The 1877 Convention, also known as the February 28, 1877 Act (19 Stat. 254), is the most controversial treaty concerning the Black Hills land claims. The treaty formally removed Sioux lands and permanently established Indian reserves. Section 1 of the Act modifies the boundaries of the reservations set out in the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, while Section 2 allows the United States government to establish roads on which settlers can move when crossing the territory. [38] In addition, section 7 states that only thoroughbred Indians living on reserve may derive the agreements and benefits of this Act as well as from previous contracts. [39] The controversies surrounding this legislation indicate that the government purchased the land from the reserve, but there is no valid record of this transaction. When the Senate reduced the pension from 50 to 10 years, all the tribes except the crow accepted the reduction. Nevertheless, the treaty was recognized as being in force. [7]:594 Of course, the Pope`s Court expressly refused to consider “what application the principles announced in the Klein case could rightly apply to a case in which Congress tried to overturn the Judgment of the Court of Claims in favor of the government and to demand a new trial.” Id., at 8-9, 65 s.Ct., at 21. The case before us could be seen as a presentation of this issue. However, we conclude that the issue of separation of powers raised in this case has already been answered in the Cherokee Nation and that this response is fully consistent with the principles set out in Klein. “We will see by studying the terms of this treaty that the Indians, in its words, have lost a lot from a material point of view and have gained little. With the first article, they lost all rights to the unallocated Indian territory in Wyoming, from which white settlers had been completely excluded at the time; the second, they renounced all rights to the Black Hills and the fertile Valley of the Beautiful Forks in Dakota, without additional material compensation; by granting the third party the right of way over the unassigned parts of its reservation; In the fourth, they receive only the deliveries provided for by the treaty of 1868, limited to the points for their receipt.
The only real gain for the Indians seems to be embodied in the fifth article of the treaty [the government`s obligation to provide subsistence rations].