46 47 50

32 50

12 12 25

47 12

40 27 50

70 93 80

25 488

N. B. Branches taught and books used. In this particular the uniformity in the returns of the districts is so great, that it was thought unnecessary to repeat them for each district. The following may serve as a specimen of the returns:

Branches taught. Reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar; in a few instances, history and natural philosophy are added.

Books used. Webster's elementary spelling books, Olney's geography, Kirkham's grammar, &c.

(No. 8.)

Report of the Commissioners appointed to review the County Seat of Branch.

To his Excellency STEVENS T. MASON,

Governor of the State of Michigan:

The undersigned, commissioners appointed to review the seat of justice for the county of Branch, beg leave to report, that having entered upon their duties agreeably to the provisions of an act entitled "An act to provide for the review of the seat of justice of the county of Branch, they are of the opinion that the present seat of justice for said county ought to be vacated, and recommend that the seat of justice for said county be established in the village of Mason, on village lots numbered thirty-two and thirtythree, according to the map of said village of Mason, in township number six south, in range six west; and further report, that there have not been any improvements made upon the lots given for county purposes in the present seat of justice for said county. Given under our hands at the village of Mason, in the said county of Branch, this 25th day of July, 1836.

WILLIAM H. HOAG,

CHARLES GRANT,

HIRAM WIGHTMAN,

Commissioners.

(No. 9.)

Memorial to the Congress of the United States in relation to Indians living within the limits of the State of Michigan.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States:

The memorial of the legislature of the state of Michigan respectfully sheweth, That, assembled to deliberate on the interests of the people of Michigan, we deem it a public duty to solicit your attention at this time to the means of removing the Indian population, living within our boundaries, to some portion of the public domain without the limits of the state, acceptable to them, and which, at the same time, promises them a permanent refuge. It is known that the lake tribes are averse to the location south of the Missouri, and it is understood from authentic sources that the efforts made to induce them to migrate to that latitude have been decidedly unsuccessful. Natives of a portion of the Union all of which lies north of latitude 42 degrees, they fear the experiment of going ten or twelve degrees directly south, to a country in

which their habits of subsistence and domestic economy must suffer an almost entire and sudden change. They are equally strangers to the habits, languages and opinions of the tribes who must become their neighbors in that location, and cannot contemplate a residence there without alarming fears of depopulation, both by disease and hostility.

Bred in thick forests and accustomed to water transportation, it seems to them the very antipodes of habit to migrate into bleak prairies, where they must learn to occupy and keep houses, and be compelled to gather their fuel from scanty and imperfect sources. Many of these bands are accustomed to live on fish more than half the year, and are wholly ignorant of the art of hunting as practised on the Osage, the Platte, and the Arkansas. Something seems due to their feelings, as well as the considerations connected with them. We respect their appeal to our sympathies, and we wish to see them removed to a region where they may increase and flourish. We are impressed with a deep sense of the utter impossibility of their remaining within the state for any length of time in a state of prosperity. As yet, they are comparatively free from the grosser contaminations which have overtaken some of the minor tribes. Many of them are but little removed from a state of nature. They are hunters or warriors of an active and independent character. But little attention has been paid by them, as a body, to agriculture. But the bands who have adopted it evince no want of aptitude for the employment; and all have manifested a laudable interest in having their children taught. Most of the tribes have, in selling their lands, made liberal provisions for schools and missions, and for the services of agriculturists and mechanics. And they feel disposed to carry with them to their new location these elementary means of future improvement.

In seeking for a country more congenial to their habits and feelings, these tribes have for some time directed their expectations to the sources of the Mississippi-a region clearly beyond the scope of our future settlements, and which yet affords advantages in its lakes, savannahs and rice fields for an Indian population. This locality was accordingly stipulated in the treaty of the Ottawas and Chippewas of March 28th, 1836; but the commissioner on the part of the government was permitted by them to insert the location south of the Missouri, as an option for the future consideration of the tribes. The Senate, in its resolution of ratification, struck out the power of choice, confining them to the latter location. But it is found that the tribes are unwilling to accept the location, while it is equally manifest that they cannot remain on the ceded tract. The action of the general government on this subject seems to be demanded by considerations both of justice and policy.

It is believed that the country at the sources of the Mississippi would afford an appropriate asylum for the whole body of the north-western tribes as that south of the Missouri presents for the south and south-west tribes. And the enquiries which have been made leave no doubt but the title to it could be obtained immediately, and on very advantageous terms. The number of Indians to be removed from the present boundaries of Michigan has been determined with general accuracy within the last year. By reference to the superintendency in this city, it appears that six thousand five hundred Ottawas and Chippewas occupy upwards of sixteen millions of acres, recently purchased from those tribes, with the privilege of living on certain limited reservations during five years. The number of Chippewas within the state, in the upper peninsula west of the tract thus ceded, is estimated to exceed one thousand eight hundred, and they may be estimated to possess twenty-three millions of acres. These still own the soil on which they reside. The bands of Swan creek and Black river are reckoned at four hundred and fifty, and occupy less than nine thousand acres.

ri

They have sold in May last all the lands they possessed, and made provision by treaty for emigrating west. The Saginaw bands number about one thousand souls, who own and occupy sing of two hundred thousand acres in the shape of reservations, scattered in every eligible position throughout the counties of Saginaw, Shiawassee, Genesee, Midland, Gladwin and Arenac. Negotiations for the purchase of these reservations have, it is understood, been entered upon with that tribe, and their removal may be anticipated, and ought to be immediately provided for. It thus appears that ten thousand seven hundred and fifty souls occupy twenty millions one hundred thousand acres. Of this number six thousand nine hundred and fifty have agreed to remove west, and sold to the government sixteen millions nine thousand acres. In these data fractions are dropped, but the most recent estimates of the Department of Indian Affairs are adopted. It further appears that there are four thousand five hundred Winnebagoes in Wisconsin, under treaty obligations to remove. There is also in the territory the entire tribe of the Menomonees, of whom we have no estimates. They may be safely put at onethird of the Winnebagoes, say one thousand five hundred souls, making a total of the lake tribes north of the latitude of Grand river and Milwaukee, of sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty, to be removed from Michigan and the lower part of Wisconsin. The whole of these could be concentrated with but little effort at and above the smaller cataracts of the upper Mississippi, and beyond the most northerly curve of the Missouri.

A line protracted west from the mouth of the St. Louis river of the Fond du Lac of Lake Superior, would cross the upper