ROYCE. J TREATY OF APRIL 27, 1868. 349 
tion occupied by actual settlers) in one body to any responsible party for 
cash for a sum not less than $800,000. An exception was made as to 
the lands which were occupied by bona fide white settlers at the date 
of the signing of the treaty, who were allowed the privilege of purchas- 
ing at the appraised value, exclusive of their improvements, in quanti- 
ties of not exceeding 160 acres each, to include such improvements. 
The language of this seventeenth article being somewhat obscure and 
subject to different interpretations as to the actual intent concerning 
the method of disposing of the ‘‘ Cherokee strip,” no action was taken 
toward its survey and sale until the year 1872, when by an act of Con- 
gress! provision was made for the appraisal of that portion of it lying 
east of Arkansas River at not less than $2 per acre, and the portion 
west of thatriver at not less than $1.50 per acre, Further provision 
was also made, by the same act, for its disposal on certain conditions 
to actual settlers, and any portion not being rendered amenable to these 
conditions was to be sold on sealed bids at not less than the minimum 
price fixed by the act. A considerable quantity of the most fertile por- 
tion of the tract was thus disposed of to actual settlers, though, as an 
encouragement to the sale, Congress was induced to pass an act? ex- 
tending the limit of payment required of settlers to January 1, 1875. 
The price fixed by the act of 1872 being so high as to render the re- 
mainder of the land unattractive to settlers, a subsequent act of Con- 
gress* directed that all unsold portions of the said tract should be 
offered through the General Land Office to settlers at $1.25 per aere, for 
the period of one year, and that all land remaining unsold at the ex- 
piration of that period should be sold for cash at not less than $1 per 
acre. This act was conditional upon the approval of the Cherokee 
national council, which assent was promptly given, and the lands were 
disposed of under its provisions. 
Shortly after the ratification of the treaty of 1866 steps were taken 
toward a disposition of the ‘‘neutral lands.” Under date of August 
30 of that year Hon. James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, entered 
into a contract with a corporation known as the American [Emigrant 
Company, whereby that company became the purchaser, subject to 
the limitations and restrictions set forth in the seventeenth article of the 
treaty, of the whole tract of neutral land at the price of $1 per acre, 
payable in installments, running through a period of several years. 
This contract was subsequently declared invalid+ by Hon. O. H. Brown- 
ing, the successor of Secretary Harlan, on the score that the proviso ‘‘for 
cash,” contained in the treaty of 1866, in the common business accepta- 
tion of the term, meant a payment of the purchase price in full by the 
1 May 11, 1872. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVII, p. 98. 
*April 29, 1874. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVIII, p. 41. 
5 February 28, 1877. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XIX, p. 265. 
4See treaty of April 27, 1858. United States Statutes at Large, Vol. XVI, p. 727. 
