High School Opinion from Ottawa, Kansas • 30

108 THE HIGH ment to continually push the red man toward the frontier, and thereby make more room for his white brother. Therefore, when the white settlers came into Ohio and began to take up the land it was deemed necessary to remove the Ottawas farther west. In 1832, by treaty, the Ottawas ceded to the government 21,760 acres of land in Ohio and received in return 34,000 acres of land in what is now Franklin county, Kansas. The same year another tribe of Ottawas who resided on the Miami river ceded 28,157 acres to the United States and received 40,000 acres of fine land adjoining the land ceded to the first tribe. The two tracts of land SCHOOL OPINION.

The further history of these people is soon told. When they came to Kansas the Ottawas were inferior to many other tribes located here, but by the earnest efforts of the missionaries, Jotham Meeker and Tauy Jones, they became industrious and prosperous. For some time the Ottawas had thought of setting apart a portion of their estates, for endowing a school, when the Baptists of the territory of Kansas in 1860, took steps to establish a college here, naming it the Roger Williams University. The Ottawas, being nearly all Baptists, sent an invitation to its trustees to meet them with the view of making some arrangement by which their OTTAWA'S SUSPENSION BRIDGE. Photo by Gatch.

were situated in nearly the present center of Franklin county. As soon as the tribes came to Kansas they united under one chief, Com Chaw. The government furnished the Ottawa's money to live on unil they could raise their their crops. Here the Ottawa's remained tillers of the soil and undisputed possessors of fish and game in this region under distinct tribal relation until 1862. On June 24.

1862, a government treaty was made with the Ottawas, by which every Indian in the tribe, 1867, would become a citizen of the United States, the head of each family to receive 160 acres of land for his own use and all other men of the tribe, 80 acres. children could attend the institution. A meeting was held December 5, 1860. As a result of the meeting the Indians agreed to donate to the University 20,000 acres of lands, and the trustees agreed to raise funds to aid in the erection of buildings and to educate fifty of the Ottawa children from four to fourteen years of age, for thirty years, and at the end of thirty years to give to the Indians ten perpetual scholarships in the University. Five thousand of the 20,000 acres of land were allowed by the treaty to be sold, and were disposed of August 20, 1862, for $6,250, and the proceeds devoted to the erection of buildings, and to other improvements on the school section..