Redick McKee (7 December 1800 – 13 September 1886) was an American government official.
Biography
Redick McKee was born in the town of
McKeesport
McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is situated at the confluence of the Monongahela River, Monongahela and Youghiogheny River, Youghiogheny rivers and within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population ...
which was founded by his father. When McKee was five his father died. In the autumn of 1807 his family relocated to
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. Throughout the following decade McKee worked on a relative's farm in
Washington County and for merchants in Pittsburgh. At the age of 18 he joined the Presbyterian Church as a lay member. It was a momentous occasion for McKee who recorded later that:
"I seemed to live in a new world, and became desirous to serve a loving and compassionate Master."
He was given the opportunity to become a priest and receive an education in
Canonsburg
Canonsburg is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, southwest of Pittsburgh. Canonsburg was laid out by Colonel John Canon in 1789 and incorporated in 1802. The population was 9,735 at the 2020 census. The town li ...
and later
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
but decided against it. While still 18 McKee was hired to manage a general goods store and a storage depot in
Wheeling. He organized the first Sabbath school of Wheeling in November 1818. Students from various Protestant denominations were welcomed. At particular times there were upwards of 80 students in attendance.
Indian Agent
McKee joined a three-man commission created by the Federal Government in 1850 to draft treaties with California Natives.
O. M. Wozencraft
Oliver M. Wozencraft (July 26, 1814 – November 22, 1887) was a prominent early American settler in California. He had substantial involvement in negotiating Aboriginal title in California, treaties between California Native American Indi ...
and
George W. Barbour were appointed as well and began negotiations in 1851. However they collectively lacked expertise and familiarity with either California natives or how their societies utilized their territories. The Commissioners eventually divided California into three areas so they were largely operating independent of each other. McKee was assigned the task of creating treaties with natives of Northern California.
His party arrived on the Upper Klamath river in September 1851. There was a repeating cycle of violence and reprisals then ongoing in northern California. Local American militias were reported to be excessively violent in "revenging outrages" supposedly committed by natives. McKee and his associates toured the Shastan territories; inspecting the Shasta and Scott vallies in particular. They concluded that only the Scott could support a reservation and the agricultural work necessary to feed the Shasta. This assessment was due to the scarcity of agriculturally viable land in the Klamath Mountains. More promising areas did exist nearby but they were in Oregon.
The Shasta wanted to retain the entirety of Scott Valley for their designated reservation. American colonists from
Scott Bar and
Shasta Butte City contended for possession of the valley as well. Federal officials consulted with them for what they desired in a treaty with the Shasta. They called for the removal of all Shasta to a reservation placed on the headwaters of the Shasta River. The treaty terms drafted by McKee were not particularly favored by the Shasta or American settlers. The reservation was placed in Scott Valley, although the majority of the valley was to remain in colonist possession. The area specified in the treaty for the reservation was estimated by McKee to contain four or five square miles of arable land.The location of the Shasta reservation was apparently accepted, albeit grudgingly, by most American colonists of the area.
The treaties negotiated by McKee, Barbour, and Wozencraft amounted to 18. McKee pressed for the California legislature to accept the treaties. He argued the reservations were designed to allocate natives to keep portions of their traditional lands while keeping open the many areas bearing gold. The commissioners were stated to have always consulted with local American colonists and miners in establishing the borders of each reservation. Pointedly he went on to argue that unless if someone were to "propose a more humane and available system" the reservations had to be acknowledged by the California Government. The state rejected all treaties and instructed its representatives in Washington, D.C. to lobby against them as well.
The treaties were endorsed by President
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...
, commissioner of Indian affairs
Luke Lea and the recently appointed superintendent of Indian affairs for California
Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale (February 4, 1822 – April 22, 1893) was a national figure in the 19th-century United States. He was a naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, ...
. The treaties were sent the
Committee on Indian Affairs
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 1 ...
in June 1852. After a closed session the treaties were rejected. Ellison suggested that the vast amount of land set aside by the treaties and the expenditures allocated by the commissioners made the agreements unpopular in Congress. In total about or about 7% of the total land area of California was to contain the 18 reservations.
Later life
McKee died at his son's house in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
on 13 September 1886.
Notes
References
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McKee, Redick
19th-century colonization of the Americas
Native American history of California
United States Indian agents
People from McKeesport, Pennsylvania
1800 births
1886 deaths