E-text prepared by Janet Blenkinship and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page images generously made available by the Bibliothèque nationale de France (http://www.bnf.fr/) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 17148-h.htm or 17148-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/1/4/17148/17148-h/17148-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/1/4/17148/17148-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through the Bibliothèque nationale de France and can be seen at http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?nompage=WEBCCACAT&lan=FR&adr=68.96.117.117&Interne=false&O=30000000276083&Notice=37572002& Smithsonian Institution--Bureau of Ethnology. J. W. Powell, Director. CESSIONS OF LAND BY INDIAN TRIBES TO THE UNITED STATES: ILLUSTRATED BY THOSE IN THE STATE OF INDIANA by C. C. ROYCE. First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 247-262 [Illustration: Map of the State of Indiana] CHARACTER OF THE INDIAN TITLE. The social and political relations that have existed and still continue between the Government of the United States and the several Indian tribes occupying territory within its geographical limits are, in many respects, peculiar. The unprecedentedly rapid increase and expansion of the white population of the country, bringing into action corresponding necessities for the acquisition and subjection of additional territory, have maintained a constant straggle between civilization and barbarism. Involved as a factor in this social conflict, was the legal title to the land occupied by Indians. The questions raised were whether in law or equity the Indians were vested with any stronger title than that of mere tenants at will, subject to be dispossessed at the pleasure or convenience of their more civilized white neighbors, and, if so, what was the nature and extent of such stronger title? These questions have been discussed and adjudicated from time to time by the executive and judicial authorities of civilized nations ever since the discovery of America. The discovery of this continent, with its supposed marvelous wealth of precious metals and commercial woods, gave fresh impetus to the ambition and cupidity of European monarchs.