22 THE MENOMINI INDIANS iethann.U 



General Albeit G. Ellis, 1 iu his "Account of the advent of the New 

 York Indians into Wisconsin," says: 



In 1810, the Holland Laud Company sold all their pre-emptive right to the Indian 

 reservations to David A. Ogden, for lifty cents per acre. Mr. Ogdeu and his asso- 

 ciates in this purchase were afterward known as the "Ogden Company." Up to 

 1817, they had succeeded in extinguishing but a part of the Indian title; the large 

 reservations of Cattaraugus, Alleghany, Tounewauda, Tuscarora, and Buffalo, still 

 remaining. The anxiety of the company to effect the extinguishment of the Indian 

 title to these reservations, and the removal of the Indians, had exhibited itself in 

 various forms, and sundry unsuccessful efforts, for years. In this year, a new plan 

 was conceived, and its accomplishment set on foot, to wit: — to secure in the West, 

 by consent and aid of the General Government, an extensive grant of lauds from the 

 western tribes, as a home or hunting ground for the several tribes holding the 

 reservations in Western New York. This plan -was pondered with great care, 

 thoroughly matured, decided and acted upon by the Ogden company, with equal 

 skill and vigor. One of the first steps, was to secure the consent and co-operation of 

 the War Department, which was obtained. 



A band of Indians, known as the Stockbridges — more properly the Mo-he-kun- 

 nucks — had moved from Massachusetts at an early day, having obtained a cession of 

 some five by seven miles square from the Oneidas, on the southern border of their reser- 

 vation, in the county of Oneida, N. V. The Mo-he-kun-nucks sold off a small tract 

 on their southern border, to a few associated Indians from the remnants of various 

 bands of New England tribes, now known as the Brothertowna. These two tribes 

 had resided for several years on their new possessions near the Oneidas. 



About the year 1817, a young leader, chief of the Mo-he-kun-nucks, Solomon U. 

 Hendrick, a man of much more than ordinary energy and talent among the Indians, 

 succeeded to the head of affairs. He regarded the languishing condition of his 

 people as a reproach to the former name and glory. of the old Mo-he-kun-nucks, and 

 used all his eloquence to persuade the young men to arouse, and make at least one 

 effort to retrieve their name and character. He argued, with equal force and sound 

 reason, that their then paralyzed condition was owing to their confinement to a 

 small space of ground, and being surrounded aud preyed upon, by the white inhab- 

 itants, from whose pernicious contact and example, especially with regard to drunk- 

 enness, they were sustaining a loss of all moral aud physical energy aud action; 

 and urged, that their only hope for the future lay in emigration westward, ami the 

 securing of such an extent of country, as would enable them to form new settlements, 

 at such distance from the whites, as to escape from grog-shops and whiskey. 



Their resident missionary, Rev. John Sergeant, fell in with and seconded the views 

 of the young chief. In a short timo the whole tribe was indoctrinated with the new 

 scheme, and anxious for its consummation. The American Board of Missions gave 

 their influence and aid ; through whose suggestions the late Dr. Jedediah [sic] Morse, 

 of New Haven, became deeply interested in the plan. This gentleman counselled the 

 Indians and their friends to take immediate measures to have a visit paid, by some 

 discreet agents, to the Western tribes, to select a proper point for location, and open 

 negotiations for a cession id' lands. Dr. Morse himself was thought to be the very 

 person to undertake such a mission. Application being made to the Secretary of 

 War, Dr. Morse was commissioned to make a general tour among the North Western 

 Indians, with a view to forming a. better understanding between those tribes and 

 the Government. Under this appointment, this gentleman spent the summer of 

 1820 in visiting several of the North-Western tribes. Whatever other purposes may 

 have occupied the attention of this commissioner, it is certain that of securing a 

 western retreat for the Stockbridges and other New York Indian tribes was a leading 

 one: though the writer lias no evidence of any collusion in the matter, at this date, 

 with the Ogden Land Company. Green Bay was a point specially visited by Dr. 



1 Hep. and Coll. Hist. Soc. of "Wisconsin, vol. ii, Madison, 185t>, pp. 415-417. 



