Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 7.djvu/321

 ARTICLES OF A CONVENTION, Concluded at the City of Washington this sixth day of May, in May 6, 1828. the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty- eight, between James Barbour, Secretary of Wa2·, being espe- MBV 28, 1828-, cialiy authorized therefor by the President mf the United States, and the undersigned, Chiefs and Head Meri of the Cherokee Nation mf btdians, West of the Jlhssisszppi, they being duly authorized and empowered by their Nation. Wnnnnas, it being the anxious desire of the Government of the Object of the United States to secure to the Cherokee nation of Indians, as well those "°°*Y· now living within the limits of the Territory of Arkansas, as those of their friends and brothers who reside in States East of the Mississippi, and who may wish to join their brothers of the YVest, a permanent home, and which shall, under the most solemn guarantee of the United States, be, and remain, theirs forever-·a home that shall never, in all future time, be embarrassed by having extended around it the lines, or placed over it the jurisdiction of a Territory or State, nor be pressed upon by the extension, in any way, of any of the limits of any existing Territory or State; and, Whereas, the present location of the Cherokees in Arkansas being unfavourable to their present repose, and tending, as the past demonstrates, to their future degradation and misery; and the Cherokees being anxious to avoid such consequences, and yet not questioning their right to their lands in Arkansas, as secured to them by Treaty, and resting also upon the pledges given them by the President of the United States, and the Secretary of War, of March, 1818, and 8th October, 1821, in regard to the outlet to the West, and as may be seen on referring to the records of the War Department, still being anxious to secure a permanent home, and to free themselves, and their posterity, from an embarrassing connexion with the Territory of Arkansas, and guard themselves from such connexions in future; and, Whereas, it being important, not to the Cherokees only, but also to the Choctaws, and in regard also to the question which may be agitated in the future respecting the location of the latter, as well as the former, within the limits of the Territory or State of Arkansas, as the case may be, and their removal therefrom; and to avoid the cost which may attend negotiations to rid the Territory or State of Arkansas whenever it may become a State, of either, or both of those Tribes, the parties hereto do hereby conclude the following Articles, viz : ART. 1. The Western boundary of Arkansas shall be, and the same wasmnbom,. is, hereby defined, viz: A line shall be run, commencing on Red River, duty of Arkan- 3% the point where the Eastern Choctaw line strikes said River, and run Bas d61in8d' due North with said line to the Rliver Arkansas, thence in a direct line to the South West corner of Missouri. Ama 2. The United States agree to possess the Cherokees, and to Tmitmygua. guarantee it to them forever, and that guarantee is hereby solemnly T83i16d ,:0 Uhg pledged, of seven millions of acres of land, to be bounded as follows, '° °°S Y ‘ ' viz: Commencing at that point on Arkansas River where the Eastern Choctaw boundary line strikes said River, and running thence with the Western line of Arkansas, as defined in the foregoing article, to the (311)