the Canadian River, and now
occupied by the said Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians; said lands have
been ceded in trust by article 3 of the treaty between the United
States and said Choctaw and Chickasaw nations of Indians which was
concluded April 28, 1866, and proclaimed on the 10th day of August of
the same year, and whereof there remains, after deducting allotments as
provided by said agreement, a residue ascertained by survey to contain
2,393,160 acres; three-fourths of this appropriation to be paid to such
person or persons as are or shall be duly authorized by the laws of
said Choctaw Nation to receive the same, at such time and in such sums
as directed and required by the legislative authority of said Choctaw
Nation, and one-fourth of this appropriation to be paid to such person
or persons as are or shall be duly authorized by the laws of said
Chickasaw Nation to receive the same, at such times and in such sums as
directed and required by the legislative authority of said Chickasaw
Nation; this appropriation to be immediately available and to become
operative upon the execution by the duly appointed delegates of said
respective nations specially authorized thereto by law of releases and
conveyances to the United States of all the right, title, interest, and
claim of said respective nations of Indians in and to said land (not
including Greer County, which is now in dispute), in manner and form
satisfactory to the President of the United States; and said releases
and conveyances, when fully executed and delivered, shall operate to
extinguish all claim of every kind and character of said Choctaw and
Chickasaw nations of Indians in and to the tract of country to which
said releases and conveyances shall apply.

If this section had been submitted to me as a separate measure,
especially during the closing hours of the session, I should have
disapproved it; but as the Congress was then in its last hours a
disapproval of the general Indian appropriation bill, of which it was a
part, would have resulted in consequences so far-reaching and disastrous
that I felt it my duty to approve the bill. But as a duty was devolved
upon me by the section quoted, viz, the acceptance and approval of the
conveyances provided for, I have felt bound to look into the whole
matter, and in view of the facts which I shall presently mention to
postpone any Executive action until these facts could