Page 300 - La Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique - Rapport 1961

296 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS.
ing a treaty, by consent of the Prcsident of the United States,
with the Alenornonee, Winnebago, and other tribes who owned
the conntry at and around Green Bay. They succeeded in
making a purchase of a largc tract of land, and partly paid for
it, but unfortunatc!ly they mere likely to fail in being ablc to
pay up thc last illstallment ; and, at this critical juncture, the
Brothertowns, who had also sent delegates to Green Ba,y to
obtain lands, were told by the Stockbridges, Munsees, kc.,
that if they would advance money to pay up the last installment,
they should become equal owners in the whole purchase. This
the Brothertowns did, and once more fondly began to anticipate
an end to all their difficulties and perplexities. This, I believe,
was in 1827. This treaty was ratified by thc President, and
Senate of tho United States ; but by the interference of cer-
tain prominent and @self-interestcd individuals, who resided at
Green Bay, and who, aided by the influence of certain Gov-
ernment officials, the several tribes concerned came very near
being. cheated out of their purchase. It would be tedious to
go into all the particulars of this nefarious and scandalous at-
tempt. Suffice it to say, that after the most strenuous exertions
of the tribes, from year to year, which was necessarily accom-
panied with the expenditure of large sums of money, during a
course of some ten or twelve years, they at last succeeded in
securing, each, a small reservation. By this final adjustment,
the Brothertowns obtained one township of land, eight miles
long by four miles wide, on tho east side of Winnebago Lake ;
and this in lieu of a tract thirty by tv-elve miles square, which
they in justice and equity ought to have had. As early as
1831, four families of the Brothertowns emigrated from the
State of New York, and took possessiorl of what they justly
considered their lands, and remained there until the final settle-
ment of their difficulties. The whole tribe then emigrated in a
very few years, and commenced clearing up farms, in the dense
forest, which covered their whole township. Having no laws
which they could enforce, for the protection of their lives and