Adrian Dominicans
“The Northwest and Michigan Territories,” by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain, 1833)
Land-history research for the Motherhouse Campus | Adrian Michigan , 49221
“Bowles's new pocket map of North America” by Louis Delarochette (1766)
“Simon François Daumont de Saint-Lusson,” by Charles William Jefferys, 1895
European Contact
The Doctrine of Discovery at Adrian
Detail of “Leaders of the Continental Congress. John Adams, Morris, Hamilton, Jefferson,” by Augustus Tholey (c. 1894)
Settler Colonialism
The Treaty Period
Good Faith.
“The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards the Indians; their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent; and in their property, rights and liberty, they never shall be invaded or disturbed, unless in just and lawful wars authorised by Congress; but laws found in justice and humanity shall from time to time be made, for preventing wrongs being done to them, and for preserving peace and friendship with them.”
“An ordinance for the government of the territory of the United States, North-west of the river Ohio,” passed by the Continental Congress (July 13, 1787)
“Third president, 1801–1809,” oil on canvas portrait of Thomas Jefferson by Mather Brown (1786)
War.
“I hope we shall drub the Indians well this summer & then change our plan from war to bribery.”
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe (Apr. 17, 1791)
Oil portrait of Anthony Wayne by Edward Savage (c. 1795)
Protect.
“[W]hen those tribes, or any of them, shall be disposed to sell their lands, or any part of them, they are to be sold only to the United States; and until such sale, the United States will protect all the said Indian tribes in the quiet enjoyment of their lands against all citizens of the United States, and against all other white persons who intrude upon the same.”
Treaty with the Wyandot, Etc. [Treaty of Greeneville] signed for the United States by “Mad” Anthony Wayne (Aug. 3, 1795)
Pastel portrait of William Hull by James Sharples Sr. (c. 1800)
Assistance.
“My Children . . . the United States never wished to do you an injury; but, on the contrary, to give you all the assistance in their power towards improving your condition[. . . . Nevertheless,] “if ever we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down till that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi.”
Speech from Territorial Governor and U.S. Indian Agent William Hull to Tribes at 1807 Treaty of Detroit negotiations (Nov. 1807) from November 1807 Letter from William Hull to Secretary of War Henry Dearborn
“Me-te-a, A Pottawatomi Chief,” by Samuel Seymour (1838)
Satisfied.
“You are never satisfied! . . . . If we had more land, you should get more.; but our land has been wasting away ever since the white people became our neighbors, and we have now hardly enough left to cover the bones of our tribe.”
Bodéwadmi leader and treaty signer Metea at the 1821 Treaty of Chicago negotiations (August 1821)
“Map of Treaty Cessions” by Charles C. Royce, Bureau of American Ethnology (1899)
Primary Sources
& Markups
Current Law
Land Becomes Property
Primary Sources
& Markups
“Map of Lenawee County, Michigan,” by H.F. Walling (1873)
“City Hall, Adrian Michigan,” by unknown artist (date unknown)
Curated Resource List for the Adrian Dominicans
There’s more
To learn the history of the United States’ removal of the Bodwéwadmi to land west of the Mississippi River:
Read John P. Bowes, Land Too Good for Indians: Northern Indian Removal (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016)
Photograph of Potawatomi leader and treaty signer Shab-eh-nay (Shabbona) by W.E. Bowman (c. 1858)
For a modern Bodwéwadmi voice:
Read Levi Rickert, Visions for a Better Indian Country: One Potawatomi Elder's Opinions (Indian Country Media, 2022)
For indigenous perspectives on U.S. history:
Read Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (Yale University Press, 2023)
Read Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous People’s History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2015)
For an indigenous overview of the impacts of Federal Indian policy:
Read Anton Treuer, Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask: Revised and Expanded (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2023)