granted,
and conveyed to said church. Four acres, at and adjoining
the Wyandott ferry, across and near the mouth of the Kansas
River, shall also be reserved, and, together with the rights
of the Wyandotts in said ferry shall be sold to the highest
bidder, among the Wyandott people, and the proceeds of sale
paid over to the Wyandotts. On the payment of purchase-money
in full, a good and sufficient title to be secured and conveyed
to the purchaser, by patent from the United States.
Article 3.
As soon as practicable after the ratification of this agreement,
the United States shall cause the lands ceded in the preceding
article to be surveyed into sections, half and quarter sections,
to correspond with the public surveys in the Territory of
Kansas; and three commissioners shall be appointed - one by
the United States, and two by the Wyandott council - whose
duty it shall be to cause any additional surveys to be made
that may be necessary, and to make a fair and just division
and distribution of the said lands among all the individuals
and members of the Wyandott tribe; so that those assigned
to or for each shall, as nearly as possible, be equal in quantity,
and also in value, irrespective of the improvements thereon;
and the division and assignment of the lands shall be so made
as to include the houses, and, as far as practicable, the
other improvements, of each person or family; be in as regular
and compact a form as possible, and include those for each
separate family all altogether. The judgment and decision
of said commissioners, on all questions connected with the
division and assignment of said lands, shall be final.
On the completion of the division and assignment of the lands
as aforesaid, said commissioners shall cause a plat and schedule
to be made, showing the lands assigned to each family or individual,
and the quantity thereof. They shall also make up carefully
prepared lists of all the individuals and members of the Wyandott
tribe - those of each separate family being arranged together
- which lists shall exhibit, separately, first, those families
the heads of which the commissioners, after due inquiry and
consideration, shall be satisfied are sufficiently intelligent,
competent, and prudent to control and manage their affairs
and interests, and also all persons without families.
Second, those families the heads of which are not competent
and proper persons to be entrusted with their shares of the
money, payable under this agreement; and, third, those who
are orphans, idiots, or insane. Accurate copies of the lists
of the second and third of the above classes, shall be furnished
by the commissioners to the Wyandott council; whereupon said
council shall proceed to appoint or designate the proper person
or persons to be recognized as the representatives of those
of the second class, for the purpose of receiving and properly
applying the sums of money due and payable to or for them,
as hereinafter provided, and also those who are to be entrusted
with the guardianship of the individuals of the third class,
and the custody and management of their rights and interests;
the said acts or proceedings of the council, duly authenticated,
to be forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and
filed in his office; and the same shall be annually revised
by the said council, until the payment of the last instalment
of the moneys payable to the Wyandotts, under this agreement,
and such change or changes made therein as may, from casualties
or otherwise, become necessary; such revisions and changes,
duly authenticated, to be communicated to, and subject to
the approval of, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
The said commissioners shall likewise prepare a list of all
such persons and families among the Wyandott people as may
apply to be temporarily exempted from citizenship and for
continued protection and assistance from the United States
and an Indian agent, as provided for in the first article
of this agreement. The agent through and by whom such protection
and assistance is to be furnished, shall be designated by
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
The aforesaid plat and schedule, and lists of persons, duly
authenticated by the commissioners, shall be forwarded to
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and filed in his office,
and copies of the said plat and schedule, and of the list
of persons temporarily exempted from citizenship and entitled
to the continued protection and assistance of the United States
and an Indian agent, duly attested by the commissioners, shall
be filed by them in each of the offices of the secretary of
the Territory of Kansas, and the clerk of the county in which
the Wyandott lands are situated.
Article 4.
On the receipt, by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, of
the plat and schedule, lists of persons, and of the first
proceedings of the Wyandott council, mentioned in the next
preceding article, patents shall be issued by the General
Land-Office of the United States, under the advisement of
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to the individuals of
the Wyandott tribe, for the lands severally assigned to them,
as provided for in the third article of this agreement, in
the following manner, to wit: To those reported by the commissioners
to be competent to be entrusted with the control and management
of their affairs and interests, the patents shall contain
an absolute and unconditional grant in fee-simple; and shall
be delivered to them by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs,
as soon as they can be prepared and recorded in the General
Land-Office: but to those not so competent, the patents shall
contain an express condition, that the lands are not to be
sold or alienated for a period of five years; and not then,
without the express consent of the President of the United
States first being obtained; and the said patents may be withheld
by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, so long as, in his
judgment, their being so withheld may be made to operate beneficially
upon the character and conduct of the individuals entitled
to them.
None of the lands to be thus assigned and patented to the
Wyandotts, shall be subject to taxation for a period of five
years from and after the organization of a State government
over the territory where they reside; and those of the incompetent
classes shall not be aliened or released for a longer period
than two years, and shall be exempt from levy, sale, or forfeiture,
until otherwise provided by State legislation, with the assent
of Congress.
Article 5.
Disinterested persons, not to exceed three, shall be appointed
by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to make a just and
fair appraisement of the parsonage houses, and other improvements
connected therewith, on the Wyandott lands, belonging to the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, the amounts of which appraisements shall be paid to
the said churches, respectively, by the individual or individuals
of the Wyandott tribe, to whom the lands on which said houses
and improvements are, shall have been assigned under the provisions
of this agreement; said payments to be made within a reasonable
time, in one or more instalments, to be determined by said
appraisers; and until made in full, no patent or other evidence
of title to the lands so assigned to said individual or individuals,
shall be issued or given to them.
Article 6.
The Wyandott Nation hereby relinquish, and release the United
States from all their rights and claims to annuity, school
moneys, blacksmith establishments, assistance and materials,
employment of an agent for their benefit, or any other object
or thing, of a national character, and from all the stipulations
and guarantees of that character, provided for or contained
in former treaties, as well as from any and all other claims
or demands whatsoever, as a nation, arising under any treaty
or transaction between them and the Government of the United
States; in consideration of which release and relinquishment,
the United States hereby agree to pay to the Wyandott Nation,
the sum of three hundred and eighty thousand dollars, to be
equally distributed and paid to all the individuals and members
of the said nation, in three annual instalments, payable in
the months of October, commencing the present year; the shares
of the families whose heads the commissioners shall have decided
not to be competent or proper persons to receive the same,
and those of orphans, idiots, and insane persons, to be paid
to and receipted for by the individuals designated or appointed
by the Wyandott council to act as their representatives and
guardians.
Such part of the annuity, under the treaty of one thousand
eight hundred and forty-two, as shall have accrued, and may
remain unpaid, at the date of the payment of the first of
the above-mentioned instalments, shall then be paid to the
Wyandotts, and be in full, and a final discharge of, said
annuity.
Article 7.
The sum of one hundred thousand dollars, invested under the
treaty of one thousand eight hundred and fifty, together with
any accumulation of said principal sum, shall be paid over
to the Wyandotts, in like manner with the three hundred and
eighty thousand dollars mentioned in the next preceding article;
but in two equal annual instalments, commencing one year after
the payment of the last instalment of said above-mentioned
sum. In the mean time, the interest on the said invested fund,
and on any accumulation thereof, together with the amount
which shall be realized from the disposition of the ferry
and the land connected therewith, the sale of which is provided
for in the second article of this agreement, shall be paid
over to the Wyandott council, and applied and expended, by
regular appropriation of the legislative committee of the
Wyandott Nation, for the support of schools, and for other
purposes of a strictly national or public character.
Article 8.
The persons to be included in the apportionment of the lands
and money, to be divided and paid under the provisions of
this agreement, shall be such only as are actual members of
the Wyandott Nation, their heirs and legal representatives,
at the date of the ratification hereof, and as are entitled
to share in the property and funds of said nation, according
to the laws, usages, and customs thereof.
Article 9.
It is stipulated and agreed, that each of the individuals,
to whom reservations were granted by the fourteenth article
of the treaty of March seventeenth, one thousand eight hundred
and forty-two, or their heirs or legal representatives, shall
be permitted to select and locate said reservations, on any
Government lands west of the States of Missouri and Iowa,
subject to pre-emption and settlement, said reservations to
be patented by the United States, in the names of the reservees,
as soon as practicable after the selections are made; and
the reservees, their heirs or proper representatives, shall
have the unrestricted right to sell and convey the same; whenever
they may think proper; but, in cases where any of said reservees
may not be sufficiently prudent and competent to manage their
affairs in a proper manner, which shall be determined by the
Wyandott council, or where any of them have died, leaving
minor heirs, the said council shall appoint proper and discreet
persons to act for such incompetent persons and minor heirs
in the sale of the reservations, and the custody and management
of the proceeds thereof - the persons so appointed, to have
full authority to sell and dispose of the reservations in
such cases, and to make and execute a good and valid title
thereto.
The selections of said reservations, upon being reported
to the surveyor-general of the district in which they are
made, shall be entered upon the township plats, and reported,
without delay, to the Commissioner of the General Land-Office,
and patents issued to the reservees, accordingly. And any
selection of, settlement upon, or claim to, land included
in any of said reservations, made by any other person or persons,
after the same shall have been selected by the reservees,
their heirs or legal representatives, shall be null and void.
Article 10.
It is expressly understood, that all the expenses connected
with the subdivision and assignment of the Wyandott lands,
as provided for in the third article hereof, or with any other
measure or proceeding, which shall be necessary to carry out
the provisions of this agreement, shall be borne and defrayed
by the Wyandotts, except those of the survey of the lands
into sections, half and quarter sections, the issue of the
patents, and the employment of the commissioner to be appointed
by the United States; which shall be paid by the United States.
Article 11.
This instrument shall be obligatory on the contracting parties
whenever the same shall be ratified by the President and the
Senate of the United States.
In testimony whereof, the said George W. Manypenny, commissioner
as aforesaid, and the said chiefs and delegates of the Wyandott
tribe of Indians, have hereunto set their hands and seals,
at the place and on the day and year hereinbefore written.
- Geo. W. Manypenny, [L. S.]
- Tan-roo-mee, his x mark. [L. S.]
- Mathew Mudeater, [L. S.]
- John Hicks, his x mark. [L. S.]
- Silas Armstrong, [L. S.]
- Geo. J. Clark, [L. S.]
- Joel Walker, [L. S.]
Executed in presence of -
- A. Cumming, superintendent Indian affairs,
- Robert S. Neighbors, special agent,
- Will. P. Ross, Cherokee delegate,
- J. T. Cochrane.
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