Neither did they keep in mind the
powerlessness of the Federal Government to enforce against these
settlers what their treaty promised the Indians. The pioneers along the
upper Tennessee and the Cumberland had made various arrangements with
bands of the Cherokees, sometimes acting on their own initiative, and
sometimes on behalf of the State of North Carolina. Many of these
different agreements were entered into by the whites with honesty and
good faith, but were violated at will by the Indians. Others were
violated by the whites, or were repudiated by the Indians as well,
because of some real or fancied unfairness in the making. Under them
large quantities of land had been sold or allotted, and hundreds of
homes had been built on the lands thus won by the whites or ceded by the
Indians. As with all Indian treaties, it was next to impossible to say
exactly how far these agreements were binding, because no persons, not
even the Indians themselves, could tell exactly who had authority to
represent the tribes. [Footnote: American State Papers, Public Lands,
I., p. 40, vi.] The Commissioners paid little heed to these treaties,
and drew the boundary so that quantities of land which had been entered
under regular grants, and were covered by the homesteads of the
frontiersmen, were declared to fall within the Cherokee line.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53