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Partly-printed DS as president, one page, 8 x 10, March 28, 1867. President Johnson authorizes and directs the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to “the Proclamation of a Treaty with the Ponca Indians, concluded March 10, 1865.” Signed at the conclusion by Andrew Johnson. The document is affixed inside a presentation folder, which contains a printed copy of the “Treaty with the Ponca, 1865.” In fine condition, with light toning to the edges and folds.
The 1865 Treaty with the Ponca, which was intended to secure peace and land rights for the Ponca people, exists as one of the more tragic episodes in Native American-U.S. relations. The Ponca Tribe, who originally resided along the Niobrara River in Nebraska and South Dakota, became entangled in territorial disputes, particularly with the Sioux, whose claims overlapped due to earlier U.S. treaties. By 1865, the U.S. sought to resolve these conflicts by defining land boundaries in an effort to support westward expansion and railroad development. The resulting treaty reaffirmed Ponca land rights in a defined area along the Niobrara River, and the U.S. recognized the Ponca’s right to occupy this land permanently and peacefully.
Despite its promises, the U.S. government violated its terms within a few years. In total, 30,000 acres were given to the government, for which the Ponca received 96,000 acres of their ancestral land. As a result of their federal cooperation, the Ponca suffered increased aggression from the Sioux, whose 1868 treaty with the United States granted them half of what is today the state of South Dakota. All of the land belonging to the Ponca reservation was included in this treaty without the knowledge or consent of the Ponca. In 1877, the Ponca were forcibly removed from their homeland to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma)—a disastrous relocation event known as the Ponca Trail of Tears.
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