Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 11.djvu/660

 616 TREATY WITH THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWVS. JUNE 22, 1855. day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and iift -five. y GEORGE W. MANYPENNY, United States Commissioner. [L. s.] P. P. PITCHLYNN, [L. s.] ISRAEL FOLSOM, [1.. s.] SAM’L GARLAND, [L. s.] DICKSON W. LEWIS, [L. s.] Choctaw Commissioners. EDMUND PICKENS, his x mark, [L. s.] SAMPSON FOLSOM, [L. s.] Chickasaw Commissioners. Executed in presence of A. O. P. bgcnonson, Jnmcs G. nmmr, Douonas H. Coornn, United States Indian Agent. And whereas the said treaty having been submitted to the general council of the Chickasaw tribe, the general council did, on the third day of October, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, assent to, ratify, and confirm the same, with the following amendment: “Add to the 19th article, By commissioners to be appointed by the contracting parties hereto ” by an instrument in writing, in the words and figures following, to wit :—- Assent of Whereas articles of agreement and convention were made and congmckaS,,,,,$_ eluded on the twenty-second day of June, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, by and between George W. Manypenny, commissioner on the part of the United States; Peter P. Pitchlynn, Israel Folsom, Samuel Garland, and Dickson W. Lewis, commissioners on the part of the Choctaws; and Edmund Pickens, and Sampson Folsom, commissioners on the part of the Chickasaws, at the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, the preamble whereof is in the words and figures following, " to wit:" Whereas, the political connection heretofore existing between the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes of Indians, has given rise to unhappy and injurious dissensions and controversies among them, which render necessary a readjustment of their relations to each other and to the United States; and whereas, the United States desire that the Choctaw Indians shall relinquish all claim to any territory west of the one hundredth degree of west longitude, and also to make provision for the permanent settlement within the Choctaw country of the Wiehita and certain other tribes or bands of Indians, for which purpose the Choctaws and Chickasaws are willing to lease, on reasonable terms, to the United States, that portion of their common territory which is west of the ninety- eighth degree of west longitude; and whereas the Choctaws contend that, by a just and fair construction of the treaty of September 27, 1830, they are of right entitled to the net proceeds of the lands ceded by them to the United States, under said treaty, and have proposed that the question of their right to the same, together with the whole subject-matter of their unsettled claims, whether national or individual, against the United States, arising under the various provisions of said treaty, shall be referred to the Senate of the United States for Hnal adjudication and adjustment; and whereas it is necessary, for the simplification and better understanding of the relations between the United States and the Choctaw Indians, that all their subsisting treaty stipulations be embodied in one comprehensive instrument; and whereas, in the twenty-first article thereof; it is, among other things, recited that said agreement " shall take effect and be obligatory upon the contracting parties from the date hereof; whenever the same shall be ratiiied by the respective councils of the