kind- without permission
of the Government. At this time the Cherokee were deriving an
annual income of $150,000 from the lease of grazing privileges upon
the strip, hut by a proclamation of President Harrison on February
17. 1890, ordering the cattlemen to vacate before the end of the year.
this income was cut oil and the strip was rendered practically value-
less to them. 8 The Cherokee were now forced to come to terms, and
a second proposition for the cession of the Cherokee strip was finally
accepted by the national council on January 1. 1892. "It was known
to the Cherokees that for some time would-be settlers on the land- of
the outlet had been encamped in the southern end of Kansas, and by
every influence at their command had been urging the Government to
open the country tosettlement and to negotiate with the Cherokees
afterwards, and that a bill for that purpose had been introduced in
Congress." The consideration was nearly $8,600,000, or about $1.25
per acre, for something over 6,000,000 acres of land. One article of
the agreement stipulates for ■"the reaffirmation to the Cherokee Nation
of the right of local self-government." 8 The agreement having been
ratified by Congress, the Cherokee strip was opened h\ Presidential
proclamation on September 16, I s '.':;.'
The movement for the abolition of the Indian governments and the
allotment and opening of the Indian country had now gained such force
thai by act of Congress approved March 3, 1893, the President was
authorized to appoint a commission of three -known later as the
Dawes Commission, from its distinguished chairman. Senator Henry
L. Dawes of Massachusetts to negotiate with the five