CLAIM OF CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW INDIAN NATIONS OR TRIBES

MAY 28, 1930.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. CARTWRIGHT, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 3165]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3165) conferring jurisdiction upon the Court of Claims to hear, consider, and report upon a claim of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian Nations or Tribes for fair and just compensation for the remainder of the leased district lands, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendment:

Page 2, line 13, after the period insert:

The court shall also hear, examine, and report upon any claims which the United States may have as an offset against said Indian nations, but any payment which may have been made by the United States upon such claims against the United States shall not operate as an estoppel but may be pleaded as an offset.

The purpose of the bill is to authorize the Court of Claims to inquire into and make report to Congress whether or not the consideration paid for the lands involved is fair and just to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes, and if not whether the United States should pay any additional compensation and the amount thereof subject to any claim or claims which the United States may have against said tribe.

This claim grows out of article 3 of the treaty of 1866 made between the Government and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes and is called the leased district claim. The leased district originally comprised about 7,700,000 acres, but in 1893 the Government paid the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians for that portion of the leased district known as the Cheyenne and Araphoe Reservation comprising about 2,300,000 acres.

The instant bill without the suggested amendment of this committee was passed by the Senate and thoroughly considered by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Said bill when reported out by the Senate committee on Indian Affairs was accompanied by Senate Report No. 652 which is a thorough and detailed report on the merits of said leased district claim. Said report, which includes the report of the Secretary of the Interior, is adopted in whole by this committee and is as follows:

★6-14-30

Senate Report No. 652, Seventy-first Congress, second session

CLAIMS OF CHOCTAW AND CHICKASAW INDIANS

MAY 15, 1930.--Ordered to be printed, with an illustration

Mr. PINE, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 3165]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill. (S. 3165) conferring jurisdiction upon the Court of Claims to hear, consider, and report upon a claim on the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian Nations or Tribes for fair and just compensation for the remainder of the leased district lands, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with a recommendation that the bill do pass with the following amendment:

On page 1, strike out all after the enacting clause, and, on page 2, strike out lines 1 to 8, inclusive, this language composing section 1, and insert the following language:

That the Court of Claims is hereby authorized and directed to hear and inquire into the claims of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian Nations that they have never received fair and just compensation for the remainder of their "leased district" land acquired by the United States under article 3 of the treaty of 1866 (14 Statutes at Large, page 769) not including the Cheyenne and Arapahoe lands for which compensation was made to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations by the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891 (26 Statutes at Large, page 989), and to report its findings to Congress notwithstanding the lapse of time or the statute of limitations and irrespective of any former adjudication upon title and ownership, as to whether the consideration paid or agreed to be paid for said remainder of said lands was fair and just, and if not, whether the United States should pay to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations additional compensation therefor, and if so, what amount should be so paid, taking into consideration the circumstances and conditions under which said lands were acquired, the purposes for which they were used, and the final disposition thereof.

This amendment will make the bill conform to the suggestion made by the Secretary of the Interior in his report of May 2, 1930.

The Secretary also stated that the bill had been considered by the Bureau of the Budget, which advised that the expenditure contemplated by the bill would not be in accord with the financial program of the President.

The purpose of the bill in substance is to authorize the Court of Claims to inquire into and report to Congress whether or not the consideration paid for the lands involved was fair and just to the tribes, and if not, whether the United States should pay additional compensation therefor, and if so, what amount should be paid.

The claim is one which the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians have been urging against the Government for many years, and grows out of article 3 of the 1866 treaty, hereinafter referred to. It is called the leased district claim because in 1855 they leased the lands in question to the Government for the settlement of certain other tribes of Indians. It was originally for about 7,700,000 acres, but in 1893 the United States paid the tribes for the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Reservation, containing about 2,300,000 acres.

The lands referred to in the bill are located in the southwestern portion of the State of Oklahoma, lie between the 98th and 100th degrees of west longitude and the Canadian and Red Rivers, and form seven counties, namely, Comanche, Cotton, Tillman, Kiowa, Jackson, Harmon, and Greer, the southern part of Beckham County, and parts of Jefferson, Stephens, Grady, and Caddo Counties. The lands are partly within what was formerly the reservations of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Indians, the Wichita and Affiliated Bands of Indians, and what was formerly Greer County, Okla. T. A map sufficiently accurate to assist in understanding the matter at hand is attached in the back of this report.

THE 1820 TREATY

To properly understand the claim it is necessary to briefly review the treaties and dealings between the tribes and the Government. The Choctaws originally lived in Mississippi. Desiring their lands for public entry the United States made a treaty with them in 1820 whereby they ceded to the Government about 4,150,000 acres of their lands in that State in exchange for lands in the then Indian Territory, described in article 2 of that treaty, as follows:

ART. 2. For and in consideration of the foregoing cession on the part of the Choctaw Nation and in part satisfaction for the same, the commissioners of the United States, in behalf of said States, do hereby cede to said nation a tract of country west of the Mississippi River, situate between the Arkansas and Red Rivers, and bounded as follows: Beginning on the Arkansas River, where the lower boundary line of the Cherokee strikes the same; thence up the Arkansas to the Canadian Fork, and up the same to its source; thence due south to the Red River; thence down Red River, 3 miles below the mouth of Little River, which empties itself into Red River on the north side; thence a direct line to the beginIng. (2 Kappler, Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, 2d Ed. 12.)

The lands of the Choctaws in Mississippi were fine agricultural lands, and inasmuch as they ceded about 4,150,000 acres in exchange for lands in the West they paid a valuable consideration for the latter lands. They adjoined the State of Arkansas on the west and extended westerly across the southern part of the then Indian Territory and beyond the Texas Panhandle to the source of the Canadian River in the northeastern part of New Mexico and to the source of the Red River in west Texas. This domain consisted of approximately 25,000,000 acres. The western portion was semiarid plains, over which roamed the buffalo and wild Indians. The eastern portion was a wilderness. In the 1820 treaty the Choctaws agreed to move

west at once, but being intensely attached to their ancient homes, instead of doing so, they moved on other lands which they owned in Mississippi.

1880 TREATY

Whereupon the Government, determined to effectuate their removal, negotiated the treaty of 1830, article 2 thereof being as follows:

ART. II. The United States under a grant specially to be made by the President of the United States shall cause to be conveyed to the Choctaw Nation a tract of country west of the Mississippi River, in fee simple to them and their descendants, to inure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it, beginning near Fort Smith where the Arkansas boundary crosses the Arkansas River, running thence to the source of the Canadian Fork, if in the limits of the United States, or to those limits; thence due south to Red River, and down Red River to the west boundary of the Territory of Arkansas; thence north along that line to the beginning. The boundary of the same to be agreeable to the treaty made and concluded at Washington City in the year 1825. The grant to be executed so soon as the present treaty shall be ratified. (75 Stat. 333.)

ART. III. In consideration of the provisions contained in the several articles of this treaty the Choctaw Nation of Indians consent and hereby cede to the United States the entire country they own and possess east of the Mississippi River, and they agree to move beyond the Mississippi River as early as practicable, and will so arrange their removal that as many as possible of their people, not exceeding one-half of the whole number, shall depart during the fal's of 1831 and 1832, the residue to follow during the succeeding fall of 1833; a better opportunity in this manner will be afforded the Government to extend to them the facilities and comforts which it is desirable should be extended in conveying them to their new homes. (Ib.)

By the latter treaty the Choctaws, without additional consideration, were induced to surrender to the Government the balance of their lands in Mississippi, amounting to 10,425,139 acres (Choctaw Nation v. U. S., 119 U. S. 1, 38), and to move to their western lands.

The treaty of 1830 also reduced the acreage of the lands ceded to them in the 1820 treaty by changing the description of the western boundary thereof to read as follows: "to the source of the Canadian, if in the limits of the United States, or to those limits." The 1820 treaty described the western boundary of their cession thus: "extending up the Arkansas to the Canadian Fork, and up the same to its source; thence due south to the Red River." The source of the Canadian River is at the one hundred and fifth meridian west (U. S. v. Choctaw Nation, 179 U. S. 494, 506). The source of the Red River is in west Texas at about the one hundred and third meridian west (Ib.). The southwestern limits of the United States in 1830 ran along the one hundredth and not the one hundred and fifth meridian, for the reason that by treaty with Spain in February, 1819, those limits were established along the former meridian. In other words, by the 1819 treaty with Spain the Government had already ceded to Spain the lands between the one hundredth and one hundred and fifth meridians, which in the 1820 treaty, is ceded to the Choctaws. Hence, the necessity of the 1830 treaty modifying the description of the western boundary of the Choctaw cession of 1820. The change in description took from the Choctaws all lands between the one hundredth and one hundred and fifth meridians west, amounting to about 8,000,000 acres. (Choctaw Nation et al. v. U. S. 34 Ct. Cls. 17, 98.) However, the description of the western limits of the Choctaw cession in the 1820 treaty serve to show that it was the intention of the Government