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MICHIGAN CHAPTER 13 Progress of the Colony Under the Improved
Conditions
They were to be restrained from lawlessness and warlike interference with each other and with the whites, but they were to be left pretty much in their former condition. To this end the country about the great lakes was not open to settlement or to purchase without special leave. Nevertheless, as we have seen, Bradstreet made treaties with many of the tribes whereby they parted with their titles to lands in a number of instances. These conveyances, however, were held to be invalid unless they were approved by the governor and the superintendent of Indian affairs. The power of granting lands in Detroit was declared to be solely in the king and no purchase could be made of the Indians but with that permission and authority, or with that of the special representative of the crown. The Pottawatomie village and cemetery, then below, now within the limits of Detroit, were conveyed by that tribe to Robert Navarre and Isidore Cheney on the condition that the grantees should live there and care for the cemetery. This sale was approved by Lieutenant-Governor Hamilton, Major Bassett and others. * The Hudson's Bay Company which claimed jurisdiction hereabout was on the watch to prevent interference with the interests of the
?Campbell. Political History of Michigan. The original of the Navarre deed is now the property of the Detroit Public Library.
savages. This naturally follows from the fact that its own interests were identical with these. If the fur-bearing animals were left to propagate freely and the Indians were left to secure their hides and sell the same to the company to its great profit, there appeared to it, of course, every reason for the indefinite continuance of the situation. But the sturdy American pioneer had no patience with this logic.
MICHIGAN
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