Articles of agreement and convention made and concluded at Sarcoxieville, on the Delaware Reservation, this thirtieth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and sixty, by Thomas B. Sykes, as a commissioner on the part of the United States, and following named chiefs of the Delaware tribe of Indians, viz: John Conner, head chief of the whole tribe; Sar-cox-ie, chief of the Turtle band; Ne-con-he-con, chief of the Wolf band; Rock-a-to-wha, chief of the Turkey band, and assistants to the said head chief, chosen and appointed by the people, and James Conner, chosen by the said chief as delegate.
Article 1. By the first article of the treaty made and concluded at the city of Washington, on the sixth day of May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, between George W. Manypenny, commissioner on the part of the United States, and certain delegates of the Delaware tribe of Indians, which treaty was ratified by the Senate of the United States on the eleventh day of July, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, there was reserved, as a permanent home for the said tribe, that part of their country lying east and south of a line beginning at a point on the line between the Delawares and Half-breed Kansas, forty miles in a direct line west of the boundary between the Delawares and Wyandottes; thence north ten miles: thence in a easterly course to a point on the south bank of Big Island Creek, which shall also be on the bank of the Missouri river, where the usual high-water line of said creek intersects the high-water line of said river. And by the eleventh article of said treaty it was stipulated that “at any time hereafter when the Delawares desire it, and at their request and expense, the President may cause the country reserved for their permanent home, to be surveyed in the same manner as the ceded country is surveyed, and may assign such portion to each person or family as shall be designated by the principal men of the tribe: Provided, such assignments shall be uniform.”
The Delawares having represented to the government that it is their wish that a portion of the lands reserved for their home may be divided among them in the manner contemplated by the eleventh article of the treaty aforesaid, it is hereby agreed by the parties hereto, that the said reservation shall be surveyed as early as practicable after the ratification of these articles of agreement and convention, in the same manner that the public lands are surveyed; and to each member of the Delaware tribe there shall be assigned a tract of land containing eighty acres, to include in every case, as far as practicable, a reasonable portion of timber, to be selected according to the legal subdivisions of survey.
Article 2. The division and assignment in severalty among the Delawares of the land shall be made in a compact body, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and his decision of all questions arising thereupon shall be final and conclusive.
Certificates shall be issued by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the tracts assigned in severalty, specifying the names of the individuals to whom they have been assigned respectively, and that the said tracts are set apart for the exclusive use and benefit of the assignees and their heirs.
And said tracts shall not be alienable in fee, leased, or otherwise disposed of, except to the United States or to members of the Delaware tribe, and under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior; and the said tracts shall be exempt from levy, taxation, sale, or forfeiture, until otherwise provided by Congress.
Prior to the issue of the certificates aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior shall make such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary or expedient, respecting the disposition of any of said tracts, in case of the death of the person or persons to whom they may be assigned, so that the same shall be secured to the families of such deceased persons. And should any of the Indians to whom tracts shall be assigned, abandon them, the said Secretary may take such action in relation to the proper disposition thereof, as, in his judgment, may be necessary and proper.
The improvements of the Indians residing on the lands to be sold shall be valued by the United States, and the individual owners thereof shall receive the amount realized from the sale of the same, to be expended in building other improvements for them on the lands retained.
Article 3. The Delaware tribe of Indians, entertaining the belief that the value of their lands will be enhanced by having a railroad passing through their present reservation, and being of the opinion that the Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company, incorporated by an act of the legislative assembly of Kansas Territory, will have the advantage of travel and general transportation over every other company proposed to be formed, which will run through their lands, have expressed a desire that the said Leavenworth, Pawnee, and Western Railroad Company shall have the preference of purchasing the remainder of their lands after the tracts in severalty and those for the special objects herein named shall have been selected and set apart, upon the payment into the United States treasury, which payment shall be made within six months after the quantity shall have been ascertained, in gold or silver coin, of such a sum as three commissioners, to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior, shall appraise to be the value of said land: Provided, in no event shall the value be placed below the sum of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, exclusive of the cost of the survey of the same. (And that the United States will issue a patent in fee-simple to said company, upon the payment as aforesaid, for all the land remaining in Kansas.) It is, therefore, agreed by the United States that the wishes of the Delawares shall be granted; that they will accept of the trust reposed upon them; and that the money resulting from such disposition of the lands shall be disposed of and applied in the manner provided for by the seventh and eighth articles of the Delaware treaty of sixth May, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, after expending a sufficient sum to enable them to commence agricultural pursuits under favorable circumstances. It is also agreed that the said railroad company shall have the perpetual right of way over any portion of the lands allotted to the Delawares in severalty, upon payment of a just compensation therefor, in money, to the respective parties whose lands are crossed by the line of railroad. It being the intent and meaning of the Delawares, in consenting to the sale of their surplus lands to said company, that they should, in good faith, and within a reasonable time, construct a railroad through their reservation, and to carry out this intent as well as to secure so great a public convenience, it is agreed that no patent shall issue for any of these lands, nor shall the sale be binding upon the Delaware Indians or the United States, until the Secretary of the Interior shall be fully satisfied that a line of twenty-five miles of the road from Leavenworth City shall have been completed and equipped, when a patent shall issue for one-half of the ascertained quantity. The patent for the residue shall issue only when the said Secretary shall be satisfied that the road has been, in like manner, completed and equipped to the western boundary of the Delaware reservation. And if the said company shall fail or neglect to construct either the first or second section of the road, or having constructed the first section and fail to complete the second section within a reasonable time they shall forfeit to the United States all right to the lands not previously patented, and the certificate of purchase shall be deemed and considered cancelled. And provided further, That in case the said company shall fail to make payment for the lands or fail to construct the road, as hereinbefore stipulated, within a reasonable time, the surplus lands shall be disposed of by the Secretary of the Interior, at public auction, in quantities not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres: but, in no case for a sum less than the appraised value, the net proceeds to be applied in the same manner as hereinbefore specified: And provided further, That the said railroad company shall, finally, and in good faith, sell and dispose of all said lands within seven years after receiving the patent therefor, except what may be necessary for railroad purposes; and in default thereof so much thereof as may remain undisposed of shall revert to the Delaware nation, to be disposed of as herein provided for other forfeited lands.
Article 4. Whereas some years ago a good many of the Delawares went down among the Southern Indians, and as there are still about two hundred of them there, and as they have reason to believe they will return soon, it is hereby agreed that eighty acres each be set apart for them, to be allotted to them as they return, and certificates to be then issued to them, in the same manner as to those now within the reservation, and in every respect to be governed by the same rules and regulations prescribed for the government of the lands reserved by the preceding articles, that until they return the allotments set apart for belong to the nation in common.
Article 5. There shall be reserved three hundred and twenty acres of ground where the mill, and school-house, and Ketchum’s store now stand; three hundred and twenty acres where the council-house now is; one hundred and sixty acres where the Baptist mission now is; one hundred and sixty acres where the agency house now is; forty acres where the Methodist Episcopal Church South now is; forty acres where the Methodist Episcopal Church North now is; which several tracts, with the improvements thereupon, shall be disposed of when the objects for which they have been reserved shall have been accomplished in such manner and for such purposes as the Secretary of the Interior shall determine to be just and equitable, for the benefit of the Delawares.
Article 6. By article fourteen of the treaty between the Delawares and the United States, of May six, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, ratified by the Senate July eleven, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, the United States bound herself to protect them and their rights: and that whereas, that depredations of various kinds have been committed upon them and their lands, it is hereby agreed that the United States shall pay them, within twelve months from the ratification of these articles of treaty and convention, thirty thousand dollars as indemnity for timber that has been cut off their reservation by the whites, and nine thousand five hundred dollars as indemnity for ponies and cattle that have been stolen from them by the whites since their last treaty with the United States. It is further stipulated that should the Senate of the United States refuse this article, it shall in no wise effect the validity of the other articles, or prejudice the right of the Delawares to appeal to the Congress of the United States for the indemnities hereby agreed upon.
It is further understood that, at the treaty between the Delawares and the United States, made September twenty-four, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, the boundary of the reservation then set apart for them included the Half-breed Kansas lands; but it afterwards proved that the United States had previously set apart these lands for the Half-breed Kaws, and by that means they have been kept out of the use and benefit of said lands; it is, therefore, hereby agreed that a fair valuation shall be made by the United States upon such lands, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, and that the amount of said valuation shall be paid the Delawares.
Article 7. In consideration of the long and faithful services of the chiefs of the Delaware nation, and of the interpreter, who is also a member of the nation, it is further agreed that the said chiefs and interpreter shall have allotted to each a tract of land, to be selected by themselves, and shall receive a patent in fee-simple therefor from the President of the United States, viz: John Conner, principal chief, six hundred and forty acres; Sar-cox-ie, chief of the Turtle band, three hundred and twenty acres; Rock-a-to-wha, chief of the Turkey band, three hundred and twenty acres; Ne-con-he-con, chief of the Wolf band, three hundred and twenty acres; and Henry Tiblow, interpreter, three hundred and twenty acres: the lines of each tract to conform to the legal subdivisions of survey. It is further agreed that, from the money as paid the Delaware tribe of Indians, in accordance with article number ten of this treaty, the chiefs of said tribe of Indians shall appropriate one thousand five hundred dollars as the annual salary of the councilmen of the said tribe of Indians.
Article 8. Any stipulation in former treaties inconsistent with those embraced in the foregoing articles shall be of no force or effect.
Article 9. As these articles are entered into for the sole use and benefit of the Delaware Indians, it is understood that the expenses incident to carrying them into effect shall be defrayed from the funds of said Indians, held in trust for them by the United States.
Article 10.
The interest accruing to the Delawares under the former treaties, and that which may accrue under this, shall be paid on the first of April and October in each year.
In testimony whereof, the said Thomas B. Sykes, commissioner as aforesaid, and the said delegates of the Delaware tribe of Indians have hereunto set their hands and seals, at the place and on the day and year hereinbefore written.
Thomas B. Sykes, Commissioner
John Connor, Head Chief, his x mark
Sar-cox-ie, or The Highest, Assistant Chief, his x mark
Ne-con-he-con, or Bounding Ahead, Assistant Chief, his x mark
Rock-a-to-wha, or Sun Rise, Assistant Chief, his x mark
James Connor, or Ah-la-a-chick, his x mark
Signed in the presence of:
Henry Tiblow, United States interpreter.
James Findlay.
William G. Bradshaw.
Samuel Priestley.
Thomas S. Gladding.