25-2Indian AffairsReport : Petition of Choctaw Indians. [335] Treaty of 27 Sept. 1830 at Dancing Rabbit Creek.1838-10

House of Representatives Report No. 719, 25th Congress, 2nd Session (1838)

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25th CoNGREss, 2d Session. [ Rep. No. 719. ] JOSEPH DUKES. [To accompany bill H. R. No. 688.] MARCH 23, 1838. Ho. OF RF;ps. Mr•. P.HU(ER, fr·om the Committee on Indian Affairs, made the following R-El10R'r: TILe Committee on Indian .B.ffuirs, to which 'Were · rejen·ed petitions nJ t!te chiefs, headmen. and priucipal "tvarriors of the Choctaw nation, in behalf of Joseph ]Jukes, ha"Ve had the same unde1· consideration, and respeclj'r~lly submit the following report: This claim was submitted t~J Congress in 1832, and r·eferred to the Com-mittee of Claims, who made the following t'epm·t, in which your commit. tre concul': "It appears, f1·om the J'epresentation of the petitionel'S, an•l other satis-factory evidence adduced befor·.e the committee. that Joseph Dukes, a native Choctaw, was a resident and citizen of the Choctaw nation, in the State of Mississippi, at the time of the tt·eaty entered into and concluded be-tween the United States and the min goes, chiefs, captains, and warriors of .the said nation, at Dancing Rabbit creek, on the twenty-seventh day of Septe'muer·, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thir·ty; ~1as a small family ; and, in the language of the treaty, was~ at that time, a "Choctaw head of a family." Tlaat he wa!'l, while an infant~ left a poor and destitute orphan, aud was taken into the missionary family at Mahev,·, where he and his wife (who is also a Choctaw) have receh'ed good English educatior.1s, and \'Vhere they resided at the time of the treaty. Dukes is about twenty-one years of age; both he and his wife have sus .. tainefl good moral characters, and are calculated to make useful member·s of society. He has, for the last three years, devoted his time and atten-tion to the improvement of the condition of his red brethren, by acting in the capacity of an interpreter and tr·anslator of the Choctaw language for the mission, which has pr·evented him fr·om accumulating any propet'ty for the support of his family. By the provisions of the four·teenth at'ticle of the treaty before refened to, each Choctaw head of a family is entitled to :a reser·vation of six hundr·ed and forty acres of land; each unmarried child of the family over· ten years of age, to one-half that quantity ; and each child under ten years of age, to one hundred and sixty acres; on cmHlition of their intending to become citizens, and residing on the same for· five yPar·s : which reset·vation was, by the stipulations of the treaty, to include theil· then present impr<n·ement, or a portion of it. In consequence of Dukes's residing in the niissionary family, he could not be considere~ ~s Thomas Allen, print. f Rep. No. 719.] .having any impr·ovements of his own, and therefot·e did not come within the pr·ovisions of the fourteenth article of the treaty. For the same r·easons, l1e did not come within the pur·view and meaning of the nineteenth articlet nor· was his case provided for· by any gener·al oa· special JH'Ovisions con-tained in the treaty. The petitioners, therefore, pray Congr·ess to grant unto the said Joseph Dukes a section, or six hundr·ed and for·ty acres of land, to be located on any of tile unappr·opdated and uncultivated lands within the limits of that section of countr·y to "hi eli the Indian title wa~ extinguished by the aforesaid tl'eaty. 'rhe committee are aware that the reser·vations ah·eady granted are so large and numerocts as to be pr·eju-dicial to the interests of the United States, as well as to the State of Mis-sissippi and her citizens, but cannot pass unuoticed the high claims of so met·itorious an individual as Dukes. If the committee understand the object and policy of the Gover·nment in gr·anting r·eser·vations to the Indians, the gr·ants l\'ere not considered in payment, or· pat·t payment, for· relinquishing theil· title to the lands because the payment was other·wise provided for, but the reservations under the fourteenth al'ticlc of the tt·eaty, wet·e for· the pur·pose of securing to those who were uesir·ous to r·emain and become citizens of the States, a home 011 the land which they iuhel'iteu fr·om their ancestors, who had occupied the same feom time immemorial. The object of the Government was not to drive them fot·cibly fr·om the place of their nativity, and compel them to seek an asylum in the \Vester·n wilds, but only to provide, in that distant land, for· those who chose voluntal'ily to go, and also to guaranty a fr·echold intet·est in the soil to those who chose to remain and become amenable to our laws. The question, the1·efore, before the committee, is not Vt'hether we shall give to this humble individual a tf•act of land to induce him to remain among us, hut whether· the Get'ler·al Gov-ernment will deprive him of .a ·home, and drive him fr·om the land of his fathers, met·ely because he has devoted his time and attention to the ame-lior·ation of the condition of his countrymen, instead of cultivating the soil fur· his own benefit, and accumulating property, when other· less mea·itorious imlividuals are permitted to take reser·ves, remain among us, and enjoy all the rights, immunities, and pr·ivileges of citizens. The committee do not hesitate to recommend the gr·anting of the prayer of the petitiouers, and therefoJ'e report a '·bill fu1· the relief of Joseph Dukes.'' 

Joseph Dukes

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Joseph Dukes

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