intelligence of the band) control such matters, the department despatched a circular to the various Indian superintendents and agents, calling upon them to report whether the bands under their supervision were sufficiently enlightened to justify the conclusion that the inauguration of a simple form of municipal government among them would be attended with success. From the majority of its officers who have replied to the circular the reports received lead to the conclusion that the Indian bands within their respective districts are not sufficiently advanced in intelligence for the change. An attempt will, however, be made at an early date to obtain the consent of the more advanced bands to the establishment of some such system. It is thought that a council, proportionate in number to the population of the band, elected by the male members thereof, of twenty-one years and over, and presided over by a functionary similar to the reeve of a township, might answer the purpose; or, in its initiatory stage, the council might be presided over with better results by the local Indian superintendent or agent. The matters upon which this elective body should pass by-laws, subject to confirmation by Your Excellency in council, should embrace the making of line fences, ditches and roads, the prevention of trespass by cattle, the preservation of order on the reserve, the repression of vice, etc."

Owing to the prevalence of small-pox, a general vaccination will be enforced by the government. In the matter of the decrease of buffalo and increase of whiskey, the Dominion Government feels, in a measure, the same evils with which the United States has to cope.

THE FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES.

They are the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles, who live in the Indian Territory. Their title to the territory and their absolute rights therein will first be considered, and then some statistics will be given, showing them to be now civilized and in the present absolute enjoyment of life, liberty and property, under their own government, without any assistance therein from either the civil or military agents of the United States.

THE INDIAN TERRITORY.

HISTORICAL REVIEW-THE INDIAN TITLE TO LANDS AND ABSOLUTE RIGHT OF SELF-GOVERNMENT.

In 1830 Congress set apart the Indian Territory as a permanent home for such tribes as might be induced to leave the States and live there. The Territory thus begun now contains the five civilized tribes viz: Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles, numbering over sixty thousand people, and some twenty other tribes and bands with a population of eighteen thousand, the total population thus equalling seventy-eight thousand.

The lands occupied by the five civilized tribes in the Indian Territory are not the gift of the Federal Government. They were bought and paid for by these Indians partly for cash, and partly by exchange for other lands in Georgia, North Carolina and other States. For their lands in the Indian Territory, the tribes received patents in fee-simple from the United States which are recorded in the Department of the Interior. They were urged to make this exchange and thus purchase their new home, both by the persuasion of the General Government and by the ruder and more aggressive measures pursued in Georgia and the other States, within which they were then living.

The greatest inducement of all held out to them was that they should be forever free from the jurisdiction of any State or Territory and should forever have the right of selfgovernment. The United States engaged to protect them in all these rights forever.

THE CHOCTAWAS AND CHICKASAWS.

The treaty of 1830 with the Choctaw nation provides that the Federal Government shall "cause to be conveyed to the Choctaw nation, a tract of country west of the Mississippi river in fee-simple to them and their descendants, to inure to them while they shall exist and live on it." It was also provided that "the government and people of the United States are hereby obliged to secure to the Choctaw nation of red people the jurisdiction and government of all the persons and property that may be within their limits, so that no Territory or State shall have a right to pass laws for the government of the Choctaw nation, of red people and their descendants, and that no part of the land granted them shall ever be embraced in any State or Territory."

In 1855 a treaty was made with the Choctaws and Chickasaws which provided that, "the Choctaws and Chickasaws shall be secured in the unrestricted right of self-government and full jurisdiction over persons and property within their respective limits." Similar provisions will be found in other treaties with the Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Seminoles. These treaties have frequently been passed upon by the Supreme Court of the United States.

CHEROKEE NATION.

In the treaty of 1835 with the Cherokee nation is the following provision : "The United States hereby covenant and agree that the lands, ceded to the Cherokee nation in the foregoing article, shall in no future time, without their consent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory. But they shall secure to the Cherokee

nation the right, by their national councils, to make and carry into effect all such laws as they may deem necessary for the government and protection of the persons within their own country, belonging to their people or such persons as have connected themselves with them."

CREEKS AND SEMINOLES.

In the treaty of August, 1856, between the United States and the Creeks and Seminoles, this provision is contained: "The United States do hereby solemnly agree and bind themselves that no State or Territory shall ever pass laws for the government of the Creek or Seminole tribes of Indians, and that no portion of either of the tracts of country defined in the first and second articles of this agreement, shall ever be embraced or included within or annexed to any Territory or State, nor shall either or any part of either be erected into a Territory without the full and free consent of the legislative authority of the tribe owning the same."

SUPREME COURT DECISIONS.

In the case of Cherokee Nation vs. the State of Georgia (5 Peters 1), the Supreme Court held that the "acts of the government plainly recognized the Cherokee nation as a State, and courts are bound by these acts."

Again, in the case of Worcester vs. State of Georgia (6 Peters, p. 515), that court held that "the Indian tribes are distinct independent political communities."

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.

As late as December 14, 1870, the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate made a report, in which they use the following language:

"Volumes of treaties, Acts of Congress almost without number, solemn adjudications of the highest tribunal of the Republic and the universal opinion of our statesmen and people have united to exempt the Indian-being the member of a tribe re

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cognized by and having treaty relations with the United States— from the operation of our laws and the jurisdiction of our courts. Whenever we have dealt with them, it has been in their collective capacity as a State and not with their individual members, except when such members were separated from the tribe to which they belonged, and we have asserted such jurisdiction as every nation exercises over the subjects of another independent sovereign nation entering its territory and violating its laws.”

OKLAHAMA BILL.

During the rebellion a great portion of the civilized Indians entered the Confederate service. After the war new treaties were made. The rebels and the loyal Indians were treated alike— all were declared to have forfeited the protection of the United States and the right of self-government. A determined effort was then made to establish a territorial form of government for Indian Territory. This was strenuously opposed by all the five tribes. Finally in 1866 new treaties were made by which the United States again recognized these five tribes as separate and distinct political communities. The conclusions arrived at between the United States and these tribes were formulated in Article XII. of Cherokee treaty; Article VIII. of Choctaw and Chickasaw treaty; Article X. of Creek treaty and Article VII. of the Seminole treaty; and by them the political relations between the United States and these five tribes remained substantially unchanged. A General Council of the Territory was provided for, and the Indians agreed to form a Confederation amongst themselves with a General Council composed of representatives of all the confederated tribes, and no organic changes were to be made without the consent of the tribes to be affected.

The Cherokee treaty points out the method (See Art. XII, Sec. 3, treaty of 1866). "Nor shall said General Council legislate upon matters other than those above indicated. Provided, however, that the legislative power of such General Council may be enlarged by the consent of the National Council of