Treaty of the 3rd November, it is apprehended, was to enable the United States, in its election, to erect a fort on the west bank of the Mississippi, where the Indian title has not yet been extinguished, and where a more eligible site, it is supposed, could be selected. If further evidence were necessary on this head, it might be found perhaps in the provisions of the Fourth Article of the Treaty of Greenville. The settlement of Prairie des Chiens lies "east of the Mississippi; "it is "west" from Detroit. It was certainly "in the pos session of the French people," who, or whose children, still inhabit it. It is believed to be comprehended within both the words and the spirit of the provisions of the third and fourth Articles of that Treaty. After all, it is not deemed important (except so far as it may seem to strengthen the equity of the claimants) to establish the proposition of an early extinguishment of the Indian title. There can be no doubt but that the Indian title is now extinguished. It would be hardly admissible to suppose that the American Government have been themselves guilty of an act of oppressive usurpation and violence; and yet it cannot otherwise be if the Indian title be not extinguished for they have erected forts and established garrisons there. It would equally violate every principle of decorum for the Commissioners to suppose that they had no power, and that the people of Prairie des Chiens had no right in relation to this matter, when the law of May 11, 1820, under which they act, expressly extends to that people all the benefits and all the rights which, in virtue of former Acts of Congress, the people residing within the Detroit land district heretofore possessed in relation to their land titles; and also imperatively requires of the Commissioners that they give effect to that Act. The Act of March 3rd, 1807, vested in those for whose benefit it was passed, a right to be confirmed in their claims upon the exhibition of proof of continued possession from July 1st, 1796, to March 3rd, 1807, inclusive. The extension to the people of Green Bay and Prairie des Chiens, of the provisions of that Act, it is presumed, conferred upon them, upon the exhibition of like proof, a like right. Proof of this tenor has been adduced by John Jacob Astor, Ramsay Crooks, and Robert Stewart, co-partners under the firm of "The American Fur Company," (formerly styled "The South-West Company,") as well as by others whose claims they have confirmed, and the Commissioners have not felt themselves justified in adopting any course of reasoning which would frustrate the object of that law from which they derive all the power they have possessed. A majority of the Commissioners have felt obliged, nevertheless, to withhold from many of the claims the sanction of their confirmation; not because those claims were less equitable but because the proof adduced of occupancy, possession and improvement did not reach far enough back; they considered that the possession, etc., contemplated by the law was an individual and exclusive possession, from July, 1796, to March, 1807. The fact in relation to the claims not confirmed seems to have been that the lands so claimed had been immemorially occupied by the villagers in common, or as a common, and that they had not been individually and exclusively appropriated until after July, 1796. As no dissent on the part of the villagers was at any time expressed, or rather as none was proved or attempted to be proved, one of the Commissioners was willing to deduce from circumstances appearing a presumption of assent, equivalent to a formal conveyance. Upon such hypothesis the present claimants, combining their own exclusive possession with the antecedent occupancy of the villagers in common, "under whom" they might be considered to claim, would be respectively entitled under the law to confirmations; but a majority of the Commissioners, believing that such construction was at least obnoxious to much doubt, felt obliged reluctantly to reject it, and, without further difference of opinion, they all resolved to present with these cases to the revising power their respectful and most earnest petition in behalf of the unsuccessful claimants, that their claims may be confirmed. Although some of these claimants have been in the exclusive occupancy of their possessions but for a very space of time, yet their claims are considered not the less meritorious, for those who have thus remained in possession for the shortest period, would seem to have been removed from their former and older possessions, because those possessions were deemed necessary for the convenience of the troops by whose permission they have located themselves on the tracts now claimed. short Few cases have occured at Prairie des Chiens, in which different claimants have applied for the same tract. In regard to other districts of country, much perplexity has been experienced in the selection among many, of that claimant in whose favour the title of right should be confirmed. The Commissioners have uniformly acted upon the principle that their power was intended to be exercised only as between the Government and claimants, and not as between several conflicting claimants. Doubts having been expressed, however, by members of the Supreme Court, as to the power of that tribunal to interfere after the emanation of patents, the Commissioners have become sensible that, without intending it, they might effect injustice by confirming the title in one whose claim, when exhibited before a court having chancery powers, might prove to be much less meritorious than the conflicting claim of some other person. It is most manifest, nevertheless, that a Board of Commissioners constituted as this Board is, are not competent to the undertaking of deciding, in the last resort, between contending individuals. Their proceedings are, of necessity, summary. They can. not administer suppletory oaths to the contending parties, and they have no control over their consciences. Their forms of proceeding are utterly unlike those which obtain in regularly constituted Courts: forms which, however slow and troublesome in their operations, are yet the sarest guarantee of justice. They therefore respectfully submit to the revising power, in order to obviate all doubt, the propriety of causing to be inserted in the patents which may issue, clauses saving by express words the rights of all individual claimants; such saving clauses will be in conformity with every decision which has been made. It only remains for the Commissioners further to remark that, in making abstracts from the testimony adduced, they have felt disposed, in order that their report may be less encumbered with useless matter, to exclude as well copies of all deeds of individuals in cases where they have been satisfied that bona fide transfers have been intended, as also irrelevant matter contained in depositions taken. All of which is respectfully submitted. Report of Michigan Commissioners concerning the Land Titles at Green Bay, in the County of Brown, Territory of Michigan. (1828)* Except that this French settlement is older than that of the Prairie des Chiens, the claims of its present inhabitants rest upon the same basis. As the same general observations will apply to each class of cases indiscriminately, the Commissioners beg leave to refer to the views they have submitted in their report relative to the Prairie des Chiens titles. Père Allowez, an enterprising Catholic missionary, became located at Green Bay, superintending a religious establishment there in 1668; and from that period the settlement at "La Baye" does not seem to have been discontinued while the French remained masters in Canada. The Chevalier de Tonti, having under his command a military force, was stationed there in the winter of 1680. The Lieutenant de Luth, a few years afterwards, held military occupancy of the post under the superintendency of the Commandant of Michilimackinac, of which it was a dependency. During the whole period alluded to, the Fox Indians (by Charlevoix called the Outgamies) seemed to have been deemed the proprietors of the country comprehending this settlement. (The Winnebagoes may rather be considered sojourners, their establishment there being of recent origin, than proprietors of the soil.) These (the Fox Indians) were attacked and signally defeated by the French troops under Captain Morand, with the aid of their allies, the Chippewas, in the winter of 1706, at a place called "La Butte des Morts." A Am. State Papers, Vol. V., pp. 283-4. great proportion of them were destroyed in this engagement, and many driven from the country. Upon this historical fact is probably founded the frequent assertion that the country of Green Bay accrued to the French by conquest. It has been asserted, however, with more positiveness, that the French Missionary, Père Roquette, very many years ago, obtained the possession of several leagues square of this country, comprehending the fort and the whole French settlement. This fact it would have been desirable more fully to establish; but having had access to but few books which treat of the early history of this country, no further light could be obtained on the point, except the above insulated assertion. But, however this fact may be, "La Baye" was continually occupied as a military post and a missionary establishment, until the Canadas were by treaty surrendered to the British. It seems a fact equally well established, that the latter continued for some time after their acquisition of the country, to keep a military force at Green Bay as a dependency of their more important one at Michilimackinac. The same evidence which tends to establish the fact of the purchase by Lieutenant-Governor Patrick Sinclair, by a treaty holden in 1781, at Michilimackinac, of the country at Prairie des Chiens, establishes also the further one of the purchase of the country of Green Bay. The antiquity of this settlement being, in the view of the Commissioners, sufficiently established, and they being also satisfied (especially when the subject is considered in connec tion with the references and the matter contained in their report, concerning the land titles of Prairie des Chiens), that the Indian title must be considered to have been extinguished, little further, on the part of the Commissioners, seems requisite to elucidate the governing principles of their discussions; a repetition here of the matter of their report of the Prairie des Chiens claims can hardly be esteemed necessary. It will be perceived that a few claims have been confirmed at a place called the Kakalin. Those claims are considered to have been comprehended within the settlement of Green Bay. (See Schoolcraft, 368). Those at the portage between the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers have not been considered as comprehended within the limits either of the Green Bay or Prairie des Chiens settlements. All of which is respectfully submitted, WM. WOODBRIDGE, Sec. of Michigan. HENRY B. BREVOORT, Reg. of the Land Office, Detroit. Rec. of the Land Office, Detroit. Commissioners. The following is part of the evidence appended to the Commissioners' Report : TERRITORY OF MICHIGAN, COUNTY OF CRAWFORD. SS: Be it remembered, that on this day personally appeared before me, Isaac Lee, a Justice of the Peace, in and for said County, and Agent duly appointed to ascertain the title, to lands at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien. Denis Courtois, of said County, who after being sworn according to law, deposeth and saith that he is fifty-two years old; that he has been a resident of Prairie du Chien, twenty-nine years; that according to the best information that he has been able to obtain from the tradition of the inhabitants at Prairie du Chien, the old French Fort was burned during the second year of the revolutionary war ; that he has no knowledge of any building or fence being erected on the same ground since that time, but that the land between the said fort and the hills or bluffs was occupied before and since the time that deponent arrived in this country; that Prairie du Chien has been formerly occupied much in the manner of an Indian village, the lands being alternately in *Am. State Papers, Vol. V., p. 284. EARLY POPULATION OF GREEN BAY AND PRAIRIE DES CHIENS. d improved in detached parts as each should please, and this by the common he villagers since deponent's arrival in the country; that he (deponent) has nly told by the old French inhabitants of the Prairie, that it was bought and the French many years ago; that he has never heard any Indian make claim to and subscribed before me, October 21, A.D. 1820. membered that on this day personally appeared before me, Isaac Lee, a Justice in and for said County, and Agent duly appointed to ascertain the title to lands y and Prairie du Chien-Michael Brisbois, of said County, who, after being ing to law, deposeth and saith that he (this deponent) is sixty years of age; that thirty-nine years in this country; that, from the best information he has been n, and from his own knowledge, Prairie du Chien, extending from the mouth of isconsin to the uppear part of the prairie, has been occupied and cultivated in rements in virtue of sundry claims of French people, both before and since deval in the country; that he (deponent) has never heard of any Indian claim to cept that, about eighteen years ago, the French people became somewhat aps to their title, which fact being made known to the Indians, one of the first e Fox nation, named Nanponis, ratified at Kahokia, near St. Louis, an ancient prairie to the French; that in the year seventeen hundred and eighty-one, . Clair bought the Island of Michilimackinac, Green Bay, and Prairie du this deponent saw the papers relating to said purchase executed and folded up Montreal or Quebec- Deponent was informed on his first arrival at this place, d its name from a large famlly called Les Chiens who formerly resided here, that ily, or the descendants, were here at the time of deponent's arrival, and were hiens. nd subscribed before me, October 21, A.D. 1820. membered that on this day personally appeared before me, Isaac Lee, a Justice in and for said County, and Agent duly appointed to ascertain the titles to lands 7 and Prairie du Chien-Pierre La Pointe, of said county, who, after being ling to law, depos eth and saith that he is seventy years of age; that he has been ars in this country, of which period he has resided thirty-eight years at Prairie hat in the year 1781, this deponent was at Michilimackinac, and acted in the nterpreter, at the Treaty held by Governor Sinclair with the Indians for the he Island of Michilimackinac, Green Bay, and Prairie du Chien; that during the India حسنملممعلم saw the goods delivered to the Indians, in payment for the said Prairie, by Bazil Gurd, Pierre Antya, and Augustus Ange, according to the stipulations of the treaty with Governor Sinclair above mentioned. Sworn and subscribed before me October 22rd, 1820. his PIERRE × LA POINTE. ISAAC LEE, Justice of the Peace for MICHILIMACKINAC, April 13th, 1703. [1763]. I have of this date given permission to Messrs. Longlade, père et fils, to live at the post of the La Baye, and do hereby order that no person may interrupt them in their voyage thither with their wives, children, servants, and baggage. GEO. ETHERINGTON, Commandant.* FRENCH SETTLEMENTS IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY, DETROIT DISTRICT, &c., AT THE TIME OF THE TREATY OF 1763. CAPTAIN PITMAN'S ACCOUNT.+ FORT CHARTRES, when it belonged to France, was the Seat of Government of the Illinois. The head-quarters of the English commanding-officer is now here, who, in fact, is the arbitrary governor of this country. The fort is an irregular quadrangle; the sides of the exterior polygon are 490 feet. It is built of stone, is plastered over, and is only designed as a defence against the Indians. The walls are two feet two inches thick, and are pierced with loop-holes at regular distances, and with two port-holes for cannon in the faces, and two in the flanks of each bastion. The ditch has never been finished. The entrance to the fort is through a very handsome rustic gate. Within the walls is a banquette raised three feet, for the men to stand on when they fire through the loop-holes. The buildings within the fort are—a ccmmandant's and a commissary's house, the magazine of stores, corps de garde, and two barracks; these occupy the square. Within the gorges of the fort are a powder maga zine, a bake house, and a prison, in the lower floor of which are four dungeons, and in the upper, two rooms, and an out-house belonging to the commandant. The commandant's house is thirty-two yards long, and ten broad, &c. The commissary's house (now occupied by officers) is built on the same line as this, and its proportion and the distribution of its apartments are the same. Opposite these are the store-house and the guard-house; they are each thirty yards long and eight broad. The former consists of two large store-rooms (under which is a large vaulted cellar, a large room, a bed-chamber, and a closet for the store-keeper; the latter, of a soldiers' and officers' guard-room, a chapel, a bed-chamber, a closet for the chaplain, and an artillery store room. The lines of barracks have never been finished; they at present consist of two rooms each for officers, and three rooms each for soldiers. They are each twenty feet square, and have betwixt them a small passage. There are five spacious lofts over each building, which reach from end to end; these are made use of to lodge regimental * Am. State Papers, Vol. V., p. 284. + From The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi," By Captain Philip Pitman 4to. London, 1770. |