REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, ACCOMPANYING THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, FOR THE YEAR 1860

EXTRACT
[Page 5] ... It appears from the records of the department that owing to an error in protracting the northern boundary of the neutral land the line was made to run eight or nine miles south of the true boundary, leaving outside of the reserve, as marked on the map, a strip known as the “Dry Woods,” which should have been included in it. It was generally believed that the dry woods was part of the New York reservation, on which settlements were permitted, and as the settlers there had gone in in good faith and made valuable improvements, the agent did not molest them. Believing myself that the settlers on the tract in question are law-abiding citizens, that they established themselves there in good faith, and in utter ignorance of the trespass they were committing, and that they have expended large sums in opening and improving their farms, I think it would be a great hardship if they were now compelled to remove. I have, therefore, suspended the execution of the law until the end of the approaching session of Congress, in order that they may have an [Page 6] opportunity of applying to that body for relief; and, as the Cherokees do not want the land, I would recommend the passage of a law authorizing this land to be surveyed and sold as other public lands, and the proceeds paid over to the Cherokees. As it is expressly stipulated in the treaty of New Echota that the lands ceded to the Cherokees “shall in no future time, without their consent, be included within the territorial limits or jurisdiction of any State or Territory,'' provision should be made in the law for obtaining the assent of the Cherokees as a condition precedent to its taking effect; and, with a view of securing such assent, and preventing any future conflict, of jurisdiction, the boundaries of Kansas should be so modified as to make her southern line coincident with the northern boundaries of the Cherokee neutral land and the Osage reservations, as protracted on Mr. Calhoun's map. The same error was committed with respect to the northern boundary of the Osage reservation, and as there are settlers upon the strip embraced between the treaty line and Mr. Calhoun's line, and their condition is in all respects similar to that of the settlers on the Dry Woods, I would recommend that the provisions of the law be extended to the Osage reservation.