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The Indian Dispossessed "It will be remembered that by that treaty a very large territory was ceded to the United States—a tract extending from near the forty-second parallel to the British line, and with an average breadth of nearly two degrees of longitude; that this territory had long been held in undisputed possession of the Flathead nation, and that, on yielding it, Victor insisted upon holding the Bitter Root, above the Lo-Lo Fork, as a special reservation for the Flatheads proper.

"The chiefs admitted that, under the provisions of the eleventh article, it was left in the power of the President to determine whether the Bitter Root Valley, above the Lo-Lo Fork, should be reserved as the permanent home of the Flatheads. But they insisted that by that article the President was required to have the Bitter Root Valley carefully surveyed and examined, and, if it should be better adapted to the wants of the Flatheads, then it should be made a permanent reservation.

"They insisted that such a survey and examination should have been made immediately after the ratification of the treaty, but that it had never been done at all. That for seventeen years no steps had been taken in regard to it, and they considered the silence of the Government on this subject an admission that the valley was to be their permanent home.

"They further called attention to the fact that they had learned something of civilization, and had 54