82d CONGRESS, E lONF ENTIAL.

] 0
1st SeEsion.N1

ARTICLES OF- A TREATY

MADE AND CONCLUDED AT PEMBINA, IN THE TERRITORY OF MINNE-
80TA, ON THE 20TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1851, BETWEEN THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA, BY ALEXANDER RAMSEY, GOVERNOR AND EX
OFFICIO SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS IN SAID TERRITORY,
COMMISSIONER DULY APPOINTED FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND THE CHIP-
PEWAYS OF PEMBINA AND RED LAKE, OWNING THE COUNTRY ON THE
RED RIVER OF THE NORTH.

FEBRUARY 17, 1852.

R-ead the first time, reth'rred to the Committee on Indian Affairs, and ordeied fo be printed
-in con tidonce for the use of the Senate.

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Pembina, in the Territory of

Minnesota, on the twentieth day of September, eighteen hundred imd
fifty-one (1851,) between the United states of America, by Alexander
Ramsey, governor and ex officio Superintendent of Indian afaire in
said Territory, commissioner duly appointed for that purpose, and the
Chippeuays of Pembina and Red Lake, owning the country on the Red
River of the North.
ARTICLE 1.
The peace and friendship existing between the United States and the
Chippeways of Pembina and Red Lake shall be perpetual.
ARTICLE IH.
The said Chippeways of Pembina and Red Lake do hereby cede and
relinquish all their lands and all their right, title and claim to any lands
whatever lying within the following described boundaries, to wit: Begin-
ning on the east bank of the Red River of the north where it is intersected
by the international boundary line; thence cast along said line thirty
miles; thence southwarolly in a direct line to strike the Buffalo river "half
way from its source to its mouth;" thence along said river to its mouth;
thence northwardly by the west bank of Red river, to the mouth of Goose
river; up said river to its most westwardly source, following the south
branch thereof; thence northwardly in a direct line to strike a point on
the international boundary line five miles west of the Grand Cot; and
thence east to the place of beginning.
ARTICLE 111.
In full consideration of said cession and relinquishment, the United
States agree to pay to said Indians the sums following, to wit:
1st. To the chiefs of said bands for the purpose of making provision for
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their relatives of mixed blood, and to enable them to arrange their affairs
(as soon as practicable after the appropriation of the same by Congress,)
the sum of thirty thousand dollars.
2d. For twenty years, the sum of ten thousand dollars per annum:
Provided, that so much of this sum as the President of the United States
shall direct, not exceeding per year two thousand dollars, may be reserved
and applied to agricultural, educational, and such other beneficial purposes
calculated to promote the prosperity and happiness of said Indians as he
may prescribe.

ARTICLE IV.

It is herchy agreed that the lanIs claimed by either of the bands, par-
ties to this treaty, shall be held in common, and that said lands as well as
the benefits derived from all treaty stipulations shall be enjoyed in common
with other bands of Chippeways, -henever the United States shall secure
from such bands a reciprocal arrangement.

ARTICLE V.

The laws f the United States prohibiting the introduction and sale of
spirituous liquors in the Indian country shall be in full force and effect
throughout the territory hereby ceded, until otherwise directed by Con-
gress or the President of the United States.

ARTICLE VI.
Rules and regulations to protect the rights of persons and property among
the Indians parties to this treaty, and adapted to their conditionand wants,
may be prescribed and enforced in such manner as the President or the
Congress of the United States from time to time shall direed
In witness whereof, the said Alexander Ramsey, commissioner on the
part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen and braves of the Chip-
peways of Pembina and Red lake, have hereunto set their hands, at Pemi-
bina, in the Territory of Minnesota, this twentieth day of September, anno'
Domini one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.

ALEX. RAMSEY,
O'mmisiner.

Chief: Kah-wah-shkee-nee-kay, (The Crooked or Brokeq Arm,)

his x mark.

Headawn.
Gwee-wee-zhalinish-eesh, (Little Bad Boy,) his x mark.
Zhah-bo-kah-mee-geesik-kun, (Passing through the
Earth,) his x mark.

Chief: Zhow-ozh-ko-go-nay-bee, ("Yellow Feather,. or Little Chief of

Pembina,) his x mark.
 3 [ 10 ]
Headmen.
Ah-skoag, his x mark.
Zhow-ozh-ko-go-nay-bee, (" Yellow Feather," or Split
Bottom,) his x mark.
Ah-bway-kwah-ung, (He the Returning Thunder,) his x mark.

Chief: Mo-so-mo, (Moose Dung,) his x mark.

eC.
Headmen.
Sah-bee-toan, his x mark.
Ee-tah-wah-nah-kwahd, (The clouds on each side,) his x mark.

Chief: Ay-sce-nee-wahib, (" Sitting Stone," or Little Rock,) his x mark.

Headmen.
Sah-wah-bee-kwah-ung, (Yellow Sounding Thunler,) his x mark.

Chief: Kwee-wee-ay, (" Little Boy," or Little Thunder,) his x mark.

Headnen.
Nah-gah-nee-gwah-nay-bee, (The forward setting feather,) his x mark.

Jean Battiste Wilkie, his x mark.

Presidentof Council of Ialf Breeds.

In presence of-

Thomas Foster, ecretary.

James Tanner, Interpreter.
Joseph Nolen, his x mark.
Franois lieinville, his x mark.
Charles Hool, his x mark.
Robert Montour, his x mark.
Antoine Ausure, his x mark.
Baptiste Vallee, his x mark.
Joseph Reichardt, his x mark.
Joseph Laverdure, his x mark.
Pierre Bontinean, his x mark.
Baptiste La Roche, his x mark.
Counil a- d principal men of the Half Breeds.

Jas. L. Corley, 2d Lieut. 6th in- Norman W. Kittson.

fantry, U. A. Army. D. Geo. Morrison.
Charles Cavilew, Collector and Jos. Rolette.
Inspetlor, e. S. F. Brown.
Tyler. Jas. R. Lord.
J. Bidwell. Richard W. Lee.
S. G. Wright.
[10] 4
ST. PAUL, November 7, 1851.
StR: On the successful conclusion of negotiations with the Sioux of the
St. Peter's and Mississippi rivers in August last, the undersigned immedi-
ately made preparation to further obey y'aur instructions of 16th May,
1851, directing him to visit and treat with the Indians at Pembina, on the
Red river of the north, for the relinquishment of their lands in the valley
of that river.
The negotiations with the Sioux having occupied a longer time than
was anticipated, the season was full late in so northern a latitude to enter
upon a journey of hundreds of miles through an uninhabited wilderness.
But anxious that another year should not elapse without something being
done to facilitate the acquisition of permanent homes by the large and
growing population of those distant regions, I determined, at all events, to
proceed with the expedition; and accordingly, the arrangements for the
journey being hurried as much as possible, on the 18th of August, accom-
panied by Dr. Thomas Foster, secretary to the commission, and Hugh
Tyler, esq., special agent and acting commissary, I left St. Paul for the
rendezvous at Sauk rapids, eighty miles above, where we arrived on the
evening of the 20th. The military escort of dragoons, under the command
of Lieutenant Corley, having reached that point the same day, on the 21st
following our whole party crossed the Mississippi river just above the
rapids, and proceeded westward along the beautiful valley of Sank river.
Fording this stream near where it turns suddenly towards the north, we
continued westward through a country principally fertile prairie, flat and
rolling, with timber interspersed, and well watered by clear lakes or rapid
streams; and on the 28th of August reached the first tributary of Red
river, the Bois des Sioux, which, like the St. Peter's, has its source in
Lake Traverse. This was the first stream we met too deep to ford, and
we crossed it by rafting. Here our course changed, bending strongly
northwest, until we reached the Shian river, the largest and most import-
ant western tributary of the Red river within the borders pf the United
States. This we were fortunate in being able to cross by a bridge made
by the Red rivr trading caravan last spring. Our course of travel from
this river was nearly due north, and at length, on the evening of Septem-
ber 11, we encamped on the south side of Pembina river at its mouth,
where the waters of the famed Red river of the north first met our view.
The next day was occupied in ferrying over the Pembina river to the village
and trading post of the same name opposite, where we found the Indiana
and half-breeds claiming the country assembled in large nanbers, await-
ing our arrival, a special messenger having conveyed intelligence to the
former some time previously of the purpose of government to meet them
there in council by its commissioner, to offer them terms for the relin-
quishment of a portion of their lands.
Having appointed Joseph Nolin and the Rev. James Tanner, the latter
a half-breed Chippewa, interpreters, it was ascertained that some of the
principal men were not yet arrived; and to give time for them to be pres-
ent, at the request of the Indians, the opening of council was delayed until
Monday following, the 15th. a
Meanwhile the half-breeds claimed to be made parties to the negotiations,
and to participate in the council, alleging that it was they who possessed the
country really, and who had long defended and maintained it against the
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encroachments of enemies. But on the policy of government and the
impracticability of its treating with its own quasi citizens being explained
to them, they were satisfied that their deribuds could not be complied with;
and were made further contented by the assurance that, to any just and
reasonable arrangement or treaty stipulation the Indians might choose to
make for their benefit, government would interpose no objection.
On Monday, therefore, the council was opened, and continued from day
to day throughout the week. On Saturday, the 20th, a treaty was signed,
by the terms of which a country embracing some five million acres of iand
in the valley of the Red river of the north was acquired for the very rea-
sonable sum of $23(,000 nominally; but considering the manner of its
payment through a period of twenty years, without interest, it may be
fairly estimated to cost but about $100,000, or at the rate of two cents
per at(:e. Low as this is for lands fertile as those of Illinois, and as caps-
bs f settlement as any in this Territory, it is not improbable the Indians
might have been induced, under the pressure of their necessities, to part
with them for a much less sum, had the representative of the government
thought it consistent with its dignity, or honorable to its humanity, to
insist upon making the best bargain with poor, ignorant savages it was
possible to obtain. I conceived, on the contrary, that, while restrained
by my instructions, as well as inclination, from paying an extravagant
price for lands which, however fertile, are remote from the ordinary paths
of emigration, yet that, as the guardian of these people-our "children," as
they term themselves-we owed them forbearance, kindness, charity; and
that, so far from taking advantage of their ignorance of the relative value
of land and money, we should act in a liberal spirit in adjusting the price to
be paid for their country, and give them enough to subsist now and enable
them to improve hereafter. It was in this spirit I acted; and finding that
the whole number of Indians at Pembina and Red lake did not exceed
eight hundred souls, and aware, from experience in Indian payments and
annuities, that $10 per head was as little as would do them any substantial
good, enabling each to procure a blanket apiece to shelter firm the sever-
ities of a northern winter, if nothing more, I did not deem it right to insist
upon reducing their annuity below that mark; at the same time, however,
it was deemed expedient to set off a portion of their annuity to the amount
of $2,000 for agricultural and educational purposes. As their hunting
ranges are circumscribed by our purchasing their land and filling it with
settlers, it is plainly a necessity, as well as our beneficent policy, to gradu-
illy school the race into different modes of thought- and action, aiding
them to substitute the improvements of civilization and the certainties of
an agricultural life for the rude discomforts of a savage, and the preca-
riousness of a hunter condition.
It will be observed that no part of the annuity is to be paid in goods,
experience, in ltter years, having taught us that cash annuities are, in
the end, more beneficial to the Indian; and in this instance the cost of
transporting goods to so distant a point would have imposed upon gov-
ernment, annually, an additional burden perhaps equal to the sum of the
original purchase.
To satisfy the half-breeds, the actual occupiers of the country, the In-
dians desired $30,000 might he paid in hand, to be mainly turned over by
them to their relatives of mixed blood; and, as the claim of the half-breeds
 10 ] 6
for remuneration in this case appeared to have unusual force, I did not
thifik proper -to object to the arrangement, deeming it justly and fairly
their due. Besides fixing the price and mode of payment, I deemed it
my duty, in adjusting the other details of this treaty with Chippewas,
to keep in view the same leading feature of government policy which dic-
tated many of the stipulations of the Sioux treaties at Mendota and Tra-
verse des Sioux, to wit: to induce their early adoption of the habits of
civilized life as their only possible guarantee against tter extinction at a
not very remote period, as well as the only effectual tneans of lessening the
cares of government in regard to them. The first step towards bringing
about this desirable result was, unquestionably, to put a final stop to their
old hereditary war with the Sioux; but it was apparent that, so long as
their territories joined, these tribes would have constant pretext for hostil-
ities in alleged or actual encroachments upon each other's lands. It was
considered, therefore, important, in determining the boundaries of the new
purchase, that the lands thereby acquired on the east side of the Red river
should connect, on the south, with the country recently ceded by the Sioux.
This, with much difficulty and opposition from the Indians, was acoom-
plished, though nearly at the risk of effecting no treaty at all, they alleging
the injuries they had received from the Sioux, and contending that they
ought iot to be " fenced in," as they termed it, from the opportunity of
retaliation. I regard this as one of the most desirable features of the
treaty.
To facilitate further the grand leading object before mentioned, namely,
their civilization. it has been a favorite scheme of government to collect
the scattered bands of Chippewas, both east and west of the Mississiopi,
and concentrate them in the country about the heads of that river. Here
they could be permanently settled for all time to come, their lands being
entirely unsuited and undesirable for white population; here government
could deal with them as onie people, easily restrain them froyn war, remote
as they would be from all opportunity of engaging in it, and, merging all
annuities received by isolated bands into a common fund, and thed lands
claimed by each band into a common property of the nation, the work of
civilization and improvement could then proceed with some reasonable hope
of success. In furtherance of this scheme the article was inserted which
provides for the union of the bands parties to this treaty with other bands
of Chippewas, and for holding all lands and annuities in comnnea, when-
ever the United States shall secure from the latter a reciprocal arrange-
meot. Not more than three hundred Chippewas roam beyond the western
boundary of the present purchase; and it is thought it would not be diffli-
oult to induce them to unite with the rest of the 'tribe whenever it is con-
cantrated in the manner proposed.
Convinced that the articles of the recent treaties with the Sioux, which
interdict the introduction of liquor into the ceded country, and which
extend to the industrious and peaceable Indian the protection of law
against the idle and vicious, are among the most judicious that have ever
formed part of an Indian treaty, I secured their insertion in the present
one, and respectfulfy refer to the report of Colonel L. Iea and myself, iii
Aegast last, for the reasons which sustain their propriety.
In conolusion, it will not be out of place to say a few words respecting
the quality of the land -purchased, and the reasons why the treaty should
 7 [10]
receive the sanction of the President and Senate. In 1849 a party of dra-
goons, commanded by Major Wood, and accompanied by Captain Pope, of
the topgraphical engineers, visited Pembina, traversing the valley of the
Red river of the north. in the heart of which lies the country purchased by
this treaty. Captain Pope, in his report, (page 6,) thus speaks:
" The valley of the Red river of the north is about three hundred miles
in length, from north to south, and one hundred and fifty in breadth, from
east'to west, and is bounded on the west by the dividing ridge between its
waters and those of the Missouri, called the ' Coteau des Prairies,' and on
the east by a line frobt the head of Red river, through the most northern
part of Red lake. In this whole extent it presents an almost unbroken
level of rich prairie, intersected at right-angles by all the heavy-timbered
tributaries of the Red river, from cast to west, the Red river itself running
due north through its centre, and heavily timbered on both banks with
elm, oak, maple, ash, &c. This valley, from its vast extent, perfect uni-
formity of surface, richness of soil, and supply of wood and water, is among
the finest wheat countries in the world." * * * " The principal trib-
utaries from the ' Coteau des Prairies' are the Wild Rice, Shayenne, Elm,
Goose, Turtle, Park, and Pembina rivers. Almost all these streams are
navigable in the spring and summer fifty or sixty miles, for flat-boats, and
probably, in high water, for vessels of much larger draught, and are well
timbered with. elm, oak, ash, &c. With their tributaries, and the smaller
streams which flow into Red river, they intersect the valley at distances of
ten or twelve miles apart; and, although on the west side of the river the
greater portion of the country is level prairie, I am satisfied a sufficient
quantity of timber can be found for all the uses of cultivation." * * *
" The east side of the valley, I have been informed by the half-breeds who
have traversed portions of it, is equally fertile with the west side, and is
much better timuered."
My own observation of the country, so far as it was passed over on our
route to and from Pembina, and all the information we could obtain from
those acquainted with the valley, fully sustains this description. No finer
country exists anywhere in the Union, and few capable of subsisting a
denser population. All the cereal grains and vegetables are produced in
abundance; and for grazing purposes it is nearly unrivalled in its advan-
tages. But though the quality of the country is thus favorable as could
be wished, its remoteness from the ordinary track of emigration would long,
have postponed its purchase, had not a powerful reason for its acquisition
existed in the necessity for giving the large and rapidly-increasing half-
breed population of that distant region the opportunity they crave of ob-
taining a fee-simple title to the lands they live upon, and of abandoning
the hunter life entirely, and becoming tillers of the soil.
Ever since the organization of this Territory, and my residence in it,
these people, b7 frequent petitions, and by special committees despatched
hundreds of miles to represent their condition, have earnestly urged upon
government to give them the opportunity of making homes for themselves
on their own lands, to grant them the protection of our laws, and furnish
them with the facilities for the administration of justice amonx them.
Made by our statutes citizens, represented in the territorial legislature,
they complain that they have been uncared for by government, treated
with less attention than even the Indians, standing in the false attitude of
tenants at will, as trespassers fipon the soil they often defended with
their blood from savage foes. It is, I earnestly urge, the duty of govern-
ment to do something for this interesting and peculiar people; and, as a
beginning, to throw the country open to their enterprise and industry by
confirming the present treaty. Their peculiar situation demands even
further favor from government, situated as they are on a remote fi-ontier,
which they may be said to guard, and 'avluable, in a military point of
view, should a certain exigency ever oc,.ar. Themselves and the region
they live in present a case similar to that of Oregon Territory, in which the
free gift of a quarter section of land to each person would 'De a judicious
policy; and I respectfully recommend its adoption to the consideration of
the President and Congress.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
ALEX. PAMSEY.
I1on. A. II. II. STAwrT,
Secrewry of the nt-erior.