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Show 22 REPORT OF THE COMMISBIONER. OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. of the neiotiatious an agreement was concluded on the 9th day of Sep-t'ember following, whereby the Indians agreed to sell a considerable portion of their reservation (in the northern part), valuable chiefly for minerals aud timber, and embracing by far the greater portion of the navigable waters of the reservation. The terms agreed upon are re-garded by the commissioners as reasonable and just alike to the Indians and the Government. The agreement and the report of the eommission will be submitted to the Department at an early day for transmittal to Congress. . Indian Territory.-In accordance with the provisions of section 14 of the Indian appropriation act of March 2,1889 (25 Stat., 1005), Hon. Lucius Fairchild, Hon. J. F. Hartranfc, and A. H. Wilson, esq., were appointed by the President a commission to <'negotiate with the Cherokee Indians, and with all other Indians owning or claiming lands lying west of the niuety-sixth degree of longitude in theIndian Ter-ritory,. for the cessiou to the United Statea of all their title, claim, or interest of every kind or character in and to said lauds." Upon the reokipt of its instructions this commission prooeeded'to the Indian Territory, and in a letter of August 2,1889, to Hou. J. B. Mayes, principal chief Cherokee Nation, submitted the proposition.. authorized by the act '6 that the said uatiod shall cede to the Dnited States, in the manner aud with the effect aforesaid, all the rights of maid nation" in the lands of that nation lying west of the uiuety-sixth degreeof longitude iu the Indian Territory, and known as the (!berokee Outlet '' upon the same terms as to payment as is provided in the agree. ment made with the Creek Indians, of date January 19,le89." The com-mission also bendered $1.25 per acre to the. said nation for all the lands embraoed in the said 6' Cherokee Outlet," the sums heretofore paid by the United Statea to be deducted from the totat amonnt foo-nd to be due therefor at the rate aforesaid. Mr. Mayes, by letter of August 12,1889, replying tq this proposition, declined to convene the Cherokee Council in special session, for the rea-son, as stated by him, that suoh action could not facilitate the matter, . as he claims that the constitution of the Cherokee Nation will.have to be amended hefore any proposition to sell any part of the Cherokee eonntry can be entertained. Copj of the correspondence between the commission and Mr. Mayes hag been filed, and the said 'commission has suspended negotiations until such sime as the Cherokee Council shall have convened in regular session, when negotiations will be resumed. Red Pipestone Resereation. in. Minuesota.-The mt of March 2,1889 (25 Stat., 1012);~entitled '<An act for the disposition of the agricultural lands embraced within the limits of the Pipestone Indian Reservation in Minnesota," directed the Secretary of the Interior to appoint three diiereet persons, at least one of whom shall be a resident and free-holdet in the Stateof Minnesota, to appraise the actual value of the |
