234 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
hands, had been published in great profusion by the Georgians. These 
served only to enhance the difficulties of the situation and to excite a 
stubborn resistance in the minds of the Indians against any further 
cessions of territory. 
Report of Congressional committee—The subject was brought to the 
attention of Congress through the action of the governor and legislature 
of Georgia. A select committee was appointed by the House of Rep- 
resentatives, at the first session of the Seventeenth Congress, to take the 
matter into consideration and to report whether the said articles of 
agreement between that State and the United States had so far been 
executed according to the terms thereof, and what were the best means 
of completing the execution of the same. This committee submitted a 
report to the House,! wherein, after reciting the terms of the agreement, 
allusion is made to the Creek treaty of 1814, and the opinion expressed 
that the agreement might have been more satisfactorily complied with 
by demanding the cession at that treaty of the Creek lands within 
Georgia’s limits, instead of accepting in large measure those within the 
Territory of Alabama. The Indians were by this action forced, in the 
opinion of the committee, within the limits of Georgia, instead of being 
withdrawn therefrom. 
Respecting the Cherokee treaty of July 8, 1817, the committee say 
that some time previous to its conclusion the Cherokees had represented 
to the President that their upper and lower towns wished to separate ; 
that the Upper Cherokees desired to be confined to a smaller section of 
country and to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and civilized life; 
that the Lower Cherokees preferred continuing the hunter’s life, and, 
owing to the scarcity of game in their own country, proposed to ex- 
change it for land on the west of the Mississippi River; that to carry 
into effect-these wishes of the Indians the treaty of 1817 was held, and 
the United States then had it in their power to have so far complied 
with their contract with Georgia as to have extinguished the title of 
the Cherokees to most of their lands within the limits of that State; 
that this could readily have been done, for the reason that the Up- 
per Cherokees resided beyond the boundaries of Georgia, and had ex- 
pressed a desire to retain lands on the Hiwassee River, in Tennessee, 
whilst the Lower Cherokees, who were desirous ‘of emigrating west, 
mostly resided in the former State. But, in spite of this opportunity, 
the United States had purchased an inconsiderable tract of country in 
Georgia and a very considerable one in Tennessee, apparently in op- 
position to the wishes of the Indians, the interests of Georgia, and of 
good faith in themselves. By this treaty the United States had also 
granted a reservation of 640 acres to each head of an Indian family 
who should elect to remain on the eastern side of the Mississippi. This 
the committee viewed as an attempt on the part of the United States 
to grant lands in fee simple within the limits of Georgia in direct 

1January 7, 1822. 
