Loci sigilli and American Indian treaties: Reflections on the creation of volume 2 of Kappler’s Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties

Authors

Charles D. Bernholz, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Sheryl Heidenreich, University of Nebraska Kearney

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2009

Comments

Published in Government Information Quarterly 26:4 (October 2009), pp. 605–611; doi 10.1016/j.giq.2008.09.003 Copyright © 2009 Elsevier Inc. Used by permission.

Abstract

The presence—or absence—of locus sigilli “[L.S.]” or “[SEAL]” indicators, to validate the signatures in those texts of American Indian treaties collated by Charles J. Kappler in his Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, is examined. The results of this inquiry suggest that Kappler spent far more time examining the original treaty documents than Deloria and DeMallie proposed in their Documents of American Indian Diplomacy: Treaties, Agreements, and Conventions, 1775–1979.