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JAMES WILLIAM DENVER, 1858 Indian Affairs Letter

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1858 Indian Affairs Letter Regarding “Extinguishing Title of Indian Lands West of Missouri and Iowa”


(JAMES WILLIAM DENVER, INDIAN AFFAIRS: CHARLES E. MIX ).
Acting Indian Affairs Commissioner Mix writes to his predecessor, James W. Denver - then Governor of the Kansas Territory - about appropriations for “Extinguishing Title of Indian Lands West of Missouri and Iowa”. Letter Signed, by Charles E. Mix as Acting Commissioner, 2 pages, being the first and third leaves of an integral sheet. 7.75” x 9.75”, Office of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior, (Washington D.C.), February 11, 1858; to James W. Denver, the ex-Commissioner of Indian Affairs then serving as Governor of the Kansas Territory, and the man for whom Denver, Colorado, is named. With the Franked Envelope, canceled “Free”; docketed on recto. The letter is Mint, the envelope just Fair.
In full: “The demands arising upon the appropriation for “Extinguishing title of Indian tribes to lands west of Missouri and Iowa,” being greater that the amount now to the credit thereof - and as at present advised the Secretary of the Interior is of an opinion that there will not be any occasion for some time to come to use any portion of this fund in Kansas; I have to request that under these circumstances you will deposit the amount in your hand, under this appropriation remitted to you on the 3rd December last, or as much thereof as may be unexpended to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States with the Depository the most convenient, and forward to this office certificates in duplicate of said deposit.”

After his brief sojourn as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Charles Mix would go on to help Native American tribes make legal claims against the federal government; here, however, he concerns himself with an aspect of a pact with the Indian tribes west of the states of Missouri and Iowa, which would allow United States citizens to settle upon Indian lands in Kansas. Native Americans, not surprisingly, fared badly in this new territory. Not a few zealous members of the free-state party seemed disposed to compensate themselves for their benevolent efforts on behalf of the Negro by crowding the Indian to the wall; while the slavery propagandists steadily maintained their consistency by persecuting the members of both races."

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