From Thomas Jefferson to Homastubbee and Puckshunubbee, 17 December 1803
To Homastubbee and Puckshunubbee
Dec. 17. 1803.
Brothers of the Choctaw nation.
We have long heard of your nation, as a numerous, peaceable & friendly people; but this is the first visit we have had from it’s great men, at the seat of our government. I welcome you here; am glad to take you by the hand; & to assure you, for your nation, that we are their friends. born in the same land, we ought to live as brothers, doing to each other all the good we can, and not listening to wicked men who may endeavor to make us enemies. by living in peace, we can help & prosper one another; by waging war, we can kill and destroy many on both sides: but those who survive will not be the happier for that. then, brothers, let it forever be peace & good neighborhood between us. our seventeen states compose a great and growing nation. their children are as the leaves of the trees, which the winds are spreading over the forest. but we are just also. we take from no nation what belongs to it. our growing numbers make us always willing to buy lands from our red brethren, when they are willing to sell. but be assured we never mean to disturb them in their possessions. on the contrary, the lines established between us by mutual consent, shall be sacredly preserved: and we will protect your lands from all encroachment, by our own people or any others. we will give you a copy of the law, made by our great council, for punishing our people who may encroach on your lands, or injure you otherwise. carry it with you to your homes, and preserve it, as the shield, which we spread over you, to protect your land, your property & persons.
It is at the request which you sent me in September, signed by Puckshanubbee, & other chiefs, and which you now repeat, that I listen to your proposition to sell us lands. you say you owe a great debt to your merchants, that you have nothing to pay it with but lands, and you pray us to take lands, & pay your debt. the sum you have occasion for, brothers, is a very great one. we have never yet paid as much to any of our red brethren for the purchase of lands. you propose to us some on the Tombigby, & some on the Missisipi. those on the Missisipi suit us well. we wish to have establishments on that river, as resting places for our boats, to furnish them provisions, and to recieve our people who fall sick on the way to or from New Orleans, which is now ours. in that quarter therefore we are willing to purchase as much as you will spare. but as to the manner in which the line shall be run, we are not judges of it here, nor qualified to make any bargain. but we will appoint persons hereafter to treat with you on the spot, who knowing the country & quality of the lands, will be better able to agree with you on a line which will give us a just equivalent for the sum of money you want paid.
You have spoken, brothers, of the lands which your fathers formerly sold and marked off to the English, and which they ceded to us with the rest of the country they held here, & you say that, tho’ you do not know whether your fathers were paid for them, you have marked the line over again for us, & do not ask repaiment. it has always been the custom, brothers, when lands were bought of the red men, to pay for them immediately, and none of us have ever seen an example of such a debt remaining unpaid. it is to satisfy their immediate wants that the red men have usually sold lands; & in such a case, they would not let the debt be unpaid. the presumption from custom then is strong: as it is also from the great length of time since your fathers sold these lands. but we have moreover been informed, by persons now living, & who assisted the English in making the purchase, that the price was paid at the time. were it otherwise, as it was their contract, it would be their debt, not ours.
I rejoice, brothers, to hear you propose to become cultivators of the earth for the maintenance of your families. be assured you will support them better & with less labour, by raising stock & bread, and by spinning & weaving clothes, than by hunting. a little land cultivated, & a little labour, will procure more provisions than the most successful hunt: and a woman will clothe more by spinning & weaving, than a man by hunting. compared with you, we are but as of yesterday in this land. yet see how much more we have multiplied by industry, and the exercise of that reason which you possess in common with us. follow then our example, brethren, and we will aid you with great pleasure.
The clothes & other necessaries which we sent you the last year, were, as you supposed, a present from us. we never meant to ask land, or any other paiment for them: and the store which we sent on, was at your request also & to accomodate you with necessaries at a reasonable price. you wished of course to have it placed on your land; but the land would continue yours, not ours.
As to the removal of the store, the Interpreter, & the Agent, and any other matters you may wish to speak about, the Secretary at war will enter into explanations with you; and whatever he says, you may consider as said by myself; and what he promises you, will be faithfully performed.
I am glad, brothers, you are willing to go & visit some other parts of our country. carriages shall be ready to convey you, & you shall be taken care of on your journey; and when you shall have returned here & rested yourselves to your own mind, you shall be sent home by land. we had provided for your coming by land, and we are sorry for the mistake which carried you to Savanna instead of Augusta, and exposed you to the risks of a voyage by sea. had any accident happened to you, tho’ we could not help it, it would have been a cause of great mourning to us. but we thank the great spirit who took care of you on the ocean, & brought you safe and in good health to the seat of our great council. and we hope his care will accompany & protect you on your journey & return home; and that he will preserve & prosper your nation in all it’s just pursuits.
Th: Jefferson
PrC (DLC). FC (Lb in DNA: RG 75, LSIA); dated January 1804; at head of text: “A talk delivered by the President of the United States to a Deputation of Chiefs from the Choctaw Nation of Indians” and “Talk with the Choctaw Deputation.”
to assure you, for your nation, that we are their friends: following well-established protocols, Dearborn prepared a document that the Choctaw deputation could take with them when they returned home. Using language that he had employed as early as the spring of 1801, he began: “The President of the United States takes you by the hand, and invites you and all the Nations of Red people within the territory of the United States to look up to him as their father and friend; and to rely, in full confidence, upon his unvarying disposition to lead and protect them in the paths of peace and harmony, and to cultivate friendship with their Brothers of the same colour, and with the Citizens of the United States.” The document, following the pattern of “assurances, written on parchment” that Dearborn gave to some earlier Native American delegations, bore his signature and an official seal. Again echoing his language from 1801, Dearborn declared a wish that “So long as the mountains in our land shall endure, and our Rivers flow, so long may the Red and White People dwelling in it, live in the bonds of brotherhood and friendship!” The document, which the War Department labeled as a “Deed to the Choctaw Nation of Indians,” affirmed “by the authority of the United States, that all lands belonging to you, lying within the Territory of the United States, shall be and remain the property of your Nation forever, unless you shall voluntarily relinquish or dispose of the same. And all persons Citizens of the United States, are hereby strictly forbidden to disturb you or your Nation in the quiet possession of said Lands.” Accompanying the written assurances, as had also been the case with the written assurances given to some other delegations, was a chain “made of pure Gold, which will never rust,” sent by the president to the Choctaws as “an emblem” of the links of friendship that bound their nations together and must always be kept bright (Dearborn to chiefs and warriors of the Choctaw nation, 20 Dec., Lb in DNA: RG 75, LSIA; Dearborn to chiefs and warriors of the Cherokees, the Chickasaws, and the Choctaws, 18 June 1801, and to Little Turkey, 7 July 1801, in same; Thomas Foster, ed., The Collected Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1810 [Tuscaloosa, Ala., 2003], 359-60; Vol. 34:506; Vol. 36:526).
give you a copy of the law: the March 1802 “Act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes” imposed fines or imprisonment for citizens or residents of the United States who hunted game or drove livestock on lands secured to Indian tribes, entered into Indians’ territory without authorization, committed robbery, larceny, or trespass against Indians, or settled or surveyed Indians’ land. The law authorized the president to use military force to remove encroaching settlements, called on the military to apprehend violators of the law, and prescribed the death penalty for the crime of murdering an Indian (, 2:141-2, 144-5).
request which you sent me in september: Petition of Puckshunubbee and Others, 20 Sep.
those on the missisipi suit us well: Dearborn wrote to Silas Dinsmoor in January that any cession of land by the Choctaws to retire their debts to the Panton and Leslie trading firm “must be defered until we have more leisure.” When the time did come to pursue the matter, Dearborn indicated, the “land most desirable is a tract bounded on the Mississippi from the Yazoo to the Chickasaw Boundary, extending easterly so as to include the lands between the Yazoo and the Big Black” (Dearborn to Dinsmoor, 7 Jan. 1804, in DNA: RG 75, LSIA).
cultivators of the earth: at the Fort Adams treaty conference in December 1801, Homastubbee and Puckshunubbee asked for blacksmithing equipment and farm implements. Dearborn intended to send plow irons, axes, hoes, and bar iron and steel to the Choctaws in 1803, but drought conditions thwarted shipment of the items by river. In February 1804, in response to a complaint from Dinsmoor that no plows had come, Dearborn ordered supplies of those items and two sets of blacksmithing tools to be sent. “Every effort ought to be made to attach the Chocktaws to our Country and Government,” Dearborn advised the agent, “and to induce them to attend to some of the Arts of Civilization, such as agriculture and domestic manufactures” (, Indian Affairs, 1:661-2; Dinsmoor to Dearborn, 24 Jan. 1804, recorded in DNA: RG 107, RLRMS; Dearborn to Dinsmoor, 27 Feb., in DNA: RG 75, LSIA).
secretary at war will enter into explanations: Dearborn had “a long conversation with the Chiefs” about allowing the establishment of way stations along the road that was to run across the Choctaws’ lands. The visiting Choctaw leaders agreed with Dearborn “as individuals” on guidelines for those “Houses of entertainment” and agreed to “use their influence in favor of the measure” (Dearborn to Dinsmoor, 7 Jan. 1804, in DNA: RG 75, LSIA).