640 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES [etu.ann. 18 



tlie States, provided that the legislative right of any state within its 

 own limits be not infringed or violated." 



By the i)roclauiHtion of Se[)teniber 22, 1783, all persons were prohib- 

 ited "from making settlements on lands inhabited or claimed by Indians 

 withont the limits or jurisdiction of any particular state, and from j)ur- 

 chasing or receiving any gift or cession of such lands or claims without 

 the express authority and direction of the United States in Congress 

 assembled." It will be seen from this that the prohibition was not lim- 

 ited to lands in the actual use and possession of and occupied by the 

 Indians, but extended to that claimed by them. It will also be observed 

 that by the Articles of Confederation and as implied in this proclama- 

 tion (or act of Congress) the sole authority in this respect is limited to 

 "The United States in Congress assembled." 



Although the theory and policy implied in the prohibitory clause have 

 been maintained under the Constitution, there has been a change as to 

 the " authority " which may act. The clause of the Articles of Confed- 

 eration was not inserted in the Constitution, either in words or in sub- 

 stance. As power to regulate the commerce with the Indians is the 

 only specific mention therein of relations with the natives, the author- 

 ity to act must be found in this clause, in that relating to making 

 treaties, and in the general powers granted to the Congress and the 

 Executive. 



An examination of tlie treaties, agreements, executive orders, acts of 

 Congress, etc, referred to in the schedule which follows, will show that 

 there are various methods of dealing with the Indians in regard to 

 lauds, and that these methods have not been entirely uniform. 



According to the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian 

 Afl'airs for ISOO (page xxix), "From the execution of the first treaty 

 made between the United States and the Indian tribes residing within 

 its limits (September 17, 1778, with the Delawares) to the adoption of 

 the act of March 3, 1871, that ' no Indian nation or tribe within the ter- 

 ritorj'^ of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an 

 inilependent nation, tribe, or power with whom the I'nited States may 

 contract by treaty,' the United States has pursued a uniform course of 

 extinguishing the Indian title only with the consent of those tribes 

 which were recognized as having claim to the soil by reason of occu- 

 pancy, such consent being expressed in treaties. . . . Except only in 

 the case of the Sioirx Indians in Minnesota, after the outbreak of 1862, 

 the Government has never extinguished an Indian title as by right of 

 conquest; and in this case the Indians were provided with another 

 reservation, and subsequently were paid the net proceeds arising from 

 the sale of the land vacated." 



It would appear from this that until March 3, 1871, Indian titles to 

 lands were extinguished only under tlie treaty-making clause of the 

 Constitution. Treaties with Indians, even though the tribe had been 

 reduced to an insignificant band, were usually clothed in all the stately 



