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United States. Laws, etc.)

INDIAN AFFAIRS.

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Resolved, That the Committee on Indian Affairs is hereby authorized to have prepared for the use of the Senate a compilation of all treaties, laws, and Executive orders now in force relating to Indian affairs.

Passed the Senate May 20, 1902. (Congressional Record, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session,

p. 5665.)

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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

Washington, D.C. 20402-Sold in 5 part sets only

Stock No. 024-000-00817-7/Catalog No. Y4.In2/2:L44/V.1-5

PREFACE.

An accurate compilation of the treaties, laws, Executive orders, and other matters relating to Indian affairs, from the organization of the Government to the present time, has been urgently needed for many years, and its desirability has been repeatedly emphasized by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in his annual reports to Congress. The present work was undertaken by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in pursuance of the recommendation of the Commissioner and to meet the pressing need which the committee found for a correct compilation, convenient in form and properly indexed, so that any law, treaty, or order could readily be found. Much difficulty and vexatious delay have heretofore preceded the finding of the text of Indian treaties, orders, laws, and subsequent amendments thereto, in the scattered form in which they have only been obtainable.

Owing to the great mass of matter to be examined and edited, much caution and judgment had to be exercised to keep the volumes within bounds. It is believed that he two volumes comprising this work contain everything necessary to a proper understanding of Indian legislation.

The general form of the Statutes at Large has been followed, as being familiar to publicists and lawyers and best suited to meet practical requirements. With the annotations and footnotes, and the complete index and cross references accompanying the volumes, little delay or difficulty should be experienced in research.

At the suggestion of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the correct modern spelling of Indian names, as decided by the Indian Office and the Bureau of Ethnology, has been introduced and adopted in the headlines to the treaties, but in the text it was found expedient to follow the orthography of the Statutes.

The compiler is especially indebted to Mr. W. E. Richardson, Messrs. Ralston & Siddons, and Mr. W. T. Sherman Doyle, of the bar of the District of Columbia, for most valuable assistance in making the compilation. He also takes pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness to Senator William M. Stewart, Hon. W. A. Jones, Commissioner of Indian Affairs; Maj. Charles F. Larrabee and Mr. C. G. Porterfield, of the Indian Office, for much careful review work and many wise suggestions. CHARLES J. KAPPLER.

WASHINGTON, D. C., February 1, 1903.

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TREATIES, LAWS, ETC., RELATING TO INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That there be printed and bound three thousand copies of Senate Document Numbered Four hundred and fifty-two, Fifty-seventh Congress, first session, entitled Treaties, Laws, Executive Orders, and so forth, Relating to Indian Affairs, as revised, three hundred of which shall be for the use of the Senate, eight hundred for the House of Representatives, two hundred for the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, fifty for the House Committee on Indian Affairs, fifty for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, one hundred for the Department of the Interior, and the remaining one thousand five hundred shall be sold by the Superintendent of Documents.

Passed, January 28, 1904.

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It is both gratifying and encouraging that the large demand for the Compilation of Treaties, Laws, Executive Orders, etc., relating to Indian Affairs induced the Congress to provide for the printing and binding of three thousand additional copies. The new edition has afforded the compiler an opportunity to make such typographical and other corrections as were discovered in the first print, to insert several treaties and documents which were heretofore unobtainable, and to add the signatures subscribed to each treaty which were omitted in the first edition to save space. With these additions and corrections it is believed the compilation is as perfect as practicable. It is not generally known that from 1778 to 1871 treaties were made by the United States with the Indian tribes, and that by the act of March 3, 1871 (16 Stats., 566, "Laws"-8), Congress provided "that hereafter no Indian nation or tribe within the territory of the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent nation, tribe, or power with whom the United States may contract by treaty." Since 1871 the United States have entered into agreements with the Indian tribes, which agreements must pass both Houses of Congress and be signed by the President; whereupon they become laws. In consequence, a division of treaties and agreements is made in the compilation by arranging the former in the volume entitled "Treaties" and the latter in the volume entitled "Laws."

Acknowledgment of valuable suggestions is hereby accorded to the officials of the Indian Office and to a number of prominent lawyers versed in Indian legislation. Especial acknowledgment is made to William E. Richardson, of the bar of the District of Columbia, and to James D. Finch, jr., assistant clerk of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1904.

CHARLES J. KAPPLER.

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