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Contributing Institution
Maine State Archives
Document Type
Text
Identifier
29134-F003
Exact Creation Date
11-5-1829
Language
English
Location
Penobscot County; Old Town; Orono
Keywords
Native American; Correspondence; Land
Recommended Citation
Barber, Virgil H. and Neptune, John, "Letter from Virgil Barber to the Honorable John G. Deane, Esq. regarding Penobscot Nation's answer to Deane's proposal and their fears of extermination, November 5, 1829" (1829). Petitions and Correspondence, 1822-1880. 7.
https://digitalmaine.com/native_petitions/7
Rights Statement
No Copyright - United States. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
Description
Correspondence from Virgil Barber to the Honorable John G. Deane, Esq. Barber was a Jesuit priest assigned to Old Town. He encloses a letter containing the Penobscot Nation's answer as interpreted by Penobscot Lieutenant Governor John Neptune regarding Deane's proposal of the sale of tribal lands. The tribe expresses concern about their diminishing land.
"The white people have repeatedly asked us to dispose of our lands, and we have sold to them one portion after another till we have but very little left. The prospect is that in two or three generations there will not be enough for our children. To us it looks strange that white people, knowing this, should ask us to sell nearly half we have left, when at the same time they have in this State so many thousand acres of wild land."
"If so great and so free a country as this would exterminate us, we have no chance anywhere else; we or our children must sooner or later be driven into the salt water and perish."