Facet Browse
Title | Creator | Date Made Visible | None
No-tin-no to D. D. Mitchell
No-tin-no
No-tin-no, a leader of the Ottawa nation, wrote this letter to the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, D. D. Mitchell, concerning a shipment of farming implements that the government had promised to the tribe. The Ottawa were frustrated by the delay, and No-tin-no stated that if he did not hear back from Mitchell, he would write to the President of the United States himself. The letter was dictated to Jotham Meeker, a missionary and printer at the Ottawa Baptist Mission near present-day Ottawa, Kansas.
previewReverend Charles Bluejacket
Charles Bluejacket, a mixed-blood Shawnee Indian, came to Kansas (then called Indian Territory) in 1832. He was a well-respected man among the Shawnee Indians, and he became an ordained Methodist minister in 1859. He moved to new Indian territory in Oklahoma in 1871. This photograph, which depicts Bluejacket in his late thirties or forties, was most likely taken in the 1860s or 1870s.
previewJohnston Lykins journal entry, undated
Lykins, Johnston, 1800?-1876
In this undated journal entry, Johnston Lykins, a Baptist missionary to the Shawnee of northeast Kansas, gives his perspective on how the U.S. government and Indian agents have treated emigrant Indians in Kansas. He also discusses how many of these Indian tribes are suffering from starvation.
previewJohnston Lykins
Johnston Lykins was a well-known missionary, physician, and translator who worked with the Pottawatomi and Shawnee Indians who had moved to Indian Territory (present-day Kansas) after the passage of the Indian Removal Act in 1830. In 1831, after serving as a missionary to the Indian tribes in Indiana and Michigan, Lykins and his first wife Delilah (McCoy) Lykins moved to Indian Territory. Lykins and his father-in-law, Isaac McCoy, established the Shawnee Indian Baptist Mission in present-day Johnson County, Kansas. In addition to his responsibilities as a physician, Lykins worked as a translator and developed a system of Indian orthography that allowed the Shawnee people to read and write in their native language. He edited and published the first paper printed in Shawnee, called the Sinwiowe Kesibwi (Shawnee Sun). In the spring of 1843, Lykins founded a mission among the Pottawatomi near what is today Topeka. Due, perhaps, to inter-denominational conflicts and other problems with the mission, Lykins left the Pottawatomi mission and moved to Kansas City, Missouri. He served as the second mayor of Kansas City in 1854, and he remained in residence there until his death in 1876.
previewThomas L. McKenney to James Barbour
McKenney, Thomas Loraine, 1785-1859
Thomas McKenney, the current Superintendent of Indian Affairs, wrote this letter to James Barbour, Secretary of War, explaining the perceived success of the government?s attempts to ?civilize? Indian tribes. As part of this process of ?civilization,? the government believed that it was necessary for native groups to become assimilated into white American society by adopting white agricultural methods, Christianity, and other elements of European American culture. Thomas McKenney was a passionate proponent of this system, and so he included a transcription of a letter written by a Cherokee man named David Brown who describes how his people had adopted Christianity, a republican form of government, and other elements of white culture. According to McKenney, as well as many other white Americans during this time period, the ?civilization? process had a positive effect on Native Americans. McKenney also advocated Indian removal, writing that ?should they retain their present location [within the United States] they will, in the course of a few years, be lost as a race.?
previewUnited States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri. Volume 7, Correspondence
United States. Office of Indian Affairs. Central Superintendency
Correspondence sent from the Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency in St. Louis, Missouri. The Superintendents of Indian Affairs during this period were Joshua Pilcher, David D. Mitchell, and Thomas H. Harvey. Their correspondence with Indian agents and sub-agencies concerned the disbursement of allotments and annuities, the settling of expenses and treaty stipulations, and the nominations of blacksmiths, interpreters, and farmers for several tribes. A searchable, full-text (PDF) transcription is available under "Additional Information" below.
previewUnited States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri. Volume 9, Correspondence
United States. Office of Indian Affairs. Central Superintendency
This volume contains correspondence sent by the Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency in St. Louis, Missouri from 1847-1855. The correspondence was sent by the Superintendents of Indian Affairs to the Commissioners of Indian Affairs. During this period the superintendents included Thomas H. Harvey, David D. Mitchell, and Alfred Cumming; the commissioners included William Medill, Orlando Brown, Luke Lea, and George Washington Manypenny. Topics of discussion focused on the appropriation of federal funds for treaties, the hiring and firing of Indian agents, and the transportation and storage of goods and supplies. Partial funding for the digitization of these records was provided by the National Park Service. A searchable, full-text (PDF) transcription is available under "Additional Information" below.
previewUnited States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri. Volume 20, Accounts
United States. Office of Indian Affairs. Central Superintendency
This volume contains records of current accounts from September 21,1822-September 1,1825 for Indian agents, including Lawrence Taliaferro, Banjamin O'Fallon, Richard Graham, James Latham, Nicholas Bolvin, Thomas Forsyth and Pierre Menard. The expenditures of William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) are also included as Clark served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Central Superintendency in St. Louis, Missouri. Records were kept for the salaries of the agents and interpreters, transportation costs, gifts, rations, and paid annuities. Partial funding for the digitization of these records was provided by the National Park Service.
previewUnited States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri. Volume 24, Accounts
United States. Office of Indian Affairs. Central Superintendency
This volume contains the accounts of Thomas Forsyth (1822-1830), Felix St. Vrain (1830-1831), Joshua Pilcher (1832), and M.S. Davenport (1832-1834), Indian agents for the Sac and Fox at the Rock Island, Illinois sub-agency. During this time, the accounts were recorded by William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) who was the Superintendent of Indian Affairs at the Central Superintendency in St. Louis, Missouri. Some of the expenditures included salaries for interpreters, blacksmiths, and agents, transportation costs, blankets, tobacco, whiskey, flour, and salt. Partial funding for the digitization of these records was provided by the National Park Service.
previewUnited States Office of Indian Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis, Missouri. Volume 25, Accounts
United States. Office of Indian Affairs. Central Superintendency
This volume contains records of current accounts for Osage Indian agents, including Alexander McNair, John F. Hamtramck and Paul L. Chouteau. William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark Expedition) served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Central Superintendency in St. Louis, Missouri. Records were kept for the salaries of the agents, interpreters, and blacksmiths, transportation costs, presents, provisions, and paid annuities. Partial funding for the digitization of these records was provided by the National Park Service.
preview