lling (with the consent of the United States) to admit
among them." This reservation contains 2,968,893 acres.

The Cheyennes and Arapahoes, whose surplus lands are to be paid for by
this appropriation, have occupied the country between the Washita and
Canadian rivers, extending west to the one hundredth degree of
longitude. This reservation contains 2,489,160 acres.

I have stated these facts in order that it may be seen what further
appropriations are involved in a settlement for all these lands upon the
basis which Congress has adopted. It does not seem to me to be a wise
policy to deal with this question piecemeal. It would have been better,
if a remnant of title remains in the Choctaws and Chickasaws to the
lands in the leased district, to have settled the whole matter at once.
Under the treaty of 1855 the Choctaws and Chickasaws quitclaimed any
supposed interest of theirs in the lands west of the one hundredth
degree. The boundary between the Louisiana purchase and the Spanish
possessions by our treaty of 1819 with Spain was as to these lands fixed
upon the one hundredth degree of west longitude.

Our treaty with the Choctaws and Chickasaws made in 1820 extended their
grant to the limit of our possessions. It followed, of course, that
these lands were included within the boundaries of the State of Texas
when that State was admitted to the Union, and the release of the
Choctaws and Chickasaws, whatever it was worth, operated for the benefit
of the State of Texas and not of the United States. The lands became
public lands of that State. For the release of this claim and for the
lease of the lands west of the ninety-eighth degree the Government of
the United States paid the sum of $800,000. In the calculations which
have been made to arrive at the basis of the appropriation under
discussion no part of this sum is treated as having been paid for the
lease. I do not think that is just to the United States. It seems
probable that a very considerable part of this consideration must have
related to the leased lands, because these were the lands in which the
Indian title was recognized, and the treaty gave to the United States a
permanent right of occupation by friendly Indians. The sum of $300,000,
paid under the treaty of 1866, is deducted, as I understand, in arriving
at the sum appropriated. It seems to me that a considerable proportion
of the sum of $800,000 previously paid should have been deducted in the
same mann