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The generosity of Mrs. Rogers in donating the site and the personal effects of Will Rogers is fully appreciated by the committee.

The opportunity to further the collection of many of the relics of the story of the Indians as they are concentrated in this region, and to further the interest of the "newer" sections of the Nation in preserving what is still available of their traditions and relics, in such a way that they become public is one that the committee feels should not be lost.

The bill (H. R. 6482) is therefore reported favorably and the recommendation that it be passed as amended is a most hearty one.

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H. Repts., 75-1, vol. 2-59

PAYMENTS FOR LANDS TAKEN FROM UTE INDIANS,
UTAH

JUNE 14, 1937.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. O'CONNOR of Montana, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 4399]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 4399) authorizing payment for certain lands appropriated by the United States, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendment:

On page 2, line 1, after the word "sum", insert a comma and strike out all of lines 2 and 3 inserting in lieu thereof the following:

together with the sum of $1,217,221.25 heretofore paid the said bands of Indians pursuant to the Act of February 13, 1931 (46 Stat. L., 1092), shall be in full satisfaction as to claim for principal and interest of said Indians against the United States with respect to the 1,010,000 acres of land taken from them by Executive order of July 14, 1905.

The facts found by the committee and which clearly justify the adoption of this bill are as follows:

By Executive order of July 14, 1905, the United States took for its own use 1,010,000 acres of land from the Uintah, White River, and Uncompahgre Bands of Ute Indians. No provision was made, however, for compensating the Indians for these lands which, under the law, the United States is required to do. As was stated by the Court of Claims in Fort Berthold Indians v. United States (71 Ct. Cl. 308)— * * * the decisions of the Supreme Court and this court, the policy of the Government from time immemorial, attest the indisputable rule that tribal Indians are not to be divested of ceded reservations (which this was), * without compensating them for the lands taken from them in diminishing their holdings. We think it nonessential to encumber this opinion with the innumerable cases demonstrating the rule.

*

*

No payment of any kind was made for any of this land until Congress, at the solicitation of attorneys for the tribe, by act of February

13, 1931 (46 Stat. 1092), authorized the appropriation of $1,217,221.25 as payment at the rate of $1.25 per acre for 973,777 acres.

No payment was then made for the remaining 36,223 acres, because much of it was conceded to be coal lands and there was a dispute as to the value thereof. These coal lands were not appraised at the time they were taken, although under the authorities they should be paid. for at their value as of that time (United States v. Chandler-Dunbar Water Power, 229 U. S. 53; Bauman v. Ross, 167 U. S. 548; United States v. The Creek Nation, 295 U. S. 103; and United States v. Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, decided Jan. 4, 1937). They were, however, appraised 5 years thereafter (1910) by three distinguished geologists of the United States Geological Survey whose findings were approved by the entire Board of the United States Geological Survey; 15,440 acres were determined to be coal lands and to have a value of from $10 to $166 per acre.

The valuation placed by that survey on said 36,223 acres of land is the amount set forth in the present bill, to wit:

15,440 acres (known coal land).

20,783 acres (possible coal land and noncoal land) at $1.25 per acre.

Total_

$834, 120.00

25, 978. 75

860, 098. 75

The United States Geological Survey, however, objected to using the 1910 survey as a proper valuation, because that valuation presupposed a railroad within 15 miles of the land and no railroad was within that distance.

The bill as introduced in the House provided that the payment of said $860,098.75 should be in full satisfaction "as to claim for principal." The Secretary of the Interior, in view of the statement of the United States Geological Survey, recommended that the amount set forth in the bill be paid in full satisfaction as to claim for "principal and interest" and your committee accepted an amendment to that effect. If this bill is adopted, the Indians will have received for their 1,010,000 acres of land a total of $2,077,320 or $2.06 per acre for principal and interest. The committee submits that this is extremely low compensation for this land, for under the decisions of the United States Supreme Court the Indians are entitled to receive therefor not only the principal value thereof but also an amount equivalent of interest from the time of taking (United States v. Creek Nation, 295 U. S. 103; Shoshone Tribe of Indians of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming, v. United States, decided Jan. 4, 1937). In the first of these cases the Court said:

* * *just compensation to be awarded now should not be confined to the value of the lands at the time of the taking but should include such addition thereto as may be required to produce the present full equivalent of that value paid contemporaneously with the taking. Interest at a reasonable rate is a suitable measure by which to ascertain the amount to be added. The treaty of 1886, the act of 1889, and other statutes show that 5 per centum per annum is a reasonable rate as between the parties here.

In the Shoshone case the unanimous Court, by Cardozo, J., after holding that the right of an Indian tribe to receive interest or its equivalent on the principal value of lands taken by the United States is guaranteed by the fifth amendment to the Constitution, concluded: Given such a taking (as here), the right to interest or a fair equivalent, attaches itself automatically to the right to an award of damages.

If payment had been made on the basis of these decisions, the Indians would have received, even if the land had no extra value as coal lands, the following:

1,010,000 acres at $1.25 per acre.. Interest at 5 percent for 32 years.

Total

$1,262, 500

2, 020, 000

3, 282, 500

It is apparent therefore that by paying only a total $2,077,320 the United States is paying approximately $1,200,000 less than would be "just compensation" under the decisions of the Supreme Court.

Not only that, but in this particular case, as revealed by the report of the Secretary, the United States has already realized from grazing fees and timber sales a net amount of $710,804.29. Further, the forest on this land still contains approximately 500,000,000 feet of timber, and the land contains an estimated 1,500,000,000 tons of coal. Under these circumstances the committee feels that the amount set forth in the bill is certainly the minimum which the Government, in justice to the Indians, should pay for the land taken from the Indians. The bill has a report from the Secretary of the Interior. His report follows:

Hon. WILL ROGERS,

THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, May 18, 1937.

Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Further reference is made to your request for a report on H. R. 4399, authorizing an appropriation of $860,098.75 for payment to the Uintah, White River, and Uncompahgre Bands of Ute Indians for 36,223 acres of land.

By Executive order of July 14, 1905, 1,010,000 acres of land belonging to these Indians were withdrawn from entry and sale and included within the Uintah National Forest. No payment was made for any of this land to the Indians, who were the equitable owners thereof, until 1931, when Congress, by the act of February 13, 1931 (46 Stat. L. 1092), authorized an appropriation of $1,217,221.25 in payment for 973,777 acres of this land at $1.25 per acre. The same act provided that as to the balance (36,223 acres), "which has heretofore been classified as coal lands, the Secretary of the Interior shall proceed with all convenient speed to ascertain the value thereof and report his findings with respect thereto to the Congress not later than six months after the approval of this Act for such action as to the Congress shall seem appropriate."

In accordance therewith on July 20, 1931, the Secretary of the Interior forwarded to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, with his approval, copies of the report of an investigation made by the Geological Survey, involving a reclassification and appraisal of the land as follows:

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The report states that the noncoal land has no value beyond that of its surface for pasturage and timber, already determined by Congress at not to exceed $1.25 an acre; and that as to the possible coal land the geological evidence obtained by surface inspection affords no competent basis for classification either as coal or noncoal land, no coal being exposed therein, and that the value of the land or coal is so doubtful and intangible as to justify no price above that of $1.25 an acre covering its pasturage and forest utility.

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