affection and the interest which you, Reverend Father, entertain for them, I propose giving you my views and apprehensions in regard to them - views and apprehensions which I have long entertained. I have already said a few words on the subject, in a letter written in 1851, and inserted in the fortieth number of your Precis Historiques. In the course of that same year I received a letter from a much-respected gentleman5 in Paris, who requested me to give him some details of the condition and present state of the Indian tribes of North America. I will give you in this letter the questions of that correspondent, and my replies. I will add what has passed since; above all, the resolutions taken and the treaties concluded, from 1851 till December of the year 1854, between the American Government and the aborigines.
First Question.- Do you think that the aborigines west of the Mississippi will be exterminated like those east of that river? In other words, will the Indians west of the Mississippi share the same fate as their brethren east of it?
Reply.- The same lot that the Indians east of the Mississippi have experienced, will at no distant day overtake those who dwell on the west of the same river. As the white population advances and penetrates into the interior, the aborigines will gradually withdraw. Already, even (in 1851), it is perceptible that the whites look with a covetous eye on the fertile lands of the Delawares, Potawatomies, ShavAnees, and others on our frontiers, and project the organization of a new Territory- Nebraska. I should not be surprised if, in a few years, negotiations were entered upon for the purchase of those lands, and the removal of the Indians, who will be forced to retire farther west. The great openings offered to emigration by the definitive arrangement of the Oregon Question, as well as the acquisition of New Mexico, California and Utah, have alone, thus far, hindered any efforts for extinguishing the Indian titles or rights to the lands situated immediately west of the State
5 Rene de Semalle.