History of Lapeer County, Michigan : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers.

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HISTORY OF LAPEER COUNTY.

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boundary line between Michigan and Ohio, and the right to a valuble strip of land, to which both laid claim; the former under the
provisions of the ordinance of 1787, and the latter under a provision in their State constitution. Each party sent a military force
to the frontier, the one to sustain, and the other to extend jurisdiction over the territory in dispute. A high state of excited public
feeling existed, but the most serious inconvenience suffered by either
party was the apprehension and temporary imprisonment of a few
persons. By an act of Congress, passed June 15, 1836, the Constitution and State government of Michigan were accepted, and
upon condition of accepting the boundary claimed by Ohio, she was
admitted into the Union. These terms were exceedingly unsatisfactory to the people of Michigan, who were impatiently.awaiting
recognition as a State government, having elected their State officers
in the month of October of the previous year. A convention held
at Ann Arbor, on the 14th and 15th of. December, 1836, resolved to
accept the conditio n imposed in the proposition of Congress, at
the same time protesting against the right of Congress, under the
constitution, to require this preliminary assent as a condition of
admission into the Union.
By act of Congress, approved January 26, 1837, Michigan
was declared "to be one of the United States, and anlmitted into the
Union on an equal footing with the original States, in all respects
whatever."
By an act of the legislature, approved March 16, 1847, the
seat of government was removed from Detroit to Lansing.
TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS.
Before passing from these general events it will be well to notice the three important treaties with the Indians, by means of
which settlement was made possible.
The first treaty of importance, which was made for the extinguislllllhent of the Indian title to the soil of what now comprises the
state of Michigan, was the one entered into by William Hull, then
governor of Michigan as a territory, and ex-officio superintendent of
Indian affairs, with the natives at Detroit, in 1807, when a tract of
land in the south-eastern part of the State was ceded by them to our
government. Detroit and a belt of land adjacent to it, lying along
the river and lake, six miles in width, were not affected by this
grant, we having before that succeeded to the possessory rights of
Great Britain to the District of Detroit, so called, which she had held
for a series of years co-extensive with the claims of her predecessor,
France, and which, by the treaty of Greenville, made by General
Wayne on behalf of our government in 1795, had been reassured to
and made perfect in us. With that exception, the title to the southeasterly part of our State was obtained from the natives by the treaty
of 1807.
The northerly line of this grant included only small portions of
what are now the counties of Lapeer and Genesee, and was a little
north of their southern boundaries, thus leaving Saginaw River and
its principal affluents, the Flint, the Cass, etc., entirely unaffected
by the provision of that treaty. This portion of the State remained
in Indian possession, with the rights of the natives intact and unaffected until the treaty of Saginaw of 1819.
In that treaty the Saginaw region was particularly interested,
for the cessions of lands then made by the natives, with the reservations therein provided for, include the rich and flourishing valleys
of the Saginaw and its tributaries.

General Cass was commissioned to act as the agent of the general government in securing to it this important addition to our
territory. He appeared upon the Saginaw, upon the site of what
is now Saginaw City, September 10, 1819, accompanied by a staff
of interpreters and assistant.

The conference lasted ten or twelve days and witnessed many
stormy scenes, but the terms of treaty were, at length, calmly discussed and agreed to. The harmonious adjustment of their differences was reached chiefly through the instrumentality of Stephen
V. R. Riley, an Indian trader who married a squaw, and Jacob
Smith another trader. In the treaty agreed to, the Indians ceded
to the United States all but 40,000 acres of their territory, reserved
for the benefit of the tribe in common.
In 1837 another treaty was made with the Indians, in which
they ceded to the United States the 40,000 acres belonging to the
tribe in common. According to the terms of this treaty the government was to cause the land to be surveyed and put into market at
$5.00 per acre and held at that price for a certain length of time,
and then what remained unsold should be reduced to a minimum
of $2.50 per acre and the Indians to receive the avails of the sales
after deducting the cost of survey and sale and a large amount advanced to them with which to pay their debts.
The chiefs who visited Washington to perfect this sale were,
O-ge-mLa-ke-ga-to, Ton-dog-a-ne, Sha-e-be-no-se, Wos-so, Mose-gaskink, Ma-sha-way and Nau-qua-chic-a-me. The white men were
Henry O. Connor, Capt. Joseph F. Marsac and Charles Rodd, a
half-breed, as interpreters, and Gardner D. and Benjamin O. Williams.
The result of this visit was that Mr. Schoolcraft was ordered to
call a meeting at Flint, for the purpose of concluding the treaty,
which was done.
The treaty of 1819 was a very important one, as this portion of
the State was then in Indian possession, and the object of the government was the cession by the natives of the vast tract in which
was included the rich and flourishing valleys of the Saginaw and its
tributaries. The chief speaker for the Indians was O-ge-ma-ke-gato, and he opposed the proposition of Gen. -Cass with indignation.
Said he:
"You do not know our wishes. Our people wonder what has
brought you so far from your homes. Your young men have invited us to come and light the council fire; we are here to smoke
the pipe of peace, but not to sell our lands. Our American father
wants them. Our English father treats us better. He has never
asked for them. You flock to our shores; our waters grow warm;
our lands melt like a cake of ice; our possessions grow smaller and
smaller. The warm wave of the white man rolls in upon us and
melts us away. Our women reproach us; our children want homes.
Shall we sell from under them the spot where they spread their
blankets? We have not called you here; we smoke with you the
pipe of peace."
The treaty was finally made and the Indians returned to their
lodges.
The Chippewa nation was then comprised of ten or twelve
bands, each governed by a hereditary chieftain. These chiefs
formed a council which governed the nation and elected the ruling
chief annually. O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to was not a chief by blood, but
his remarkable intellectual qualities as well as his undaunted courage, made him a power among his people, and at the early age of
twenty-five he was a leading spirit. Gen. Cass was surprised at
the remarkable brain-power-of the man, and remarked that he was
"the smartest and most eloquent Indian he had ever met." His

administration of the affairs of his people was-so satisfactory that for
over thirty consecutive years he was annually re-elected to the position of hlead chief. He never ruled a single band until in the later
years of his life, when he became chief of the Tittabawassee band,
to which he belonged.
His power of oratory made him a great favorite with his people,
and the fame of O-ge-ma-ke-ga-to spread far and wide. Subse-:: I 0:
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