Facts Regarding the Recent Opening to White Settlement of Crow Creek Reservation in Dakota

An Indian Rights Association pamphlet reproducing a letter by Prof. C. C. Painter, the representative of the IRA at Washington, addressing a "grave and pitiable" state of affairs concerning the Crow Creek and Winnebago Indian Reservations: "Three hundred thousand acres of land has been snatched from peaceable and well-disposed Indians, and without compensation to them has been opened to occupancy by the whites."

Following a failed attempt by Secretary of the Interior Henry M. Teller to obtain a cession of some eleven million acres from the Sioux, President Chester Arthur issued an Executive Order in February of 1885 (within days of the close of his administration) that threw open for public settlement more than half of the Crow Creek and Winnebago Reservations-resulting in numerous settlers flocking to the lands. Previously, the tract was recognized by the executive power as a treaty reservation. In this pamphlet, the IRA deems the hasty order-which allows no time for protest or examination-to be iniquitous and calls for the act to be suspended until its validity has been assessed by the proper authorities. Painter's letter from 1885 contextualizes and details the order, which he criticizes as "unjust, reckless, ill-advised," noting that it "must result in infinite damage" to the Indians. The letter is followed by a 2 pp. statement of facts and a 5 pp. opinion section penned by Henry S. Pancoast, Chairman of Committee on Law of the IRA. Both texts concern the history of the Crow Creek and Winnebago Reservations dating back to the 1860s and the Treaty of 1868.