Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 11.djvu/717

TREATY W1Tli THE STOCKBRIDGES AND MUNSEES. FEB. 1856. 673 NORTHERN SUPERINTENDENCY, ` Milwaukie, February 23, 1856. Sm: I have the honor to enclose a treaty with the Stockbridges and _Lettei·of Fran- Munsees, concluded in conformity to your instructions. In consequence gina fgfbjtfgz of the complicated diiiiculties at Stockbridge, and the factions spirit ruling renneht. P among the Indians, the task imposed upon me was not an easy one, and required extraordinary patience and forbearance. I believe I have used all proper means to make the arrangement contemplated by the treaty as acceptable to all parties interested as could be expected under the circumstances. However, about one fifth of the Indians, headed by Austin E. Quinney, and mostly consisting of members of the Quinney family, did not sign the treaty, but without giving any sensible reason. The only two objections raised by Austin E. Quinney to the draft of the treaty were : First, That the issuing of patents to lands, to be apportioned to the individuals of the tribe, was contemplated. This objection was virtually obviated by amending the treaty, so that the application for a patent to be made after ten years, has first to be consented to by the general council of the Stockbridges and Munsees. His second objection was, that there was no provision made for the payment of a claim he himself has against the tribe. Though I invited him to submit. the claim to me for examination, he did not do so, and, from what I learned from himself and others, it appears that it would, if submitted, not bear very accurate examination, as about half of it is made up of high charges for meals furnished councillors of the Stockbridges, and the other half for funds advanced to one certain Chandler, on his share of the twenty thousand dollars, to be paid under the amendment to the treaty of 1848, for procuring the adoption of the said amendment. The real objection on the part of the Quinneys to the reorganization of the Stockbridges and Munsees under this treaty, is, no doubt, the certainty staring them in the face, that their rule over the tribe will be at an end if the treaty is ratified. To show what use this family has made of their power over the tribe, I will only mention a few instances. Though claiming to hold their lands again in commonalty in consequence of the law of August 6, 1846, Austin E. Quinney, by barter and trade carried on with widows and other Indians, and by advancing to them a few provisions, pretended to have bought their lots of land, and, under the treaty of 1848, he not only received pay for the improvements on all these lands, (1,440 acres,) $2,760.63, but of the sixteen thousand five hundred dollars paid under V. article of treaty of 1848, he received $3,083, while under a proper per capita apportionment, the share of his family would not have been much more than about three hundred dollars. The interest of the $16,500, to be paid "as other annuities are paid by the United States," has been apportioned in direct violation of the said treaty until the Stockbridge affairs came under my superintendence, in the same manner as the $16,500, under art. V. had been paid ; and for the benefit of Sam’l Miller, even that illegal apportionment was falsified so as to pay him one half of $1,662.50, and the interest on the other half instead of $-112.50, the proportion to which he would have been entitled by the quantity of land held by him at the treaty of 1848. Austin E. Quinney realized about a thousand dollars more by selling his pretended right of occupancy to lots, so that it appears, that he has received about seven thousand dollars in addition to what he has received of the money paid to his tribe by the State of New York, and it is no doubt mortifying to him that his share of moneys hereafter, is to be no larger than that of any other member of the tribe. A great part of the funds received from the State of New York has been used by the Quinney family for their own aggrandizement and the sending of delegations to Washington; and the wishes of a vox,. xi. Titian.-88