Letter from Salmon Case to Bates Cook, Controller of the State of N. Y. at Albany. Vernon, New York. 27 June 1839. 1 ¼ pages, plus integral address leaf postmarked 28 June. On light blue paper.

An intriguing letter, presumably unpublished, reporting first-hand an episode not inconsistent with prophecies which had been published in that region nine years earlier – and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten, . . . the Lord God will raise up a mighty nation among the Gentiles, yea, even upon the face of this land; and by them shall our seed be scattered. – 1 Nephi 13:14; 22:7.

In the letter here, Mr. Case, a prominent citizen of this town bordering Oneida Castle (the important Oneida Indian village,) warns the controller of the State of New York that the Indians are being bullied by unscrupulous persons.

By the 1820s, according to Horatio Gates Spafford, these local Native Americans were . . . a harmless, inoffensive set of beings, but have lost much of the spirit and energy of their forefathers (Gazetteer of the State of NY. 1824. p. 537). Indeed Shenandoah, an aged Indian leader, spoke at Oneida Castle exhorting his brethren, who had just learned of the loss of their land to the whites, not to rise up in war, but to submit to Christ who sees and judges all. It is fascinating to note that the name Oneida also appears in the Book of Mormon, spelled “Onidah.” It was on the hill Onidah that Alma admonished the poor class of Zoramites, who had been driven from their synagogues, to worship elsewhere, develop faith, and trust in Christ. Like the poor Zoramites who listened to Alma on the hill Onidah, Shenandoah’s Oneida listeners were urged to submit, be humble, and turn to religion for consolation. (see Alma 32-34; for Shenandoah’s speech, see the Telescope [NY] issue for November 24, 1827, p. 103, taken from the New York Observer). This submissive, even fearful, spirit of the Oneidas appears in the letter. Salmon Case writes: I have been to the Oneida to day. I find the Indians have been tampered with by some designing individuals, who have frightened them. But this is a trick to compel them to sell their lands and . . . the Com[missione]r of the Land Office would not approve of it. . . . They now want their interest due the 1st June, and wish to have the wrong corrected in your Acct. current and the balance sent on to me immediately, so that they can divide on Monday next. . . . It is lamentable that the poor fellows have so many advisers and so few that are actuated by principles of justice & benevolence. Mr. Jenkins has probably informed you of the course they have taken, and the source of their fears. . . ..