Opinion of the Court 103 C. Cls. establish the claimed original title through exclusive use and occupancy. No useful purpose would be served by discussing in detail the evidence submitted in this case-reference to the principal portions thereof will be sufficient. The investigations and reports made and submitted in 1855 by Indian Superintendent Joel Palmer under and pursuant to direction and instruction of the President, through the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, substantially support the claim made by the Tillamooks, Coquille, Too-too-to-ney, and Chetco tribes in respect of the lands for which they claim compensation and to which they claim to have held original Indian title in 1855 and long prior thereto. He found and reported that these tribes and bands occupied areas with definite boundaries, and the proof which has been submitted in this case satisfactorily shows where these definite boundaries were with respect to the tribes composed of the bands mentioned in the petition. General Palmer's investigations and reports not only recognized the extent of occupancy by these tribes, but he also concluded that by such occupancy they had acquired original Indian title. Other evidence which has been submitted in the case fully supports this view and further shows that as far back as history can be traced, at least to 1750, there had been practically no change in location of plaintiff tribes and bands along the Oregon Coast, and east to the Coast Range Mountains; and that these tribes and bands held, occupied, and used such lands within rather definite boundaries to the exclusion of and in recognition by other tribes and bands. The proof satisfactorily shows that plaintiff tribes of Tillamooks, Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys, and Chetcos lived upon, claimed, and occupied these lands in Indian fashion to the extent that Indian tribes and bands usually exclusively used and occupied lands prior to 1855 and as far back as the history of these tribes and bands can be traced. The written report prepared by the Secretary of the Interior in the case at bar from the records and documents in the possession of the Government, which report is filed as evidence in this case, states that the lands which the Indians undertook to cede in the unratified treaty of August 11, 1855, 494 Opinion of the Court and for which these plaintiffs make claim, appear to have been in the exclusive possession of the Indians. A map showing tribal distribution of Indians in Oregon, including the Coast tribes, among which were plaintiffs Tillamook, Coquille, Too-too-to-ney, and the Chetco, prepared by the American Anthropological Association after investigation and study of the history of these Indian tribes, is reproduced below: Opinion of the Court 103 C. Cls. The conclusion reached by this Association from its investigation and research, as disclosed by its official records, shows that this tribal distribution represented a fairly stable condition which had existed from about 1750. In addition to the foregoing, we have in this case the testimony of Dr. John P. Harrington of the Smithsonian Institution, an eminent ethnologist of a quarter of a century of service in the Bureau of American Ethnology, in connection with the investigations and studies he had made and completed of the Oregon Indians, including the Oregon Coast Indians and plaintiff tribes of Tillamooks, Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys, and Chetcos. Dr. Harrington testified that from an investigation and study of the history of the Indians of the Oregon Coast and their holdings he had been convinced beyond any shadow of a doubt that these tribes and bands of Indians which fringed the Coast were the ancient and original inhabitants, and that if an investigation had been made centuries before the expedition of Lewis and Clark the tribal holdings would have been to all intents and purposes where they were at the dawn of history. The defendant has submitted no evidence to contradict or overcome this strong and direct evidence which has been submitted on behalf of these plaintiffs in support of their claim of original Indian exclusive use and occupancy title of the lands for which they claim compensation. These plaintiffs are therefore legally and equitably entitled to recover compensation from the defendant for the taking of lands, as set forth and described in findings 8, 9, and 10, to which they have shown they held original Indian title from time immemorial. As to the date or dates of taking of these lands by the defendant, the following is established by the evidence submitted: To all intents and purposes, and as a matter of established fact, the United States considered soon after the unratified treaty dated August 11, 1855, was made and when the Executive Order of November 9, 1855, was issued that the lands claimed and occupied by the tribes and bands of Tillamooks, Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys, and Chetcos were public lands for such purposes as the United States might desire to 494 Opinion of the Court use them—namely, for public homestead and settlement, and for temporary use for Indian purposes. The executive officers of the Government, of course, thought and assumed that the treaty which was being negotiated, and which was made and signed with these four tribes between August 11 and September 8, 1855, and before the Executive Order of November 9, 1855, would be ratified by the Senate but they did not await ratification before taking the lands, but proceeded immediately after the treaty was signed to regard and to treat the lands claimed by the Tillamooks, Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys, and the Chetcos as public lands open to public homestead and settlement, except as conditionally withdrawn and reserved by the Executive Order of November 9, 1855. This action, subsequently confirmed by Congress, was a taking of the lands and the original Indian use and occupancy title. Such action was not altered but was confirmed and continued when it became known that the treaty dated August 11, 1855, would not be ratified. Such actions were known to, acquiesced in, and ratified by Congress, as hereinafter set forth. The tribes and bands of the Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys, and the Chetcos were entirely moved off their lands about November 9, 1855, or soon thereafter, and placed on a portion of the land to which the tribe and bands of Tillamooks held original Indian title. The lands of the Coquille, Tootoo-to-ney, and Chetco tribes were therefore unquestionably taken at that time. The bands composing plaintiff Tillamooks tribe were not altogether moved off their land, but they were moved and confined to the conditional reservation created by the Executive Order of November 9, 1855, along with other Indians of various other tribes and bands, and such of the land of the Tillamooks tribe as lay east of the eastern boundary of this conditional reservation was taken November 9, 1855. This conditional reservation for Indian purposes was, as has been stated, composed in part of a portion of the land to which plaintiff tribe and bands of Tillamooks held original Indian title and which they continued to occupy jointly with other Indians; this land of the Tillamooks was also taken by the United States at the same time the other lands above Opinion of the Court 103 C. Cls. mentioned were taken. The land composing the reservation was treated and regarded from November 8, 1855 as public land of the United States subject to be opened for public settlement as the President or Congress might direct, and most of it was subsequently so opened for settlement. The above-described actions of the Executive officers of the Government, dating from November 9, 1855, in carrying out the Executive Orders of 1855 and 1865, were ratified and confirmed by Congress by the passage of the act of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 420. This ratification of the 1855 and 1865 Executive Orders confirmed the original taking as of November 9, 1855. The land originally belonging beneficially to the tribes and bands of Tillamooks, Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys, and Chetcos through original Indian title was therefore taken on November 9, 1855. Shoshone Tribe of Indians of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming v. United States, 82 C. Cls. 23; 299 U. S. 476; and 85 C. Cls. 331; 304 U. S. 111. The compensation to which these tribes are entitled should therefore be measured by the value of the lands described in findings 8, 9, and 10 on that date, plus an additional amount measured by a reasonable rate of interest to make just compensation. However, these four tribes are not legally and equitably entitled to recover the entire value above mentioned, since those values must be offset as of November 9, 1855 by the values as of that date of their interests in the land comprising the reservation on August 15, 1894, of which interests the Indians of these tribes then became the beneficial owners through recognition by Congress on the basis of allotments in severalty which had been made and on the basis of population as to unallotted lands or proceeds therefrom. In effect, and for all practical purposes, these Indians, so far as their right to compensation is concerned, had had these occupancy interests (first recognized on August 15, 1894, as being exclusive as against the United States) in the land of the reservation from the date of taking in November 1855, but the extent of such interests were, until 1894, uncertain, indefinite, and legally indeterminable until Congress by the act of |