Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 9.djvu/1040

 988 TREATY WITH THE WYANDOTS. APRIL I, 1850. thousand aight hunrlrcr] and forty-three, they entered into a comraci wizh the Delaware nation of Indians, by which they purchased of the last-mentioned nation a tract of land containing thirtysix sections, (or twemymhrce thousand and forty acres,) and had granted to them, as a donation, three sections, (or uincmcn hundred and twenty acres,) in addition, as set forth in the lst and 2d articles of said contract or treaty, wherein these two tracts or sections of land are described as follows: "Threc sections of land, containing six hundred and forty acres em-h, lying and being situated at the point of the junction of the Missouri and Kansas Rivzrs,"--2md the “thirty-six sections of land, each <:0n· taining 64O acres, situated between the aforessxid Missouri and Kansas Rivers, and adjoining on the west the aforesaid three donated sections, making in all thirtymine sections of land, bounded as follows, viz.: Commencing at the point, at the junction of the aforesaid Missouri and Kansas Rivers, running west along the Kansas River sutllciemly far to include the aforesaid thirty-nine sections; thence running north to the Missouri River: thence down the said river with its mezmders to the place of beginning; to be  in as near a square form as the rivers and territory ceded will admit 0£" And, whereas, this said contract or treaty was ratified and confirmed by the United States, by a joint resolution of Congress, approved July 1848. 1%.19. Q5, 1848; and which contains only the following proviso: °‘Tham the Wymzdol Bzdian nation shall take no beticr night or interest in and to said lands than zk www vested in the Delaware nation of indi¢ms." To representatives of the Wyandot nation, therefore, present a claim against the United States for the price of one hundred and forty- eight thousand acres of land granted by the 2d article of the aforesaid treaty of Mm-ch 17, 1842,-fixing that price at one dollar and twenty- cents per acre,-—-and which daim, they conceive, is strengthened, if not rendered valid, by the recognition of their purchase from the Delaware: Indians on the part of the United States, as shown by the resolution confirmatory thereof, above cited. And they now ask that the sum of om: hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars be allowed and paid to the ¥Vya¤d0t people in commutation of said claim. And, whereas, the commissioner on behalf of the United States, having careful})' and attemively examined the application presented to him on behalf of the Wyrandox nation, both in regard to their desire to become citizens of the United States, and of their claim for payment, in money, for the lands granted to them by the treaty of 1842; and having, also, exmnined the public documents  other proofs having rcfemnce to the subject, he is induced to believe, jirsi, that the Wy- andot people have so far advanced in civilization as I0 be capable, gomerally, of managing their own affairs, and are qualitiod and calculated to become useful citizens, a large portion whereof being already cugaged in agricultural pursuits; and, secondly, that they have an equitable claim on the United States for the value of the lands granted to them by the treaty of 1842, aforesaid, but. of which lands they were not possessed, in compliance with the stipulations of said treaty. In arriving at this conclusion, however, it. is expressly understood, that it is not to be considered as an admission by the United States of either the policy or expediency of commuting lands granted to Indian tribes under treaty stipulations, for money, or in fixing the vaiue of such lands so as to serve as a. precedent hereafter. But, under the peculiar circumstances of this case, and especially in view of the Wyzmdot tribe of Indians agreeing to extinguish their national existence, and become citizens of the United States, thereby relinquishing all claims now held, in their national or collecfive capacity, against the United States, the commissioner aforesaid has agreed with the V\’yzmdot chief and deputies, parties hereto, to conclude the following a.reic1es,to wit: