I don´t know if this is of interest to anyone but me, but I´ve tried to reconstruct a timeline of the Plains Indian delegation that travelled to the east Coast in 1851/1852 from various sources, newspaper clippings, articles and books. I find it impressing what it must have meant for the travelers to go such a distance in the several month they were away from their homes.
As always, I´d be happy if anyone could add or correct information.
For example, what would be the exact path of travel from St. Louis to Washington in 1851? I guess by boat on the Ohio river?
Timeline 1851/52 delegationSeptember 8, 1851: begin of official talks at Horse Creek near Ft. Laramie
September 17, 1851: signing of the Horse Creek Treaty
September 23, 1851: distribution of Treaty presents
September 24, 1851: the delegation set out for St. Louis, following the Oregon Trail to Fort Kearny early in the morning
- meeting German travelers Price Paul Wilhelm of Würrtemberg and Balduin Möllhausen at junction of Ash Hollow and South Platte
October 2, 1851: reaching Fort Kearny, council with Pawnees, Alights-on-a-Cloud refuses to make peace
- from Fort Kearny D.D. Mitchell and a party of whites he brought to the Horse Creek Treaty grounds (Robert Campbell, an old fur trader; Adam B. Chambers, the Missouri Republican´s senior editor; Benjamin Gratz Brown, a reporter & lawyer from St. Louis) took the “Table River route” (possibly to Table Creek, site of first Fort Kearny and today´s Nebraska City; first along the Platte river, then south-east to Old Ft. Kearny)
Father DeSmet, the Indians, Edmund F. Chouteau & Thomas Fitzpatrick took the “southern route” (the Oregon-California trail from Ft. Kearny along the Little Blue river to the Kansas river), crossing Indian territory (to show Indians the progress of Indian Territory tribes); the latter were escorted by Cap. Thomas Duncan and Lt. Washington L. Elliott with companies C and E of Mounted Riflemen
- delegation picked up 2 Otoe chiefs and women
October 11, 1851: delegation stayed two days at St. Mary´s Mission on the Kansas River, welcomed by Bishop John B. Miege, to visit the Potawatomies; they attended high mass
October 16, 1851: delegation arrived in Westport (Kansas City)
- party picked up two Iowa men and one women, who had been stranded
October 18, 1851: delegation still at the Union Hotel, waiting for a boat, while Mitchell was seen at Weston (north of Westport) on Steamboat Clara
- the delegation took steamboat Clara for St. Louis and likely here reunites with Mitchell
- Crow delegate died after leaving the delegation in Brunswick, Chariton County, Missouri
October 22, 1851: arrival in St. Louis with steamboat Clara (Mitchell, Fitzpatrick, Commissioners Col . Chambers, B.G. Brown, Col. R. Campbell, Rev. Father DeSmet, 15 Indians and interpreter Tesson and Smith and Edmund F. “Guesso” Chouteau )
- visiting officials and leading merchants
- Chambers, Brown, Campbell & Chouteau apparently left the delegation in St. Louis
October 24, 1851: That evening the delegates were the honored guests at a banquet
of the Jesuits at St. Louis University
- probably while here pictures were taken by daguerreotypist John Fitzgibbon
November 12, 1851: delegation (13 males, 2 females. 2 interpreters) passed through Pittsburg
November 15, 1851: arrival of four men and three women of the Iowa tribe in Washington
Between
Nov 15 and 19: Arrival of Plains delegation in Washington, they stayed at Maher´s Hotel
November 19, 1851: first official visit to President Fillmore
December 4, 1851: visiting Central Market
- visiting several military forts and the arsenal
December 18, 1851: visit to the Navy Yard at Washington
December 25, 1851: Mitchell arrived in Washington (possibly he had left the delegation alone for some time)
January 6, 1852: Commissioner of Indian Affairs Luke Lea takes delegation to a meeting with President Fillmore (present: Mrs. Kossuth and daughter, Mrs. Fillmore, Mr. Crittenden, Mr. Stuart Hall), Indians received presidential silver medals and American flags
January 8, 1852: visit to Lajos (Louis) Kossuth, Hungarian in exile, at his rooms in Brown´s hotel and receiving medals
January 11, 1852: delegation leaves Washington to the West
March 3, 1852: DeSmet reported that the Indians with Fitzpatrick have returned from Washington
End of April 1852: Fitzpatrick conducted the group at Fort Leavenworth, shortly thereafter they headed to their country, escorted by a band of soldiers
Summer 1852: Cheyenne delegate Alights-on-a-Cloud was killed in a battle with Pawnees
February 7, 1853: Edmund F. Chouteau, eldest son of Francis G. Chouteau, dies in Jackson county, Mo.
David Mitchell
Thomas Fitzpatrick
B. Gratz Brown
Prince Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg
Balduin Möllhausen
President Millard Fillmore
Mrs. Fillmore
Lajos "Louis" Kossuth
photographer John Fitzgibbon