English 11 Rosemary Dibben (707) 965-6759, PrepEnglish@yahoo.com	English Department PUC Preparatory School McKibbin Hall, 1 Angwin Ave. Angwin, CA 94508

Offer of Help

By Canassatego
(in response to an offer to educate some Native American youth at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia)

We know you highly esteem the kind of Learning taught in those Colleges, and that the Maintenance of our young Men while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc’d therefore that you mean to do us Good by your Proposal, and we thank you heartily. But you who are wise must know, that different Nations have different Conceptions of Things; and you will therefore not take it amiss if our Ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have had some Experience of it: Several of our young People were formerly brought up at the Colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but when they came back to us they were bad Runners ignorant of every means of living in the Woods, unable to bear either Cold or Hunger, knew neither how to build a Cabin, take a Deer or kill an Enemy, spoke our Language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for Hunters, Warriors, or Counsellors, they were totally good for nothing. We are however not the less oblig’d by your kind Offer tho’ we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a Dozen of their Sons, we will take great Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.

Text source: http://www.wampumchronicles.com/benfranklin.html

Minutes from the meeting in which the original offer was made (the day before):

Brethren, Our Friend, Conrad Weiser, when he is old, will go into the other World, as our Fathers have done; our Children will then want such a Friend to go between them and your Children, to reconcile any Differences that may happen to arise between them, that, like him, may have the Ears and Tongues of our Children and yours.

The Way to have such a Friend, is for you to send three or four of your Boys to Virginia, where we have a fine House for them to live in, and a Man on purpose to teach the Children of you, our Friends, the Religion, Language and Customs of the white People. To this Place we kindly invite you to send some of your Children, and we promise you they shall have the same Care taken of them, and be instructed in the same Manner as our own Children, and be returned to you again when you please, and, to confirm this, we give you this String of Wampum.

Text source: http://earlytreaties.unl.edu/images/images.html?n=72&ref=treaty.00003 and http://earlytreaties.unl.edu/images/images.html?n=73&ref=treaty.00003 (with spelling modernization)

NB: Don't depend on the record in the minutes to give you exact wording. To illustrate, compare Canassatego's response as recorded in the minutes (below) to the version Ben Franklin gives us (top):

You told us likewise, you had a great House provided for the Education of Youth, and that there were several white People and Indians Children there to learn Languages, and to write and read, and invited us to send some of our Children amongst you, etc.

We must let you know we love our children too well to send them so great a Way, and the Indians are not inclined to give their Children Learning. We allow it to be good, and we thank you for your Invitation, but our Customs differing from yours, you will be so good as to excuse us.

Text source: http://earlytreaties.unl.edu/images/images.html?n=76&ref=treaty.00003 (with spelling modernization)