882,
and October 1, 1888, concerning Chinese.

BENJ. HARRISON.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 10, 1890_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives_:

In pursuance of the power vested in me by the terms of the last clause
of section 3 of the act of Congress approved March 2, 1889, entitled
"An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses
of the Indian Department and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with
various Indian tribes for the year ending June 30, 1890, and for other
purposes," a commission, as therein authorized, was appointed,
consisting of Charles Foster, of Ohio, William Warner, of Missouri, and
General George Crook, of the United States Army. This commission was
specially instructed to present to the Sioux Indians occupying the Great
Sioux Reservation, for their acceptance thereof and consent thereto in
manner and form as therein provided, the act of Congress approved March
2, 1889, entitled "An act to divide a portion of the reservation of the
Sioux Nation of Indians in Dakota into separate reservations and to
secure the relinquishment of the Indian title to the remainder, and for
other purposes."

The report of the commission was submitted to me on the 24th day of
December, 1889, and is, with the accompanying documents and a letter of
the Secretary of the Interior, herewith transmitted for the information
of Congress. It appears from the report of the commission that the
consent of more than three-fourths of the adult Indians to the terms of
the act last named was secured, as required by section 12 of the treaty
of 1868, and upon a careful examination of the papers submitted I find
such to be the fact, and that such consent is properly evidenced by the
signatures of more than three-fourths of such Indians.

At the outset of the negotiations the commission was confronted by
certain questions as to the interpretation and effect of the act of
Congress which they were presenting for the acceptance of the Indians.
Upon two or three points of some importance the commission gave in
response to these inquiries an interpretation to the law, and it was
the law thus explained to them that was accepted by the Indians. The
commissioners had no power to bind Congress or the Executive by their
construction of a statute, but they were the agents of the United
States, first, to submit a definite proposition for the acceptance
of the Indians, and, that failing, to agree upon modified terms