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Beyond Penn's Treaty

A Mission to the Indians from the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly Meeting to Fort Wayne, in 1804

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they will enable you to do many things which,
without them, cannot be performed.

Brothers, there is one thing more which we
wish to add. The white people, in order to get
their land cultivated, find it necessary that their
young men should be employed in it, and not
their women. Women are less than men. They
are not as strong as men. They are not as able
to endure fatigue as men. It is the business of
our women to be employed in our houses, to
keep them clean, to sew, to knit, spin, and
weave, to dress food for themselves and families,
to make clothes for the men and the rest of their
families, to keep the clothes of their families
clean, and to take care of their children.

Brothers, we desire not to mention too many
things to you, but we must add a little further.
We are fully convinced that if you will turn your
attention to the cultivation of the earth, to rais-
ing the different kinds of grain, to erecting mills
for grinding grain, to building comfortable dwell-
ing houses for your families, to raising useful
animals- amongst others, sheep, for the advan-
tage of the wool, in making clothing- to raising
flax and hemp for your linen; and your young
women learn to spin and weave, that your lives
would be easier and happier than at present,
and that your numbers will increase, and not
continue to diminish. As we observed,
brothers, your land is good. It is far better
than the land the white people near the great