ROYCE. ] TREATY OF MAY 6, 1828. 247 
finally ascertained how much land the Cherokees were entitled to receive 
from the United States in pursuance of the treaties of 1817 and 1819. 
Negotiation and conclusion of treaty of 1828.—Matters remained thus in 
statu quo until the spring of 1828, when a delegation of the Western 
Cherokees arrived in Washington, clothed with authority to present to 
the attention of the President their numerous grievances and to adjust 
all matters in dispute for their people. The burden of their complaints 
had relation to the delays that had occurred in fixing their boundaries; 
to the failure to secure to them the promised ‘“‘ western outlet;” to the 
adjustment of the hostilities that continued to exist between themselves 
and the Osages; and to the irregularity in the receipt of their annuities, 
as well as to the encroachments of white settlers.! 
The delegation were not clothed with authority to negotiate for any 
cession or exchange of territory, the ‘‘ perpetual law ” against entertain- 
ing such a proposition being stillin force among them. Notwithstand- 
ing this fact, a communication was addressed to them from the War 
Department? desiring to be advised if they had any objection to open- 
ing negotiations upon a basis of an exchange of land for territory west 
of the west boundary of Arkansas, provided that boundary should be 
removed a distance of 40 miles to the east, so as to run from Fort 
Smith to the southwest corner of the State of Missouri, and also that 
the Creeks should be removed from their location above the Falls of 
Verdigris River to territory within the forks of the Canadian and Ar- 
kansas Rivers. To this proposal the delegation returned a polite but 
tletermined refusal, and demanded that the actual number of acres to 
which they were entitled in Arkansas be ascertained and laid off with 
exact definiteness. The whole subject of an exchange of lands was 
thereupon submitted by the Secretary of War to the President for his 
direction, and it was announced® to the visiting delegation that the 
President had concluded to order a permanent western line to be run, 
within which. should be embraced the full quantity of land to which 
they were entitled, and which was found to be, as nearly as. possible, 
as follows:4 

Acres. 
In lieu of quantity ceded in Georgia (actual survey)....-...---..----.---- 824, 384 
In lieu of quantity ceded in Alabama (actual survey) .---.- Seeoeciusasis 738, 560 
In lieu of quantity ceded in Tennessee (actual survey) ..--. .-..--------- 1, 024, 000 
In lieu of quantity ceded in North Carolina (survey 70,000, estimate 630,000). 700, 000 
3, 286, 944 
Less 12 miles square, school reservation in Alabama ....-.-......-.--.---- 92, 160 

3, 194, 784 
' Letter of T. L. McKenney to Secretary of War, March 18, 1228. 
2 March 27, 1828. 
8 April 11, 1828. 
*The areas here given by the State authorities were largely below the quantity 
actually contained within the limits of the cessions within the States of Georgia, North 
Carolina, and Tennessee, as will be seen by a glance at the table of such areas on 
page 3ic.- 



