Cite as: 526 U. S. 172 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
See, e. g., App. 536-539 (letter from Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs to Heatwole, Dec. 16, 1898); id., at 547-548 (letter from Commissioner of Indian Affairs Collier to Reynolds, Apr. 30, 1934); App. to Pet. for Cert. 575-578 (letter from President Roosevelt to Whitebird, Mar. 1, 1938). But see, e. g., App. 541 (letter from Meritt to Hammitt, Dec. 14, 1925) (Office of Indian Affairs noting that "[a]pparently, . . . there is merit in the claims of the Indians" that they have hunting and fishing rights under the 1837 Treaty); Additional Brief for United States in United States v. Thomas, O. T. 1893, No. 668, pp. 2-3 (with respect to the 1842 Treaty, arguing that no Executive Order requiring Chippewa removal had ever been made).
Although the United States abandoned its removal policy, it did not abandon its attempts to acquire more Chippewa land. To this end, in the spring of 1854, Congress began considering legislation to authorize additional treaties for the purchase of Chippewa lands. The House of Representatives debated a bill "to provide for the extinguishment of the title of the Chippewa Indians to the lands owned and claimed by them in the Territory of Minnesota and State of Wisconsin." Cong. Globe, 33d Cong., 1st Sess., 1032 (1854). This bill did not require the removal of the Indians, but instead provided for the establishment of reservations within the ceded territories on which the Indians could remain.
The treaty authorization bill stalled in the Senate during 1854, but Commissioner of Indian Affairs George Manypenny began to implement it nonetheless. On August 11, he instructed Indian Agent Henry Gilbert to begin treaty negotiations to acquire more land from the Chippewa. Specifically, he instructed Gilbert to acquire "all the country" the Chippewa own or claim in the Minnesota Territory and the State of Wisconsin, except for some land that would be set aside for reservations. App. 264. Gilbert negotiated such a Treaty with several Chippewa Bands, 1854 Treaty with the Chippewa, 10 Stat. 1109, although for reasons now lost to
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