In some cases, to avoid difficulty, their nominal claims were bought up; generally, and rightly, they were disregarded.

Yet they certainly had as good a right to the Little Missouri country as the Sioux have to most of the land on their present reservations.

In fact, the mere statement of the case is sufficient to show the absurdity of asserting that the land really belonged to the Indians.

The different tribes have always been utterly unable to define their own boundaries.

Thus the Delawares and Wyandots, in 1785, though entirely separate nations, claimed and, in a certain sense, occupied almost exactly the same territory.
Moreover, it was wholly impossible for our policy to be always consistent.