An Original Handwritten and Signed Letter the Indian Office Georgetown Washington DC Thomas from Thomas Loraine McKenney Superintendent of Indian trade to Issac Rawlings junior at Chickasaw Bluffs Trading Factory. Dated 1816. The letter concerns the trade with the Chickasaw Indians, with regards to the setting of prices for their deer skins, haired and shaved. The letter sets out the policy to deal with the trade. ’There appears to be a justice due to the Indians in paying them the fair value for the proceeds of their toils. Indeed, it is so far from the intention to oppress those people, that it is desirous to impress them with a conviction of its liberality’ Thomas Loraine McKenney 1785 –1859 was a United States official who served as Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1824 to 1830. After the abolition of the U.S. Indian Trade program in 1822, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun created a position within the War Department entitled Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This office later evolved into the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Calhoun appointed McKenney to the position, who served from 1824 to 1830. McKenney was an advocate of the American Indian “civilization” program, becoming an avid promoter of Indian removal west of the Mississippi River. After being elected to office, President Andrew Jackson, who favoured Indian removal, dismissed McKenney from his position in 1830 when Jackson disagreed with his opinion that “the Indian was, in his intellectual and moral structure, our equal.” While serving as Superintendent of Trade and Indian Affairs, McKenney helped gain passage of the Indian Civilization Act of 1819. Eleven years later, he helped draft and gain passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. While serving as superintendent, McKenney denounced the United States Government for failing to keep white people out of territory belonging to the Cherokee as part of a treaty. The Chickasaw are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Size is 250mm x 205mm. Condition is near good. Light folding creases. Light age toning. Loss to centre fold area slightly effecting the text. Light strengthening repair to crease.