334 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
TREATY CONCLUDED JULY 19, 1866; PROCLAIMED AUGUST 11, 1866. 
Held at Washington, D. C., between Dennis N. Cooley, Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, and Elijah Sells, superintendent of Indian Affairs for 
the southern superintendency, on behalf of the United States, and the Chero- 
kee Nation of Indians, represented by tts delegates, James McDaniel, 
Smith Christie, White Catcher, S. H. Benge, J. B. Jones, and Daniel 
H. Ross, John Ross, principal chief, being too unwell to join in these ne- 
gotiations.! 
MATERIAL PROVISIONS. 
Whereas existing treaties between the United States and the Chero- 
kee Nation are deemed to be insufficient, the contracting parties agree 
as follows, viz: 
1. The pretended treaty of October 7, 1861, with the so-called Con- 
federate States, repudiated by the Cherokee National Council February 
18, 1863, is declared to be void. 
2, Amnesty is declared for all offenses committed by one Cherokee 
against the person or property of another or against a citizen of the 
United States prior to July 4, 1866. No right of action arising out 
of acts committed for or against the rebellion shall be maintained in 
either the United States or the Cherokee courts, and the Cherokee Na- 
tion agree to deliver to the United States all public property in their 
control which belonged to the United States or the so-called Confeder- 
ate States. 
3. The confiscation laws of the Cherokee Nation shall be repealed, 
and all sales of farms and improvements are declared void. The former 
owners shall have the right to repossess themselves of the property so 
sold. The purchaser under the confiscation laws shall receive from the 
treasurer of the nation the money paid and the value of the permanent 
improvements made by him. The value of these improvements shall 
be fixed by a commission, composed of one person appointed by the 
United States and one appointed by the Cherokee Nation, who in case 
of disagreement may appoint a third. The value of these improvements 
so fixed shall be returned to the Cherokee treasurer by returning Cher- 
okees within three years. 
4, All Cherokees and freed persons who were formerly slaves to any 
Cherokee, and all free negroes, not having been such slaves, who resided 
in the Cherokee Nation prior to June 1, 1861, who may within two years 
elect not to reside northeast of the Arkansas River and southeast of 
Grand Riyer, shall have the right to settle in and occupy the Canadian 
district southwest of the Arkansas River; and also the country north- 
west of Grand River, and bounded southeast by Grand River and west 
by the Creek country, to the northeast corner thereof; from thence west 
on north line of Creek country to 96° west longitude ; thence north with 

‘United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV, p. 799. 
