Clark, et al vs. Bates, et al.
linquish all claims or right if and to any portion of the United States or territories, except such as is embraced within the limits " in said article described, and except as thereinafter provided.
The portion of the territory embraced within the limits in said article specified, was all between low water mark on the east bank of the Missouri River and the one hundred and fourth meridian west from Greenwich, and the north line of Nebraska and the forty-sixth parallel of north latitude. The exceptions in the cessions referred to in article two are found in articles eleven and sixteen of said treaty. The modification of the general cession of territory in article two made by article eleven is simply a reserved right of the Indians to hunt on any lands north of the North Platte River, which includes the country between the one hundred and fourth meridian on the east and the summit of the Big Horn Mountains on the west, and the North Platte River on the south, and the country occupied by the Crows on the north; and also the right to hunt in Southern Nebraska and Northern Kansas on the Republican Fork of the Smoky Hill River. Article sixteen refers exclusively to the territory above described between the one hundred and fourth meridian and the summit of the Big Horn Mountains. The military posts then established in the territory in this article named were the military posts of Fort Reno, Fort Phil Kearney and Fort C. F. Smith. Indeed it was the establishment of these posts and opening the road to them and by them to the settlements in Montana by the United States, that the Sioux nation complained of most loudly, and to which the attention of both contracting parties was most earnestly directed.
From an examination of the said treaty it appears clear, that all the lands occupied or claimed by any portion of the Sioux or Dakota Nation of Indians who were parties to the treaty, situated east of the Missouri River were therein ceded to the United States. This cession included the lands and territory on which the plaintiffs store was situated, from which the defendants took and carried away the said goods.
