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Show 1111 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. As these Northern Cheyenues.have always live11 in the North among the Sioux, and will advance much more rapidly than if compelled to remain in Indian Territory, I respectfully recommend that provision be made to permit them to rejoiu th.eir relatives. FREEDMEN IN CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW NATlONS. The third article of the Choctaw and Chiclrasaw treaty of April 28, 1866 (14 Stat., p. 769), provides that the sum of $300,000, which was the consideration for the cession to t,he United States of their territory , west of 980, known as the " leased district''- Shell be invested sod held by the United States, at an interest not less than 5 per cent., in truat for the ssid nations. until the legislhtnres of the Choet,aw sod Chiokasitw Nations, raspectivaly, shall have made such laws, rulea, and regnletions as may be neces-ssrp to give all persons oE African descent resident in the enid nstionsat the date of the treaty of Fort rJmith,and their desoendeots, heretofore held in slsvery among said nations, all the rights,prisileges, and immuoities,inclndiog the right of snffrage, af aitizens of ssid nationa,ercept in the annuities, moneys, aod public domain claimed by,or belonging to, ssid nations, respectively,and elso to give to aooh persOnEwh0 vere residents sa aforesaid, and their descendants, forty acres eaoh of the land of said nations on the same terms sa the Choctaws and Chioksssws, tq be selectad on the sur-vey of said laud, after the Choctaws and Chiokassws and Icansas Indians have made. their selections, as herein prorided. * * * On the enaotment of snoh laws, rules, sod regulatioos, the said sntn of three hundred thousand dollars shall be paid to the Choctaw and Chickssaw Nations, * * * lass such sam, st the rate of one hnn-dred dollsrs psr capita, as shall be suBcient to pay such persons of African deffiput before referror1 to as, within ninety days after the passage of 8och 1 ~ ~ru8le,s, and reguletionq shall elect to remove sod actt~sligre move from the nstiooq respeotively. The said article furt,her provides that : Sl~ooldt he said laws, rules, and regulstions not be made by the legislatures of the said nnstioa8, respectively, within twogears from the ratification of this treaty, then the soid auan of three hondred thousand dollars shall Geese to be held in trust for the said Cliootrvv and Chickasaw Nations, and be held for the nss and benefit of such of said persous of African descent as the United States shall remove from the said Terri-tory in suoh msuuer as the United States shell deem proper; the United States agree-ing, within ninety days fmm the expiration of the said two years, to remove from said nations all sooh persona of Afrioan descent as may be willingto remove; those remain-ing or returning after hsvioq been removed from said nationa to have no benefit of said eutn of three hundred thousand dollars,or an? part thereof, but shall be upon the same footing as other citiaeus of the United States in the said nations. The fourth article of this treaty defines the rights' of freedmen in said nations, and the forty-sixth article provides how the money due the India.11~un cler this treaty shall be paid. In fulfillment of these treaty stipulatious,Congress, by act of July 26, 1866, appropriated $200,000 of the $300,000 to be advanced to these Indians, as provided in said forty-sixth article, and by the same act, and by the act, of April 10, 1869, $30,000 was appropriated as interest on the aforesaid fund of $300,000, when two-thirds of the fund had been advanced and paid over to the proper authorities of said nations, and that, too, before a step had been taken by said I~idiansto comply |
