Petition of Daniel Fellows, Jr., Guardian of the Chappaquiddick and Christiantown Indians, to the Governor and Council of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

To His Excellency Levi Lincoln, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and to the Honourable Council           

The undersigned, Guardian of the Indians resident on the Island of Chappaquiddick and at Christiantown in Dukes County, in behalf of said Indians, humbly begs leave to represent that in conformity to an Act passed March 10^th 1828,1 the lands belonging to said Indians and People of Colour were divided and apportioned among them by the Commissioners appointed for that purpose, that on the Island of Chappaquiddick about eighty acres of pasture land were by said Commissioners set off in reserve for the support of the poor among said Indians, that said pasture land is wholly unfenced and in part joins the water, that said Indians have no wood or fencing stuff on their premises and are really unable to purchase any materials for fencing said land, that said land cannot be rented without first being fenced, that they have now no public income whatever to support their poor, nor can they have until said land is rented, but when burthened with paupers, they will be under the absolute necessity of calling on the State for pecuniary aid. Therefore,  to remedy which, as far as possible, and ultimately to save expense to the Commonwealth, as well as to better the condition of the poor Natives, the Guardian humbly prays that your Excellency would cause to be paid from the Treasury of the Commonwealth the sum of one hundred dollars for the assistance of the Indians and people of colour on the Island of Chappaquiddick (and for fencing their public land as aforesaid) agreeable to a resolve passed by the Legislature March 10^th 1827, entitled, “Resolve for the benefit of the Indians in Dukes County.”             

The Guardians would beg leave further to represent that said Commissioners set off for the support of the poor Indians at Christiantown about twenty acres of improvable land, which is also unfenced, except adjoining the lands of the white inhabitants, and the same observations will apply equally to the Indians at Christiantown, as to those of Chappaquiddick, relative to their income or their ability to fence their public land.  The Guardian, therefore, humbly requests that some assistance may also be granted to the Indians at Christiantown, according to the resolve above mentioned.

All which is humbly submitted to the direction of Your Excellency and the Honorable Council,

Guardian of said Indians, etc.

• 1. See “An Act of the better regulations, instruction and government of the Indians and People of Colour in the County of Dukes County,” Chap. 14, Acts and Resolves (Massachusetts, 1828), 803.