us RURAL MIC 11 1(1 AN 



granted by the Chippewas to the United States by 

 a treaty contracted at La Pointe, ^Yisconsin, in 

 1842 and a supplementary treaty in 1854, while the 

 Menoniinees had already yielded their claim to the 

 country east of the lower Menominee Eiver in 183().^ 



Thus, with the addition of sundry minor grants, 

 did the United States possess itself of much of the 

 soil of Michigan with whatever it might contain. 

 Those who suppose that the Indians were commonly 

 robbed of their lands should read these treaties 

 Avhich are the foundation of all land titles in the 

 State. 



Previous to the settlement of these lands, it was 

 necessary to survey and subdivide them. Unlike the 

 states of the East and South, Michigan happily was 

 comprehended within the excellent scheme of land 

 survey provided by the old Congress of the Con- 

 federation in 1785, and thus was spared the hap- 

 hazard and costly practice obtaining in the older 

 commonwealths. The Congressional plan, first ap- 

 plied to the famous "Seven Eanges" of Ohio, con- 

 templated the bisecting of the future state east and 

 west by a "base line," the division of the land into 

 equilateral townships of thirty-six sections of one 

 square mile each in area, the designation of the town- 

 ships by their position north or south of the base 

 line and their range east or west of the meridian 



'Eoyce: "Indian Land Cessions in tlie United States," 

 (Bur. 'of Amer. Ethnology, 18th Annual Kept.) ; Washing- 

 ton, 1896-97. 



