Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/904

 8 90 FEDERAL REPORTER. �10, 1869, a large portion of this oouiitey obtained from the Seminoles was assigned for temporary occupation by the Cheyennes and Ar- rapahoes. �These acts of the government plainly indioated its purpose in agree- ing to the third article of the Seminole treaty, and what it accepted these lands for. Now we must look to the aets of the government since the adoption of this treaty in order to understand its purpose. We find that in the year 1866 it entered upon the policy of settling iribes of Indians, other than the five oivilized tribes, in the Indian country. Since that time, by treaties, laws, and executive orders of "the president, it has settled upon' reservations in the Indian country the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes,the Eiowas, the Comanches, the Washi- tas, the Pawnees, the Sac and Fox, the Nez Perces, the Poncas, the Modocs, the Kansas, the Osages, the Pottawatomies, the A'bsentee Shawnees, as well as some other small tribes. This explains why the treaty-making power thought, on Mareh 21, 1866, that there was an urgent necessity of the government for more lands in the Indian Territory. This shows that the government had not only a desire to locate other Indians in the Indian Territory, but to a great extent it has consummated that desire. �It is a matter of public history that a number of these tribes which have been removed to the Indian country, taking advantage of the embarassment of the government growing out of the war of the rebell- ion, had gone on the war-path. The government was desirious of securing peace with them, and of settling them upon reservations where they could be civilized. It entered into treaties by which they were to be and were removed to the Indian country. Then, again, the white people in other localities were pressing on other tribes, and demanding of the government their removal. To get them out of the way of the white settlements, and to locate them where they would be free from intrusion by the whites, they were removed to the Indian country. It is true, but few of these tribes were settled on the lands in controversy, but I cite the conduct of the government in order to arrive at its policy in regard to the Indian country, and from that policy to receive aid in the construction of the third article of the Seminole treaty. The government wanted to locate other Indians and freedmen thereon. The meaning of the United States in regard to locating other Indians thereon is plain, when we consider what action it has taken since that time in regard thereto. True, congress has recently prohibited the location of certain other tribes of Indians ��� �