Benjamin Parke to William Harris Crawford, 27 March 1816 (Abstract)
Benjamin Parke to William Harris Crawford, 27 March 1816 (Abstract)
§ Benjamin Parke to William Harris Crawford. 27 March 1816, Vincennes. Conveys information about discontent among the Indians over the surveying of lands ceded to the United States. Assembled some of the chiefs of the Wea and Vermillion Kickapoo nations at Fort Harrison to inform them that the surveys would be completed and that the surveyors must be protected. Requested that the Indians provide protection, to which they at first agreed then sought a delay. Resents “this prevaricating, impudent conduct” and suspects that the “young men” of the Vermillion Kickapoo, some of whose friends were “with the Prophet,” are inclined to war. Reports that the “Wabash Indians are constantly complaining of the non-arrival of their Annuities” and that hostile parties of the Potawatomi may be advancing toward the region. “I thought it would be imprudent to permit the Wea and Vermillion Kickapoos to separate under an idea that there was no prospect of an amicable settlement of the controversy” and that a delay would be advisable. Reminded the Indians that the United States had a right to the land in question and that it will never be returned to them. Stated that he would refer the matter “to a Grand Council of the Miamis, Kickapoos and Delawares, to be assembled at Fort Harrison on the 23d May” and suggests that a special commissioner be appointed to attend the council.1
RC (DNA: RG 107, LRRS, P-201:9). 9 pp. Appended to the letter is a one-page note in JM’s hand: “The difficulties & dangers incident to an Indian war are argts. agst. the sale & occupancy here suggested; and in favour of the previous conciliatory meeting in contemplation.”
1. In commissioning Benjamin Parke and Fidelio C. Sharpe to negotiate with the Wea and Kickapoo Indians, Crawford stated, on 3 May 1816 (printed in , Territorial Papers, Indiana, 418–20), that “the President has determined to make an effort to remove [difficulties over surveying] by Amicable discussions and explanations, & by giving them an equivalent for the claims and pretensions which they still set up to some part of the lands in question.” For this purpose JM authorized the distribution of $5,000 over and above the usual annuity payments. It would not be expedient, however, to question the validity of any treaties ceding land to the United States and that the Indians should understand that the measure “proceeded alone from the Justice, moderation, and friendly disposition of the President toward them.” The Indians should also understand that JM’s liberality “has not proceeded from any apprehension of their arms” and that “nothing could be more fatal to the Indian race, than an impression of this nature.” Alternately, Parke and Sharpe were also to make clear that while JM wished to gratify the wish of settlers in the Indiana Territory to extinguish Indian title, he was “unwilling to press the Indian tribes for cessions of land which they are not disposed to seed. Their dispositions on this point may be sounded, but importunity is to be avoided” (, Territorial Papers, Indiana, 8:418–20).