In addition to the provision contained in the treaty of 1866 concerning
the location of _civilized_ Indians east of 96°, the sixteenth article
of that treaty made further provision enabling the United States to
locate _friendly_ tribes on Cherokee lands west of that meridian. The
conditions of this concession were that any tracts selected for such
location should be in compact form and in quantity not exceeding 160
acres for each member of the tribe so located, and that the boundaries
of the tracts should be surveyed and marked and should be conveyed in
fee simple to the tribes respectively located thereon. It was further
stipulated that the price to be paid for the lands so set apart should
be such as might be agreed upon between the Cherokees and the immigrant
tribes, subject to the approval of the President of the United States,
who, in case of a disagreement between the parties in interest, was
authorized to fix the value.
_Osages._--The treaty of September 29, 1865,[634] with the Osages,
having in view the possibility of some early arrangement whereby the
Kansas tribes might be removed to Indian Territory, made provision
that in case such a removal of the Osages should take place their
remaining lands in Kansas should be disposed of and 50 per cent. of the
proceeds might be applied to the purchase of their new home. Nothing
was done in the line of carrying out this idea until the spring of
1868, when, in reply[635] to a communication from the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs on the subject, the Cherokee delegation asserted
the willingness of their nation to dispose of a tract for the future
home of the Osages not exceeding 600,000 acres in extent and lying
west of 96°, provided a reasonable price could be agreed upon for
the same. A few weeks later[636] a treaty was concluded between the
United States and the Osages, which made provision for setting apart
a tract for their occupation in the district of country in question,
but the treaty failed of ratification. The necessity for their removal
from Kansas, however, increased in correspondence with the demands
of advancing settlements, and Congress, by an act approved July 15,
1870,[637] provided that, whenever the Osages should give their
assent, a tract should be set apart for their permanent occupancy in
the Indian Territory equal in extent to 160 acres for each member of
the tribe who should remove there. For this tract they were to pay a
price not exceeding that paid by the United States, the cost to be
defrayed out of the proceeds arising from the sale of their Kansas
lands. The assent of the Osages to the provisions of this act was
promptly secured through the medium of a commission consisting of J.
V. Farwell, J. D. Lang, and Vincent Colyer, of the President's Board
of Indian Commissioners. A tract was selected in the Cherokee country
immediately west of 96°, as was supposed, and the Osages were removed
to it. Their condition was for a time, however, most unsatisfactory.
Many trespassers were found to be upon the lands selected for them.
To crown this trouble, a new survey located the line of the 96th
meridian a considerable distance to the west of what had previously
been presumed its proper location. This survey deprived the Osages of
the greater part of the tillable land upon which they had settled and
included the most valuable of their improvements. To a proposition
allowing the Osages to retain the lands thus found to be east of 96°,
the Cherokees returned an emphatic refusal, on the ground that the
former were not "civilized Indians."[638] Another subject of annoyance
was the inability of the Osages and Cherokees to agree upon a price
for the lands selected by the former. The matter was therefore laid
before the President, who, by executive order,[639] fixed the price to
be paid at 50 cents per acre. To this action the Cherokees strenuously
objected, urging that not only was the price too low, but that a
uniform valuation ought to be fixed for all the Cherokee lands west
of 96°.[640] To remedy the evils arising from these complications,
legislation was asked of Congress approving a new selection for
the Osages, and, by act approved June 5, 1872,[641] such selection
was affirmed (the previous consent of the Cherokees having been
obtained),[642] to include the tract of country "bounded on the east by
the 96th meridian, on the south and west by the north line of the Creek
country and the main channel of the Arkansas River, and on the north by
the south line of the State of Kansas."
_Kansas or Kaws._--This act contained a proviso that the Osages should
permit the settlement within the limits of this tract of the Kansas
or Kaw tribe of Indians, and a reservation was accordingly set off
for them in the northwest corner, bounded on the west by the Arkansas
River. The area of the country thus assigned to the Kaws was 100,137
acres, and of that portion intended for the occupation of the Osages
1,470,059 acres.[643]
The question of the future location of these Indians having been
definitely settled, it only remained for an agreement to be reached
concerning the price to be paid to the Cherokees for the tract so
purchased. The value fixed by the President on the tract originally
selected was considered as having no application to the lands set apart
by the act of 1872. As in the first instance no agreement was reached
between the Osages and Cherokees, and the President was again called
on to establish the price. This he did, after much discussion of the
subject, on the 14th of February, 1873. The price fixed was 70 cents
per acre, and applied to the "Kaw reserve" as well as to that of the
Osages.
_Pawnees._--In further pursuance of the privilege accorded by the
treaty of 1866, the Pawnee tribe has also been located on Cherokee
lands west of 96°. The Pawnees are natives of Nebraska, and possessed
as the remnant of their original domain a reservation on the Platte
River, in that State. Their principal reliance as a food supply had
been the buffalo, though to a very limited extent they cultivated corn
and vegetables.
For two years prior to 1874, however, their efforts in the chase were
almost wholly unrewarded, and during the summer of that year their
small crops were entirely destroyed by the ravages of the grasshoppers.
The winter and spring of 1874-'75 found them, to the number of about
three thousand, in a starving condition. In this dilemma they held a
council and voted to remove to Indian Territory, asking permission
at the same time to send the male portion of the tribe in advance to
select a home and to break the necessary ground for planting crops.
They also voted a request that the United States should proceed to
sell their reserve in Nebraska, and thus secure funds for their proper
establishment in the Indian Territory. Permission was granted them in
accordance with their request, and legislation was asked of Congress
to enable the desired arrangement to be carried into effect. Congress
failed to take any action in relation to the subject during the session
ending March 3, 1875. It therefore became necessary to feed the Pawnees
during the ensuing season.[644]
The following year, by an act approved April 10,[645] Congress provided
for the sale of the Pawnee lands in Nebraska, as a means of securing
funds for their relief and establishment in their new home, the
boundaries of which are therein described. It consists of a tract of
country in the forks of the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers comprising an
area of 283,020 acres. Of this tract, 230,014 acres were originally a
portion of the Cherokee domain west of 96° and were paid for at the
rate of 70 cents per acre. The remainder was ceded to the United States
by the Creek treaty of 1866.
_Appraisal of the lands west of 96°._--By the 5th section of the
Indian appropriation act of May 29, 1872,[646] the President of the
United States was authorized to cause an appraisement to be made of
that portion of the Cherokee lands lying west of 96° west longitude
and west of the Osage lands, or, in other words, all of the Cherokee
lands lying west of the Arkansas River and south of Kansas mentioned
in the 16th article of the Cherokee treaty of July 19, 1866. No
appropriation, however, was made to defray the expense of such an
appraisal, and in consequence no steps were taken toward a compliance
with the terms of the act. This legislation was had in deference to the
long continued complaints of the Cherokees that the United States had,
without their consent, appropriated to the use of other tribes a large
portion of these lands, for which they (the Cherokees) had received no
compensation. The history of these alleged unlawful appropriations of
the Cherokee domain may be thus briefly summarized:
1. By treaty of October 18, 1865,[647] with the Kiowas and Comanches,
the United States set apart for their use and occupancy an immense
tract of country, which in part included all of the Cherokee country
west of the Cimarron River. No practical effect, however, was given to
the treaty, because the United States had not at this time acquired any
legal right to settle other tribes on the lands of the Cherokees and
because of the fact that two years later[648] a new reservation was by
treaty provided for the Kiowas and Comanches, no portion of which was
within the Cherokee limits.
2. By the treaty of October 28, 1867,[649] with the Southern Cheyennes
and Arapahoes the United States undertook to set apart as a reservation
for their benefit all the country between the State of Kansas and
the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers. The bulk of this tract was within
Cherokee limits west of 96°. As a matter of fact, however, the
Cheyennes and Arapahoes could not be prevailed upon to take possession
of this tract, and were finally, by Executive order,[650] located on
territory to the southwest and entirely outside the Cherokee limits.
Pursuant to the act of May 29, 1872,[651] the Commissioner of Indian
Affairs negotiated an agreement with the Southern Cheyennes and
Arapahoes in the following autumn[652] by which they ceded to the
United States all interest in the country set apart by the treaty of
1867, and accepted in lieu thereof a reserve which included within its
limits a portion of the Cherokee domain lying between the Cimarron
River and the North Fork of the Canadian.
This agreement with the Southern Cheyennes and Arapahoes not having
been ratified by Congress, an agreement was concluded late in the
following year[653] by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs with both
the Cheyennes and the Arapahoes, whereby they jointly ceded the tract
assigned them by the treaty of 1867, as well as all other lands to
which they had any claim in Indian Territory, in consideration of which
the United States agreed to set apart other lands in that Territory for
their future home.
Like its predecessor, this agreement also failed of ratification by
Congress, and the Indians affected by it still occupy the tract set
apart by Executive order of 1869.
In the light of these facts it appears that although the United States
made several attempts, without the knowledge or concurrence of the
Cherokees, to appropriate portions of the latter's domain to the use
of other tribes, yet as a matter of fact these tribes never availed
or attempted to avail themselves of the benefits thus sought to be
secured to them, and the Cherokees were not deprived at any time of
an opportunity to sell any portion of their surplus domain for the
location of other friendly tribes.
By a clause contained in the sundry civil appropriation act of July
31, 1876,[654] provision was made for defraying the expenses of the
commission of appraisal contemplated by the act of 1872, and the
Secretary of the Interior appointed[655] such a commission, consisting
of Thomas V. Kennard, Enoch H. Topping, and Thomas E. Smith. Before
the completion of the duties assigned them, Mr. Kennard resigned and
William N. Wilkerson was appointed[656] to succeed him. The commission
convened at Lawrence, Kansas, and proceeded thence to the Cherokee
country, where they began the work of examination and appraisal. Their
final report was submitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs
under date of December 12, 1877. From this report it appears that the
commissioners in fixing their valuations adopted as the standard of
their appraisal one-half the actual value of the lands, on the theory
that being for Indian occupancy and settlement only they were worth
only about half as much as they would have been if open to entry and
settlement by the white people.
The entire tract, including the Pawnee reserve, contains 6,574,576.05
acres, and was appraised at an average valuation of 41-1/4 cents
per acre. The average valuation placed upon the Pawnee reserve
separately was 59 cents per acre, leaving the average of the remaining
6,344,562.01 acres 40.47 cents per acre.
To this standard of appraisal the Cherokees strenuously objected as
being most unfair and unjust to them, claiming that the same measure
of value used by the United States in rating its lands of a similar
character in the adjoining State of Kansas, and from which they were
separated only by an imaginary line, should prevail in determining the
price to be paid for the Cherokee lands.
The Secretary of the Interior, after a careful examination of the whole
subject, was of the opinion[657] that the restriction placed upon the
use of these lands (being limited to Indian occupancy only) did not
warrant a reduction of 50 per cent. in an appraisal of their value.
The price paid by the Osages for their reserve was 70 cents per acre.
The Pawnee tract was of about the same general character as that of
the Osages, and there seemed to be no good reason why the same price
should not be allowed to the Cherokees therefor. This Pawnee tract was
appraised by the commissioners at 59 cents per acre. As the appraisal
of the whole unoccupied country west of 96° was made by the same
appraisers and upon the same basis, if an increase was determined upon
in the case of the Pawnee tract from 59 to 70 cents per acre, it was
only just that a proportionate increase above the appraised value of
the remainder of the lands should also be allowed. This would give
an increase for the latter from 40.47 cents to 47.49 per acre. The
adoption of this standard was therefore recommended to the President
and was by him approved and ratified.[658]
In addition to the Osages, Kansas, and Pawnees there have been removed
to the Cherokee lands west of 96° the Poncas, a portion of the Nez
Percés, and the Otoes and Missourias.
_Poncas._--An appropriation of $25,000 was made by act of Congress
approved August 15, 1876,[659] for the removal of the Poncas, whenever
their assent should be obtained. After much trouble and a threatened
resort to military force, their assent to remove to the Indian
Territory was secured in the beginning of 1877.[660] They came overland
from Nebraska in two different parties and encountered great hardships,
but finally reached the Territory, where they were temporarily located
on the northeast portion of the Quapaw reserve, a few miles from Baxter
Springs, Kansas.[661]
They were not satisfied with the location, which was in many
respects unsuitable, especially in view of its proximity to the
white settlements. They were, therefore, permitted to make another
selection, which they did in the Cherokee country, on the west bank of
the Arkansas, including both banks of the Salt Fork at its junction
with the parent stream. To this new home they removed in 1878,[662]
but it was not until 1881[663] that Congress made an appropriation out
of which to pay the Cherokees for the land so occupied. This tract
embraces 101,894.31 acres, for which the price of 47.49 cents per acre,
fixed by the President, was paid.
_Nez Percés._--The Nez Percés, previously alluded to, are the remnant
of Chief Joseph's band, who surrendered to General Miles in 1877.
They were at first removed from the place of their surrender to
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where they arrived in November of that
year as prisoners of war, to the number of 431. Congress having
made provision[664] for their settlement in the Indian Territory, a
reservation was selected for them on both sides of the Salt Fork of
the Arkansas. To this tract, which adjoined the Poncas on the west,
they removed in the summer of 1879,[665] having in the mean time lost a
large number by death, the mortality being occasioned in great measure
by their unsanitary location while at Fort Leavenworth. The reserve
selected for them contains 90,735 acres and was paid for at the same
price as that of the Poncas.
_Otoes and Missourias._--By act of March 3, 1881,[663] provision was
also made for the removal of the Otoes and Missourias to the Indian
Territory and for the sale of their lands in Nebraska.
A reservation was accordingly selected for them, west of the Arkansas
River and south of the Ponca Reserve, to which they were removed in the
autumn of the same year[666]. It contains 129,113.20 acres and was paid
for at the same rate as that of the Poncas and Nez Percés.[667]