Indian Appropriations Act

Negotiations are yet to be had with the Cherokees, the most populous of the five civilized tribes, and with the Seminoles, the smallest in point of numbers and territory.

The provision in the Indian Appropriation Act, approved June ten, eighteen ninety-six, makes it the duty of the commission to investigate and determine the rights of applicants for citizenship in the five civilized tribes, and to make complete census rolls of the citizens of said tribes.

The commission is at present engaged in this work among the Creeks, and has made appointments for taking the census of these people up to and including the thirtieth of the present month.

Should the agreement between the Choctaws and Chickashaws be ratified by Congress, and should the other tribes fail to make an agreement with the commission, then it will be necessary that some legislation shall be had by Congress, which, while just and honorable to the Indians, shall be equitable to the white people who have settled upon these lands by invitation of the tribal nations.

Yeah.

And then the Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 authorized the creation of modern reservation systems where the federal government controlled food rations and restricted movement.

So you're not allowed to really leave the reservation.

You're stuck there, and you have to take their supplies, their food rations.