Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 7.djvu/166

 156 TREATY WITII THE CHEROKEES. 1817. Wrwxsssas ransnzvr:-Lewis Bissel, acting secretary Ito the commissioners, Manuel Lisa, U. S. Indian agent. Benja. O. Fallon, U.S. Indian agent. R.Graham, Indian agent for Illinois. Dr. Wm. J. Clarke. B. Vasques. Saml.·Solomon, interpreter. Stephen J ulian, U. S. Indian Interpreter. Joseph Laiiecho, interpreter. To the Indian names are subjoined a mark and seal. ARTICLES OF A TREATY July 8_ jgjqg Conclucled, at the Cherokee Agency, within the Cherokee nalin", -———#—· between major general Andrew Jackson, Joseph M ‘Minn, DI;,°j°;§:°f§`f°{’ governor of the state ey" Tennessee, and general David Alertwether, commissioners plenmotentiary of the United States if America, of the one part, and the chiefs, head men, and warriors, of tie Cherokee nation, east of the ]lIississippi river, and the chiefs, head men, and warriors, of the Cherokees on the Arkansas river, and their deputies, John D. Chisholm and James Rogers, duly authorized by the chiefs of the Oherohees on the Arkansas river, in open council, by written powerrf attorney, duly signed and executed, in presence of Joseph Sevier and William Ware. Preamble. Wnnnnas in the autumn of the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, a deputation from the Upper and Lower Cherokee towns, duly authorized by their nation, went on to the city of Washington, the first named to declare to the President of the United States their anxious desire to engage in the pursuits of agriculture and civilized life, in the country they then occupied, and to make known to the President of the United States the impracticability of inducing the nation at large to do this, and to request the establishment of a division line between the upper and lower towns, so as to include all the waters of the Hiwassee river to the upper town, that, by thus contracting their society within narrow limits, they proposed to begin the establishment of fixed laws and a regular government: The deputies from the lower towns to make known their desire to continue the hunter life, and also the scarcity of game where they then lived, and, under those circumstances, their wish to remove across the Mississippi river, on some vacant lands of the United States. And whereas the President of the United States, after maturely considering the petitions of both parties, on the ninth day of January, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and nine, including other subjects, answered those petitions as follows: “The United States, my children, are the friends of both parties, and, as far as can be reasonably asked, they are willing to satisfy the wishes of both. Those who remain may be assured of our patronage, our aid, and good neighborhood. Those who wish to remove, are permitted to send an exploring party to reconnoitre the country on the waters of the Arkansas and White rivers, and the higher up the better, as they will be the longer unapproached by our settlements, which will begin at the mouths of those rivers. The regular districts of the government of St. Louis are already laid off to the St. Francis. " When this party shall have found a tract of country suiting the emigrants, and not claimed by other Indians, we will arrange with them and you the exchange of that for a just portion of the country they leave, and to a part of which, proportioned to their numbers, they have a right. Every aid towards their removal, and what will be necessary for them