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TEXAS INDIAN PAPERS, 1860-1916
28
Genl Sam. Houston Austin Texas [Endorsed] S. A. Blain
Wichita Agency April 13, 1860 Respecting Indians etc.
No. 22 LETTER FROM 'S. A. BLAIN TO A. B. Gr.EENWOOD Wichita Agency L. D. April 19th 1860,
Sir: By order of Supt. Rector of the Southern Superintendency, your Circular dated Nov. 17th 1859, directing that the proposi- tion for surveying and alloting to them in severally so much of their land as was necessary for their actual occupancy and cul- tivation was submitted to the Chiefs and head men of the sev- eral bands who compose this agency, in Council early in Jan- uary last. Having had the subject under consideration for over three months, and again having assembled in Council, they request me as their agent to say. That, there are nine different bands & parts of bands now re3ident in thi3 district, viz; Caddo, Anadarko, Comanche, Ton- kawa, Ioni, Keechi, Wichita, Waco, and Tawakoni, of these only three bands claim any right. to speak in the premises, viz;- Wichita, Waco & Tawakoni. Tl:ese three bands are composed of a people, having the same habits, and speaking the same lan- guage, and claim to have the same origin. They say that this Country, by which they mean all that co:.mtry lying between the Red River and the Canadian River, from th2 mouth of the False Washita on River to a point due north of the rnme on the Canadian as its Eastern boundary, and as far west as the west end of the Wichita Mountains is exdusively their own; that, they have held it in possession· and cultivated as much of it as was necessary for their support from time immemorial. That they used to be powerful and kept
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