The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 319

LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS
DR. JOHN SIBLEY AND THE LOUISIANA-TEXAS
FRONTIER, 1803-1814
JULIA KATHRYN GARRETT
(Continued)
LETTER 12
Natchitoches May 8th, 1809
Sir:
I have Observed in the proceedings of the last Session of
Congress In Consequence of a representation from Governor
Claiborne, affording relief to the Tribe of allibamis Indians
Relative to their Lands has been a Subject of Consideration. I
could have wished that the cases of all these Indian Tribes in
this Territory, who have no land Could have been Considered
at the same time. The Boluxes [Biloxis] who in the year 1805
lived on Bayou Beauf in the County of Rapides on lands they
Inherited from their Ancestors, have Since been removed from
their Lands by a Company of Individuals who claim them under
a purchase said to have been made of the Indians while Louisi-
ana was in the hands of the Government of Spain & Sanctioned
by it. They have since been Rambling about the Neighbour-
hood of Avoyal [Avoyelles],6 & the White Inhabitants Complain
of their encroachments. There is another Tribe Called Huani
Choctaws, who emigrated from the Huani Choctaw Town on the
East Side of Mississippi upwards of 15 years ago, who with the
Permission of the Boluxes Settled Near them on the Bayou
Beauf on Lands then belonging to the Boluxes, who have been
likewise with them Removed; They since (or part of them)
Settled Themselves at the Cooks Prarie about 40 Miles Southard
of Natchitoches between Red River and the Sabine where they
fenced fields & Cultivated them with the Plow, Built Comfort-
able Huts, and were Collecting about them Some Stocks of
Domestic Animals; when some Surveyors were Sent Out, who
Surveyed the Lands they Occupied, Ordered the Indians off;
& the Claimants have Since Sent Out Labourers to fence in
the Lands & Built Houses on them & one Man has fixed there
6OThe village of Avoyelles was nineteen leagues from the Mississippi, and
the Parish along the waters of Red River. It included over one hundred
and twenty families, principally French. Carter, Territorial Papers of the
United States, IX, 63, 729.
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