Article iii of the Ordinance of 1781 defines the policy of the United States toward the Indians, one clause being that "their lands and property shall never be taken from them without their consent." This means that while the United States nominally took possession of the country beyond the Ohio River it considered the land as still in the possession of the original owners. Hence Governor Harrison was put in authority over a country which, except for a few small tracts the Indians had previously parted with, did not belong to the settlers at all. One of his first duties was the acquiring of land for the prospective commonwealth to grow upon and his accomplishment to this end was one of his conspicuous services. The ownership was complicated, a number of tribes having overlapping claims to various parts of the territory desired, and treaties negotiated with these tribes by Harrison extended over a period of six years, or form 1803 to 1809. The fruit of this was five separate purchases within the present Indiana that comprised the whole southern portion of the state and lapped over into Illinois. Besides these there were other large tracts not within the present limits of Indiana. Subsequent purchases by other agents bought the number of tracts up to more than fifty before the entire state was secured, and the last one was made in 1840. These lands were paid for, chiefly, by such commodities as the Indians needed or fancied and by annual payments of money, and were trivial as compared with the value of the territory.