ROYCE ] TREATY OF AUGUST 6, 1846. 323 
lots sold exclusively to the citizens of the nation brought the sum of 
$20,000. 
REMOVAL OF TRESPASSERS ON ‘* NEUTRAL LAND.” 
White settlers having for several years preceding, in defiance of the 
notification and authority of the General Government, continued their 
encroachments and settlement on the ‘Cherokee neutral land,” and the 
Cherokee authorities having made repeated complaints of these unau- 
thorized intrusions, measures were taken to remove the cause of com- 
plaint. Notice was therefore given to these settlers in the winter of 
1859, requiring them to abandon the lands by the 1st of April follow- 
ing. No attention was paid to the notice, but the settlers went on and 
planted their crops as usual. The newly appointed Cherokee agent, 
haying failed to reach his agency until late in the spring, proceeded to 
the neutral land in August, and again notified the trespassers to remove 
within thirty-five days. To this they paid no more heed than to the 
first notification. Some two months later, therefore, the agent, ac- 
companied by a detachment of United States dragoons, under com- 
mand of Captain Stanley, marched into the midst of the settlers and 
again commanded their immediate removal. Upon their refusal to com- 
ply he adopted the plan of firing their cabins, which soon brought them 
to terms. They proposed that if he would desist in his forcible meas- 
ures and withdraw the troops, they would quietly remove on or before 
the 25th of November, unless in the mean time they should receive the 
permission of the Government to remain during the winter. This the 
agent agreed to, and subsequently the permission was granted them to 
so remain. 
In connection with this subject it appears from the records of the De- 
partment that owing to an error in protracting the northern boundary 
of the “neutral land,” the line was made to run 8 or 9 miles south 
of the true boundary, leaving outside of the reserve as it was marked 
on the map, a strip known as the ‘dry woods,” which should have been 
ineluded in it; it was generally believed that the ‘dry woods” was a 
part of the New York Indian reservation, on which settlements were 
permitted, and as the settlers on that particular portion had gone there 
in good faith the agent did not molest them.’ The Secretary of the 
Interior himself expressed the opinion that the ‘‘dry woods” settlers 
were law abiding citizens and had settled there under a misapprehen- 
sion of the facts, and that as they had expended large sums in opening 
and improving their farms it would be a great hardship if they should 
be compelled to remove. He therefore suspended the execution of the 
law as to them until the approaching session of Congress, in order that 

' Annual report of Agent Butler for 1858, 
2 October 10, 1860. 
3 See reports of Agent Cowart in November, 1860, in Indian Office report of 1860, pp. 
224, 225. 
