Removal of the Osages from Kansas, 2
by Berlin B. Chapman
November 1938 (Vol. 7, No. 4), pages 399 to 410
Transcribed by lhn;
digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society.
AN ARTICLE preceding this one explained how the Osages in 1870 agreed to sell their lands in southern Kansas and to remove to Indian territory. Attention was given to the controversy between them and the Cherokees as to whether the Osages should be permitted to settle on Cherokee lands east of the ninety-sixth meridian, and to the decision of Sec. Columbus Delano in 1871 that the Osages were not civilized Indians, and hence could not settle east of that line. This article explains how the ninety-sixth meridian caused commotion among the Osages and Cherokees, how President Grant settled the disputed price of lands, and how the Osages removed to a reservation on the southern border of Kansas. The Osages, in face of Delano's decision, reluctantly made a second selection of Cherokee lands for a reservation, comprising a rectangular tract of country buttressed against the ninety-sixth meridian, extending from the south line of Kansas to the Creek country, and running thence west for quantity. [59] The quantity should be determined by allowing one hundred and sixty acres for each Osage settled on the lands. The Osages were willing to pay but twenty-five cents per acre for the tract, while the Cherokees were unwilling to part with the same for a less price than one dollar and a quarter an acre. On March 7 Acting Commissioner Clum recommended that the tract be set apart for the use and occupation of the Osages; he suggested that the President be requested to approve their selection, fix the price to be paid therefor at twenty-five cents per acre, and that an executive order be issued announcing the same. [60] Commissioner Parker on March 15 withdrew the recommendation that the price of the lands be fixed at twenty-five cents per acre and recommended that two or more members of the board of Indian commissioners be instructed to visit the tract selected by the Osages, and make a report to the Interior Department on the real nature and value of the lands, and the price the Osages should pay for them. [61] Secretary Delano observed, however, that members of the said board had already visited and reported upon the tract, and that it was the duty of the President under existing circum-
(399)
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stances to fix its value. By an executive order of March 27 he assigned and set off to the Osages the tract recently selected by them, specifying the area of the same as 560,000 acres. [62] The tract was about 141/2 miles wide. Delano promptly recommended that the price of the lands be fixed at fifty cents an acre; and by an executive order of May 27 President Grant fixed the price accordingly. [63]
]n a communication of June 10 the Cherokee delegation in Washington protested against the price fixed by the President, claiming that it was far below the real value of the lands, and that such pricing was not in accordance with the spirit and intent of the Cherokee treaty of 1866 and other treaties affecting the lands. [64] In response to a similar protest presented to the Interior Department a month later by the delegation, Commissioner Parker said that he deemed the price of fifty cents an acre to be not only a fair, but an exceedingly liberal compensation to the Cherokees for the lands to be occupied by the Osages.65 It thus appeared that the Osages had secured a reservation at the price named in the instructions to the commission sent to negotiate with them in the summer of 1870.
We may now direct our attention to a matter that disturbed the Cherokees, vexed and discouraged the Osages, and caused the executive order reservation for the latter tribe to fade from the map of Indian territory during the year after its establishment. That matter was the location of the ninety-sixth meridian through the Cherokee country. On December 3, 1870, Com. Joseph S. Wilson of the General Land Office made a contract with Theodore H. Barrett and Ehud N. Darling, employing them to survey and subdivide certain lands in Indian territory, extend the Indian meridian from the Canadian river to Kansas, and also determine, establish and survey the ninety-sixth meridian through the Cherokee lands. It was provided that the surveying should be completed on or before December 31, 1871. According to the contract Barrett and Darling should be subject to any special or general orders which the Secretary of the Interior might see proper to give in the premises. [66]
On March 18 Commissioner Parker recommended to the Secretary of the Interior that the General Land Office be directed to instruct them to run the line of the ninety-sixth meridian at once, in order
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that the lands west of the line could be properly evaluated. [67] Ten days later the surveyors were instructed accordingly, it being observed that the line should be determined in order that the Indian agency buildings might be properly located. [68]
On March 27 the executive order reservation was established. But the most desirable portion of it, a strip along the eastern side "in a string shape," was already occupied by about one hundred and fifty families of Cherokees, Delawares and Shawnees who believed they were living east of the ninety-sixth meridian, and who protested against the occupation of the land by the Osages. Agent Gibson had confidence in the correctness of the special survey of the line and he urged the Osages to make improvements On the strip. In erecting temporary buildings the Osages had frequently to abandon their work to avoid a conflict with the Cherokees, who resisted the necessary appropriation of timber. Early in the spring Gibson assured the Osages that the line of the ninety-sixth meridian would be located without further delay, because the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had given him an unqualified promise that it would be. By the time the planting season arrived the chiefs protested against further improvements being made at the agency because the line had not been run. The Osages were "rendered exceedingly dissatisfied" by the uncertainty of the location of the line. [69]
On April 15 Barrett reported to the General Land Office that steps preparatory to the survey of the line had been taken; and that the work would be executed with promptness, due regard being had to its being correctly determined astronomically. [70] "It is expected that the survey of the line in question will be made this month," the Office of Indian Affairs advised Superintendent Hoag on June 5, "and the difficulties and disputes attending the present uncertainty of its location will be set at rest." [71] Astronomical observations for the initial point were made in that month and in July. Many complaints and suggestions from Hoag and Gibson, relative to the survey of the line, reached the Office of Indian Affairs during the spring and summer.
On August 28 the General Land Office instructed Barrett and Darling to report at once when the survey of the line would be
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completed. "If no progress has been made you are required to use all diligence towards the completion of the same," said Com. Willis Drummond, "as important interests are involved and now delayed waiting the establishment of said line." [72] On September 7 Barrett replied that a surveying party under the direction of Darling was then in the field for the purpose of establishing and marking the line. [73] Agent Gibson reported on October 1 that if the official survey proved the narrow strip of tillable land in dispute to be east of the ninety-sixth meridian as the Cherokees contended it was, the land assigned to the Osages would be quickly abandoned by them, as they would probably not accept it as a gift for a future home. [74] Before the close of the month it was known by the said survey that the strip in question, "containing in fact all the improvements made and all the really available land in the whole body" intended to be included in the executive order reservation assigned to the Osages, was east of the ninety-sixth meridian. [75]
On October 26, just a year after the Osages selected the first tract of country in the Indian territory, Hoag informed the Office of Indian Affairs that the ninety-sixth meridian was about three and one half miles west of the line designated by the special survey. [76] He stated that the "calamity" of throwing the Osages "into the Bluffs," added to lingering prejudices, had made their condition insufferable. He said that the Osages had become demoralized and would return to the plains with increased aggravation; and that he feared they would return to their former habits of plunder [77] unless the Interior Department took some immediate and decisive steps to redress their wrongs. He explained that they would not accede to the conditions of the act of July 15, 1870, providing for the sale of their lands in Kansas and the purchase of lands from the Cherokees, until the
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Caney Valley was by the special survey located west of the ninety-sixth meridian. Hoag continued:
That valley was [a] condition to their acceptance. That survey so located their Eastern boundary. Now the official survey throws it all off, to the Cherokees. Our last year labor in improvements is lost, and our future prospect for immediate usefulness is blasted, unless we at once remedy this misfortune. The Osages now feel that the Commissioners, Agent and Supt. who have advised their removal, did so to defraud them of both their old and new homes. The question of their civilization is off [of] too high importance to lie another year on the contingency of running a line that might and should have been done in 30 days.
On November 3 Acting Commissioner Clum recommended that immediate measures be taken to remedy, so far as practicable, a state of affairs, likely to be productive of such evil results as those mentioned in Hoag's letter of October 26. He said there appeared to be two alternatives. First, to have one or more members of the Board of Indian Commissioners, or some other suitable person, proceed to the Cherokee country to negotiate with the proper authorities of the Cherokee nation for the retention upon reasonable terms, by the Osages, of that portion of the tract of country supposed to have been included within the limits of the reservation set apart for them, but which was found actually to be east of the ninety-sixth meridian. Second, to provide a new reservation for the Osages in the portion of the Cherokee territory bordering upon the Creek country and lying to the west of the ninety-sixth meridian. He stated that the latter alternative would by no means be entirely satisfactory to the Osages and should only be entertained after every effort had been made for the success of the first proposition, without avail. [78]
The next day Secretary Delano approved the suggestions embraced in the first alternative set forth by Clum, and designated Thomas Wistar and John B. Garrett of Philadelphia, and George Howland of New Bedford, Mass., as a commission to open negotiations with the Cherokees accordingly. Delano stated that if the commission should not succeed in negotiating with them for the continued possession by the Osages, of the lands they occupied, then, he desired that the attention of the commission be directed to the necessity of their making an examination of the country for the purpose of selecting a new reservation for the Osages. [79] Instructions
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were promptly issued to the commission stating that in the second alternative they should examine the Cherokee country west of the ninety-sixth meridian. [80] Agent Gibson was instructed to remain on the reservation as then located with the Indians in his charge, until the matter regarding the possession of the strip of land in question should be finally settled. He was also instructed to inform the Osages that they would be protected in their rights to the extent of the power of the Interior Department. [81]
Soon after the location of the ninety-sixth meridian was officially determined the Osages went to the plains for their fall hunt, much displeased and discouraged, alleging that another gross outrage had been perpetrated upon them by the government. Early in February, Howland, [82] Gibson, and Mahlon Stubbs, agent for the Kaws, began a journey of one hundred and fifty miles, from the end of the railroad at Coffeyville, to Pond creek where a portion of the Osages were encamped. On February 16 they made arrangements with the Osages for the holding of a council near the agency on Caney river. The council met on the afternoon of March 1; about seventy-five Indians were present. Wistar and Howland were promptly asked to read their instructions, which they did. The Osages then retired to themselves to consider the two alternatives set forth by the Office of Indian Affairs. [83]
The council met again on the evening of March 4 at the call of the Indians. About forty were present. On behalf of his people Gov. Joseph Pah-ne-no-posh presented to the commission a paper prepared by them on that day. It said in part:
We the Great and Little Osage Indians, Chiefs, Councilors, Braves, Headmen and other members of nation have this day assembled in council at the house of Mrs. Rosalie Chouteau on the banks of the Caney River near the Agency, and do agree to take the proposed lands west of the M D. line 96, to the channel of the Arkansaw River Said Lands to be Sixty miles long bounded on the north by the Kansas line and on the South by the Creek nation . . . on Reservation the Caws to be included the bounds of their tract to be Settled here after the price pr acre for these lands not to exceed twenty cents pr acre. We also wish if possible a Small tract of Land west of the Arkansaw River. [84]
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An agreement concluded the next day, when some fifty Indians were present, provided that in lieu of the strip, the Cherokee lands between the western boundary of the executive order reservation and the main channel of the Arkansas be ceded and transferred to the Osage tribe, and confirmed to them by the proper authorities at Washington; and that the price of said lands be fixed by the President. It was agreed that the Kaw tribe, then in Kansas, should have the right to settle on the tract of Cherokee lands above described, and ceded to the Osage tribe; and in case the Osage and Kaw tribes could not agree upon their respective locations, or upon the price to be paid for the lands ceded to the Kaw tribe, the President should determine these matters for them. Other provisions of the agreement related to protection of the Osages from intruders, and to the appraisal of certain improvements made by the Osages and Cherokees bordering on both sides of the ninety-sixth meridian. [85] As a point of objection to the agreement the Cherokee delegation in Washington on March 26 submitted that according to the Cherokee treaty of 1866 the President should fix the price of Cherokee lands west of the ninety-sixth meridian after the Cherokees and the Indians to be settled thereon had failed to agree on the price. [86] The Osages were able to pay for the lands designated in the agreement. Com. Francis A. Walker raised the question whether the government could afford to give up to the occupation of four thousand Osages and Kaws more than one and a half million acres of the lands on which the United States had acquired the right to settle friendly Indians by the Cherokee treaty of 1866. He wrote:
Without apprehending that there will be any considerable difficulty in obtaining future further cessions of territory from tribes within the Indian country as the government shall desire, it would still be my belief that it was decidedly injudicious to exceed in any case the amount contemplated in that treaty, viz., 160 acres to each member of a friendly tribe so settled upon the ceded lands, were it not that the Osages have suffered great hardship and wrong
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in the country from which they came, and have now encountered a grievous disappointment in their expected home in the Indian country, solely through the failure of the government to properly determine their location. If the injuries which the Osages have suffered in the past, their disappointment now through the fault of the Government, and the manifest and urgent importance of adjusting the difficulty without delay, are held to constitute a sufficient reason for allowing these Indians to purchase more land than was contemplated in the treaty of 1866, I know of no reason why this agreement should not be pronounced to be expedient, so far as the United States is concerned, and either confirmed by the Department, or, in case it is held that the Department is precluded from assigning more than 160 acres to each member of the tribe, submitted to Congress for its action. [87]
As to the price of the lands, Walker referred to the protracted efforts of the Osages and Cherokees to effect an agreement relative to the lands in the executive order reservation assigned to the former tribe, and to the fact that the matter was finally left to the President. [88] "I see not the slightest reason to believe," he said, "that negotiations in the present instance would find any other result." He did not consider it practicable to contract with the Cherokees for lands west of the ninety-sixth degree at any reasonable price.
On April 8 the Cherokee delegation addressed a letter to Secretary Delano giving the assent and approval of their nation to the proposition providing for the settlement of the Osages and Kaws on the portion of the Cherokee lands between the ninety-sixth meridian and the Arkansas river. [89] The whole matter was submitted to Congress by the Interior Department on April 11. In order to provide the Osage tribe with a reservation, and secure to them a sufficient quantity of land suitable for cultivation, the said Cherokee lands between the ninety-sixth meridian and the main channel of the Arkansas were set apart and confirmed to them by an act of Congress approved on June 5. [90] The act provided that the Osage tribe should permit the settlement within the limits of said tract of land of the Kansas tribe of Indians, the lands so settled and occupied by said Kansas Indians, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres for each member of said tribe, to be paid for by said Kansas tribe out of the proceeds of the sales of their lands in Kansas, at a price not exceeding that paid by the Osage Indians to the Cherokee nation. It will be remembered that the tract of land thus designated
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by Congress was the same tract which the United States agreed to sell to the Osages by article fourteen of the unratified treaty made with that tribe in 1868. The reservation acquired by the Osages, after a home had been provided for the Kaws, constituted the lands now in Osage county, Oklahoma, or a tract of about 1,470,059 acres. The Kaw reservation was on the border of Kansas, just east of the Arkansas. It embraced the lands east of that river, now in Kay county, Oklahoma.
The Osages saved what they could from the wreck of their first settlement, and crossed the ninety-sixth meridian. Commissioner Walker, from his office in Washington, could say of their future: "Having now a fixed place of abode, and having large sums coming to them from the sale of their lands in Kansas, the Department sees no reason to doubt that they will in a few years become a rich and prosperous people." [91] The vision of Agent Gibson was less clear. He was on the reservation close to the "rocks," the "sandstone bluffs and ridges," and the "scraggy, knotty post-oak."
The price of the lands of the reservation fixed by the President was satisfactory neither to the Osages nor to the Cherokees. Agent Stubbs and Superintendent Hoag considered fifty cents an acre a fair price for the lands. In June J. P. C. Shanks, John A. Smith and Samuel S. Burdett, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Indian Affairs were requested by Secretary Delano to examine the lands with a view of forming an opinion as to the price which should be paid to the Cherokees for the same. After examining the lands the subcommittee on January 9, 1873, reported their conclusion that the same should be priced at sixty-five cents per acre. It was understood, however, that this conclusion was a compromise and that at least one member of the subcommittee desired a higher valuation. On January 13 the Cherokee delegation earnestly protested against the price named by the subcommittee for the lands, and insisted strenuously that the price should be fixed at not less than one dollar and a quarter an acre. The Cherokees apparently considered that their lands just west of the ninety-sixth meridian were as valuable as lands, thirty miles farther north in Kansas, which the Osages had ceded to the United States in trust to be sold at a price not less than one dollar and a quarter an acre. On January 31 Acting Commissioner Clum stated that he considered seventy-five cents per acre would be a just and reasonable compensation to the Cherokees for the lands. [92] The correspondence relative to the price of the lands
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![[extract from Presidential order of 4 February 1873.]](/publicat/khq/1938/graphics/38_4_chapman.jpg)
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was submitted to President Grant, without recommendation or suggestions by the Secretary of the Interior. On February 4 the President by an executive order fixed the price at seventy cents per acre. [93]
Superintendent Hoag on March 7 called attention to the fact that the price on part of the lands in question had been fixed at fifty cents an acre by the executive order of May 27, 1871, and he implied quite strongly that in justice to the Osages the price should not be increased. [94] Secretary Delano considered seventy cents an acre a fair price; and he held that the agreement of March 5, 1872,. and the act of June 5 following, annulled the previous action of the President as to the price the Osages should pay for the lands. He also observed that the valuation of fifty cents an acre was made without previously ordering an examination of the lands, and that the information before the President at that time consisted entirely of the opinions expressed by persons who had casually seen a part of the territory appraised. [95] In September, Gibson reported that the Osages regarded the price of seventy cents an acre as a plain violation of the promises of the government which guaranteed to them a home in Indian territory on lands that should not cost them more than fifty cents per acre. [96]
An act of Congress, approved March 3, 1873, provided for the transfer from the proceeds of the sale of the Osage lands in Kansas, the sum of $1,650,600, or so much thereof as might be necessary to pay for the Osage lands in the Indian territory, and for placing the same on the books of the Treasury Department to the credit of the Cherokee Indians. [97] During the next decade sufficient money was realized from the sales of lands in Kansas to pay the Cherokees for the new reservation. The Osages paid the Cherokees as provided in the act of March 3, 1873, the aggregate sum being $1,099,137.41. [98] The lands thus paid for by the Osages were conveyed to the United States in trust for the use and benefit of the Osages and Kaws by
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deed of June 14, 1883. [99] And the Osages had secured a reservation in Indian territory and paid for it out of the proceeds of the sale of their lands in Kansas. [100]
Notes
59. Gibson to Parker, March 6, 1871, OIA (Office of Indian Affairs), Neosho, G. 66-1871.
60. Clum to Delano, March 7, 1871, OIA, "Report Book 20," p. 252.
61. Parker to Delano, March 15, 1871, Ibid., pp. 277-279.
62. Delano to Com. Ind. Aff., March 27, 1871, OIA, "Executive Order File."
63. Delano to the President, March 27, 1871, ibid., May 27, 1871. President Grant's approval is written on the back of the letter.
64. W. P. Adair and C. N. Vann to Com. E. S. Parker, June 10, 1871. A copy of the letter is filed in OIA, Ind. Div., under date of June 28, 1871.
65. Parker to Act. Sec. Int., July 11, 1871, "Rept. Book 20," pp. 409-411.
66. The contract is in G. L. O., "Special Surveys," Bundle 4.
67. Parker to Delano, March 18, 1871, OIA, "Rept. Book 20," p. 281.
68. Commissioner Drummond to Barrett and Darling, March 28, 1871, G.L.O., Survey Gen., v. 25, p. 34.
69. Hoag to Act. Com. Clum, October 5, 1871, Indian Affairs, 1871, p. 464; same to same, August 22, 1871, OIA, Cent. Supt., H. 688-1871.
70. Barrett to Drummond, April 15, 1871, G.L.O., I. No. 45,187.
71. Clum to Hoag, June 5, 1871, OIA, (Large) "Letter Book 102," pp. 227-228.
72. Drummond to Barrett and Darling, August 28, 1871, G. L. O., Survey Gen., v. 25, p. 263.
73. Barrett to Drummond, September 7, 1871, G. L. O., I, No. 63,690.
74. Gibson to Hoag, October 1, 1871, Indian Affairs, 1871, pp. 490-491. See, also, a similar statement in Hoag to Act. Com. Ind. All., October 5, 1871, ibid., p. 465.
75. Com. F. A. Walker to Sec. Int., November 1, 1872, ibid., 1872, p. 40. In regard to the improvements made by the Osages on the strip, see Gibson to Hoag, October 1, 1871, loc. cit.
76. Hoag to Act. Core. Clum, October 26, 1871. The letter is marked "Neosho, H. 833-1871," but is filed in OIA, Ind. Div., under date of November 3, 1871. The ninety-sixth meridian was about 3.2 miles west of the line designated by the special survey; and the length of the executive order reservation assigned to the Osages was 59 miles, 68.53 chains. It was found that the Caney river flows east across the ninety-sixth meridian about eight miles south of Kansas, and that for about fifteen miles from that point due south the valley of the stream is just east of the said meridian. [77] In a letter of October 16, 1871, Gibson informed Hoag that the Osages in conjunction with other Plains Indians had determined that they would stop the destruction of the buffalo by hunting parties of white men. There is a copy of the letter in OIA, Cent. Supt., H. 825-1871.
78. Clum to Secretary Delano, November 3, 1871, OIA, "Rpt. Book 21," pp. 64-65.
79. Delano to Clum, November 4, 1871, OIA, "Record of Letters Sent," No. 11, pp. 114-115. Garrett accepted the appointment, but apparently took no part in the work of the commission.
80. Clum to Wistar, November 4, 1871, OIA, (Large) "Letter Book 103," pp. 244-246.
81. Clum to Gibson, November 4, 1871, ibid., p. 247.
82. See Howland's expense account for services rendered in making the agreement with the Osages, OIA, Neosho, H. 576-1872.
83. The proceedings of the council are in OIA, Cent. Supt., I. 1324-1872. See, also, Wistar and Howland to Sec. Int., March 20, 1872, S. Misc. Docs., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., v. II (1482), No. 137, pp. 6-7.
84. The paper is dated March 4, 1872, and is in OIA, Cent. Supt., I. 1824-1872. In council the Osages stated that they wanted a tract of land five or six miles wide, west of the Arkansas. They were assured that the government felt bound to secure them the strip of land in question east of the ninety-sixth meridian if they still desired it, but they observed that there would be difficulties with the Cherokees if they retained it.
85. The agreement, dated March 5, 1872, is in H. Ex. Docs., 42 Cong., 2 Sess., v. XII (1515), No. 258, pp. 8-11.
86. W. P. Ross et al. to Com. F. A. Walker, March 26, 1872, S. Misc. Docs., loc. cit., p. 6.
87. Walker to Sec. Int., April 1, 1872, ibid., pp. 2-6.
88. Walker had hoped to effect a settlement of the matter without bringing it to the attention of Congress. Walker to Hoag, January 25, 1872, OIA, (Large) "Letter Book 103," p. 551.
89. W. P. Ross et al. to Delano, April 8, 1872, S. Misc. Does., loc. cit., pp. 9-10.
90. Act of June 5, 1872, 17 Statutes, 228.
91. Walker to Delano, November 1, 1872, Indian Affairs, 1872, pp. 40-41.
92. Clum to Delano, January 31, 1873, OIA, "Rpt. Book 22," p. 236.
93. The executive order, dated February 4, 1873, is in OIA, "Executive Order File."
94. Hoag to Clum, March 7, 1573, OIA, Cent. Supt., L. 22-1873.
95. Delano to Hoag, March 25, 1873, OIA, "Rec. of Letters Sent," No. 12, pp. 304-307.
96. Gibson to Hoag, September, 1873, Indian Affairs, 1875, p. 218. In 1877 Com. J. Q. Smith proposed that the Osages sell to the Poncas a portion of their reservation, suitable in extent, locality and adaptability for agricultural purposes. The suggestion was made by him that the Poncas purchase a tract of about 50,000 acres in the eastern or northern part of the Osage reservation. He considered that fifty cents an acre would be a fair price to pay the Osages for the lands. Smith wanted the Osages to understand that no unreasonable price for the lands would be favorably entertained by the Interior Department.-Smith to E. C. Kemble, January 15, 1877, S. Reports, 46 Cong., 2 Sess., v. VI (1898), No. 670, pp. 407-409.
97. 17 Statutes, 538. The Secretary of the Interior requested that this be done.-Delano to speaker of House of Representatives, February 4, 1873, H. Ex. Docs., 42 Cong., 8 Sess., v. IX (1567) No. 183.
98. Commissioner Price to Sec. Int., February 17, 1882, ibid., 47 Cong., 1 Sess.. v. XX (2028), No. 89, p. 35.
99. The deed conveyed the lands "in trust for the use and benefit of the Osage and Kansas Indians." It stated that the lands of the Kaw reservation "were paid for by the Osages to the Cherokees, and the Kansas Indians have paid for that portion assigned to them by proper transfer of the funds arising from the sale of their lands in Kansas." The deed is in S. Reports, 49 Cong., 1 Sess., v. VIII (2362), pp. 315-316; and in S. Documents, 60 Cong., 2 Sess., v. XXII (5409), No. 744, pp. 63-65. Mr. David Parsons brought to my attention a typed report prepared by the General Accounting Office and deposited in the Court of Claims. The report relates to a petition of the Kaws in Case No. F-64, and says in part The Cherokees sold a certain tract of land in the Indian Territory to the Osages, the value of which $1,096,748.80 was charged to the Osage Funds and credited to the Cherokee funds by appropriation Warrants No. 611, April 25, 1874, and No. 648, March 24, 1875 [see General Accounting Office Report-In Re: Petition of Osage Indians B-38, p. 58, Item b], but the Kansas Indians were settled on a portion of this tract, and the value of that portion occupied by the said Kansas Indians, namely, $70,096.12, should have been paid for out of their funds instead of the Osage funds (see Act. June 5, 1872, 17 Stats., 292). Under the Act of June 16, 1880 (21 Stats., 292), the United States have made a general settlement with the Osage Indians and have repaid to them the $70,096.12 hereinbefore mentioned-that amount being included in the sum of $236,083.88 credited to the Osages by appropriation Warrant No. 887, May 27, 1881. The United States having paid for the lands occupied by the Kansas Indians as herein set forth, are entitled to reimbursement-$70,096.12."
100. In 1891 Agent Miles reported that the Osages had never been satisfied with the conveyance and had repeatedly asked that a deed be made to them direct; and for that purpose they had endeavored to seek the aid of attorneys a number of times.-L. J. Miles to Com. Ind. Aff., September 1, 1891, Indian Affairs, 1891, p. 353.
