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Show 32 REPORT OF THE OOMMISBIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. INDIAN TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS. The question is frequently asked "How many treaties have been made with the Indian tribes in the United States and ratified bfthe Senate?" Senate Executive Document 9'5, Forty-eighth Congress, second session, page 133, gives the total number of treaties from 1775 to 1871 as 645, including a treaty made with the Six Nations, August 25, 1775, and ten others made prior to the Federal Constitution going into effect 1789. The-annual report of this Office for 1881 iu cited as authority, but in tbat report the list of treaties was arranged alpha-beticallj- by tribes which often duplicated the treaty reference. With-out noticing this the entire list mas wunted. I have caused a careful count to be made and find that the number of treaties made with the Indians and ratified by the Senate, including he ''Fort Laramie" treaty of September 17,1851, is only 370. These treaties may be found in the United States Statutes at Large, as follows: Volume 7 .................. 236 Tro1ume 13. ................. 7 Volume 9 .................. 1 5 Volume14 .................. 27 Volume 10.. ............... 28 Volume 15. ................. 15 Volume 11 ................. 12 Volume 16.. ......... .:.. ... 3 Volume 12 ................. 24 Volume 1 8 . . ................ 2 This list omits the Fort Laramie treaty of September, 1851, because it never was printed in the Statutes; but this treaty, made with tbe Sioux, Assiniboin, Blackfeet, Grosventre, Mandan, Arickara, Crow, Cheyenne, and Arapaho, was one of the most important ever made, as it fixed and determined by definite boundaries the countries claimed by each of these tribes, some of the most numerous and powerful in the-country. This treaty was amended by the Senate, and the treaty as amended was agreed to by every tribe participating therein except the Crow, and yet has never been printed in the United States Statutes. It is recognized in the first article of the Yankton Sioux treaty of April 19, 1858 (11 Stats., p. 744), and frequent appro-. priations of money by Congress have been made under it. The full . text of the treaty is printed in Compilation of Laws relating to Indian Affairs, published by this Office in 1883, p. 317.a The original treaty is on file in this Office (Upper Platte, I, 206,1853). Another treaty, made September 23, 1805, with the Sioux was also never printed in the United States Statutes at Lrtrge. It was sub-mitted by the President to the Senate March 29, 1808. The Senate committee reported favorably on the 13th of April with an amendment. In its amended form the Senate on the 16th of April, 1808, consented to its ratification by a unanimous vote. An examination of the records of the Skate Department by Mr. C. C. Royce, of the Bureau of Eth-l a It may also be found in Senate Compilation of Indian Treaties, page.440. See also, I note in 11 Stats., page 749. |