Newspaper clippings, pamphlets and government reports dealing with the "Cherokee Neutral Lands" are in chronological order. Items are hand numbered 1-11 but no number 8 was found when processing the collection.

Users of this collection should be aware that titles of these items are taken from the items themselves and reflect the attitudes of the people, period, or context in which they were created. Certain images, words, terms, or descriptions may be offensive, culturally insensitive, or considered inappropriate today.

Items in the collection include the following:

"Neutral Land Question" Evening Bulletin, newspaper clipping

"The Sale of the Cherokee Neutral Lands in Kansas," a 4-page legal argument supporting Cherokee ownership based on payment and continuous occupation of the land presented by Lewis Downing, Chief of the Cherokee Nation, to Washington in February 1869, disputing the right of the US government to own or sell the land;

"Manifesto of the People of the Cherokee Neutral Land," a 22-page pamphlet written by CC McDowell and other white settlers of Cherokee and Crawford Counties contending that the Cherokee people abandoned the land, at which point it was public land open to homesteading or sale by act of Congress. They dispute the right of the Secretary of Interior to sell the land to James F. Joy, who represents a capitalist railroad monopoly;

“Report of the House Committee Appointed to Visit the Cherokee Neutral Lands, 1870,” a 164-page document including deposition transcripts, letters, and findings. The Majority Report concludes that federal troops were needed to keep the peace as requested by local sheriffs. The Minority Report contends that the petitions for federal troops were circulated by James F. Joy and supporters of the railroad;

Newspaper clipping from the Southern Kansas Advance, dated June 15, 1870 and titled, “Glorious News! Important Decision!! The Great Trunk Line to Texas Must run down the Neosho Valley,” a reprint of Secretary of Interior J. D. Cox’s argument for approving the railroad line and President Grant’s approval;

"The Railroad Question," newspaper clipping from the Topeka Herald, August 4, 1870;

"Through the Indian Territory: What Railroad Shall Have the Right of Way," Journal of Commerce;

"The Railroad Assessment," Lynn County Press, Pleasanton, Kansas, July 28, 1870;

“Cherokee Neutral Lands [To accompany bill H.R. 1074], Report No. 5, 41st Congress, 3d Session, House of Representatives, January 11, 1871, by Mr. Armstrong, from the Committee in Indian Affairs,” 13 pages from the Pennsylvania representative concluding that the treaty with James F. Joy is valid and that any settlers that arrived after that 1866 treaty are trespassers;

bound with the previous document in the same folder, “Supreme Court of the United States. December Term, 1871, Peter J Holden, Appellant, vs. James F. Joy No. 360 In Chancery, Appeal from the circuit court of the United States for the District of Kansas. Argument for the Appellant,” 156 pages including appendices, asserting that treaty power lies with the legislative not the executive branch, nullifying Joy’s claim that was given by the Secretary of Interior, a member of the executive branch. Tribes mentioned in discussion of treaty and reservation precedent include the following: Detroit, Osage, Chickasaw, Piankishaw, Cherokee, Kickapoo, Chippewa, Seneca, Choctaw, Creek, Osage, Quapaw, Potawatomie, Wyandotte, Wea, Miami, Ottawa, Winnebago, Sac and Fox, Caddo, Delaware, and Shawnee;

"The Supreme Court of the United States, Nos. 360 and 327, Peter J. Holden v. James J. Joy, and William H. Warner v. James J Joy, December term 1871," and "The Supreme Court of the United States No.328, Peter F. Holden v. James J. Joy, December term 1871," opinions deciding in favor of Joy;

“Indian Affairs, Speech of General John P.C. Shanks of Indiana in the House of Representatives on April 13, 1872,” 30 pages in which the Indiana representative on the Indian Affairs Committee encourages Congress to respect the treaty rights of the Native American tribes for legal, moral and practical reasons. The then-present population of the following tribes are listed: Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Pottawattamie, Seminole, Sac and Fox, Osage, Kiowa, Comanche and Apache, Arapahoe, Cheyenne, Quapaw, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Piankeshaw, Ottawa, Shawnee, Wyandotte, and Seneca. He cites multiple treaties, intrusions upon their land, land cessations from and selling of land to various tribes including the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw. He cautions that the recent Civil War was the result of the United States government asserting that enslaved people had no legal rights. Citing the death of 2 million Indigenous people since the beginning of white settlement, he asks that Congress prevent the complete annihilation of the Indigenous people; and

"Pamphlets on Cherokee Neutral Lands, 1868-1872," the original green cover of the volume, including a sticker showing it was presented to the John Crerar Library of Chicago, Illinois by the estate of Octave Chanute and stamped withdrawn from that library and a University of Kansas Library sticker.