838 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



PROCEDURE IN MAKING AN INDIAN RESERVATION. 



Indian reservations are made by treaty, by act of Congress, or by 

 Executive act. The method of making an Indian reservation by an 

 Executive order is by withdrawing certain lands from sale or entry and 

 setting them apart for the use and occupancy of the Indians, such res- 

 ervation previously having been selected by officers acting under the 

 direction of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs or that of the Secretary 

 of the Interior, and recommended by the Secretary of the Interior to 

 the President. * 



The Executive order is sent to the Office of Indian Affairs, and copy 

 thereof is furnished by that office to the General Land Office, upon 

 receipt of which the reservation is noted upon the Land Office records, 

 and local land officers are furnished with copy of the order and are 

 directed to protect the reservation ^rom interference ; after this the In- 

 dians are gathered up and placed upon the reservation. 



Practically the same procedure prevails in the land department, in 

 case of reservations created by treaty with the Indians or by act of 

 Congress. 



PROCEDURE IN ABOLISHING OR REDUCING INDIAN RESERVATIONS 

 WHEN CREATED BY EXECUTIVE ACT. 



When such reservations are no longer required, and the President is 

 so informed by the Secretary of the Interior, an Executive order is issued 

 restoring the lands to the public domain, and the order being received 

 by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, copy thereof is furnished to the 

 General Land Office, where it is noted and information is communicated 

 to the United States land officers, after which the lands are disposed of 

 as other public lands. 



TREATY RESERVATIONS. 



Indian reservations existing by virtue of treaty stipulatiohs are 

 usually abolished or reduced in the manner following: An agreement is 

 entered into between the chiefs and head-men of the Indians, and agents 

 or commissioners appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, with or 

 without authority of Congress, for that purpose ; such agreement is 

 submitted to Congress for acceptance and ratification, and provides for 

 the relinquishment, for valuable considerations, of a part or the whole 

 of the lands claimed by the Indians, either under treaty stipulations or 

 otherwise. 



In illustration of the method of procedure in reducing the area of a 

 treaty reservation, the following is given from the Eeport of the Com- 

 missioner of Indian Affairs for 1886 : 



By an item in the Indian appropriation act approved May 15, 1886 

 (Public No. 49, p. 17), provision was made — 



To enable the Secretary of the Interior to negotiate with the several tribes and 

 bands of Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota for such modification of exist- 



