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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 33 The Indians at present located in the Indian Territory-an extensive district, bounded north by Kansas, east by Missouri and Arkansas, south by Texas, and west by the one hundredth meridian, designated by the commissioners appoiuted nnder act of Congress July 20,lS67, to establish peace with certain hostile tribes, as one of two great Tem-tories, (the other being, in the main, the present Territory of Dakota, west of the Missouri,) upon which might be concentrated the great body of all the Indians east of the Rocky mountain^, are the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Se~uinoles, Senecas, Shaw-ne. es, Qua.pa,ws, Ottawas of Blanchard's Pork and Roche de Bceuf, Pe-o~ ias aud confederated Kaekaskias, Weas and Piankeshaws, Wyan-clotts, Pottawatomies, Sacs and Foxes of the Mississippi, Osages, Kiowas, Comanches, the Arapahoes and Cheyennes of the south, the Wichitas and other affiliated bauds, and a small band of Apaches long oonfederated with the Kiowas aud Comanches. Cherokees.-The Cherokees number, according to the census for 187?, furnished by their agent, 18,000. In the report for 1871 the agent estl-mated the number at 14,682, and stated that if the Cherokees rea~aio-i n e in North Carolina and other States were gathered into the nation tb;; lool~~l.itiowno oid t1tt.n he lli,50ll. Re doeJ';~otn ow account f i l l . t b v l a ~ g rin crcaue over the e ~ ~ n ~ n r r ; rtotri ol~h7~1, \vl~irll~l~ t:st II~.d ue to H gross error in one report or the other. The Cherokees occupy a reser-vation of 3.844,712 acres in the northeastern part of the Territory, lying east of the 960 west longitude. They also own a strip about fifty miles wide adjoining Kansas on the s ~ t han, d exteuding *om the Arkansas River west to the 1000 west longitude. Bv the treatv of 1866.I1owe1.t.r. I the Uniwtl Stattbs 111ays errle fi:iel~,lly1 nsfiu11si i t l ~ i ;r he lildits of t& latter tract, :1n11 !vller~ s11(511 sertlcn~enrsa re ll~ndrtl ~crigl~rovt' the Cllctr. okws 10 rllr lauds 81) OC CUI ) I P ~ ferlni~~ilteth. e li:llds thus di81,osrd ot' to be paid. for to the CberCkeeNation at such price as maybe agreed upon by the parties in interest, or as may be fixed by the President. That portion of country lying betweeu the 960 vest longitude on the east, the Arkansas River on the west and south, and the State of Kansas on the north, formerly owned by the Cherokees, has been sold to the Osages. The Cherokees originally inhabited sections of country now em-braced withill the State of Georgia and portions of the States of Ten-nessee and North Carolina, and moved to their present location under the provisions of the treaties concluded with them in 1817 and 1835. They have their own written language, their nationa,l constitution and laws, t,heir churches, schools, and academies, their judges and courts. They are emphatically an agricultural and stock-raising people, and, perhaps, of all the Indian tribes, great and small, are first in general intelligence, in the acquisition of wealth, in the knowledge of the useful arts, and in social aud moral jJrogress. The evidences of a real and snbstantlal advancement in these respects are too clear to be questioned, and it is the more remarkable from the fact that but a few years since they were, as a people, almost ruined by the ravages of civil war. Their dwellings consist of 500 timshouses, and 3,5UO log-houses. Of the principal crops, they have raised during the year 2,925,000 bushels of corn, 97,500 bushels of wheat. about the same quantity of oats, and 80,000 bushels of potatoes. Their stock consists of 16,000 horses, 75,000 cattle, 160,000 bogs, and 9,000 sheep. The individual wealth is estimated at $4,995,000. 3 I A |