“Sir,—­The tribes of Indians on this frontier and east of the Mississippi, with whom the United States have been connected by treaty, are the Wyandots, Delawares, Shawanoes, Miamis, Potawatamies, Ottawas, Chippewas, Piankashaws, Kaskaskias and Sacs.  All but the two last were in the confederacy which carried on the former Indian war against the United States, that was terminated by the treaty of Greenville.  The Kaskaskias were parties to the treaty, but they had not been in the war.  The Wyandots are admitted by the others to be the leading tribe.  They hold the grand calumet which unites them and kindles the council fire.  This tribe is nearly equally divided between the Crane, at Sandusky, who is the grand sachem of the nation, and Walk-in-the-Water, at Brownstown, near Detroit.  They claim the lands bounded by the settlements of this state, southwardly and eastwardly; and by lake Erie, the Miami river, and the claim of the Shawanoes upon the Auglaize, a branch of the latter.  They also claim the lands they live on near Detroit, but I am ignorant to what extent.

“The Wyandots of Sahdusky have adhered to us through the war.  Their chief, the Crane, is a venerable, intelligent and upright man.  Within the tract of land claimed by the Wyandots, a number of Senecas are settled.  They broke off from their own tribe six or eight years ago, but received a part of the annuity granted that tribe by the United States, by sending a deputation for it to Buffalo.  The claim of the Wyandots to the lands they occupy, is not disputed, that I know of, by any other tribe.  Their residence on it, however, is not of long standing, and the country was certainly once the property of the Miamis.

“Passing westwardly from the Wyandots, we meet with the Shawanoe settlement at Stony creek, a branch of the Great Miami, and at Wapauckanata, on the Auglaize.  These settlements were made immediately after the treaty of Greenville, and with the consent of the Miamis, whom I consider the real owners of these lands.  The chiefs of this band of Shawanoes, Blackhoof, Wolf and Lewis, are attached to us from principle as well as interest—­they are all honest men.

“The Miamis have their principal settlement at the forks of the Wabash, thirty miles from fort Wayne; and at Mississinaway, thirty miles lower down.  A band of them under the name of Weas, have resided on the Wabash, sixty miles above Vincennes; and another under the Turtle on Eel river, a branch of the Wabash, twenty miles north-west of fort Wayne.  By an artifice of Little Turtle, these three bands were passed on general Wayne as distinct tribes, and an annuity granted to each.  The Eel river and Weas, however, to this day call themselves Miamis, and are recognized as such by the Mississinaway band.  The Miamis, Maumees or Tewicktowes, are the undoubted proprietors of all that beautiful country which is watered by the Wabash and its branches; and there is as little doubt that their claim extended at least as far east