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Show REPOR'P OF THECOMMISSIONER OF INDIAB AFFAIRS. LV On the completion of the survey in 1871 (in which Prederic W. Bard-well, esq., was employed by the contractor to assist in the review of the survey and in the computations of the area of the country as well as in the definite location of the line of division), which was approved by the department February 5, 1872, it was f o ~ ~ nthda t nea#rlya ll the exteusive improvements which the Seminoles had made since their set-tlement. thereon, together with the agency buildings, were east of the true divisional line and, consequently, upon Creek lantls. As soon as this was definitely determined, the Creeks claimed, andbegan to exer-cise, jurisdiction over the country occupied by the Seminoles; and the Seminoles, fearing the loss of their improvements and lands, appealed to the government for protection and relief, whence has arisen a ques-tion wLich, though it ha,s been the subject of much correspondence and negotiation, still remains unsettled and as difficult of solution as ever. Under an act of Congress, approved %larch 3; 1873, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with the Creek Indians for the cession of a portion of their reservation, occupied by friendly Ir~dians (17 Stat., p. 686), a commission, consisting of Supt. Enoch Hoag, Judge Thomm C. Jones, and John M. Millikin, esq., n.as sent to that country to negotiate and arrange with said tribes for a final and permanent adjustment of the boundaries of their reservations, but with frnit-less results. The Creeks were unwilling to part with any more of their lands, but were willing to incorporate the whole Seminole tribe into their nation, which proposition received no consideration whatever from the Seminoles who had been settled thereon by the United States. In 1875, Hon. J. P. 0. Shanks was commissioned to visit and negotiate with the Creeks for the cession of these lands and authori~eitio offert he snm of one dollar per acre for all their lands in the possession of t.he Seminole Nation; but this offer was accepted only upon the condition of the settlement of all their o~itstandiugc laims against the government. Subsequently, however, the Creek council appointed a committee to negotiate for the sale of the Seminole tract upon such terms as would "give the best satisfaction ~LI the Muskogee peoplen, with instructions to report their negotiations to the next annual session of the na,tional ctouncil for its approval or rejection. The Creek delegation, in Febru-ary last, signified through the department their willingness to sell to the United States, for t,he use of the Seminoles, 175,000 acres of their land, lying east of the divisional line and embracing the land occupied by the Seminoles, at the rate of one dollar per acre, in fill1 settlement of all differences and demands on the United States growing out of the question of Seminole occupation of their lauds. The improvements of the Seminoles are not confined to anypartiou. lar portion of the reservation m first defined by Mr. Rankin, but extend over the whole, from the eastern boundary located by him in his first survey to the eastern boundary as located by him in 1871, and reaching from the north fork of the Camdian River, on the north, to the main |
