There is a community of a thousand people, larger than many of the farming villages in New England, for instance, “the average of personal property amounting to one thousand dollars;” all living in their own houses, cultivating from fifty to one hundred acres of land, nearly all the children in schools, and yet it is for their “interest to be moved!” The last sentence of the following paragraph tells the story:
“When peace is restored to our country, a removal of all the Indians in Kansas will certainly be advantageous to them as well as to the State.”
In 1863 their agent writes: “Since the question of the removal of the Indians from Kansas has been agitated, improvements have been much retarded among the Delawares and other Indians in Kansas.
“T think they are sufficiently prepared to make new treaties with the Government, * * * having in view settlement in the Southern country of those who elect to emigrate, compensation for the homes they relinquish, and a permission to remain in their present homes for all who are opposed to leaving Kansas.”
At this time, “one-half the adult population are in the volunteer service of the United States. They make the best of soldiers, and are highly valued by their officers. * * * No State in the Union has furnished so many men for our armies, from the same ratio of population, as has the Delaware tribe. * * * The tribe has 3900 acres of land under cultivation, in corn, wheat, oats, and potatoes.” (And yet one-half the adult men are away!)
In this year the Delawares, being “sufficiently prepared” to make new treaties looking to their removal out of the way of the white settlers in Kansas, petitioned the United States Government to permit them to take eight hundred dollars of their annuity funds to pay the expense of sending a delegation of their chiefs to the Rocky Mountains, to see if they could find
