Whereas existing treaties between the United States and the Cherokee
Nation are deemed to be insufficient, the contracting parties agree as
follows, viz:
1. The pretended treaty of October 7, 1861, with the so-called
Confederate States, repudiated by the Cherokee National Council
February 18, 1863, is declared to be void.
2. Amnesty is declared for all offenses committed by one Cherokee
against the person or property of another or against a citizen of the
United States prior to July 4, 1866. No right of action arising out
of acts committed for or against the rebellion shall be maintained
in either the United States or the Cherokee courts, and the Cherokee
Nation agree to deliver to the United States all public property in
their control which belonged to the United States or the so-called
Confederate States.
3. The confiscation laws of the Cherokee Nation shall be repealed,
and all sales of farms and improvements are declared void. The former
owners shall have the right to repossess themselves of the property
so sold. The purchaser under the confiscation laws shall receive
from the treasurer of the nation the money paid and the value of the
permanent improvements made by him. The value of these improvements
shall be fixed by a commission, composed of one person appointed by the
United States and one appointed by the Cherokee Nation, who in case
of disagreement may appoint a third. The value of these improvements
so fixed shall be returned to the Cherokee treasurer by returning
Cherokees within three years.
4. All Cherokees and freed persons who were formerly slaves to any
Cherokee, and all free negroes, not having been such slaves, who
resided in the Cherokee Nation prior to June 1, 1861, who may within
two years elect not to reside northeast of the Arkansas River and
southeast of Grand River, shall have the right to settle in and occupy
the Canadian district southwest of the Arkansas River; and also the
country northwest of Grand River, and bounded southeast by Grand River
and west by the Creek country, to the northeast corner thereof; from
thence west on north line of Creek country to 96° west longitude;
thence north with said 96° so far that a line due east to Grand River
will include a quantity of land equal to 160 acres for each person who
may so elect to reside therein, provided that the part of said district
north of Arkansas River shall not be set apart until the Canadian
district shall be found insufficient to allow 160 acres to each person
desiring to settle under the terms of this article.
5. The inhabitants electing to reside in the district described in
the preceding article shall have the right to elect all their local
officers and judges, also their proportionate share of delegates in
any general council that may be established under the twelfth article
of this treaty; to control all their local affairs in a manner not
inconsistent with the constitution of the Cherokee Nation or the
laws of the United States, provided the Cherokees residing in said
district shall enjoy all the rights and privileges of other Cherokees
who may elect to settle in said district as herein before provided,
and shall hold the same rights and privileges and be subject to the
same liabilities as those who elect to settle in said district under
the provisions of this treaty; provided, also, that if any rules be
adopted which, in the opinion of the President, bear oppressively on
any citizen of the nation he may suspend the same. And all rules or
regulations discriminating against the citizens of other districts are
prohibited and shall be void.
6. The inhabitants of the aforesaid district shall be entitled to
representation in the national council in proportion to their numbers.
All laws shall be uniform throughout the nation. The President of the
United States is empowered to correct any evil arising from the unjust
or unequal operation of any Cherokee law and to secure an equitable
expenditure of the national funds.
7. A United States court shall be created in the Indian Territory;
until created, the United States district court nearest the Cherokee
Nation shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of all causes, civil
and criminal, between the inhabitants of the aforesaid district and
other citizens of the Cherokee Nation. All process issued in said
district against a Cherokee outside of said district shall be void
unless indorsed by the judge of the district in which the process is to
be served. A like rule shall govern the service of process issued by
Cherokee officers against persons residing in the aforesaid district.
Persons so arrested shall be held in custody until delivered to the
United States marshal or until they shall consent to be tried by the
Cherokee court. All provisions of this treaty creating distinctions
between citizens of any district and the remainder of the Cherokee
Nation shall be abrogated by the President whenever a majority of the
voters of such district shall so declare at an election duly ordered by
him. No future law or regulation enacted in the Cherokee Nation shall
take effect until ninety days after promulgation in the newspapers or
by written posted notices in both the English and Cherokee languages.
8. No license to trade in the Cherokee Nation shall be granted by the
United States unless approved by the Cherokee national council, except
in the districts mentioned in article 4.
9. The Cherokee Nation covenant and agree that slavery shall never
hereafter exist in the nation. All freedmen, as well as all free
colored persons resident in the nation at the outbreak of the rebellion
and now resident therein or who shall return within six months and
their descendants, shall have all the rights of native Cherokees.
Owners of emancipated slaves shall never receive any compensation
therefor.
10. All Cherokees shall have the right to sell their farm produce, live
stock, merchandise, or manufactures, and to ship and drive the same to
market without restraint, subject to any tax now or hereafter levied by
the United States on the quantity sold outside of the Indian Territory.
11. The Cherokee Nation grant a right of way 200 feet in width through
their country to any company authorized by Congress to construct a
railroad from north to south and from east to west through the Cherokee
Nation. The officers, employés, and laborers of such company shall be
protected in the discharge of their duties while building or operating
said road through the nation and at all times shall be subject to the
Indian intercourse laws.
12. The Cherokees agree to the organization of a general council, to be
composed of delegates elected to represent all the tribes in the Indian
Territory, and to be organized as follows: