3. RESULTS OF THE TREATY
On February 6, 1840, Samuel Norris, an inhabitant of Rush Island, brought a charge of fraud against Jehiel Brooks who had negotiated the treaty with the Caddo Indians July 1, 1835. The cession which had been made to the Grappes was used by Norris as a basis for this charge. He claimed that at the time of the treaty this land was inhabited by Samuel Norris, Lefroy Dupree, and other persons. He also asserted that a short time after the treaty was negotiated, the whole of the reservation made in favor of the Grappes, had been purchased from them by Jehiel Brooks for six thousand dollars. This reservation, it was alleged by Norris, was a fraud upon the United States and on those who occupied the land at the time of the treaty. He charged that Rush Island, on which the reservation in favor of the Grappes was located by the treaty, was not within the limits of the country claimed by the Caddoes; that no land had ever been granted by the Caddoes to the said Grappes, and the reservation of the four leagues of land was fraudulently introduced into the treaty without the knowledge or consent of the Indians.
In a memorial of the chiefs, head men, and warriors of the Caddo nation, dated September 19, 1837, and addressed to the Senate of the United States, they stated that the treaty made between them and Brooks had recently been interpreted to them and they discovered that the boundaries and limits of the treaty were not the same as understood by them in 1835; that the lands sold by them were:
Bounded on the west by the north and south line which separates the United States from Mexico (running) between the Sabine and Red rivers, wheresoever the same shall be defined to be by the two governments; on the north and east by the Red river, from the point where the aforesaid north and south boundary line shall intersect said Red river, following the western waters of said Red river down to where the bayou Cypress empties into the said river; thence up the bayou Cypress, following the meanders of the stream, to the western boundary line.
They further stated that they had never claimed any of the low lands between Bayou Pierre (the western channel of Red River) and the main Red River; that they knew the land between Bayou Pierre and the main channel of the Red River had for a long time been exclusively settled and claimed by the white people. They further stated that the Caddo Indians did not make a reservation in favor of the Grappes within the limits of land they claimed or sold to the United States.
The committee on Indian affairs, after a thorough investigation of the charges brought against Brooks, reported that the tract of land called Rush Island, described in the treaty with the Caddoes, as never a part of their territory. They recommended that the question of fraud involved in making the reservation to the Grappes be referred to the courts.
The treaty was allowed to stand and by it the United States government obtained a cession from the Caddoes of about one mil lion acres of land.
This land was purchased for the white settlers who were already encroaching upon the Caddo country regardless of the trade and intercourse laws. The cession was no doubt highly regarded by the settlers, but it left in the minds of the Caddoes a contempt for the whites who had made it necessary that they dispose of their territory.