By the United States in Congress assembled. AUGUST 7, 1786. An ORDINANCE for the Regulation of INDIAN AFFAIRS. WHEREAS the safety and tranquility of the frontiers of the United States do, in some measure, depend on the maintaining a good correspondence between their citizens and the several nations of Indians in amity with them: And whereas the United States in Congress assembled, under the ninth of the articles of confederation and perpetual union, have the sole and exclusive right and power of regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the States; provided that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated: Be it ordained by the United States in Congress assembled, That from and after the passing of this ordinance, the Indian department be divided into two districts, viz. The southern, which shall comprehend within its limits, all the nations in the territory of the United States, who reside southward of the river Ohio; and the northern, which shall comprehend all the other Indian nations within the said territory, and westward of Hudson river: Provided, that all councils, treaties, and other proceedings with the Cherokees and all other Indians southward of them, shall be held and transacted on the part of the United States, by and under the sole direction of the superintendent for the southern district, or under the sole direction of the superintendent of the northern district, with such assistants as may be necessary for the purposes aforesaid, under the direction and at the appointment of Congress, unless the legislature of a State shall otherwise interpose. That a superintendent be appointed for each of the said districts, who shall attend to the execution of such regulations as Congress shall, from time to time, establish respecting Indian affairs. That the said superintendents shall not trade with any Indian or Indians, on their own or any other persons account, or be concerned therein; and that the superintendents shall reside in or near the district to which they may be respectively appointed. That the said superintendents shall have power to appoint and license such factors and traders as they may respectively find necessary to serve the purposes of the Indian trade; and they shall also be empowered to appoint proper persons to reside at such places as shall best facilitate the regulation of the Indian trade, and to receive for them for subsistence, [undecipherable: —] per day between the said Superintendents, who shall have power to suspend or dismiss them and all commissioners, storekeepers, and other persons in the Indian department, except such as are by Congress immediately commissioned, as to them shall seem proper: And the Superintendents of each district shall submit annually to Congress, and the Superintendents respectively shall also obey all orders which they shall from time to time receive from the said Secretary at war. And whenever they shall have cause to suspect, or are given notice or information, of hostile intentions against the United States, they shall communicate the same to the executive of the State or States, whose territories are exposed to danger from such hostilities. All stores, provisions or other property, which Congress may think necessary for presents to the Indians, shall be in the care and under the direction of the said Superintendents, who shall render an annual account of the expenditures of the same, to the board of Treasury. That none but citizens of the United States, shall be suffered to reside among the Indian nations, or be allowed to trade with any nation of Indians, within the territory of the United States. That no person, citizen or other, under the penalty of five hundred dollars, shall reside among, or trade with any Indian or Indian nation, within the territory of the United States, without a licence for that purpose first obtained from the Superintendent of the district, or one of the deputies, who are hereby directed to give such licence to every person, who shall produce from the supreme executive of any State, a certificate under the seal of the said State, that he is of good character, and suitably qualified and provided for that employment, for which licence the said Superintendent, or his deputy shall receive no more than one dollar. That no licence to trade with the Indians shall be in force for a longer term than one year: That no licence or permission to reside or trade, shall be granted to any person but citizens of the United States or travel through the Indian nations, without their having previously made their business known to the Superintendent of the district, and received his special approbation. That no person or persons, obtaining a licence to trade as aforesaid, be or they are of the United States, thousand dollars to the Superintendent of the district, for the use of the said [undecipherable] as for his or their faithful observance of the rules for the regulation of the Indian trade. All Courts-martial or trials of Indian offenders being for breaches or bad [undecipherable] shall be summarily accounted for by them with the board of treasury. [99]