made which had to be ratified by the
Senate, until in 1871 Congress declared that the Indian tribes might no
longer be recognized as independent nations, and reduced the treaties to
simple "agreements," which, however, must in ethics be considered fully
as binding. Their natural resources had now in many cases been taken
from them, rendering them helpless and dependent, and for this reason
some of the later treaties provided that they should be supported until
they became self-supporting.

In less than a century 370 distinct treaties were made with the various
tribes, some of them merely friendship agreements, but in the main
providing for right of way and the cession of lands, as fast as such
lands were demanded by the westward growth of the country and the
pressure of population. In the first instance, the consideration was
generally not over five or ten cents an acre. While the Indians were
still nomadic in their habits, goods in payment were usually taken by
steamboat to the nearest point and there turned over to the head chiefs,
who distributed them among the people. Later the price increased and
payments were made either in goods or cash; fifty cents to a dollar and
a quarter, and more recently as much as $2.50 per acre for cessions of
surplus lands on reservations after the owners have all been allotted.
Gradually large trust funds have been created for some of the tribes,
the capital being held in the United States Treasury and the interest
paid to the Indians in annual per capita instalments, or expended "for
their benefit." Farmers, blacksmiths, carpenters, and other industrial
teachers; cattle, farming tools, houses, and schools are variously
promised in the later treaties for the "support and civilization" of a
people whose own method of making a living has been rendered forever
impossible. The theory was humane and just, but the working of the
system has proved in a large degree a failure.

WHAT ARE RESERVATIONS?

A natural result of frequent land cessions was the reserving or setting
aside of tracts of land for Indian occupancy, known as "reservations."
Such lands have been set aside not only by treaty but in many cases by
act of Congress, and in others by executive order. The Indians living
upon them may not sell standing timber, or mining rights, or right of
way to railroads, without the consent of the Government.

The policy of removal and concentration of Indians originated early in
the nineteent