Letter-1860, February 21

Shawnee Council Rooms Feb. 21, 1860

To the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
Washington D. C.

   We, Paschal Fish and William Rodgers Chiefs and Charles Fish Charles Tucker George Daugherty Charles Tooley and Jackson Rodgers Councilmen of the Shawnee Tribe of Indians in Kansas Territory would respectfully represent that the Shawnee Methodist Manual Labor School has been conducted so badly for several years past that it has failed to accomplish the object contemplated in the establishment of said school. The education of the Shawnee youth   The school therefore is of no benefit to the Shawnee Nation and the school fund set apart in the Treaty of 1854 is being squandered without our children being educated   So sensibly have the Nation felt the deplorable condition of said school that a Joint Committee was appointed on the part of the Shawnees and Kansas Mission Conference of the M. E. Church South to investigate the condition of the aforesaid school which committee made a report on the 24th day of November 1858, a Copy of which was handed to the Shawnee Agent with a request that it be forwarded to the Indian Bureau at Washington which we are informed he failed to do   After having promised the Council he would do so   We now send the original report of said Joint Committee with Edward Clarke our Attorney and Delegate.

   Our Children have suffered through protracted spells of severe illness and in some instances have died without the Parents or Guardians ever having been informed of their illness

   The neglect our children have received while there has compelled us to take them home and when brought home have found them covered with body lice

   The number of Children attending the School ranges from five to twenty five most of the time about ten for which we pay the enormous sum of six thousand dollars annually   We have submitted to this state of things until we feel it our duty both to our people   Our children and ourselves to take some decided steps towards a remedy   It is our wish that the accruing school fund be placed at the disposal of the Chiefs and Councilmen of our Tribe who will make contracts with the various school districts (or trustees thereof) in which our children reside and pay to said school district (or trustees thereof) a reasonable per Capitum per annum for the education of our children   We believe that by this means we can save two or three thousand dollars per annum of the accruing school fund and thus add to the principial every year   We shall have our children at home and under our own control   And at school will have the benefit of an intercourse with the white children and thus be better able to learn the language ways and manners of the American people

Paschal Fish Chief
William Rodgers 2 Chief [his mark]
Charles Fish Counciller
George Dougherty [his mark]
Charles Tucker [his mark]
Charles Finley [his mark]
Jackson Rodgers [his mark]

I do hereby certify the above Memorial was signed in my presence

Samuel M. Cornatzer
Council Clerk

[Photostat copy in MSS. Dept. K.S.H.S.]