The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the memorial of Johnson K. Rogers, legal representative of the widow and heirs of David Corderoy, deceased, report: That, by the treaty of 1817, David Corderoy, as the head of an Indian family, was entitled to a "life estate" in a reservation of 640 acres, with reversion to his widow and children. That treaty ceded to the United States a portion of the country of the Cherokees east of the Mississippi, for a like quantity, "acre for acre," west of that river, in the then Territory of Arkansas. It allowed such reservation to each head of an Indian family, who resided upon territory then or thereafter to be ceded to the United States, who might wish to become a citizen of the United States, and provided that the register of the names of such reservees should be filed in the office of the Cherokee agent. By the treaty of 1819, a further tract of country was ceded, and the same provision as to reservations extended to those heads of families who resided within the ceded territory, those enrolled for emigration to Arkansas excepted. David Corderoy registered his name with the agent for a reservation under the treaty of 1817, but was not embraced within the territory ceded in 1819. By the 13th article of the treaty of 1835, which finally ceded the remaining territory of the Cherokees, reservations were to be allowed to all such heads of families as were entitled under the treaty of 1817, and who had complied with the stipulations of said treaty, notwithstanding such reservations were not included within the lands ceded by the treaty of 1819. The right of Corderoy under the treaty of 1817, destroyed by that of 1819, was thus revived and provided for by the final treaty of 1835. A supplemental article of the last-named treaty, adopted in 1836, extinguished all reservations, and substituted a compensation in lieu of them. The proof is clear that Corderoy was a Cherokee, with a white woman as his wife; that he resided upon his reservation until forcibly dispossessed by the State of Georgia, in 1833 or 1834, and, soon after the treaty, died, leaving a widow and children. A commission was authorized by the treaty to adjudicate all claims under the treaty, and their decision was to be final. Several commissions sat, in the investigation of these and other claims. They successively rejected the claim of Corderoy; and to obtain relief from their decisions, his memorial is presented. The sole ground upon which his claim was rejected was that stated by the first board-that the register conclusively showed that he was not the "head of an Indian family," within the meaning of the treaty. The "register" kept by the agent, under the provisions of the treaty of 1817, was before the commissioners. In form, it was a registration of the names of reservees, with a column opposite, in which the number in family was indicated in figures. The figure "1" stood opposite the name of Corderoy, and the commissioners held that "one could not constitute a family. In this conclusion, upon these premises, the committee do not concur. How little the register was considered conclusive is shown by the fact that opposite many of the names was a blank, yet the claims were allowed upon parol proof of the number of the family. The legal effect of a registration under this treaty has become a subject of judicial decision, and received a consideration wholly different from that accorded by the boards of commissioners. In Jones, lessee, vs. Evans et al., 5th Yerg, 326, the supreme court of Tennessee say "that the fact that a party's name was registered with the Cherokee agent for a reservation within the time prescribed by law in the treaties is conclusive evidence that such party was the head of an Indian family,' and resided within the ceded territory." This decision was mentioned with approbation by the Supreme Court of the United States, 2d How., 591. In Blair and Johnson rs. Pathkiller's lessee, 5th Yerg., 331, a registration is deemed an expression of a desire to become a citizen of the United States, and entitles the party to a reservation. The ground of these decisions is, that the registration is the act, not of the Indian, but of an accredited public officer, the agent of the United States, and charged with the duty, which the law presumes he discharges correctly. His duties were judicial, and involved the ascer tainment of facts, and the making of a written memorial of them. registry was conclusive, because the highest official evidence. Nor was there, under the treaty of 1817, a necessity for guarding against frauds: the quantity of such lands was reserved from the amount ceded west of the Mississippi, and that was sufficient protection. The committee, therefore, are of opinion that David Corderoy was entitled to a reservation under the treaties of 1817 and 1835, and, as he was dispossessed by Georgia, is entitled, under the 13th article of the treaty. to compensation for such reservation, as "unimproved land;" but, inasmuch as the proof of value which has been furnished the committee is based upon the present improved value thereof, the committee report the accompanying resolution, directing the proper officers of the treasury to ascertain and pay the value of said reservation at the date of the treaty, as unimproved land. 1st Session. No. 176. IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. AUGUST 8, 1850. Submitted and ordered to be printed, and made the special order of the day for Monday, August 12. Mr. SEBASTIAN made the following REPORT: The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the memorial of the delegates of the Cherokee nation and of the Western Cherokees," and the report of the accounting officers upon the treaty of August 6, 1846, respectfully report: That in consequence of difficulties arising out of the proper construction of the treaty of 1835 between the United States and different parties and factions of the Cherokees, the new treaty of 1846 was made, sanctioned by each party of the Cherokees. Its object was to fix the true construction of the first named treaty in reference to certain controverted questions, and ascertain and adjust the rights of each party under it. This was done by the 4th article, so far as the western Cherokees or "Old Settlers" were concerned, while the basis of a settlement with the eastern Cherokees was the subject of the 3d and 9th articles of that treaty. The statement of the accounts according to the principles of the treaty of 1846, between the United States and the western and eastern Cherokees respectively, was a labor of time and research, involving an examination of every item of expenditure under the treaty of 1835, through a period extending from the year 1835 to 1846. This duty was, therefore, committed by the joint resolution of Congress of the 7th of August, 1848, to the Second Auditor and Second Comptroller of the Treasury; not only because they were the "proper accounting officers," but because one of those officers had acted as one of the commissioners of the United States in making the treaty of 1846, and was justly supposed to be well informed as to its true object and intent. The result of their labors is presented in their report of December 3, 1849, which the committee adopt and refer to as a part of their report. By the report referred to, there is a balance due the Cherokee nation of $627,603 95. There is a further sum of $96,999 31 charged to the general treaty fund, paid to the various agents of the government connected with the removal of the Indians, which they contend is an improper charge upon the sum allowed by the treaty of 1835, the supplemental article of 1836, and the additional appropriation of 12th June, 1838. By the 9th article of the treaty of 1846, it was provided that "the United States agree to make a fair and just settlement of all moneys due the Cherokees, and subject to the per capita division under the treaty of 29th December, 1835; which said settlement shall exhibit all money properly expended under said treaty, and shall embrace all sums paid for improvements, ferries, spoliations, removal and subsistence, and commutation. therefor, debts and claims upon the Cherokee nation of Indians for the additional quantity of land ceded to said nation, and the several sums provided in the several articles of the treaty to be invested as the general funds of the nation; and also all sums which may be hereafter properly allowed and paid under the provisions of the treaty of 1835. The aggregate of which said several sums shall be deducted from the sum of six million six hundred and forty-seven thousand and sixty-seven dollars; and the balance thus found to be due shall be paid over per capita in equal amounts to all those individuals, heads of families, or their legal representatives, entitled to receive the same under the treaty of 1835, and the supplement of 1836, being all those Cherokees residing east at the date of said treaty and the supplement thereto. This article defines the basis of settlement with the Cherokees, (except the "Old Settlers,") and is the authority under which the balance above stated is found to be due. It is contended by the Cherokees that the amount expended by the United States for agents, as specified in the report of the accounting officers. is not, in the meaning of the 9th article of the treaty of 1846, "properly expended under said treaty," and is an "improper and extravagant charge upon the general treaty fund. In this belief the committee concur. In the 3d article of the treaty of 1846, which professes to enumerate certain charges, from which both the eastern and western Cherokees were to be relieved, the "sums paid to any agent of the government" are spe cially named. They are placed on the footing of "rents" and "reserva tions" under the treaty of 1835, and expenses of making that treaty, and admitted to be expenditures which should be borne by the United States. They were properly so considered. Though incidental, they were not necessary expenses incurred in the removal, &c., of the Indians. They were a part of a very complicated and expensive machinery employed in the emigration of the Indians, more with a view to the hastening of removal and preventing depredations of the Indians on the way, than t any absolute necessity. They were necessary only in one respect, and that was to enable the United States to perform its obligations under the treaty, and to discharge the high trust which it had for its own policy assumed. The amount should be, therefore, reimbursed, and added t the general balance of and making in the whole $627.603 95 96,999 £ 724,603 37 the true balance due to the Cherokee nation under the principles stated in the 9th article of the treaty of 1846. By that article, it is further stipulated that the general aggregate fund shall be charged with all sums "which may be hereafter paid under the treaty of 1835." The committee are not in possession of certain informa tion as to what amount, or whether any claims under that treaty have been paid, since the date of the report made by the accounting officers. To cover any such amount which may have been, or may hereafter be, made, it will be necessary in the bill to subject the appropriation to that contingency. By the 4th and 5th articles of the treaty of 1846, provision is made. and a basis fixed for the settlement with that part of the Cherokee nation known as the "Old Settlers," or "Western Cherokees," being those who had emigrated under the treaties of 1817, 1819, and 1828, and were, at the date of the treaty of 1835, an organized and separate nation of Indians, whom the United States had recognised as such by the treaties of 1828 and 1833 made with them. In making the treaty of 1835 with the Cher. okees east, which provided for their final and complete transfer to the country west, then occupied by the "Western Cherokees," guarantied in perpetuity by two treaties, upon considerations connected alone with them, their exclusive right to their country seems to have been forgotten. The consequences of this unlooked-for precipitation of the entire nation upon them may be easily imagined. The Western Cherokees, in all national matters, sunk into a hopeless minority; their ancient government was subverted, and a new one, imported with the emigrants coerced under the treaty of 1835, substituted in its place. It was the first instance on record of an entire nation transplanted, with its people, laws, institutions, and political constitution, to a new home, and preserving its nationality. Great discontent among the "Old Settlers" was produced by this emigration and its consequences. To allay this, and provide compensation to them for the undivided interest which the United States regarded them as owning in the country east of the Mississippi, under the equitable operation of the treaty of 1828, was the object of the treaty of 1846. To ascertain their interest, it was assumed that they constituted one-third of the entire nation, and should be entitled to an amount equal to one-third of the treaty fund, after all just charges were deducted. This fund, provided by the treaty of 1835, consisted of $5,600,000 00 From which are to be deducted, under the treaty of 1846, (4th article,) the sums chargeable under the 15th article. of the treaty of 1835, which, according to the report of the accounting officers, will stand thus: - For improvements For ferries For spoliations For removal and subsistence of 18,026 Debts and claims upon the Cherokee na- National debts, (10th article) $18,062 06 $1,540,572 27 159,572 12 264,894 09 961,386 66 Which, being deducted from the treaty fund of $5,600,000, leaves the residuum, contemplated by the 4th article of the treaty of 1846, of 1,571,346 55 |