59th Congress, 2d Session. S.R. 95. Joint Resolution Relating to Proceeding to Set Aside Deeds Alleged to Have Been Made by Mexican Kickapoos [caption title]

Washington, D.C.: March 2, 1907. Very good plus.. [2]pp. on a single folded sheet, docketed in print on verso of second leaf. With House of Representatives stamp dated March 2, 1907, indicating referral to the Committee on Indian Affairs. Old folds. A U.S. Senate slip bill printing of a proposed Joint Resolution relating to recording testimony for claims made by Mexican Kickapoo Indians on lands in present-day Oklahoma that were promised to said Kickapoos by the Mexican government. The resolution also calls for any fraudulently executed claims to be investigated and "prosecute proceedings in the proper courts on behalf of said Indians, to cancel and (truncated) set aside said conveyances, and to clear the title of said Indians to said land from any and all cloud thereon...." The document is signed at the end by Charles Bennett, the Secretary of the Senate.

The Mexican Kickapoos hold a somewhat unique place among Native Americans, holding citizenship in both the United States and Mexico. And as with all other Native American groups, they have a long and bitter history in dealing with the United States government. The present document comes after the Kickapoos were removed from Wisconsin to the Midwest, then Missouri and Kansas, before migrating further south to Texas and Mexico. In 1870 an effort was organized by the U.S. government to collect the Kickapoos in Texas and Mexico and settle them on land in Indian Territory. Their settlement in Oklahoma was disastrous after being forced to cede their reservation lands in exchange fro eighty-acre allotments. The present document comes from well after that process began in 1894 and stands as evidence of continued governmental interference in the affairs of Native Americans in the early-20th century. In the present day, many Mexican Kickapoos travel back and forth between the United States and Mexico to work as migrant laborers in Texas and the American Southwest, returning to Mexico in the winter. (Inventory #: 4644)