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Language:English
Date:1891-1894
Contributor:Kane, Francis Fisher | Kane, John K. (John Kintzing), 1795-1858 | Riter, Frank M. | Welsh, Herbert, 1851-1941 | Painter, C. C. (Charles Cornelius) | Lovell, Mary F. | Lindley, Lawrence E.
Type:Text
Genre:Correspondence | Reports | Notes
Extent:12 folders
Description: In total, the Kane Family Papers consist of 56 linear feet of letters, legal papers, financial records, etc. of three generations of the prominent Philadelphia family. However, there is also a small but significant batch of material related to the Ute people. Francis Fisher Kane (1866-1955), a lawyer, was involved with the Indian Rights Association, which sent Kane and another Philadelphia lawyer, Frank M. Riter, to Colorado and Utah to report on the situation of the Southern Utes and the U.S. government's proposal to relocate them from their reservation in southern Colorado to Utah, a plan which was successfully opposed. Most of this material is housed in Series V. Francis Fisher Kane. Of particular interest will be three folders marked "Indian Rights Association" and designated #1, #2, and #3 containing correspondence relative to Kane's trip west, subsequent appearance before the Indian Affairs Committee in Washington, D.C., and the IRA's efforts to prevent the removal of the Southern Utes in general. These materials reveal much about the conditions among the Southern Utes, the misbehavior of Indian agents and white neighbors in Durango, the politicking of the Indian Rights Association in Washington, D.C., and the sentiments of these "friends of the Indians," who largely wanted to speed Native peoples along the path to civilization, albeit in as humane a way as possible. There is also a typed copy of a letter from Dakota Ignatius Court (Tamazahanhotanka) from Devil's Lake, Fort Totten, North Dakota reporting the corruption of the local Agent to the Indian Rights Association, along with a letter from Herbert Welsh (corresponding secretary of the IRA) to Kane asking if Kane would go to North Dakota to investigate (in #2). Other corresponents include Thomas Morgan, Charles Odgen, Herbert Welsh, Charles Painter, Charles E. Pancoast, Albert C. Hopkins, etc. Also of particular interest is a folder labeled "Southern Ute Indians," containing copies of letters from Charles A. Bartholomew of the Southern Ute Agency, telegraphs between Bartholomew and Kane, and other materials relating to Kane and Riter's investigation in Colorado and subsequent political activities, very much in the same vein and involving the same correspondents as the first three folders described. Other Ute-related materials include notes of a speech and correspondence from the "Committee on the Southern Utes" (1891); reports and legal notes in a folder labeled "Concerning the Ute Indians #1" (1891); three copies of a letter to Thomas Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in "Concerning the Ute Indians #2" (1892); letters from Mary F. Lovell (of the National Women's Christian Temerance Union), Charles C. Painter (of the Indian Rights Association), Ann Booth, Charles Ogden, and S. W. Peel in "Concerning the Ute Indians #3" (1892-1893); a postcard from James M. Fisher regarding a speech for the Indian Affairs Committee (1892); a brief note from James Kerr to Herbert Welsh informing him that the removal bill will not be called up in the present session of Congress (1892); and a folder of newspaper clippings featuring Kane's political and humanitarian activism, including his work for the IRA. There is also one relevant folder in Series I. John Kintzing Kane labeled "Indian Rights Association" (1892) that contains reports, correspondence, and a 105-page typed copy of a diary of their trip to the Southern Ute Agency by Francis Fisher Kane and Frank M. Rite, as well as some correspondence from Herbert Welsh .
Collection:Kane Family Papers (Mss.Ms.Coll.115)