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MICHIGAN THE OLD INDIAN DOCTOR
You will also get the annuities due and coming due to you. If you remain here you cannot expect one dollar to be paid to you, for it is particularly specified in that treaty that no annuities should be paid you east of the Mississippi. Your Great Father is determined to carry out his part of that treaty. It is therefore hoped you will be as willing on your part and to come to such conclusion that he will be satisfied, for he is your well wisher and knows that you would be much better off on your own lands than you are here.
After consultation among them, Muckmote, another chief, addressed Mr. Ketchum as follows: Father:
We have held our consultation with the three nations, and what you said to us yesterday does not please us at all. You told us that we must go west of the Mississippi. In our former councils we always said we would not go, and our minds have not changed yet. At the council at Niles the same question was put to us and we said we would not go. You also wished to know when we would be ready to go. We say again, we will not go. We
wish to die where our forefathers died. We have also been informed that the government would protect us. Yes, it will protect us while on our way west, but when we get there we are left to our own destruction, and there is not one of us that is so daring as to go. We are very poor, and one of our nation came back from there and told us that there was no bark to build lodges with, and our women and children would be obliged to live in tents, and it is well known that we are not able to build houses like your white children. Now, there are a great many whites that want us to stay here. They hunt with us and we divide the game, and when we hunt together and get tired we can go to the white men's houses and stay. We wish to stay among the whites, and we wish to be connected with them, and therefore we will not go.
Michigan Indians
Page 13
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