OCR Text |
Show 79 G40 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [KTH.ANN. 18 the states, provided that the legislative right of any state within its own limits bo not infringed or violated." By the proclamation of September 22, 1783, all persons were prohibited " from making settlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians without the limits or jurisdiction of any particular state, and from purchasing or receiving any gift or cession of such lands or claims without the express authority and direction of the United States in Congress assembled." It will be seen from this that the prohibition was not limited to lands in the actual use and possession of and occupied by the Indians, but extended to that claimed by them. It will also be observed that by the Articles of Confederation and as implied in this proclamation (or act of Congress) the sole authority in this respect is limited to "The United States in Congress assembled." Although the theory and policy implied in the prohibitory clause have been maintained under the Constitution, there has been a change as to the " authority " which may act. The clause of the Articles of Confederation was not inserted in the Constitution, either in words or in substance. As power to regulate the commerce with the Indians is the ouly specific mention therein of relations with the natives, the authority to act must be found in this clause, iu that relating to making treaties, aud in the general powers granted to the Congress and the Executive.. . . According to the Annual Keport of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1S90 (page xxix), "From the execution of the first treaty made between the United States and the Indian tribes residing within its limits (September 1.7, 1778, with the Delawares) to the adoption of the act of March 3,1871, that ' no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty,' the United States has pursued a uniform course of extinguishing the Indian title only with the consent of those tribes which were recognized as having claim to the soil by reason of occupancy, such consent being expressed in treaties. . . . Except only in the case of the Sioux Indians in Minnesota, after the outbreak of 1862, the Government has never extinguished an Indian title as by right of conquest; and in this case the Indians were provided with another reservation, and subsequently were paid the net proceeds arising from the sale of the land vacated." |