804 



TREATIES 



[B. A. 



try had treated with the Indians as ' ' na- 

 tions," their chiefs or sachems often 

 being designated "kings," and this idea, 

 being retained by the founders of our 

 Government, was ingrafted into their 

 policy. Notwithstanding the evident 

 anomaly of such course, this implied 

 equality was recognized in the dealings 

 between the two until the act of Mar. 3, 

 1871. During all this time Indian titles 

 to lands were extinguished only under 

 the treaty-making clause of the Constitu- 

 tion; and these treaties, though the tribe 

 may have been reduced to a small band, 

 were usually clothed in the same stately 

 verbiage as the most important treaty with 

 a great European power. From the execu- 

 tion of the first treaty between the United 



arising from the sale of the land vacated. 

 The right of Congress to abrogate a treaty 

 made with the Indians when public neces- 

 sity or their own welfare required it, has 

 been asserted by the United States Su- 

 preme Court, and this right has been ex- 

 ercised in one or two instances, as in the 

 case of the treaties with the Sisseton and 

 Wahpeton Sioux by act of Feb. 16, 1863, 

 and that of Lone Wolf r. Hitchcock, Sec. 

 Int., in 1903. It was stated by the Indian 

 Office as early as 1890 that the Indian title 

 to all the public domain had then been 

 extinguished, except in Alaska, the por- 

 tion included in 162 reservations, and the 

 lands acquired by the Indians through 

 purchase. As the title to reservations is 

 derived in most cases from the United 



PENN TREATING WITH THE 



indians at shackamaxon, pa., in 1682. 

 Historical Society of Pennsy 



(from 



Painting by benj, 



WEST Owned by the 



States and the Indian tribes residing 

 within its limits (Sept. 17, 1778, with the 

 Delaware?) to the act of Mar. 3, 1871, the 

 Government 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 

 virtue of occupancy, and of settling other 

 affairs with the Indians by means of 

 treaties signed by both parties. Except- 

 ing in the case of the Creeks at the close 

 of the Creek war, in 1814, and in that of 

 the Sioux in Minnesota after the outbreak 

 of 1862, the Government has never extin- 

 guished an Indian title by right of con- 

 quest; and in those cases the Indians were 

 provided with other reservations and 

 were subsequently paid the net proceeds 



States, and title by purchase directly or 

 indirectly from the same source, it may be 

 stated that title to all the public domain 

 except in Alaska had practically been ex- 

 tinguished by treaties previous to Mar. 3, 

 1871, and bv agreements between that 

 date and 1890. 



As the dealings with Indians regarding 

 lands constitute the most important trans- 

 actions with which the Government has 

 been concerned, and those to which most 

 of the treaties relate, the Indian policy of 

 the United States is most clearly shown 

 thereby. By some of the European gov- 

 ernments having American colonies — as, 

 for example, Spain — the Indian claim was 

 recognized only to so much land as was 

 occupied or in use, but it has been usual 



