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Land Cessation of 1904
Commentary
by Hank Stamm
In 1904, local interests around the Wind River Reservation succeeded
in getting what they had tried to do for years, beginning as early
as the Brunot cession of 1872: to cut significantly the size of
the reservation. Throughout the 1890s, first in 1891 and 1893, commissions
met with the Shoshones and Arapahos and tried to convince them to
slice the reservation in half. However, even when agreements were
reached, for some reason the Senate did not approve them, so the
deals collapsed. In 1897, a 10-mile square area had been lopped
off the northeast corner to create the boundaries of the Big Horn
Hot Springs, but the 1904 agreement literally cut the reservation
in two, with a boundary line that ran roughly from the former northwest
corner to the southeast corner. This was a hotly debated agreement
among both the Indian tribes, and later, the principal signer for
the Shoshones, George Terry, was murdered.
The agreement was terribly lopsided it its provisions. Rather than
paying the tribes outright for the cession, the United States planned
on selling the ceded lands under the existing homestead, town-site,
coal, and mineral laws, then compensating the tribes from the funds
so derived from these sales. Moreover, the tribes had no control
over the use of this fund: proceeds were to be used to build a reservation
irrigation system, to fund a one-time only $50 per capita cash payment,
to build and maintain various bridges, to build schools (thus shirking
the responsibilities called for under the terms of the Treat of
Fort Bridger, 1868), and to provide for a reservation welfare system.
The agreement took place against a backdrop of renewed efforts
to carry out the plans of the General Allotment Act of 1887 (the
Dawes Act), which intended to place every Indian on individual plots
of land. Then the unassigned portions could be freed from tribal
control and opened up to white settlement. To a large extent, this
is what happened, and within a few years, the towns of Riverton
and Shoshoni emerged, especially when the U.S. government poured
huge sums of money to create the Boysen Reservoir and the irrigation
system that was necessary to allow farming in the arid lands of
the Wind River Valley. Eventually, however, after non-Indian settlers
claimed all the best land near the irrigable area, the tribes were
able to re-claim most of the acreage lost in the 1904 cession.
Land Cession of 1904 (view
in PDF format)
CHAP. 1452.—An Act to Ratify and amend an agreement with
the Indians residing on the Shoshone or Wind River Indian Reservation
in the State of Wyoming and to make appropriations for carrying
the same into effect.
Whereas James McLaughlin, United States
Indian inspector, did on the twenty-first day of April, nineteen
hundred and four, make and conclude an agreement with the Shoshone
and Arapahoe tribes of Indians belonging on the Shoshone or Wind
River Reservation in the State of Wyoming, which said agreement
is in the words and figures as follows:
This agreement made and entered into
on the twenty-first day of April, nineteen hundred and four, by
and between James McLaughlin, United States Indian Inspector,
on the part of the United States, and the Shoshone and Arapahoe
tribes of Indians belonging on the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation,
in the State of Wyoming, witnesseth:
ARTICLE I. The said Indians belonging
on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, for the consideration
hereinafter named, do hereby cede, grant, and relinquish to the
United States, all right, title, and interest which they may have
to all the lands embraced within the said reservation, except
the lands within and bounded by the following described lines:
Beginning in the midchannel of the Big Wind River at a point where
said stream crosses the western boundary of the said reservation;
thence in a southeasterly direction following the midchannel of
the Big Wind River to its conjunction with the Little Wind or
Big Popo-Agie River, near the northeast corner of township one
south, range four east; thence up the midchannel of said Big Popo-Agie
River in a southwesterly direction to the mouth of the North Fork
of said Big Popo-Agie River; thence up the midchannel of said
North Fork of Big Popo-Agie River to its intersection with the
southern boundary of said reservation, near the southwest corner
of section twenty-one, township two south, range one west; thence
due west along the said southern boundary of the said reservation
to the southwest corner of the same; thence north along the western
boundary of said reservation to the place of beginning: Provided,
That any individual Indian, a member of the of the Shoshone or
Arapahoe tribes, who has, under existing laws or treaty stipulations,
selected a tract of land within the portion of said reservation
hereby ceded, shall be entitled to have the same allotted and
confirmed to him or her, and any Indian who has made or received
an allotment of land within the ceded territory shall have the
right surrender such allotment and select other lands within the
diminished reserve in lieu thereof at any time before the lands
hereby ceded shall be opened for entry.
ARTICLE II. In consideration of the
lands ceded, granted relinquished, and conveyed by Article I of
this agreement, the United States stipulates and agrees to dispose
of the same as hereinafter provided under the provisions of homestead,
town-site, coal, and mineral land laws, or by sale for cash as
hereinafter provided at the following prices per acre: All lands
entered under the homestead law within two years after the same
shall be opened for entry shall be paid for at the rate of one
dollar and fifty cents per acre: after the expiration of this
period, two years, all lands entered under the homestead law,
within three years therefrom, shall be paid for at the rate of
one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre; that all homestead
entrymen who shall make entry of the lands herein ceded, within
two years after the opening of the same to entry, shall pay one
dollar and fifty cents per acre for the land embraced in their
entry, and for all of the said lands thereafter entered under
the homestead law, the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents
per acre shall be paid; payment in all cases to be made as follows:
Fifty cents per acre at the time of making entry and twenty-five
cents per acre each year thereafter until the price per acre hereinbefore
provided shall have been fully paid; that lands entered under
the town-site, coal and mineral land laws shall be paid for in
an amount and manner as provided by said laws; and in case any
entrymen fails to make the payments herein provided for or any
of them, within the time stated, all rights of said entrymen to
the lands covered by his or her entry shall at once cease and
any payments therebefore made shall be forfeited, and the entry
shall be forfeited and canceled, unless the Secretary of the Interior
shall in his discretion, and for good cause, excuse for not exceeding
six months, the said failure, application for which must be made
by the settler on or before the date of the payment which would
bring him or her in default, and all lands except mineral and
coal lands herein ceded, remaining undisposed of at the expiration
of five years from the opening of said lands to entry, shall be
sold to the highest bidder for cash at not less than one dollar
per acre under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary
of the Interior: Provided, That any lands remaining unsold eight
years after the said lands shall have been opened to entry may
be sold to the highest bidder for cash without regard to the above
minimum limit of price; that lands disposed of under the town-site,
coal and mineral land laws shall be paid for at the prices provided
for by law, and the United States agrees to pay the said Indians
the proceeds derived from the sale of said lands, and also to
pay the said Indians the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents
per acre for sections sixteen and thirty-six, or an equivalent
of two sections in each township of the ceded lands, the amounts
so realized to be paid to an expended for said Indians in the
manner hereinafter provided.
ARTICLE III. It is further agreed
that of the amount to be derived from the sale of said lands,
as stipulated in Article II of this agreement, the sum of eighty-five
thousand dollars shall be devoted to making a per capita payment
to the said Indians of fifty dollars each in cash within sixty
days after the opening of the ceded lands to settlement, or as
soon thereafter as such sum shall be available, which per capita
payment shall be from the proceeds of the sale of sections sixteen
and thirty-six or an equivalent two sections in each township
within the ceded territory, and which sections are to be paid
for by the United States at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five
cents per acre: And provided further, That upon the completion
of the said fifty dollars per capita payment, any balance remaining
in the said fund of eighty-five thousand dollars, shall at once
become available and shall be devoted to surveying, platting,
making of maps, payment of the fees, and the performance of such
acts as are required by the statutes of the State of Wyoming in
securing water rights from said State for the irrigation of such
lands as shall remain the property of said Indians, whether located
within the territory intended to be ceded by agreement or within
the diminished reserve.
ARTICLE IV. It is further agreed that
of the moneys derived from the sale of said lands the sum of one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may
be necessary, shall be expended under the direction of the Secretary
of the Interior for the construction and extension of an irrigation
system within the diminished reservation for the irrigation of
the lands of said Indians: Provided, That in the employment of
persons for the construction, enlargement, repair and management
of such irrigation system, members of the said Shoshone and Arapahoe
tribes shall be employed wherever practicable.
ARTICLE V. It is agreed that at least
fifty thousand dollars of the moneys derived from the sale of
the ceded lands shall be expended, under the direction of the
Secretary of the Interior, in the purchase of livestock for issue
to said Indians, to be distributed as equally as possible among
the men, women and children of the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation.
ARTICLE VI. It is further agreed that
the sum of fifty thousand dollars of the said moneys derived from
the sales of said ceded lands shall be set aside as a school fund,
the principal and interest on which at four per centum per annum
shall be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the
Interior for the erection of school buildings and maintenance
of schools on the diminished reservation, which school shall be
under the supervision and control of the Secretary of the Interior.
ARTICLE VII. It is further agreed
that all the moneys received in payment for the lands hereby ceded
and relinquished, not set aside as required for various specific
purposes and uses herein provided for, shall constitute a general
welfare and improvement fund, the interest on which at four per
centum per annum shall be annually expended under the direction
of the Secretary of the Interior for the benefit of the said Indians;
the same to expended for such purposes and in the purchase of
such articles as the Indians in council may decide upon and the
Secretary of the Interior approve: Provided, however, That a reasonable
amount of the principal of said fund may also be expended each
year for the erection, repair and maintenance of bridges needed
on the reservation, in the subsistence of indigent and infirm
persons belonging on the reservation, or for such other purposes
for the comfort, benefit, improvement, or education of said Indians
as the Indians in council may direct and the Secretary of the
Interior approve. And it is further agreed that an accounting
shall be made to said Indians in the month of July in each year
until the lands are fully paid for, and the funds hereinbefore
referred to shall, for the period of ten years after the opening
of the lands herein ceded to settlement, be used in the manner
and for the purposes herein provided, and the future disposition
of the balance of said funds remaining on hand shall then be subject
to further agreement between the United States and the said Indians.
ARTICLE VIII. It is further agreed
that the proceeds received from the sales of said lands, in conformity
with the provisions of this agreement, shall be paid into the
Treasury of the United States and paid to the Indians belonging
on the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation, or expended on their
account only as provided in this agreement.
ARTICLE IX. It is understood that
nothing in this agreement contained shall in any manner bind the
United States to purchase any portion of the land herein described,
except sections sixteen and thirty-six or the equivalent in each
township or to dispose of said land except as provided herein,
or to guarantee to find purchasers for said land or any portion
thereof, it being the understanding that the United States shall
act as a trustee for said Indians to dispose of said lands and
to expend for said Indians and pay over to them the proceeds received
from the sale thereof only as received, as herein provided.
ARTICLE X. It is further understood
that nothing in this agreement shall be construed to deprive the
said Indians of the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation, Wyoming,
of any benefits to which they are entitled under existing treaties
or agreements, not inconsistent with the provisions of this agreement.
ARTICLE XI. This agreement shall take
effect and be in force when signed by U. S. Indian Inspector James
McLaughlin and by a majority of the male adult Indians parties
hereto, and when accepted and ratified by the Congress of the
United States.
In witness whereof, the said James
McLaughlin, U. S. Indian Inspector, on the part of the United
States, and the male adult Indians belonging on the Shoshone or
Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming, have hereunto set their
hands and seals at the Shoshone Agency, Wyoming, this twenty-first
day of April, A. D. Nineteen hundred and four.
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No.
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Name
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Age
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Mark
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Tribe
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1
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George Terry
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48
|
X
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Shoshone
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2
|
Myron Hunt
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 |
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"
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(and 280 more Indian signatures)
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We, the undersigned, hereby certify
that the foregoing agreement was fully explained by us in open
council to the Indians of the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation,
Wyoming; that it was fully understood by them before signing,
and that the agreement was duly executed and signed by 282 of
said Indians.
CHARLES LAHOE,
Shoshone Interpreter.
MICHAEL MANSON,
Arapahoe Interpreter
SHOSHONE AGENCY, WYOMING,
April 22nd, 1904.
We, the undersigned, do hereby certify
that we witnessed the signatures of James McLaughlin, U. S. Indian
Inspector, and of the two hundred and eighty-two (282) Indians
of the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation, Wyoming to the foregoing
agreement.
JOHN ROBERTS,
Missionary of the Protestant Episcopal
Church on the Reservation.
JOHN S. CHURCHWARD,
Assistant Clerk, Shoshone Agency, Wyo.
SHOSHONE AGENCY, WYOMING,
April 22nd, 1904.
I hereby certify that the total number
of male adult Indians, over eighteen (18) years of age, belonging
on the Shoshone or Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, is four hundred
and eighty-four (484), of who two hundred and eighty-two (282)
have signed the foregoing agreement.
H. E. WADSWORTH,
U. S. Indian Agent.
SHOSHONE AGENCY, WYOMING,
April 22nd, 1904.
Therefore
Be it enacted by the Senate and House
of Representative of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, That the said agreement be, and same is hereby accepted,
ratified, and confirmed, except as to Articles II, III, and IX,
which are amended and modified as follows, and as amended and
modified are accepted, ratified, and confirmed:
ARTICLE II. In consideration of the
lands ceded, granted, relinquished, and conveyed by Article I
of this agreement, the United States stipulates and agrees to
dispose of the same, as hereinafter provided, under the provisions
of the homestead, town-site, coal and mineral land laws, or by
sale for cash, as hereinafter provided, at the following prices
per acre: All lands entered under the homestead law within two
years after the same shall be opened for entry shall be paid for
at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents per acre: after the
expiration of this period, two years, all lands entered under
the homestead law, within three years therefrom, shall be paid
for at the rate of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre;
that all homestead entrymen who shall make entry of the lands
herein ceded, within two years after the opening of the same to
entry, shall pay one dollar and fifty cents per acre for the land
embraced in their entry, and for all of the said lands thereafter
entered under the homestead law, the sum of one dollar and twenty-five
cents per acre shall be paid; payment in all cases to be made
as follows: Fifty cents per acre at the time of making entry and
twenty-five cents per acre each year thereafter until the price
per acre hereinbefore provided shall have been fully paid; that
lands entered under the town-site, coal and mineral land laws
shall be paid for in an amount and manner as provided by said
laws; and in case any entrymen fails to make the payments herein
provided for, or any of them, within the time stated, all rights
of said entrymen to the lands covered by his or her entry shall
at once cease and any payments therebefore made shall be forfeited,
and the entry shall be held for cancellation and canceled, and
all lands, except mineral and coal lands herein ceded, remaining
undisposed of at the expiration of five years from the opening
of said lands to entry shall be sold to the highest bidder for
cash at not less than one dollar per acre, under rules and regulations
to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior: And provided,
That nothing herein contained shall impair the rights under the
lease to Asmus Boysen, which has been approved by the Secretary
of the Interior; but said lessee shall have thirty days from the
date of the approval of the surveys of said land a preferential
right to locate, following the Government surveys, not to exceed
six hundred and forty acres in the form of a square, of mineral
or coal lands in said reservation; that said Boysen at the time
of entry of such lands shall pay cash therefor at the rate of
ten dollars per acre and surrender said lease and the same shall
be canceled: Provided further, That any lands remaining unsold
eight years after the said lands shall have been opened to entry
may be sold to the highest bidder for cash without regard to the
above minimum limit of price; that lands disposed of under the
town-site, coal and mineral land laws shall be paid for at the
prices provided for by law, and the United States agrees to pay
the said Indians the proceeds derived from the sale of said lands,
the amount so realized to be paid to an expended for said Indians
in the manner hereinafter provided.
ARTICLE III. It is further agreed
that of the amount to be derived from the sale of said lands,
as stipulated in Article II of this agreement, the sum of eighty-five
thousand dollars shall be devoted to making a per capita payment
to the said Indians of fifty dollars each in cash within sixty
days after the opening of the ceded lands to settlement, or as
soon thereafter as such sum shall be available: And provided further,
That upon the completion of the said fifty dollars per capita
payment, any balance remaining in the said fund of eighty-five
thousand dollars, shall at once become available and shall be
devoted to surveying, platting, making of maps, payment of the
fees, and the performance of such acts as are required by the
statutes of the State of Wyoming in securing water rights from
said State for the irrigation of such lands as shall remain the
property of said Indians, whether located within the territory
intended to be ceded by agreement or within the diminished reserve.
ARTICLE IX. It is understood that
nothing in this agreement contained shall in any manner bind the
United States to purchase any portion of the land herein described
or to dispose of said land except as provided herein, or to guarantee
to find purchasers for said land or any portion thereof, it being
the understanding that the United States shall act as a trustee
for said Indians to dispose of said lands and to expend for said
Indians and pay over to them the proceeds received from the sale
thereof only as received, as herein provided.
SEC. 2. That the lands ceded to the
United States under the said agreement shall be disposed of under
the provisions of the homestead, town-site, coal and mineral laws
of the United States and shall be opened to settlement and entry
by proclamation of the President of the United States on June
fifteenth, nineteen hundred and six, which proclamations shall
prescribe the manner in which these lands may be settled upon,
occupied, and entered by persons entitled to make entry thereof,
and no person shall be permitted to settle upon, occupy, and enter
said lands except as prescribed in said proclamation until after
the expiration of sixty days from the time when the same are opened
to settlement and entry,, and the rights of honorably discharged
Union soldiers and sailors of the late civil and of the Spanish
wars, as defined and described in sections twenty-three hundred
and four and twenty-three hundred and five of the Revised Statutes
of the United States as amended by the Act of March first, nineteen
hundred and one, shall not be abridged.
All homestead entrymen who shall make
entry of the lands herein ceded within two years after opening
of the same to entry shall pay one dollar and fifty cents per
acre for the land embraced in their entry, and for all of the
said lands thereafter entered under the homestead law the sum
of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre shall be paid, payment
in all cases to be made as follows: Fifty cents per acre at the
time of making entry and twenty-five cents per acre each year
thereafter until the price per acre hereinbefore provided shall
have been fully paid. Upon all entries the usual fees and commissions
shall be paid as provided for in homestead entries on lands the
price of which is one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. Lands
entered under the town-site, cola, and mineral land laws shall
be paid for in amount and manner as provided by said laws. Notice
of location of all mineral entries shall be filed in the local
land office of the district in which the lands covered by the
location are situated, and unless entry and payment shall be made
within three years from the date of location all rights thereunder
shall cease; and in case any entryman fails to make the payments
herein provided for, or any of them, within the time stated, all
rights of said entryman to the lands covered by his or her entry
shall cease, and any payments therebefore made shall be forfeited,
and the entry shall be held for cancellation and canceled; that
nothing in this Act shall prevent homestead settlers from commuting
their entries under section twenty-three hundred and one of the
Revised Statutes of the United States by paying for the land entered
the price fixed herein; that all lands, except mineral and coal
lands, herein ceded remaining undisposed of at the expiration
of five years from the opening of said lands to entry shall be
sold to the highest bidder for cash at not less than one dollar
per acre under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary
of the Interior: Provided, That any lands remaining unsold eight
years after the said lands shall have been opened to entry may
be sold to the highest bidder for cash without regard to the above
minimum limit of price.
SEC. 3. That there is hereby appropriated,
out of any money in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise
appropriated, the sum of eighty-five thousand dollars to make
the per capita payment provided in article three of the agreement
herein ratified, the same to be reimbursed from the first money
received from the sale of the lands herein ceded and relinquished.
And the sum of thirty-five thousand dollars, or so much thereof
as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of any money
in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated,
the same to reimbursed from the proceeds of the sale of said lands,
for the survey and field and office examination of the unsurveyed
portion of the ceded lands, and the survey and marking of the
outboundaries of the diminished reservation, where the same is
not a natural water boundary; and the sum of twenty-five thousand
dollars is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury
of the United States not otherwise appropriated, the same to be
reimbursed from the proceeds from the sale of said lands, to be
used in the construction and extension of an irrigation system
on the diminished reserve, as provided in article four of the
agreement.
Approved, March 3, 1905.
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