INDIAN AFFAIRS: LAWS AND TREATIES

Vol. I, Laws     (Compiled to December 1, 1902)

Compiled and edited by Charles J. Kappler. Washington : Government Printing Office, 1904.

PART IV.—PROCLAMATIONS.

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Whereas, pursuant to an act of Congress approved May fifteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, entitled “An Act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various tribes for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, and for other purposes,” an agreement was entered into on the fourteenth day of December, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, by John V. Wright, Jared W. Daniels, and Charles F. Larrabee, commissioners on the part of the United States, and the Arickaree, Gros Ventre, and Mandan tribes of Indians, residing on the Fort Berthold reservation, in the then Territory of Dakota, now State of North Dakota, embracing a majority of all the male adult members of said tribes; and

Whereas, by an act of Congress, approved March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, entitled “An Act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, and for other purposes,” the aforesaid agreement of December fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, was accepted, ratified, and confirmed, except as to article six thereof, which was modified and changed on the part of the United States so as to read as follows:

and
Whereas, it is provided in said last above-mentioned act

and
Whereas, satisfactory proof has been presented to me that the acceptance of, and consent to, the provisions of the act last named by the different bands of Indians residing on said reservation, have been obtained in manner and form as said agreement of December fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-six, was assented to:

Now, therefore, I, Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested, do hereby make known and proclaim the acceptance of, and consent to, the modification and changes made by the United States as to Article six of said agreement, by said tribe of Indians as required by the Act, and said Act is hereby declared to be in full force and effect, subject to all provisions, conditions, limitations, and restrictions therein contained.

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All persons will take notice of the provisions of said Act, and of the conditions and restrictions therein contained, and be governed accordingly.

I furthermore notify all persons to particularly observe that a certain portion of the said Fort Berthold reservation not ceded and relinquished by said agreement, is reserved for allotment to, and also as a reservation for, the said tribes of Indians; and all persons are, therefore, hereby warned not to go upon any of the lands so reserved, for any purpose or with any intent whatsoever, as no settlement or other right can be secured upon said lands, and all persons found unlawfully thereon will be dealt with as trespassers and intruders; and I hereby declare all the lands sold, ceded, and relinquished to the United States under said agreement, namely;

“All that portion of the Fort Berthold reservation, as laid down upon the official map of the” (then) “Territory of Dakota, published by the General Land Office in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-five, lying north of the forty-eighth parallel of north latitude, and also all that portion lying west of a north and south line six miles west of the most westerly point of the big bend of the Missouri River, south of the forty-eighth parallel of north latitude,” open to settlement, and subject to disposal as provided in Section twenty-five of the Act of March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one aforesaid. (26 Stats., p. 1035.)

In witness thereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington this twentieth (20th) day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one, and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and fifteenth.

BENJ HARRISON

[SEAL.]

Countersigned:
     WILLIAM F. WHARTON
          Acting Secretary of State.

Produced by the Oklahoma State University Library, 1999-2001
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