1This essay reports some findings of the Old Northwest Indian Removal Project, which was supported by a research grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities. The author is indebted to numerous readers of earlier drafts for their aid and useful sugges tions, especially Victor Barnouw, Tom Biolsi, John Clark, Faye Clifton, Conrad Heidenreich, Michael Green, Jeanne Kay, Robert Kvasnicka, James McClurken, Joseph Manzo, Bruce Trigger and Richard White; and also Paul Haas, John D. Haeger, and Paul Prucha. In the interests of saving space, citations for this essay have been much abbreviated. A full bibliography is contained in the author’s The Voight Decision and Wisconsin Chippewa Treaty Rights: A Critical Bibliography (Institute for the Development of  Indian Law, forthcoming); and in the archives of the Old Northwest Indian Removal Project.

2The nomenclature, “Lake Superior Chippewa,” came into use only during negotiations for the Treaty of 1854 at the insistence of the Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula of Michigan bands, who wished to sever all relationships with the bands on the Upper Mississippi River. See, R. Ritzenthaler, “Southwestern Chippewa,” in B. G. Trigger, ed., Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 15, Northeast (Smithsonian Institution, 1978), 743—59.

3The incident is mentioned in a few older state and regional histories such as J. N. Davidson’s, In Unnamed Wisconsin (Milwaukee 1895), 168; and is briefly discussed in V. Barnouw’s Acculturation and Personality Among the Wisconsin Chippewa (American Anthropological Association Memoir No. 72, 1950), 37, 59. Such descriptions are based on other secondary and scanty primary sources, principally the Rev. J. H. Pitezel’s eyewitness account in Lights and Shades of Missionary Life (Cincinnati, 1860), 298. E. J. Danziger, in his The Chippewas of Lake Superior (University of Oklahoma Press, 1978), 88, and his “They Would Not be Moved: The Chippewa Treaty of 1854,” Minnesota History, 43 (1973), 178, touches the episode in passing. William C. Haygood’s editorial comments, accompanying publication of excerpts from Benjamin J. Armstrong’s reminiscences in his old age, attempted a sketchy assessment of the incident, but these remarks are not well in formed. See, “Reminiscences of Life Among the Chippewa,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, 4 Parts, 55: 175—96, 287—309; & 56: 37—58, 140—61. In the extensive interviewing preceding his Wisconsin Chippewa Myths and Tales and Their Relation to Chippewa Life (University of Wisconsin Press, 1977), Barnouw found no oral traditions concerning the events (Barnouw to Clifton, Personal Communication, 1985). Nor are there any such folk memories recorded in the major 20th- Century collections of Chippewa oral traditions, such as the Charles Brown Papers, Col. HB, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, or the U. S. Works Progress Administration’s Chippewa Historical Project Records, Micro film 532, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The last recorded Chippewa mention of this episode dates to 1864, when the Lake Superior chiefs assembled to record their memories of treaty dealings with the United States. See, G. P. Warren, “Statement of Treaties between the Chippewa Indians and the United States, from 1825—1864, from the Chippewa Standpoint,” File 1864, Guide 714 (State Historical Society of Wisconsin).

4The cases include, in Wisconsin—the Winnebago, Menomini, Potawatomi communities north of Milwaukee, Chippewa of Lake Superior, Mdewakonton Dakota, and the Emi grant New York Indians (Oneida, Stock bridge-Munsee, and the Brotherton); in Ohio—five groups; in Indiana—two groups; in Illinois—three groups; in Michigan—six groups; and from Ontario—two small groups, the Moravian Delaware and Anderdon Hurons. 

5For the Indiana Potawatomi episode, see J. A. Clifton, The Prairie People: Continuity and Change in Potawatomi Indian Culture (Lawrence: Regents Press of Kansas, 1977), 270—72, 296—99; and, R. A. Trennert, Jr., “A Trader’s Role in the Potawatomi Removal from Indiana: The Case of George W. Ewing,” The Old Northwest, 4(1978), 3—24. The best overview of the Winnebago case is N. 0. Lurie, “Winnebago,” in, Trigger, Handbook Northeast, 690-707. For the Sauk and Fox case see A. F. C. Wallace “Prelude to Disaster,” which is lodged amidst Ellen M. Whitney's near comprehensive collection of documents bearing on that episode, Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, 35 (1970). 

6Recent historical studies of Indian removal exhibit a striking bias as regards commercial “motives” in Indian removal. In his overview of Old Northwest removal, for in stance, F. P. Prucha devotes a full section to this topic without once mentioning the involvement and interests of Protestant and Catholic missionaries in implementation of the policy in the region. See his, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians (University of Nebraska Press, 1984), Vol. 1, 266—69. Compare, G. A. Schultz, An Indian Canaan: Isaac McCoy and the Vision of an Indian State (University of Oklahoma Press, 1972), 123—40. 

7L. Taliaferro Journals (Minnesota Historical Society), Vol. 10, May 22, 1836; R. W. Meyer, History of the Santee Sioux (University of Nebraska Press, 1967), 56—59; H. Hickerson, Sioux Indians I: Mdewakanton Band of Sioux Indians (New York: Garland, 1974), 159—205. 

8Kinsmen of Another Kind: Dakota-White Relations in the Upper Mississippi Valley, 1 650—1862 (University of Nebraska Press, 1984), esp. x—xiii and 150—57.

9For background to the Moravian migration, see F. C. Hamil, The Valley of the Lower Thames, 1640-1850 (University of Toronto Press, 1951), 108—111; C. A. Weslager, Theelaware Indians: A History (Rutgers University Press, 1972); and, I. Goddard, “Delaware,” in Trigger, Handbook. . . Northeast, 213-239. For the background on the Ander don Hurons, see, C. E. Heidenreich, “Huron,” and E. Tooker, “Wyandot,” in Trigger, Handbook . . . Northeast, 369-88 and 398—406; J. A. Clifton, “Hurons of the West: Migrations and Adaptations of the Ontario Iroquoians, 1650—1704,” Research Report, Canadian Ethnology Service, National Museum of Man (Ottawa, 1977); and his, “The Re-emergent Wyandot: A Study in Ethno genesis on the Detroit River Borderland, 1747,” in, K. G. Pryke and L. L. Kulisek, eds., The Western District (University of Windsor, 1983); C. G. Klopfenstein, “The Removal of the Wyandots from Ohio,” Ohio Historical Quarterly, 66 (1957), 119—136; Robert E. Smith, Jr., “The Clash of Leader ship at the Grand Reserve: The Wyandot Sub Agency and the Methodist Mission, 1820- 1824,” Ohio History, 89 (1980), 181—205; and, E. J. Lajeunesse, C.S.B., The Windsor Border Region (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1960).

10M. J. Mochon, “Stockbridge-Munsee Cultural Adaptations: ‘Assimilated Indians.’ “ Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 112(1968), 182—219.

11Rev. J. Vogler to H. R. Schoolcraft, April 10; Schoolcraft to Commissioner of Indian Affairs [COlA] C. A. Harris, April 17 & 28; COlA to Schoolcraft, April 29; School- craft to Vogler, May 8, 1837, in, Records of the Michigan Superintendency, National Ar chives Microfilm Series Ml [NAM M’], Rolls 37 & 42. Schoolcraft to COlA August 14, and to Gov. H. Dodge, 14 August, 1837, NAM Ml, Roll 37. Supt. W. Clark to COlA, November 17, 1837, Office of Indian Affairs, Letters Received, NAMM234, Roll 756; Harris to Captain E. A. Hitchcock, December 2, 1837, Office of Indian Affairs, Letters Sent, NAM M21, RoIl 23. R. Cummins to Pilcher, February 4, 1840, NAMM234, Roll 301. J. Johnston to COlA T. H. Crawford, March 14, 1842, NAMM234, Roll 602; Wyandots of Canada to Sir Charles Bagot, October 10, 1842, Record Group 10:, Indian Affairs, Red Series—Eastern Canada (Ottawa, Public Ar chives of Canada) [PACRGJO], Vol. 125. For the joint emigration, See Klopfenstein, “Removal of the Wyandots.” Petition of the Hurons to Col. William Jarvis, May 3, 1842, PAC RG1O, Vol. 125. Wyandot Muster Roll—1843,Entry 301, Record Group 75, Records of  the Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Archives and Records Service [RG75]. 

12J. A. Clifton, A Place of Refuge For All Time: Migration of the American Potawatomi Into Upper Canada (Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1975); R. F. Bauman, “The Migration of the Ottawa Indians from the Maumee Valley to Walpole Island,” North west Ohio Quarterly, 21(1949), 86—112. 

13Gov. Ramsey’s report, November 3, 1851, in Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (Washington, D.C., 1851) [ARCOIA], 421—22. For sketches of the use of force and of those communities which avoided removal, see the relevant chapters in Trigger, Handbook. . . Northeast: see also, Mochon, “Stockbridge-Munsee”; Clifton, Prairie People and The Pokagons, 1683-1983: Catholic Potawatomi of the St. Joseph River Valley (University Press of America, 1984), Wallace, Prelude to Disaster; and, P. K. Ourada, The Menominee Indians: A History (University of Oklahoma Press, 1979), 106—123.

14H. R. Schoolcraft, Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers (Philadelphia, 1851), 628—29; A. Jackson’s Message of March 4, 1837, in, J. D. Richardson, comp., A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789—1897 (Washington, D.C., 1896—1899), Vol. 2, 541; M. Van Buren’s Message of December 5, 1837, in, F. L. Israel, ed., The State of the Union Messages of the Presidents (New York, 1966), Vol. 1, 490; ARCOJA (1838), 410—411. 

15Prucha’s The Great Father, 241-42, provides a useful recent overview of selected features of Old Northwest Removal. The author views the whole process through the eyes of American elites and authorities in Washington, often reflecting but not penetrating their idealized aims and ideological pronouncements, while displaying little under standing of the native peoples and their responses to the policy. 

16W. Miles,"  ‘Enamoured with Colonization’: Isaac McCoy’s Plan of Indian Reform,” The Kansas Historical Quarterly, 38 (1972), 268—286, has done so. 

17Treaty with the Sioux, etc., August 19, 1825, 7 U.S. Statutes 272; Treaty with the Chippewa, August 5, 1826, 7 U.S. Statutes 290; and, Treaty with the Chippewa, etc., August 11, 1827, 7 U.S. Statutes 303. Also, Charles J. Kappler, comp. Indian Treaties: 1778—1 883 (reprinted, New York, 1972), 250—55, 268—71; 281—83. 

18Kappler, Indian Treaties, 269.

19Flat Mouth’s speech, in Taliaferro to Governor Henry Dodge, September 29, 1836. NAMM234, Roll 757. He was referring to the 1836 treaty with the Ottawa and Chippewa of Michigan. For accounts of Lake Superior Chippewa impoverishment in this period, see, G. Franchere to W. Brewster, 14 March 1835, Records of the American Fur Company, Steere Collection, Baylis Public Library, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, Box 1, Folder 3; Bisheke [Chief Buffalo] to H. R. Schoolcraft, September 8, 1835, NAM Ml, Roll 72; and, E. A. Brush to Lewis Cass, NAMM234, Roll 664.  

20Secretary of War Lewis Cass to President Van Buren, March 7, 1836, NAM M2I, Roll 18. 

21The correspondence, reports, petitions, and memorials concerning their efforts are extensive. For samples, see, S. C. Stambaugh to H. R. Schoolcraft, June 8, 1836, NAM Ml, Roll 72; COlA C. A. Harris to Governor Dodge, October 15, 1836, NAM M2J, Roll 20; and, Bailey to COlA E. Herring, June 18, 1836, NAMM234, Roll 422. 

22COlA Harris to A. Bailey, July 15, 1836, NAM M21, Roll 19; Hitchcock to Harris, March 30, 1837, NAM M234, Roll 751; Taliaferro to Dodge, 30 January, 24 July, and August 2, 1837, NAMM234, Roll 758; and, Dodge to Harris, August 15, 1837, NAM M234, Roll 758. Major Hitchcock, a regular Army officer, was disbursing agent at the St. Louis Indian Superintendency. The antagonism of some Chippewa to certain traders was real. In December, 1836 a party of Chippewa murdered William Aitken, Jr., the son of a prominent trader by an Indian woman, one of the rare acts of violence by these Chippewa against Americans. 

23Identified as Royce Area 242, Fig. 1. 

24COlA Harris to Dodge and General William Smith, May 13, 1837, NAM M21, Roll 21. General Smith did not arrive to participate in the treaty negotiations. Earlier, when Secretary of War Cass issued orders for removal treaties with the Winnebago, Menomini, and Emigrant New York Indians, he explicitly excluded the interior Wisconsin Chippewa. See, Cass to Dodge, July 7, 1836, ‘NAM M21, Roll 19. 

25The first sub-agent at La Pointe, Daniel P. Bushnell, was appointed by Governor Dodge in November, 1836, but was not con firmed until the following April. Edward E.Hill, The Office of Indian Affairs, 1824-1880: Historical Sketches (New York, 1974), 88.

26Edward D. Neill, “Occurrences in and Around Fort Snelling, from 1819 to 1840,” Minnesota Historical Society Collections, Vol. 2, 131; William T. Boutwell, “Journel,” July 5, 1837, in, Boutwell Papers. Col. A.B. 781, Minnesota Historical Society; and, “D. P. Bushell’s Report,” in, ARCOIA, (1838), 467—68.

271837 Treaty Journal, encl, in Van Antwerp to COlA, September 30, 1837, Documents Relating to the Negotiation of Ratified and Unratified Treaties, with Various Indian Tribes, 1801-1869, NAM T494, Roll 3; Warren, “Statement of Treaties.” Also see, Hill, The Office of Indian Affairs, 90—91, 160—61.

28Both came from villages outside the area being ceded. Magegabow was a war chief from Leech Lake, Bugonageshig an extraordinarily ambitious upstart village leader from Gull Lake. See, James G. E. Smith, Leader ship Among the Southwestern Ojibwa, Publications in Ethnology No. 7, National Museum of Man (Ottawa, 1973).

29See Dodge’s marginal notes on p. 21 of the treaty journal to this effect.

30This they subsequently did. See, Warren, “Statement of Treaties”; and, Obishkaw zaugee’s Speech, September 12, 1869, NAM M234, Roll 394. 

31Boutwell to Rev. David Green, August 17, 1837, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Papers (Minnesota Historical Society—Transcripts of Originals in Houghton Library, Harvard University) [ABCFMPMNHS], Box 2. 

32Rev. Frederick Ayer to President Martin Van Buren, September 30, 1837; Gov. Dodge to COlA, February 17, 1838, NAM M234, Roll 387. 

33J. Schoolcraft to H. R. Schoolcraft, November 21 and December 1, 1837, NAM Ml, Roll 45. 

34B. F. Baker to COlA, January 9, 1838, NAM M234, Roll 758; Dodge to COlA, July 6, 1838, in, C. F. Carter and J. P. Bloom, eds., Territorial Papers of the United States (Washington, D.C., 1934-1969) [TPUS], Vol.17, 1029—31; and, COlA to Dodge, July 26, 1838, NAM M21, Roll 24; A. Brunson to R. Stuart, July 20, 1843,NAM MI, Roll 55. 

35A. W. Schorger, “The White-Tailed Deer in Early Wisconsin,” Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, 42 (1953), 197—247; and, H. Hicker son, The Southwestern Chippewa: An Ethno historical Study, American Anthropological Association Memoir No. 92 (1962), 12—27. Gary C. Anderson in, Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986), p. 57, points out that by 1851 Medwakanton Dakota were again hunting deer in the St. Croix valley, then “more abundant than in previous seasons,” near areas cut-over by timber men. 

36D. P. Bushnell to Dodge, February 12, 1839, TPUS 27:1196; and, H. Dodge to Secretary of War, April 25, 1841, NAMM234, Roll 759. 

37Treaty with the Chippewa, October 4, 1842, 7 U. S. Statutes 591; Kappler, Indian Treaties, 542—45. The lands involved are identified as Royce Area 261, Fig. 1. 

38For a discussion of “half-breeds,” “mixed-bloods,” and other cultural marginals, see, James A. Clifton, Being and Becoming Indian: Biographic Studies of North American Frontiers (Chicago, The Dorsey Press, in press). 

39Kappler, Indian Treaties, 542—45. Official Documentation for this treaty is scanty, since Stuart kept no journal and delivered no written report on his deliberations. However, the Rev. L. H. Wheeler independently pre pared a journal, including a particularly full eye-witness description of events, which he sent to his superior, David Greene, May 3, 1843, ABCFMP-MNHS, Box 3. Moreover, because of the controversy aroused, there is an unusual amount of supplementary reporting on these negotiations, for example in Warren, “Statement of Treaties,” and from other Chippewa and American participants, such as A. Brunson to J. D. Doty, January 6, 1843, NAM Ml, Roll 54. 

40P. Holland, The Philosophie, Cornmonlie Called, The Morals of Plutarchus (London, 1603), 1237. 

41COlA Crawford to Stuart, August 1, 1842, NAMM1, Roll 53. 

42A. Brunson, A Western Pioneer (Cincinnati, 1872), Vol. 2, 165—69; Stuart to COlA, October 24 and November 19, 1842, NAM Ml, Roll 39; ARCOJA 1842, 401-402; A. Brunson to Gov. J. D. Doty, January 8, 2024 (encl., letter from Chief Buffalo to L. Warren, October 29, 2024 & speech of White Crow, December 18, 2023), NAM M234, Roll 388; and the Rev. Wheeler's account of the negotiations, cited above. 

43Stuart, “Substance of Talk to the Chippewa,” September 29, 1842 (a communication reconstructed later and enclosed in Stuart to COlA, March 29, 2024), NAM M234, Roll 389. Cyrus Mendenhall to COlA, January 6, 1851; Rev. L. H. Wheeler, “Journal of 1842 Treaty,” in, Wheeler to Rev. David Greene, May 3, 1843, ABCFMP-MNHS, Box 3; Stuart to Rev. Greene, December 8, 1842; Chief Mar tin to Rev. A. Brunson, encl, in Brunson to COlA, to Gov. Doty, and to Secy. War Spencer, January 8, 1843, NAMM234, Roll 388; Warren, “Statement of Treaties” (section on 1842 treaty).

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