Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

Fifty-seventh Congress; and if said claim shall be sustained in whole or in part the Court of Claims, subject to the right of appeal named in said section, shall be authorized to render a judgment in favor of the rightful claimant, and also to determine as between the different claimants, to whom the judgment so rendered equitably belongs, either wholly or in part, and shall be required to determine whether, for the purpose of participating in said claim, the Cherokee Indians who remained east of the Mississippi river constitute a part of the Cherokee Nation, or of the Eastern Cherokees, so called, as the case may be."

The claim mentioned in said H. R. Ex. Doc. No. 309, 57th Cong., 2d sess., is therein referred to as "the award rendered under the Cherokee agreement of December 19, 1891, ratified by act of Congress approved March 3, 1893."

March 14, 1903, a petition was filed on behalf of all the Eastern Cherokees, both west and east of the Mississippi river, alleging in substance that there was due to the Eastern Cherokees, upon the account of Slade & Bender, the sum of $1,111,284.70, with interest from June 12, 1838, as an award against the United States or, if the court should not hold said account as an award, the sum of $1,761,447.27, with interest at 5 per cent from the same date, together with interest on the income annually accruing, at the rate of five per cent per annum until paid, by virtue of the treaties of 1828 (7 Stat. 313), and the treaty of 1835-36, commonly known as the "treaty of New Echota." But at the trial of the case no contention was made for this larger amount.

March 20, 1903, a petition was filed on behalf of certain Eastern Cherokees, living east of the Mississippi, amended September 3, 1903, when petitioners took the title of the Eastern and Emigrant Cherokees, asserting their claim to a pro rata share of—

"That portion of the removal and subsistence fund improperly taken by the United States from the five million fund on account of removal of Eastern Cherokees, as found

[blocks in formation]

by the expert accountants, Messrs. Slade & Bender, April 28, 1894, the said five million fund being an interest-bearing fund in the hands of the United States, as trustee, and representing the money paid by the Government to the Eastern Cherokees for the sale of their lands in North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, or east of the Mississippi river, as set forth in article 1st of the treaty of New Echota, in north Georgia, on March 14, 1835, and articles 2 and 3 of the supplemental treaty, proclaimed May 23, 1836, this sum so misapplied amounting, in accordance with said accounting, to $1,111,284.70 with interest at 5 per cent per annum from the date of said wrongful taking, June 12, 1838, to date."

The three petitions were consolidated and heard as one case, and although in effect the proceedings were in equity, findings of fact and conclusions of law were filed.

Among the facts found were these:

"XVIII.

"By section 14 of the act of Congress entitled 'An act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department, and for fulfilling treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes for the year ending June 30, 1889, and for other purposes,' approved March 2, 1889 (25 Stat. 1005), the President was authorized to appoint three commissioners to negotiate with the Indian tribes owning or claiming lands lying west of the ninety-sixth degree of longitude in the Indian Territory for the cession to the United States of all their title, claim, or interest of every kind or character in and to said lands, and he did appoint David H. Jerome, Alfred M. Wilson and Warren G. Sayre such commissioners.

"By virtue of the authority contained in an act of the Cherokee National Council, approved November 16, 1891, Elias C. Boudinot, Joseph A. Scales, Roach Young, William Triplett, Thomas Smith, Joseph Smallwood, and George Downing were duly appointed commissioners—

"To meet and enter into negotiations with the above-named

[blocks in formation]

commission, appointed by the President of the United States, for the cession of the lands of the Cherokee Nation west of the 96th degree of west longitude, and for the final adjustment of all questions of interest between the United States and the Cherokee Nation which are now unsettled.'

"By said act of Congress it was made the duty of said commissioners appointed by the President to report all agreements resulting from such negotiations to the President, to be by him reported to the Congress at its next session, and by the act of the Cherokee council it was made the duty of the commissioners on the part of the Cherokee Nation to report all their proceedings in full to the National Council for its approval and ratification. Ex. Doc. 56, 52d Cong., 1st sess., 17. "At the outset of the negotiations between said commissioners for the purchase and sale of said lands, which were known as the 'Cherokee Outlet,' the commissioners on the part of the Cherokee Nation renewed their claims and contentions with respect to the balances alleged to be due to them under various treaties, and particularly their contention that the so-called treaty fund had been improperly charged with the expense of the removal of the Eastern Cherokees to the Indian Territory, and demanded as 'a condition precedent to any agreement for the sale of the land' that some adjustment of such contentions should be made.

"On the 19th of December, 1891, after prolonged negotiations, the commissioners above named entered into articles of agreement, by article I of which it was agreed that—

"The Cherokee Nation, by act duly passed, shall cede and relinquish all its title, claim, and interest of every kind and character in and to that part of the Indian Territory bounded on the west by the one hundredth (100°) degree of west longitude, on the north by the State of Kansas, on the east by the ninety-sixth (96°) degree west longitude, and on the south by the Creek Nation, the Territory of Oklahoma, and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation created or defined by Executive order, dated August 10, 1860, the tract of land

202 U.S.

Statement of the Case.

embraced within the above boundaries containing eight million one hundred and forty-four thousand six hundred and eightytwo and ninety-one one-hundredths (8,144,682.91) acres, more or less.'

"By article 2 that

"For and in consideration of the above cession and relinquishment the United States agrees:'

"First. That it will remove from the limits of the Cherokee Nation as trespassers certain described persons.

"Second. That a certain article of the antecedent treaty of July, 1866, should be abrogated and held for naught. "Third. That the judicial tribunals of the Cherokeee Nation should have exclusive jurisdiction in certain cases.

"Fourth. That

"The United States shall, without delay, render to the Cherokee Nation, through any agent appointed by authority of the National Council, a complete account of moneys due the Cherokee Nation under any of the treaties ratified in the years, 1817, 1819, 1825, 1828, 1835-36, 1846, 1866, and 1868, and any laws passed by the Congress of the United States for the purpose of carrying said treaties, or any of them, into effect; and upon such accounting, should the Cherokee Nation, by its National Council conclude and determine that such accounting is incorrect or unjust, then the Cherokee Nation shall have the right, within twelve months, to enter suit against the United States in the Court of Claims, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States by either party, for any alleged or declared amount of money promised but withheld by the United States from the Cherokee Nation, under any of said treaties or laws, which may be claimed to be omitted from, or improperly or unjustly or illegally adjusted in, said accounting; and the Congress of the United States shall, at its next session, after such case shall be finally decided and certified to Congress according to law, appropriate a sufficient sum of money to pay such judgment to the Cherokee Nation, should judgment be ren

Statement of the Case.

202 U.S.

dered in her favor; or if it shall be found upon such accounting that any sum of money has been so withheld, the amount shall be duly appropriated by Congress, payable to the Cherokee Nation, upon the order of its National Council, such appropriation to be made by Congress, if then in session, and if not, then at the session immediately following such accounting.' "Fifth. That certain citizens of the Cherokee Nation should have the right to select lands as homesteads under certain conditions; and

"Sixth. In addition to all of the foregoing enumerated considerations for the cession and relinquishment of title to the described lands, the United States shall pay to the Cherokee Nation, at such times and in such manner as the Cherokee National Council shall determine, the sum of $8,595,736.12 in excess of the sum of $728,389.46, the aggregate of amounts heretofore appropriated by Congress and charged against the lands of the Cherokees west of the Arkansas river.

"Said articles of agreement were accepted, ratified, and confirmed on the part of the Cherokee Nation by an act of the National Council approved January 4, 1892, and were also accepted, ratified, and confirmed on the part of the United States by act of Congress of March 3, 1893, 27 Stat. 640.

"Prior to the acceptance and ratification of said agreement on the part of the United States, as aforesaid, the commissioners on behalf of the United States, as required by the law under which they were appointed, had reported to the President the making of the articles of agreement aforesaid, and by way of explanation said:

"As to the conditions of the agreement, besides the relinquishment of title upon the one part and the payment of a price in money on the other, it is necessary to state that the settlement of the matters contained in such conditions were made a condition precedent to any agreement for the sale of the land.

"The accounting provided for in the fourth subdivision of article 2 of the agreement is inserted and agreed to, because

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »