THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 873 



For the sake of brevity we will only refer you to the 20tli article of the Cherokee 

 Treaty of 1866, which provides as follows : 



''Whenever the Cherokee National Council shall request it, the Secretary of the 

 Interior shall cause the country reserved for the Cherokees to he surveyed; and allot- 

 ted among them at the expense of the United States." 



In acknowledgment of the binding force of this treaty provision, we refer you to Vol. 

 l?, p. 186, of the United States Statutes at Large, which jirovides that no part of the 

 appropriation made under the act shall be used for the survey of the reserved lands 

 of the " Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles east of the ninety -sixth meridian, 

 without the consent of said Indians first expressed in open council in the usual manner." 



Aside from the prohibition expressed in this treaty and statute, you ought not, we 

 think, to be unmindful of the fact that the allotment of our lands as provided for 

 in this bill is in plain violation of the public policy of your Government towards our 

 people of the Indian Territory, for the reason that the manner in which this allotment 

 is provided for is an invitation for white settlement, because the provision declaring 

 that nothing in the bill shall be so construed as to interfere with the pre-emption 

 laws of the United States as they apply to " Government" lands will be an acknowl- 

 edgment that "squatters" will embrace to seize our lands. 



This action is in plain violation of the act of Congress, May 23, 1830, which sets 

 apart the Indian Territory solely for Indians. Moreover, it is contrary to not less 

 than 50 treaties with the Indians of that country based upon this act. 



All experience in the history of the relations between your Government and the In- 

 dians has been, beyond all doubt, that when whites and Indians are indiscriminately 

 commingled in one political community the Indians have always perished. Your 

 Government has a great trust reposed in it by Divine Providence to preserve the In- 

 dians, and we trust that you will not destroy us by turning into our country hundreds 

 of thousands of whites merely to create "a dense population" to support soulless 

 railroad corporations, that, having sucked the very life-blood out of your own people, 

 now turn their eyes upon our beautiful country. 



As regards the proposition to give certain missionaries a part of our lands, we would 

 say there is no necessity for this provision. We have never been unmindful of our 

 friends and benefactors. We know that our civilization is chiefly due to the Chris- 

 tian religion, and not to railroad corporations. In this view, if you will examine the 

 treaties of 1866 you will find that we have already made liberal donations of lands 

 to the missionaries that have come among us. Indeed, we have done vastly more in 

 this regard than your own Government has, and without any disposition on our part 

 to criticise your Government, we will venture the opinion that had your Government 

 donated lands to the missionaries instead of to the railroad corporations the people 

 of the United States would have been in a much better condition than they now are. 



3. Regarding the provision of the bill to enable our people to become citizens of 

 the United States, we would remark that you already have an act on your statute 

 books for this purpose which does not interfere with bur treaties, and under which an 

 Indian may become a citizen of the United States merely by leaving his tribe and 

 becoming identified as a citizen of some one of your States or Territories. The Senate 

 Judiciary Committee made a report in 1870 (Report No. 268, Senate, 41st Congress, 

 3d session) that will throw much light on the subject, and which will convince any 

 honest man that an Indian, like a white man, can expatriate himself from his country 

 without robbing it. The proposition to give an Indian who wants to desert his na- 

 tion a proportionate share of the lands and funds of his nation is but an offer of a 

 premium for disloyalty that all nations that hate traitors should be ashamed of. 

 Moreover, this proposition is in point-blank violation of our treaties. And here we 

 will have to appeal to you again on your own treaty obligations with our nation, be- 

 lieving that you will be too honorable to disregard them simply because you have the 

 power. For the want of space we will only refer to the Cherokee Treaties, remark- 

 ing that all of the other nations have similar treaties. Article 10 of the Cherokee 



