25 U.S.C. § 1776 : US Code - Section 1776: Findings and purpose

Search 25 U.S.C. § 1776 : US Code - Section 1776: Findings and purpose

(a) Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1) Under the treaty between the United States of America and
the Crow Tribe of Indians concluded May 7, 1868 (commonly known
as the "Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868"; 15 Stat. 649), the eastern
boundary of the Crow Indian Reservation was established as the
107th meridian for approximately 90 miles from the Yellowstone
River to the boundary between Montana and Wyoming.
(2) Under Executive orders issued in 1884 and 1900, the western
boundary of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation was established as
the 107th meridian. The 107th meridian was intended to be the
common boundary between the Crow Reservation and Northern
Cheyenne Reservation for approximately 25 miles.
(3) From 1889 through 1891, a survey was conducted of the
eastern boundary of the Crow Reservation. The 1891 survey line
strayed to the west, and resulted in the exclusion from the Crow
Indian Reservation of a strip of land of approximately 36,164
acres. Approximately 12,964 acres of such strip of land were
included in the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Deposits of low
sulphur coal underlie the land excluded from the Crow Indian
Reservation, including the land included in the Northern Cheyenne
Indian Reservation.
(4)(A) The erroneous nature of the survey was not discovered
for several decades. Meanwhile, the areas along the 107th
meridian to the north and south of the Northern Cheyenne Indian
Reservation were opened to settlement in the late nineteenth
century and early part of the twentieth century. Patents were
issued to non-Indian persons and to the State of Montana for most
of the surface land and a significant portion of the minerals in
these areas between the 107th meridian and the 1891 survey line.
(B) The 12,964 acres included in the Northern Cheyenne
Reservation have been treated as part of the Northern Cheyenne
Reservation and occupied by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe and the
Northern Cheyenne allottees, and their successors in interest.
(5) Legislation to resolve the 107th meridian boundary dispute
was introduced in Congress in the 1960's and 1970's, and again in
1992, but no such legislation was enacted into law.
(b) Purpose
The purpose of this subchapter is to settle the 107th meridian
boundary dispute created by the erroneous survey of the eastern
boundary of the Crow Indian Reservation made by the Federal
Government described in subsection (a)(3) of this section.