To James Madison from Walk-in-the-Water, [9 May 1816]
From Walk-in-the-Water
[9 May 1816]
Father,
We have been consulting upon what you have mentiond to us with respect to our annuities being paid to us at Picqua1 and we are Sorry to hear it. Genl Wayne told us they should always be paid here and we have always received them here. The great Council fire of our Nation is here. We are Sorry to hear that our Annuities are to travel a New path. We Wish the[y] would come the old path. We are Certain this is the Wish of all our Brethren the Wyandotts. When we Sold our lands at Swan Creek2 we were told our annuities should be here and we hope Father you will always pay them where you told us you would.
Tr (DNA: RG 75, LRIA). Undated; date assigned based on an endorsement at head of document in an unidentified hand. Enclosed in Lewis Cass to William Harris Crawford, 11 May 1816, dated at Detroit (ibid.).
1. On 19 Apr. 1816 the War Department informed Cass that the annuities to the Wyandot, at their request, would be paid to them by agent John Johnson at Piqua, Ohio, rather than in Detroit (, 10:627, 813).
2. Walk-in-the-Water, a prominent Wyandot chief, referred to article 4 of the July 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry whereby the Wyandot and other Northwestern Indians ceded lands, which also formed part of the Western Reserve of Connecticut, to the United States. Walk-in-the-Water was a signatory to that treaty (, 7:87–89).