[Piankeshaw Land Deed]: [Wabash Land Company]:

$125,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[MANUSCRIPT LAND DEED, SIGNED BY TWELVE CHIEFS AND SACHEMS OF THE PIANKESHAW, CEDING TWO LARGE TRACTS OF LAND ON EITHER SIDE OF THE WABASH RIVER TO THE WABASH LAND ... A colonial-era land deed of great historical significance, recording the sale of two vast tracts of land along the Wabash River in present day Illinois and Indiana from members of the Piankeshaw tribe to the Wabash Land Company on October 18, 1775. The present deed is signed with the marks of twelve chiefs and sachems of several tribes of the Piankeshaw, including the prominent figures Old and Young Tobacco. Also signing are Montour, La Grand Couette (Big Rabbit's Tail), Ouaouaijao, La Mouche Noir (or Black Fly), Le Maringouin (or Mosquito), Le Petit Castor (Little Beaver), Kiesquibichias, Lefih, and Grelot Junior and Senior. In exchange for about 37,497,600 acres, the Piankeshaw received five shillings, 400 blankets, 120 pieces of ribbon, 600 pounds of gunpowder, and other goods. The sale's legitimacy was called into question in Johnson v. McIntosh, a major case to come before the U.S. Supreme Court nearly a half century later. In its landmark 1823 ruling, the Marshall Court effectively declared the original sale void, concluding that only the U.S. government—not private citizens—could acquire Native American lands, establishing the so-called "Doctrine of Discovery," a precedent that would have far-reaching implications for U.S.-Indian relations. In the aftermath of the French and Indian War and under the term

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