AMERICAN INDIANS - AMERICANA

LOT #121

 Winnebego    Indians  

AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT OF NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE WINNEBAGO INDIANS

GEORGE JABBOTT [M.D.] Autograph Letter Signed to his uncle, Rev. Abiel Abbot, D.O., in Peterborough, N.H. 7pp. with integral addressleaf. Washington [City], Oct. 18, 1846.

Little is known about Abbot except that he was a teaching doctor in Washington (see Appletons’ (Flandrau) II, p. 478). With a page and a half about removal of the Winnebago Indians who had been pushed west of the Mississippi by governmental decree in 1825 and 1832:

“Washington has been enlivened by the visit of the Winnebago Indians, whom, the Government wish to remove for the third time from lands solemnly & inviolably guaranteed to them in the faith of Treaties. Little Hill, their chief orator, was a very shrewd man, & quite equal in diplomatic subtlety to the three American negotiators. They held out for very good terms, and obtained them,... They obtained after four days negotiation a modification of the terms first offered... they were quite unwilling to leave the land on which they now live.” 

The Great Spirit knew best what lands he had assigned to different people, & they are afraid of displeasing him by interfering with his arrangements. He said their hearts were saddened by what he had told them of their decreasing number & of the near extinction of their race.

When one of the Commissioners told them that the land to which he desired them to remove was good land they gave a grunt & looking at each they smiled as much as Indian gravity would permit them, evidently indicating they were not to be taken in by such blarney.

One of them, an old venerable chief told the commissioners he was afraid they did not always think of the Great Spirit, & he was afraid their Great Father, who had broken his promises twice to them in removing them did not always regard the Great Spirit. The first time he told them he wanted their land, because it was a mineral country, the next time he had some good reason, & now again he had another.

The land they had was given them by the Great Spirit, to the Whites he had given another portion. The Great Spirit knew best what lands he had assigned to different people, & they are afraid of displeasing him by interfering with his arrangements. He said their hearts were saddened by what he had told them of their decreasing number & of the near extinction of their race. When he spoke of the Great Father’s disregard of his children & of the Great Spirit, a smile ran round the room as every body thought it was a remark true as it was keen. They were dressed-if dressed at all it could be called, very fantastically."

Abbot follows with remarks about the Mexican War:

“Of course you have seen the sanguinary news from Monterey-glorious they ca1l it. Here every body feels more or less saddened for many of the officers, killed & wounded were our friends & neighbours...”

He says of President Polk:

“They say his nights are sleepless & disturbed & who can wonder, the cries of orphans & widows, of sick & fa1len soldiers, of mangled & dying men, must be heard in the stillness & darkness of the night-even if he can banish them in the day when surrounded by the parasites that always crowd round the dispensers of place & power.”

Most of the balance of the letter concerns the goings on of the Unitarian Society and their accounts. Light wear, a few tiny fold holes, small tear to left empty last page corner, mostly Fine. $2,000 - up