Petition of Charlotte M. Belain and Other Christiantown Indians to the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of Massachusetts in General Court Assembled

The undersigned, members of the Christiantown Tribe of Indians and People of Color, in Dukes County, would respectfully represent to your Honorable body, that by the gradual encroachments heretofore made by the surrounding whites upon their territory, they are deprived of a great portion of their wood and meadowlands. That by the curtailment of their meadows, their livestock has become reduced to twenty-one “head” of cattle and one horse, the crop of hay (so reduced) being insufficient to sustain a great number. That a valuable fishery, heretofore enjoyed by them and their fathers, has been, for many years past, enjoyed and improved by the surrounding Whites to their exclusion, and depriving them of a valuable means of support for themselves and their families.

Wherefore, your petitioners pray Your Honorable Body to devise some method by which their ancient privileges may be restored to them.

And as in duty bound will ever pray,