Opinion ID: 2973821
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The History Preceding the 1854 Treaty

Text: The following historical account was found by a district court in a case unrelated to the case before this Court, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community v. State of Michigan, 784 F. Supp. 418 (W.D. Mich. 1991): The Keweenaw Bay is located on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. From the earliest records there existed a band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians near the mouth of the Bay, on an east-west transportation corridor used by the Indians and later by fur traders. The Indians subsisted before the coming of European society, consistent with their traditional lifestyle, which included annual rounds of hunting and trapping in the Winter and fishing in the Spring, Summer and Fall. The Lake Superior Chippewas’ lifestyle was first impacted by contact with the French, followed by the English and finally by the Americans. Euro-American contacts exposed the Chippewa, inter alia, to Christianity, a new kind of market economy, greed and avarice for their lands, intoxicants, disease, and a new style of dress and abode. These contacts, of course, did not supplant their culture. .... The 1832 expedition of Henry Schoolcraft, followed by Douglas Houghton’s famous exploration of the western Upper Peninsula, outlined the immense mineral reserves of the Western Range and the Keweenaw Peninsula, which were all held at that time by the Indians, pursuant to their unextinguished aboriginal title. Not surprisingly, these rich mineral deposits evoked considerable interest from land speculators, miners, and the federal government. The United States Congress appropriated money on March 3, 1841, to defray expenses of entering into a treaty with the Chippewa for the extinguishment of their title within the State of Michigan where the mineral deposits were found. The Treaty with the Chippewa, 7 Stat. 591, was subsequently negotiated on October 4, 1842, under which the Indians conveyed to the United States their aboriginal title to the entire western half of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, including the Keweenaw Bay area, and to all of northern Wisconsin. Although Article III of the treaty provided for the eventual removal of the Indians to an area to the west occupied by the Mississippi Chippewa, it was thought that such removal would not take place for a considerable time in the future. Ex. P-7. In Article II, the Indians stipulated for the right to hunt in the ceded territory, together “with the other usual privileges of occupancy, until required to remove by the President of the United States . . . .” Article VI provided that the Indians would be subject to removal from the mineral district at the pleasure of the President. It was contemplated that this limited removal from the mineral areas, if it occurred, would not move the Indians out of the remainder of their cession area. Article IV provided for the payment of annuities and the furnishing of goods and services to the Indians, including blacksmiths and carpenter shops, and schools. Notwithstanding the cession of title, the United States’ laws with respect to trade and intercourse with non-Indians were to remain in effect in the ceded territory. The events at Keweenaw Bay following the signing of the 1842 Treaty were significant. In accord with the treaty, farmers and blacksmiths were provided to the L’Anse band, along with funding to the mission boards in order to provide schools for the Indians. Although the treaty did not provide for land reservations, by all accounts the Indians were advised, and they so understood, that their lifestyle would No. 05-1952 Keweenaw Bay Indian Cmty. v. Naftaly, et al. Page 4 be essentially unchanged after the treaty because the government only sought their minerals. Notwithstanding these assurances, the Indians, who did not want to remove, were very apprehensive about that potential. Of course, the threat of removal at that time seemed remote because the Indians were not living within the two important mineral districts in the area. The Indians’ comfort was short-lived, however, due to the commencement of land surveying in 1845, which meant that legal descriptions could be made and land could be sold. To the Indians, land sales meant that their removal was likely and imminent. On February 6, 1850, the President issued a removal order, pursuant to the 1842 Treaty. I Tr. 159. However, that order was subsequently withdrawn in August, 1851, and the Indians were never actually required to remove. II Tr. 164. Nevertheless, according to Henry C. Gilbert, the Michigan Indian agent who negotiated the subsequent 1854 treaty, removal was “the great terror of their [the Indians’] lives and I hazard nothing in saying they will sooner submit to extermination than comply with it.” Ex. P-25; II Tr. 166. The survey of the Upper Peninsula area around Keweenaw Bay was completed in 1848. Some land purchases began to occur on both sides of the Bay at about that time. Numerous urgent letters and petitions from Indians and their representatives to Indian agents and the President evidenced concern about removal and revealed a desire to purchase land around the Bay by and for the benefit of the Indians. . . . Many Indians in the Keweenaw Bay area adopted American-style (or non-Indian) names, clothing, houses, and other customs. Some swore allegiance to the United States before a magistrate. These accommodations to American culture were often intended to demonstrate the Indians’ advanced degree of “civilization”. It was hoped by some that such accommodations would convince the government to grant them citizenship and permit them to remain in their homes rather than force them to remove to the west. Ex. D-71; VI Tr. 792; VII Tr. 906-907. A consistent Indian theme throughout the period of removal and prior to the 1854 Treaty was an ardent desire for permanent homes for the Indians in their present locations. .... The evidence indicates that in the 1840's, the federal government’s policy towards Indians, known as “removal,” was being abandoned. Removal was characterized by the movement of tribes from the eastern portion of the United States to lands to the west, out of the path of western settlement by non-Indians. The removal policy became antiquated as the settlement patterns of non-Indians moved inexorably westward. It became clear in the 1840's that there was rapidly becoming no place to move the Indians. II Tr. 184-5. The benevolent rationale for the removal was to isolate the Indians from the adverse impacts resulting from their contacts with nonIndian society. Of course, the primary motivation was to free Indian lands from their claims to them so the lands could be settled by non-Indians. This same rationale underlay the creation of the reservation system, which replaced the removal policy. II Tr. 186. The separatism that was hoped for could no longer be achieved through removal. However, Commissioner George W. Manypenny believed that the civilization policy could be achieved through the reservation system. Thus, he believed that if the Indians were temporarily isolated on discrete parcels, away from the deleterious influence of non-Indians, they could gradually become assimilated or “civilized” and eventually could be incorporated completely No. 05-1952 Keweenaw Bay Indian Cmty. v. Naftaly, et al. Page 5 into non-Indian society. VII Tr. 1022. The reservation concept as a “way-station” was a necessary step, then, in the civilization process. VII Tr. 967. . . . The new policy of the government was to provide “permanent homes” on the reservations that were set aside for the Indians and upon which trespass by nonIndians would not be tolerated. Additionally, there were three evils attendant to the government’s policy in the past, which Manypenny sought to avoid in the future: first, the payment to the Indians of excessive annuities, which promoted profligacy and the consumption of intoxicants; second, excessive quantities of land held in common; and third, continued changes in location in advance of the western movement of settlers. The 1854 Treaty, as well as others negotiated during this period, were intended to address these articulated evils. Correspondence from Commissioner Manypenny to the Indian agents about to undertake treaty negotiations with the Lake Superior Chippewa in the early 1850's is critical to an understanding of the government’s intentions. One of the four letters of instruction from Commissioner Manypenny to Henry C. Gilbert provides: I send herewith a copy of the instructions of the Secretary of War of the date of 4th June of 1847 when a former commissioner attempted to treat with these indians but failed. According to the estimates of this office, the Chippewa own about 10,743,000 acres of land, the greater part of which is of no value to them, and never will be. Some portions of it will be valueless to the white population. Nevertheless, the condition of affairs with the Chippewas is such that it is the duty of the Government to offer them an opportunity to dispose of their tenure to their Country, and in lieu thereof, to give them a small tract as a permanent home, with such means of support & mental & moral improvement as may be of great advantage to them. Id. at 420-23.