Indian Affairs in Dakota. Memorial and Resolution of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Dakota Relative to Indian Affairs in Said Territory

This Memorial and Resolution of the legislature of the Territory of Dakota, referred to the United States (US) House of Representatives Committee on Indian Affairs and ordered to be printed January 28, 1868, states the position of the Legislative Assembly of Dakota Territory regarding several matters involving relations and bureaucratic arrangement between the US government and local tribes and Dakota Territory and those tribes, and argues for Dakota Territory playing a greater role in the management of the tribal affairs and the administration of US obligations, including procurement and transportation of Indian goods. Among changes argued for in the document are that the parts of the territory west of Nebraska and south of Montana be organized into a new territory, being almost wholly unconnected and having no interests in common with the other settled portion of the Territory, and that, If the system of small reservations is to be abandoned, and the Indians consolidated and given a territory in Dakota for their exclusive use and benefit, that territory should be located north of the forty-fifth parallel of north latitude. This section of country is capable of containing and supporting all the Indians in Dakota. The document also cites the abundance of timber, gold and other valuable resources south of the 45th parallel as grounds for protesting a proposed plan to include the Black Hills in the Indian territory to be created for the exclusive benefit and habitation of the Indians that portion of Dakota known as the Black Hills.https://commons.und.edu/indigenous-gov-docs/1014/thumbnail.jp