The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-02-03
The Kansas Indians and their aziiitazyI

The Kansas Indians and their Mihtary
sSzs3a Protectors. lFst
Our readers may remember that, during
the spring of 1864, Colonel Manypennys
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, went
to the Territories of Nebraska and Kan
sas, with view to open them for settle
ment by extinguishing a number of the
Indian titles which interfered with this
object. Nearly fifteen millions of acres
were in this way opened for the oecupa-
ton of white emigrants. Most OF the
eessions thus made vest the title uHcon-
ditionally In the United States govern
ment; but in the case of the Iowas, the |
confederate band of the Kaskaskias and
Peorias, Weas and Piankeshaws, and the
Delawares, a different arrangement Was
made, and one which, in view of the
forced removal of these tribes from their
former hunting grounds since the year
1880, our government is under the
strictest and most solemn responsibility
to observe. aI
This agreement is, thatthe lands ceded
by the tribes just mentioned, with the
exception ofs strip called the " Delaware
Outlet" shall be offered at public sale,
and sold to the highest bidder after
which, the portions remaining unsold
shall be subject to entry at dollar and
a quarter an acre, the Indians having the
proceeds of the sales, after dedueting ne
cessary expenses. The Delaware reser-
vation in Kansas, to which this stipula-
ton applies, comprises $50, 500 acres of
one of the richest agricultural regions in
the world, bounded ON the east by the
Missouri river, and watered by the
streams of the Stranger and Ssutelle.-
Our government knows the value of
these lands, which would now sell for
more, perhaps, than all the rest of the
Territory; and we understand it would
willingly give for them, in their present
uncultivated state, one hundred dollars
an acre. So, also, do the Indian proprie-
tors, and hence their anxiety to dispose
of them at auction. @
! But, unfortunately, the wishes of the
Indian owners and the treaties of the
government are likely to be frustrated by
the unscrupulous avarice of speculating
adventures, who are paid from the ma
tional treasury to guard the rights so
solemnly guaranteed to the red man.
Commissioner Manypenny, in his last
annual report, which for some reason or
other has not had the publicity which is
usually given to public documents of this
kind, says that 80
"An association of persons has under
taken to appropriate to their own use q
portion of the land ceded by the Della
wares, fronting on the Missouri river,
and south of Fort Leavenworth have
laid out city thereon, and actually had
public sale of the lots of the same, on
the 9th and 10th of October last. These
unlawful proceedings have not only tax
en- place under the eyes of the military
officers stationed at the fort, but two OF
them are said to be members of the asso-
citation, and have been active agents in
this discreditable business. Encouraged
by these proceedings, and prompted by
those engaged in them, other persons
have gone on other portions of the tract
ceded by the Delawares in trust to the
United States, and pretend to have made,
and are now making claims, as they
assert will vest in them the lawful right
to enter the land at the minimum price,
under the presumption law of July 22,
1854"
In order to obtain the sanction of Con-
gress to these lawless invasions, we un-
derstand that petitions are circulating in
different parts of the country for an altera-
ton of the treaty with the Delawares,
making the lands so encroached upon
subject to entry at the minimum price
under the late pre-emption law. The
Administration has been apprised OF
these facts for at least two months i!
knows that on this forbidden reservation
of the Deiawares four cities are already
: started, in which, as was stated some
days since by a Washington correspond
ent of this paper, five hundred votes were
illegally polled in the late election of q
Delegate from Kansas. Why is moi
something done to restrain the military
spectators of Fort Leavenworth 4? Oul
army officers, with all their enormou:
) mileage and transportation fees, are now
clamorous for an increase of salaries, and
. the Administration is extremely urgen
to crafty them. VIII it not show al
equal zeal to restrain their violations O
the faith plighted by the nation to al ig'
norant and defenseless people Nv 2
Eveniag Post.