Page XIV

XIV  REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 
675), certain cessions and exchanges were made by which the area of 
the Ponca reservation was reduced to 96,000 acres, to which diminished 
reservation the pledge of protection in the former treaty remained fully
applicable, and was never forfeited on the part of said Indians. 
The following bill was presented by the department to Congress on 
the 3d of February 1879: 
A BILL For the relief of the Ponca tribe of Indians in the Indian Territory.
Whereas, by the treaty of March 12, 1858, the Ponca Indians ceded to the
United 
States all the land then owned or claimed by them, except a tract in the
Territory of 
Dakota, bounded as follows, viz: "Beginning at a point on the Niobrara
River and 
running due north so as to intersect the Ponca River 25 miles from its mouth;
thence, 
from said point of intersection up and along the Ponca River twenty-  miles;
thence 
due south to the Niobrara River, and thence down and along said river to
the place of 
beginning": and in possession of which the United States agreed to protect
said tribe; 
and, 
Whereas, by the treaty of March 10, 1865, certain changes were made in the
bound- 
aries of the Ponca Reservation, as defined in the treaty of March 12, 1858,
whereby 
their reservation was reduced to 96,000 acres of land; and, 
Whereas, by the second article of the treaty of April 29, 1868, with the
Sioux nation 
of Indians, the lands owned and jhen occupied by the said Poncas, under the
provisions 
hereinbefore set forth, and on which they had valuable improvements in houses
and 
cultivated lands, were without their consent ceded and conveyed by the United
States 
to said nation of Indians; and, 
Whereas provision was made in the act making appropriations for the current
and 
contingent expenses of the Indian Department for the fiscal year ending June
30, 
1877, for the removal of the Ponca Indians to the Indian Territory, which
said removal 
has since been effected; and 
Whereas said Ponca Indians at the time of their removal were obliged to leave
all 
of their improvements and other valuable property, consisting of agricultural
imple- 
ments, etc., on their said reservation in Dakota, and for which they have
received no 
compensation; and, 
Whereas said Ponca Indians are now located temporarily on certain lands,
which 
they desire to retain, within the territory west of the 960 ceded by the
Cherokee Na- 
tion to the United States by the treaty of July 19, 1866, for the purpose
of settling 
other Indians thereon, but which lands they have no money to purchase as
provided in 
said treaty: Therefore, 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Bepresentatives of the United States
of America 
in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby,
author- 
ized and directed to permanently locate the said Ponca Indians on the tract
of land 
now occupied by them, embracing in the aggregate 101,894 acres, and to purchase
the 
same for their use from the Cherokee Nation; said purchase to be made in
accordance 
with the provisions of the Cherokee treaty of July 19, 1876. 
SEC. 2. That the sum of $140,000 be, and the same is hereby, appropriated,
out of 
any moneys now in the Treasury of the United States not otherwise appropriated,
to 
be disposed of for the benefit of said Ponca Indians as follows, viz, $82,000,
or so much 
thereof as may be necessary, shall be expended -by the Secretary of the Interior
in 
payment for the lands authorized herein to be purchased for the use of the
Ponca 
tribe of Indians, and the balance of said $140,000 remaining after the purchase
of said 
lands shall be invested in the four per cent. bonds of the United States
and held as a 
permanent investment for said tribe, the interest thereon to be expended
annually for 
their benefit in such manner as the Secretary of the Interior may direct.
SEC. 3. That the amount appropriated herein shall be in full of all claims
by said 
Pouca tribe of Indians against the United States for the lands and property
heretofore 
owned by them in Dakota Territory.