Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 11.djvu/662

 6l8 TREATY WITH THE CHOCTAWS AND CHICKASAWS. JUNE 22, 1855. Asseutof Whereas articles of agreement and convention were made and con- Ch°°“‘“’S· 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. Pitcblynn, 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, viz : “Whereas the political connection heretofore existing between the Choctaw and the 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 claimto 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 Wicliita 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 final 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 hereofQ whenever thesame shall be ratified by the respective councils of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes and by the President and Senate of the United States." Now, therefore, be it known, that the Choctaws, in general council assembled, having duly considered said articles of agreement and convention, and each and every clause thereof, and being satisfied therewith, do, upon their part, hereby assent to, ratify, and coniirm the same as stipulated and required. Done and approved at the council-house, at Fort Towson, in the Choctaw nation, this sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty·ii ve. '1`ANDY WALl{ER, President of the Senate. KENNEDY M. CURTAIN, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Approved: GEO. W. HARKINS, Chief of Alzpuc/c District. N. COCHNANER, O/ziqf of Pushematahn District. ADAM CHRISTY, Speaker, and Acting Olzicf of Jlboshalatubbee District. Signed in presence of Douotss H. Coorm, U2 S. Indian Agent for Choctaw Tribe. And whereas the said treaty having been submitted to the Senate of the United States for its constitutional action thereon, the Senate did, on the 21st day of February, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-