OCR Text |
Show CHEROKEE FREEDMEN, DELAWARES AND SHAWNEES. By t.he fifteenth article of the Cherokee treaty of Jiily 19,1866 (14 Stats., p. 803), it was stipulated that- The United States may aettle any civilized Indians, friendly with the Cherokees and adjacent tribes, within the Cherokee oountry, on unoccupied lands east of 960, on euchterms as may be agreed upon by any such tribe and the Cherokees, subject to the approval of the President of the United Statoa, which shsll be consistent with the following provisions, viz: Should any snob tribe or band of Indians settling in said country ahandon their tribal organization, there boiug first paidinto the Chero-kee nationsd fund a sum of money which shsll sustain the same proportion to the then existingn%tionalfund that thenumber of Indians sustrsin to the whole number of Cherokees then residing in the Cherokee conntry, they shall be incorporated into and ever after remain s. part of the Cherokee Nation, on equal termsio everyrespect with native oitieens. In pursuance of this treaty stipulation, the Cherokee Nation, through its duly authorized delegates, entered into an agreemnnt on the 8th day of April, 1867, with certain delegates for and on behalf of the Delaware tribe of Indians, whereby the Delawares should thus become incorporated into the CherokeeNation, on fulfillment of the stipulations contained in the agreement, and the children thereafter born of such Delawares so incorporated into the Cherokee Nat~on should in all respects be regarded as native Cherokees. This agreement was approved by President Jobnson April 11,1867. A similar agreement was entered into between the Cherokees and Shawnees June 7,1869, and the agreement was approved by President Grant June 9,1869. By the ninth article of the aforesaid Cherokee treaty, it was further agreed- That all freedmen who have been liberated by volnntary act of their former owners, or by law, 3s well as a11 free colored peraonn who were in the c o ~ ~ n tar yt t he corn-mencement of the rebellion, md areanow residents therein, or who may return within six months, and their desoendsnts, shall have all the rights of native Chero-kees: Prarided, That owner8 of slaves so elnnncipated in the Cherokee Nation shall never reoeive any compensation or pay for the slaves so emancipated. By the sundry civil appropriation act approved Masch 3, 1883 (22 Stats., p. 624), Congress appropriated $300,000 to be paid into the treasury of the Cherokee Nation out of the funds due under appraise-ment of Cherokee lands west of the Arkansas River, which sum was to be expended a8 the acts of the Ohervkee legislature should direct under certain conditions and provisions named in the appropriation, which were oompliedwith. This money, or such portion thereof aswas paidout, was paid per capita to citizens of Cherokee blood only. By a.ct of October 19,1888 (25 Stats., p. 608), Congress appropriated $75,000 of theCherokee funds to secure to the Cherokee Freedmen, Delawares, and Shawnees their proportiou of the proceeds of the Cherokee lands west of the Arkansas River referred to in the act of March 3,1883. 5069 1 A-6 |