372 



RERAWACHIC RESERVATIONS 



[b. a. e. 



ish in the War of 1812 as interpreter to 

 the Sioux, with the rank of captain. He 

 was jjresent at Ft Meigs and Ft Stephen- 

 son, Ohio, and the good conduct of the 

 Indians there was due largely to his influ- 

 ence. He went to the great council at 

 Portage des Sioux (mouth of the Mis- 

 souri) in 1815 as interpreter, and resigned 

 his British commission and half pay to 

 attach himself thenceforth to the Ameri- 

 can interest. He organized the Columbia 

 Fur Co., with headquarters on L. Trav- 

 erse, Minn., and, calling to his assistance 

 many of the bold characters released 

 from other service by the consolidation 

 of the Hudson's Bay and N. W. Fur Cos., 

 was able to meet the American Fur Co. 

 on its own grounds with a competition 

 so strong that the latter was glad to make 

 terms and place the Columbia Co.'s men 

 in charge of its Upper Missouri outfit. 

 At the time of the consolidation Renville 

 established an independent business at 

 Lac qui Parle which he conducted until 

 his death. In 1834 he met Dr. T. S. 

 Williamson, the famous missionary, at 

 Prairie du Chien, out on his first recon- 

 noissance, and arranged with him to go to 

 Lac qui Parle and establish a mission the 

 next year. Williamson returned to Ohio 

 for his family, and tlie next spring met 

 Renville at Ft Snelling, whence he pro- 

 ceeded to Lac qui Parle, which became 

 the scene of most of his long service with 

 the Sioux. They were soon after joined 

 by Dr S. R. Riggs, and engaged, with 

 Renville's assistance, in the translation of 

 the Scriptures. Renville translated every 

 word of the Bible into tlie Dakota lan- 

 guage, and the missionaries faithfully re- 

 corded it; he also rendered them invalu- 

 able assistance in the conHtruction of the 

 grammar and dictionary of the Dakota 

 language. In 1841 Renville was chosen 

 and ordained a ruling elder, discharging 

 the duties of his office until his death at 

 Lac qui Parle in Mar. 184{j. Many de- 

 scendants still reside among the Sisseton 

 Sioux in South Dakota. (d. e. ) 



Kerawachic {re-ra^-iva 'giant wood- 

 pecker,' diic 'place of). A Tarahu- 

 mare rancheria not far from Norogachic, 

 Chihuahua, Mexico. — Lumholtz, inf'n, 

 1894. 



Reservations. A natural result of land 

 cessions by the Indians to the U. S. Gov- 

 ernment was the establishment of reser- 

 vations for the natives. This was neces- 

 sary not only in order to provide them 

 with homes and with land for cultivation, 

 but to avoid disputes in regard to boun- 

 daries and to bring them more easily 

 under control of the Government by 

 confining them to given limits. This 

 policy, which has been followed in Canada 

 under both French and Fnglish control, 

 and also to some extent by the colonies, 



was inaugurated by the United States in 

 1786. It may be attributed primarily to 

 the increase of the white population and 

 the consequent necessity of confining the 

 aboriginal population to narrower limits. 

 This involved a very important, even 

 radical, change in the habits and customs 

 of the Indians, and was the initiatory 

 step toward a reliance upon agricultural 

 pursuits for subsistence. Reservations 

 in early days, and to a limited extent 

 more recently, were formed chiefly as the 

 result of cessions of land; thus a tribe, in 

 ceding land that it held by original occu- 

 pancy, reserved from the cession a speci- 

 fied and definite part thereof, and such 

 part was held under the original right of 

 occupancy, but with the consent of the 

 Government, as it was generally expressly 

 stated in the treaty defining the bounds 

 that the part so reserved was "allotted 

 to " or "reserved for" the given Indians, 

 thus recognizing title in the Government. 

 However, as time passed, the method of 

 establishing reservations varied, as is ap- 

 parent from the following return, show- 

 ing the method of establishment of 

 the various reservations, given by the 

 Commissioner of Indian Affairs in his 

 Report for 1890: By Executive order, 56; 

 by Executive order under authority of 

 Congress, 6; by act of Congress, 28; by 

 treaty, with boundaries defined or en- 

 larged by Executive order, 15; by treaty 

 or agreement and act of Congress, 5; by 

 unratified treaty, 1; by treaty or agree- 

 ment, 51. 



The setting aside of reservations by 

 treaty was terminated by the act of 

 Mar. 3, 1871, which brought transactions 

 with the Indians under the immediate 

 control of Congress and substituted sim- 

 ple agreements for solemn treaties. By 

 sundry subsequent laws the matter has 

 been placed in control of the President. 

 Reservations established by Executive 

 order without an act of Congress were 

 not held to be permanent before the gen- 

 eral allotment act of Feb. 8, 1887, under 

 which the tenure has been materially 

 changed, and all reservations, whether 

 created by Executive order, by act of 

 Congress, or by treaty, are permanent. 

 Reservations established by Executive 

 order under authority of Congress are 

 those which have been authorized by acts 

 of Congress and their limits defined by 

 Executive order, or first established by 

 Executive order and subsequently con- 

 firmed by Congress. The Indian titles 

 which have been recognized by the Gov- 

 ernment apj)ear to have been (1) the 

 original right of occupancy, and (2) the 

 title to their reservations, which differs in 

 most cases from the original title in the 

 fact that it is derived from the United 

 States. There have been some titles, and 



