Agreement with the Navajo, 1874

HISTORICAL NOTES

Agreement with the Navajo, 1874

Articles of Agreement made and entered into at Cañon Bonito, Fort Defiance Navajo Indian Agency, in the Territory of Arizona, on this Twenty Seventh day of March, A. D. One Thousand Eight hundred and Seventy four (1874), by and between the United States of America, represented by its Agent, W. F. M. Army, by authority given to him by the Honorable Edw. P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, under date of February Fourth (4th) One Thousand Eight hundred and Seventy four (1874) of the one part And the Navajo Nation, or tribe of Indians, represented by their Chiefs and Headmen, duly authorized and empowered to act for the whole people of said Nation or tribe, (The names of said Chiefs and Headmen being hereto subscribed) of the other part.

Witness:

Article I.

The Navajo Nation does hereby agree to relinquish to the United States, all that portion of their reservation, as granted to them in Article II, of the Treaty made on the First day of June 1868, at Fort Sumner, as is hereinafter described. Viz:

Beginning on the East line of the Navajo reservation, at the point where the San Juan River crosses said line, running thence North to the Northeast corner of said reservation, as fixed by the Treaty of 1868. Thence West Sixty miles along the South lines of Colorado and Utah Territories, to the Northwest corner of said reservation, as fixed by the Treaty of 1868. Thence South along the West line of said reservation, to a point parallel with the place of beginning. Thence East Sixty miles to the place of beginning.

Article II.

The foregoing described land is hereby relinquished to the United States by the Navajo Indians, second party to this agreement, for and in consideration of the following described lands which the United States hereby agrees shall be, and constitute, when ratified by the United States Senate, a part of the reservation belonging to said Navajo Indians, Viz

Beginning at the Southeast corner of the Navajo reservation, as fixed by the Treaty of 1868, running thence due South to the North line of the Military reservation of Fort Wingate, N.M. Thence due West Sixty miles. Thence North parallel with the West line of the Navajo reservation, to the Southwest corner of said reservation. Thence running East Sixty miles along the South of said reservation to the place of beginning.

Article III.

The Government of the United States hereby agrees to cause the arable lands of said addition to the reservation, to be subdivided into tracts of One hundred and Sixty and Eighty acres. And to cause sufficient land, not already subdivided on the original reservation, to be surveyed and subdivided, so that each and every head of a family may have a homestead, (and as far as practicable, water for irrigation) as provided in Articles V and VII of the Treaty of 1868.

And to provide means to carry out, fully, the stipulations in reference to schools and farms, as provided in Articles V, VI, VII and VIII, of the said Treaty of 1868.

Article IV.

The Navajo Indians, in council assembled, in conformity with Article X, by their Chiefs and Headmen, do hereby fully ratify the above stipulations, and agree to comply with all the agreements binding on them, as specified in the Treaty of 1868.

Article V.

And the United States does hereby agree to perform all the stipulations, required of the Government in said Treaty of 1868, that are not annulled by these Articles of Agreement

In testimony of all of which, the said parties have hereunto on this Twenty Seventh day of March, A.D. One Thousand Eight hundred and Seventy four (1874) at Fort Defiance, in the territory of Arizona, set their hands and seals.

W. F. M. Amy [SEAL]

[Signers omitted]