1822 Report on Indian Affairs Collections – Page 2 of 2

Education Families

I give this name to those bodies which have been commonly denominated Mission Families, because it seems better to describe their character, and may less offend the opposers of Missions. By an Education Family I mean, an association of individual families, formed of one or more men regularly qualified to preach the Gospel, to be at the head of such a family; of schoolmasters and mistresses; of farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, cabinetmakers, millwrights, and other mechanics-of women capable of teaching the use of the needle, the spinning wheel, the loom, and all kinds of domestic manufactures, cookery, &c. common in civilized … Read more

Drummond’s Island

The name of Drummond’s Island is familiar as the place of annual resort of thousands of Indians, to receive presents from the British Government. The following description of this Island was verbally given to me, while at Mackinaw, by a very respectable inhabitant of that island. Drummond’s Island lies on the Strait which connects Lake Huron with Lake Superior, thirty-six miles north-east, in a direct course, forty-five by water, from Mackinaw. It is forty-five miles in circumference, four or five miles from the Canada shore, on the north or British side of the channel of the strait, which forms a … Read more

Civilization of the Indians

When we look back in the pages of history four or five hundred years, and see what then was the state of our own Ancestors, and whence sprang the most polished and scientific nations of Europe, we should scarcely have supposed, that any man, acquainted with history, or making any pretensions to candor, would be found among the objectors to attempts to civilize our Indians, and thus to save them from perishing. Yet, painful as is the fact, objections have been made to the present course of procedure with Indians, and from men too, whose standing and office in society … Read more

1822 Congressional Report on Indian Affairs

Jedediah Morse’s 1822 report to Congress of his travels through Indian Territory on behalf of the office of Secretary of War – Jedediah was tasked by a resolution of Congress to report of his travels amongst the tribes throughout the United States. Acknowledging that he did not visit all of the tribes, and that he relied on known facts and materials for the body of text he provided, Jedediah presented a large collection of tabular data and descriptive content. This data was then used by Congress to shape it’s policies as it dealt with expansion further west, and specifically tribal relations.