UNITED STATES INDIAN SERVICE. 



ADMINISTRATION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, COLONIAL AND NATIONAL, 1776- 



1886. 



(Each colony during the colonial period made and executed its own Indian policy.) 



Eeference can be found to all Government publications relating to 

 Indians and Indian affairs from 1774 to March 4, 1881, in the volume 

 entitled "A Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of 

 the United States, September 5, 1774, to March 4, 1881. Ben : Perley 

 Poore. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1885." The titles of 

 all such publications can be found in the index, pages 1302 to 1304. 

 The reference is to many thousand documents and is a most valuable 

 compilation. 



When the Confederation was formed, the Indians became a charge 

 of and under the control of the Congress. 



June 30, 1775, three departments of Indian affairs were created by 

 the Congress of the Confederation, viz, a northern, middle, and southern 

 department, with a board of commissioners for each. The first to em- 

 brace all the Six Nations and all the Indians northward of those ; the 

 second to include the Cherokees and all the Indians south of them; 

 and the third, to include the Indian nations that lie between the other 

 two departments. This action was to preserve peace in the Eevolution- 

 ary war, with no reference to the amelioration of their condition. The 

 commissioners were supplied with money for presents and empowered 

 to make treaties. 



Much legislation of advice to the commissioners followed, the most 

 important of which were the acts of January 27, 1776, and February 

 15, 1776. The first was an appropriation of money, £40,000, for the 

 purchase of Indian goods to prevent their suffering for the want of the 

 necessaries of life, and regulating and granting trade licenses; and the 

 other providing for schoolmasters and ministers being located amongst 

 the Indians. 



In March, 1778, Congress first authorized the employment of Indians 

 in the Army, "if General Washington thinks it prudent and proper." 

 After the treaty of peace in May, 1783, Congress ordered the Secretary 

 of War to notify the Indian nations on the frontier of the fact, and that 

 the United States was disposed to enter into friendly treaty with the 

 different tribes. The first formal treaty, however, between the United 

 States and an Indian tribe was made with the Delawares in 1778. 



In 1783 commissioners were appointed to make treaties with all the 

 Indian nations, due convention to be held with all tribes or representa- 

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