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Show 124 MYTHS OF THE CHEROKEE lETH. ANN. 19 for bringing about a friendly understanding between the two tribes; and for the commutation of all annuities and other sums due from the United States into a permanent national fund, the interest to be placed at the disposal of the officers of the Cherokee Nation and by them disbursed, according to the will of their own people, for the care of schools and orphans, and for general national purposes. The western territory assigned the Cherokee under this treaty was in two adjoining tracts, viz, ( 1) a tract of seven million acres, together with a " perpetual outlet west," already assigned to the western Cherokee under treaty of 1833, as will hereafter be noted, 1 being identical with the present area occupied by the Cherokee Nation in Indian Territory, together with the former " Cherokee strip," with the exception of a two- mile strip along the northern boundary, now included within the limits of Kansas; ( 2) a smaller additional tract of eight hundred thousand acres, running fifty miles north and south and twenty- five miles east and west, in what is now the southeastern corner of Kansas. For this second tract the Cherokoe themselves were to pay the United States five hundred thousand dollars. The treaty of 1833, assigning the first described tract to the western Cherokee, states that the United States agrees to " guaranty it to them forever, and that guarantee is hereby pledged." By the same treaty, " in addition to the seven millions of acres of land thus provided for and bounded, the United States further guaranty to the Cherokee nation a perpetual outlet west and a free and unmolested use of all the country lying west of the western boundary of said seven millions of acres, as far west as the sovereignty of the United States and their right of soil extend . . . and letters patent shall be issued by the United States as soon as practicable for the land hereby guaranteed." All this was reiterated by the present treaty, and made to include also the smaller ( second) tract, in these words: ART. 3. The United States also agree that the lands above ceded by the treaty of February 14, 1833, including the outlet, and those ceded by this treaty, shall all be included in one patent, executed to the Cherokee nation of Indians by the President of the United States, according to the provisions of the act of May 28, 1830. . . . ART. 5. The United States hereby covenant and agree that the lands ceded to the Cherokee nation in the foregoing article shall in no future time, without their consent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any state or territory. But they shall secure to the Cherokee nation the right of their national councils to make and carry into effect all such laws as they may deem necessary for the government and protection of the persons and property within their own country belonging to their people or such persons as have connected themselves with them: Provided always, that they shall not be inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States and such acts of Congress as have been or may be passed regulating trade and Intercourse with the Indians; and also that they shall not be considered as extending to such citizens and army of the United States as may travel or reside in the Indian i See Fort Gibson treaty, 1833, p. 142. |
