Philadelphia 11th Mo 28th 1816
(From Indian Committee of Phila.) Thomas Eddy &
Samuel Parsons
Esteemed Friends

The Committee appointed by our Yearly
Meeting

for promoting the gradual Civilization and
Improvement of the Indian Natives, have been much
excercised on viewing the peculiar situation in which
the Seneca Nation is now placed--their Right to
the Land which they inhabit must be admitted by all;
but a number of influential persons have acquired
an exclusive preemption to become the purchasers thereof,
who are under no obligation to acquire the consent of
the individual owners, many of whom with much
labour and some at no small cost have erected comfortable
dwelling Houses with Stables &c, cleared Farms which
they occupy and cultivate; yet a few chiefs without
even the knowledge of these their Brethren, according
to the common mode of holding Indian Treaties may
sell the whole, & yet those very Chiefs have neither Right
or Title to an acre more Land than any other Family
of the Nation--for the Indian Law in the distribution
of national property is that all share alike, and
they hold in joint Tenancy under the same received
custom

Should the Indians be dispossessed of their present