September 20th: Today in 1737 the government of Pennslyvania took 70 miles of Indian land in what was called the walking purchase. The government produced a treaty saying the Indians would sell land equal to what a man could walk in a day and a half. There are many doubts about the treaty, but the Indians decided to honor it. The government then had three runners take off on a preset trail at a brutal pace so that they covered nearly double the land the Indians thought they would have to sell. Oh those clever settlers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 20th, 2005 at 3:44 am and is filed under History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.