
ROYCE. ] TREATY OF AUGUST 6, 1846. DLC 
TROPOSED REMOVAL OF TILE CATAWBA INDIANS TO THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY. 
It is perhaps pertinent to remark before proceeding further that by 
the terms of an act of Congress approved July 29, 1848 (United States 
Statutes at Large, Vol. LX, p. 264), an appropriation of $5,000 was made 
to defray the expenses of removing the Catawba Indians from Caro- 
lina to the country west of the Mississippi River, provided their as- 
sent should be obtained, and also conditioned upon success in securing 
a home for them among some other congenial tribe in that region with- 
out cost to the Government. 
These Catawbas were but a miserable remnant of what a century and 
a half earlier had been one of the most powerful and warlike of the 
Southern tribes. They once occupied and controlled a large region of 
country in the two Carolinas, though principally in the Southern prov- 
ince. Their generally accepted western limit was the Catawba River 
and its tributaries, the region between this. river and Broad River 
being usually denominated a neutral hunting ground for both the 
Catawbas and the Cherokees. An enmity of long standing had existed 
between the Catawbas and the Six Nations, and war parties of both 
nations for many years were wont to make long and devastating forays 
into each other’s territory. The casualties of war and the ravages of 
infectious diseases had long prior to the beginning of the present cen- 


of the President’s board of Indian commissioners, in a report to that body. Mr. J. W. 
Terrell, on behalf of the Eastern Cherokees, as well as their agent, W. C. McCarthy, 
joined in urging the acceptance of the proposal. 
Supported by these opinions and recommendations, the Secretary of the Interior, 
on the 3d of June, 1875, authorized the purchase of the Johnston judgments, and two 
days later a requisition was issued for the money, and instructions were given to 
Agent McCarthy to make the purchase. 
Under these instructions as subsequently modified (June 9, 1875), Agent McCarthy 
reported (July 27, 1875) the purchase of the judgments, amounting in the aggregate, 
including interest and costs, to $19,245.53, and an assignment of them was taken in 
the name of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in trust for the Eastern Band of Chero- 
kee Indians of North Carolina. 
From investigations and reports afterward made by Inspectors Watkins and Van- 
dever, it appears that there was much uncertainty and confusion as to the actual 
status of these lands. The latter gentleman reported (April 10, 1876) that the second 
award made by the arbitrators was a private affair between Thomas and Johnston 
and was entirely separate and distinct from the first award in the case of the Indians. 
He also reported that,-despite the purchase of the Johnston judgments by the Indian 
Department in trust for the Indians, the two commissioners named in the second 
award proceeded to sell the lands upon which these judgments were a lien, and at 
the November, 1875, term of the court made a report of their proceedings, which was 
affirmed by the court. 
Taking into consideration all these complications, it was recommended by Inspector 
Vandever that an agent or commission be appointed, if the same could be done by 
consent of all parties, who should assume the duty of appraising the lands affected by 
the Johnston judgments, and that such quantity of the lands be selected for the Chero- 
