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Land Cession of 1896
Commentary
by Hank Stamm
The 1890s saw three separate efforts to reduce the size of the Wind
River Reservation. The only successful agreement was reached in
1896, when the United States acquired a section of land that contained
the Big Horn Hot Springs, a series of naturally occurring springs
of geothermal waters, at the northeast corner of the reservation.
The total amount of land ceded was an area of 10 miles square (100
square miles). In 1897, the agreement was ratified, with an amendment
that ceded 1 square mile immediately surrounding the springs to
the State of Wyoming. The basis for this land transfer ostensibly
came about from the efforts to control the development around the
springs, which were rapidly attracting a tourist clientele.
The Shoshones and Northern Arapahos were willing to concede the
land primarily because the prime buffalo hunting grounds in the
Big Horn Basin (north of the springs and west of the Big Horn Mountains)
had been destroyed by a huge influx of cattle and sheep ranches
beginning in 1879. Thus, they no longer travelled off-reservation
to hunt in the Big Horn Basin. The most important feature of the
agreement, however, is that the government made the Arapahos equal
partners to the Shoshones in the rights to claim the reservation.
The Arapahos originally were moved to the reservation in 1878,
but only with the consent of the Shoshones, and up until the 1896,
agreement they were never considered partners with the Shoshones
concerning reservation ownership. This all changed because of this
agreement. In the 1930s, the Shoshones eventually reached a settlement
with the United States that compensated them for the loss of lands
that were, in essence, given to the Arapahos. The negotiations over
the 1896 agreement took an interesting twist, in that the government
was forced to make concessions independently to both tribes in order
to win their acceptance, as detailed in Article III. The record
of the negotiations is found in the National Archives in Washington,
DC.
Land Cession of 1896 (view
in PDF format)
SEC. 12. That the following amended agreement with the Shoshone
and Arapahoe tribes of Indians in the State of Wyoming is hereby
accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and shall be binding upon said
Indians when they shall in the usual manner agree to the amendment
herein made thereto, and as amended as follows, namely:
Articles of agreement made and entered into at Shoshone Agency,
in the State of Wyoming, on the twenty-first day of April, eighteen
hundred and ninety-six, by and between James McLaughlin, United
States Indian inspector, on the part of the United States, and the
Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes of Indians in the State of Wyoming.
ARTICLE I.
For the consideration hereinafter named the said Shoshone and Arapahoe
tribes of Indians hereby cede, convey, transfer, relinquish, and
surrender forever and absolutely all their right, title, and interest
of every kind and character in and to the lands and the water rights
appertaining thereunto embraced in the following described tract
of country, embracing the Big Horn Hot Springs in the State of Wyoming:
All that portion of the Shoshone Reservation described as follows,
to wit: Beginning at the northeastern corner of the said reservation,
where Owl Creek empties into the Big Horn River; thence south ten
miles, following the eastern boundary of the reservation, then due
west 10 miles; thence due north to the middle of the channel of
Owl Creek, which forms a portion of the northern boundary of the
reservation; thence following the middle of the channel of said
Owl Creek to the point of beginning.
ARTICLE II.
In consideration for the lands ceded, sold, relinquished, and conveyed
as aforesaid, the United States stipulates and agrees to pay to
the said Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes of Indians the sum of sixty
thousand dollars, to be expended for the benefit of said Indians
in the manner hereinafter described.
ARTICLE III.
Of the said sixty thousand dollars provided for in Article II of
this agreement it is hereby agreed that ten thousand dollars shall
be available within ninety days after the ratification of this agreement,
the same to be distributed per capita, in cash, among the Indians
belonging on the reservation. That portion of the aforesaid ten
thousand dollars to which the Arapahoes are entitled is, by their
unanimous and expressed desire, to be expended, by their agent,
in the purchase of stock cattle for distributions among the tribe,
and that portion of the before-mentioned ten thousand dollars to
which the Shoshones are entitled shall be distributed per capita,
in cash, among them: Provided, That in such cases where heads of
families may so elect, stock cattle to the amount to which they
may be entitled may be purchased for them by their agent.
The remaining fifty thousand dollars of the aforesaid sixty thousand
dollars is to be paid in five annual installments of ten thousand
dollars each, the money to be expended, in the discretion of the
Secretary of the Interior, for the civilization, industrial education,
and subsistence of the Indians; said subsistence to be of bacon,
coffee, and sugar, and not to exceed at any time five pounds of
bacon, four pounds of coffee, and eight pounds of sugar for each
one hundred rations.
ARTICLE IV.
Nothing in this agreement shall be construed to deprive the Indians
of any annuities or benefits to which they are entitled under existing
agreements or treaty stipulations.
ARTICLE V.
This agreement shall not be binding upon either party until ratified
by the Congress of the United States.
Done at Shoshone Agency, in the State of Wyoming, on the twenty-first
day of April, A. D. eighteen hundred and ninety-six.
JAMES McLAUGHLIN
U. S. Indian Inspector.
(Here follow the signatures of Washakie, chief of the Shoshones,
Sharp Nose, chief of the Arapahoes, and two hundred and seventy-one
other male adult Indians over eighteen years of age, belonging on
the Shoshone Reservation.)
I certify that, at the request of Indian Inspector James McLaughlin,
I read the foregoing agreement to the Indians in joint council,
and that it was explained to the interpreters, paragraph by paragraph.
JOHN S. LOUD,
Captain 9th Cavalry, U. S. Army,
Commanding Fort Washakie, Wyo.
We certify that the foregoing agreement was fully explained in
joint council to the Shoshone's and Arapahoe's tribes, that they
fully understand the nature of the agreement, and agree to the same.
EDMO. LE CLAIR,
NORKOK, his x mark,
Shoshone Interpreters,
HENRY LEE,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
Arapahoe Interpreters.
Witnesses:
THOS. R. BEASON
JNO. W. TWIGGS, Jr.
I certify that the foregoing names, though in some cases duplicates,
in every instance represents different individuals.
EDMO. LE CLAIR
Special Interpreter.
Witnesses to the foregoing agreement and signatures of the Indians.
JOHN S. LOUD,
Captain 9th Cavalry.
JOHN F. McBAIN,
1st Lt. 9th Cavalry.
JNO. W. TWIGGS, Jr.
THOS. R. BEASON.
JNO. W. CLARK,
Allotting Agent.
JOHN ROBERTS,
Missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Church to the Indians.
I certify that the Indians, Shoshones and Arapahoes, numbering
two hundred and seventy-three (273) persons, who have signed the
foregoing agreement, constitute a majority of all male Indian over
eighteen (18) years of age, belonging on the Shoshone Reservation,
Wyoming.
RICHARD H. WILSON,
Captain 8th Infty., Acting Ind. Agent.
That for the purpose of making the payment stipulated for in the
first paragraph of article three of the foregoing agreement, the
same to be paid to the Indians belonging on the Shoshone Reservation
per capita in cash, or expended for them by their agent in the purchase
of stock cattle, as in said article provided, the sum of ten thousand
dollars be, and the same is hereby, appropriated, out of any money
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
That of the lands ceded, sold, relinquished, and conveyed to the
United States by the foregoing agreement herein amended, and accepted,
ratified, and confirmed, one mile square at and about the principal
hot spring thereon contained, is hereby ceded, granted, relinquished,
and conveyed unto the State of Wyoming; said mile square to be determined
as follows: Commencing at a point one-fourth mile due east from
said main spring, running thence one-half mile north, thence one
mile west, thence on mile south, thence one mile east, thence one-half
mile north to the point of beginning, and the remainder of the said
lands ceded, sold, relinquished, and conveyed to the United States,
by the agreement herein ratified and confirmed, are hereby declared
to be public lands of the United States, subject to entry, however,
only under the homestead and town-site laws of the United States.
Approved, June 7, 1897.
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