By the aid of our friends, and particularly of our
counsel, (Mr. H.) who first proposed it, we shall now receive one
hundred dollars a year; and I trust the Indians will best show their
gratitude by the pains they will take to send their children to good
schools, and by their raising as much more money as they can, to get
good instructers; and give the rising generation all the advantages
which the children of the whites enjoy in schooling. This will be one
of the best means to raise them to an equality, and teach them to put
away from their mouths forever, the enemy which the white man, when he
wanted to cheat and subdue our race, first got them to put therein, to
steal away their brains, well knowing that their lands would follow.
The following are the petitions presented to the Legislature, which
will give some light on the history of Marshpee.
To the Honorable General Court:
The undersigned are Selectmen and School Committee of the
District of Marshpee. We understand your Honors are going to
make a distribution of the School Fund. Now we pray leave to
say that the State, as the guardians of the Marshpee Indians,
took our property into their possession, so that we could not
use a dollar of it, and so held it for sixty years. We could
make no contract with a school-master, and during that time,
till 1831, we had no school house in Marshpee, and scarcely
any schools. We began to have schools about five years ago,
but still want means to employ competent white teachers
to instruct our children.
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