administer it to the best interests of the Indians. The rental belongs to the tribe and no individual member has the right to make direct arrangements with outsiders and appropriate the money to his own individual purposes. The permit should provide for reasonable rental, strict compliance with Federal and State sanitary health and liquor laws, periodical inspections by Federal and State officers, and be supported by adequate bonds to guarantee performance of the various covenants and stipulations embodied therein. Please acknowledge receipt of this letter and report the action taken. Dr. Wells' letter is returned. MY DEAR MR. DADY: Careful consideration has been given to the various proposals made in your letters of recent date for relieving the present discreditable situation with reference to the collection of fees on the Palm Springs Reservation. Certain of the remedial proposals which you offer appear to be legally unauthorized. In particular the Department is aware of no authority of law which would permit us to remove duly elected tribal officers or to forbid the fencing of lands occupied by individual Indians or groups of Indians and the exclusion from such lands of white persons who refuse to make direct payments to the Indians in possession for the privilege of crossing such lands or using any facilities located thereon. On the other hand, with respect to reservation land not lawfully occupied or enclosed by Indians, the Department is authorized to collect all fees charged for the use of such lands by non-Indians. Under this authority an order has been drafted, which is transmitted to you herewith, requiring that all fees for the use of roads and trails across the Palm Springs Reservation shall be paid to you or to your authorized representative and to no other person. The widest publicity possible should be given to this regulation. It is recommended that a regular permit form should be used and a draft of such form is enclosed for your guidance. With respect to the amount of the fees to be charged, it is not believed that the Department has any authority to reduce the fees established by the Indians of the reservation. In the schedule which you will attach to copies of the departmental regulation herewith enclosed, you will therefore follow the schedule of fees now in effect unless the Indians of the reservation agree to modify this schedule. You are authorized to use all proper methods of persuasion to induce the Indians concerned to establish a more reasonable schedule of fees. Your activity, however, in this respect must be purely advisory, and it should be clearly pointed out to all those who complain about such fees that the Department can act in this matter only in an advisory capacity. With respect to other fees now collected on the reservation, such as fees for bathhouse privileges, a recommendation is going forward to the Attorney General that proper legal steps be taken, in connection with pending litigation, asking that a receiver pendente lite be appointed to receive and hold, pending court decision, all fees now being paid to Indians for the use of tribal property. It is believed that further action in this matter may involve the necessity of arresting Indians violating applicable departmental regulations. The possibility of establishing a court of Indian offenses with jurisdiction over the Palm Springs Reservation, therefore, requires careful consideration. Your recommendations along this line are invited. For your information, a copy of the Department law and order regulations now in force is enclosed. Sincerely yours, Approved December 2, 1936. WILLIAM ZIMMERMAN, Jr., 1755-37-16 Assistant Secretary. DEPARTMENTAL REGULATION DECEMBER 2, 1936. On and after December 15, 1936, all persons (other than members of the Agua Caliente Band of Indians and officials of the Federal Government) who desire to use the roads or trails of the Palm Springs Indian Reservation are required to pay to the superintendent of the said reservation or his designated representative, and to no other person, the fees noted in the attached schedule, to be deposited in the Treasury of the United States for the benefit of the Agua Caliente Tribe, pursuant to United States Code, title 25, section 155. use any of the roads or trails of the Palm Springs Reservation from 19, to 19-. This permit does not carry any authority to trespass upon enclosed or improved Indian lands or buildings, and may be revoked for any such trespass, or for any other cause, in the discretion of the issuing officer. Fee paid: DECEMBER 31, 1936. Mr. JOHN W. DADY, Superintendent, Mission Agency. MY DEAR MR. DADY: We have given careful consideration to your wires concerning disposition of fees at Palm Springs and have discussed the situation at some length with Mr. Spinner during his visit here. It The method that has prevailed of collecting and disposing of these fees has been contrary to law. The land is held by the United States in trust for the Indians. So long as it retains the status of trust property, all revenues derived therefrom must be deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the Indians. will be necessary, therefore, that you make all necessary arrangements to comply, effective as soon after January 1, 1937, as practicable, with the law and the regulations. We assume that any change in procedure will not have the unanimous approval of the Indians. We believe, however, that when the situation is understood the majority of the Indians will favor the new procedure. It will not be possible to deposit these revenues in a special account outside of the Treasury. But there is a way of meeting the situation which should not be very difficult. The act of of March 3, 1883 (U. S. C., title 25, sec. 155) provides: "The proceeds of all pasturage and sales of timber, coal, or other product of any Indian reservation * * * and not the result of the labor of any member of such tribe shall be covered into the Treasury for the benefit of such tribe under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior shall prescribe. * This provision was modified by the act of March 2, 1887 (24 Stat., p. 463), to permit the expenditure of such funds, as follows: "That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to use the money which has been or may hereafter be covered into the Treasury under the provisions of the act approved March third, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, and which is carried on the books of that Department under the caption of Indian moneys, proceeds of labor, for the benefit of the several tribes on whose account said money was covered in in such way and for such purposes as in his discretion he may think best * * Subsequently the act of May 18, 1916, was passed. Section 27 of that act (39 Stat. pp. 158-159) provides that * * "No money shall be expended from Indian tribal funds without specific appropriation by Congress except as follows: * * per-capita and other payments, all of which are hereby continued in full force and effect * And finally, through enactments of May 17, 1926 (44 Stat. p. 563), and May 29, 1928 (45 Stat. p. 991), section 155, title 25, United States Code, was amended to read as follows, quoting from the 1934 edition of the Code: "155. Disposal of miscellaneous revenues from Indian reservations, etc. All miscellaneous revenues derived from Indian reservations, agencies, and schools, except those of the Five Civilized Tribes and not the result of the labor of any member of such tribe, which are not required by existing law to be otherwise disposed of, shall be covered into the Treasury of the United States under the caption 'Indian moneys, proceeds of labor', and are hereby made available for expenditure, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of the Indian tribes, agencies, and schools on whose behalf they are collected, subject, however, to the limitations as to tribal funds, imposed by sections 123 and 142 of this title." While we believe you are familiar with the foregoing citations, they are quoted herein for ready reference. The method of procedure, effective January 1, 1937, will be (1) The assignment of one or more persons to collect the fees. ployees should be bonded to you in a nominal amount. These em (2) The development of a form of receipt, the stubs of which would be used in accounting for collections. (3) Salaries and expenses in connection with this work will be payable from tribal funds under the $5,000 authorization for the use of Mission tribal funds appearing in the current Interior Department Appropriation Act. Efforts will be made to increase this authorization for 1938. (4) Collections will be deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the tribe as "Proceeds of Labor, Agua Caliente Indians, California", in accordance with existing regulations. (5) The approximate net collections will be authorized for equal per-capita distribution, either monthly or quarterly. Such distribution is authorized by section 155 and other statutes quoted above. You will be responsible for maintaining accurate rolls as bases for these payments. (6) If there are definite individual Indian holdings, title not being in the United States, you will, of course, have no jurisdiction. Collections will be restricted to activities conducted on tribal property. (7) The foregoing is for general application and can be followed without complications insofar as definitely established tribal property is concerned. In the case of revenues derived from lands now involved in litigation, those revenues will be carried in a special deposit account pending settlement of the litigation, after which appropriate instructions will be issued. It is believed that the foregoing will offer a solution for this question. If there is doubt, do not hesitate to discuss the subject further. Sincerely yours, The honorable the ATTORNEY GENERAL. JOHN COLLIER, Commissioner. THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, MY DEAR MR. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Reference is made to your letter of October 19 (HWB 90-2-11-504) transmitting copy of an amended bill of complaint filed October 6 in the case of Genevieve T. St. Marie, et al., v. The United States, et al. (Equity No. 918-3), in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. In our letter of June 28 it was suggested that apparently there is a misjoiner of parties in this action in that a suit against the United States to compel the completion of allotments in severalty to the complainants should not properly be combined with the suit against certain alleged tribal representatives, as parties defendant, to compel the latter to account for funds collected by them from the use of the lands involved, granted by alleged tribal representatives to third parties. In your letter of August 6 you advised that a motion to dismiss had been filed on July 17, 1936, but what disposition, if any, was made by the court of that motion is not known to this Department at this time. Upon further consideration of the situation it is our opinion and desire that if at all possible so to do the United States as one of the parties defendant to this action should, through the filing of an appropriate pleading, join the plaintiffs in seeking an accounting from the co-defendant tribal representatives; that a temporary injunction restraining such representatives from collecting further fees, tribal receipts, etc., should be sought, and that application for the appointment of a receiver pendente lite should be made, to collect all fees hereafter accruing from use of the Indian Reservation lands. Should such a receiver be appointed we would further suggest that John W. Dady, superintendent of the Mission Agency, Riverside, Calif., or someone designated by him to act in this capacity would be preferable. If these objectives cannot properly be accomplished in the instant suit, we further recommend that an independent action against the tribal representatives for an accounting, injunction, and appointment of a receiver be filed at the earliest possible date. It is believed that this suit might be brought either on behalf of the United States or on behalf of individual Indians, plaintiffs in the action previously filed, and represented by the United States attorney under section 175, title 25, U. S. C. The foregoing recommendations are induced by the condition of affairs on the Palm Springs Reservation which has now reached such a serious stage as to require immediate and decisive action by the Federal Government. According to repeated reports from the field certain alleged tribal representatives, named as defendants in the instant suit, have collected large sums of money for the use by outsiders of these Indian lands without accounting for such receipts to anyone. They have even assumed authority over land assignments to individual Indians and the improvements thereon; and have closed reservation roads and trails to tourists and others unless certain fees demanded by them, largely at the instance of certain outside influences, are paid. A considerable number of the Indians of the Palm Springs Reservation, as well as others desiring to visit the scenic canyons of the reservation and to utilize other reservation facilities such as the baths at Hot Springs, have vigorously protested against the continuation of these conditions and demand that the Federal Government correct them. We believe that the course herein recommended, in addition to certain internal administrative measures now being undertaken will do much to remedy a situation that has become acute and well-nigh intolerable and should restore orderly administration to the affairs of these Indians. We earnestly solicit your cooperation in the matter and urge that appropriate instructions by wire be sent to the local United States attorney. Superintendent Dady, who is entirely familiar with conditions on the Palm Springs Reservation, will be pleased to cooperate with the United States attorney and, upon request by the latter, will furnish him with all information and assistance within his power. Sincerely yours, OSCAR L. CHAPMAN, Mr. JOHN W. DADY, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Superintendent Mission Agency, Riverside, Calif. MY DEAR MR. DADY: The inadequacy of available information in this office on certain facts involved in the pending suit of Marcus Pete v. Secretary of the Interior with reference to the collection of fees and the allotment of land on the Palm Springs Reservation requires some delay in the joinder of issue in this case. It seems probable that issue cannot be joined in this case for another 6 weeks. At a conference held recently, between the Acting Solicitor of the Department, the Assistant Commissioner of Indians Affairs, and the attorneys for the plaintiff, Marcus Pete, it was agreed that pending the joinder of issue in this case the agency would take no action to interfere with collections of fees by Marcus Pete on the lands under litigation in this suit, which lands are described as lots 1, 2, 71 and 73, sec. 4, T. 4 S., R. 41, S. B. M., Riverside County, Calif. You are, therefore, instructed that until you have further notice from this office that no further fees should be collected on the lands above described by any employee of the Department, that employees of the Department should not interfere with efforts by Marcus Pete to collect fees for the use of such lands, that you should notify tenants of Marcus Pete that no objection will be raised on behalf of the Interior Department for the payment by them of fees directly to Marcus Pete for the use of the lands above described, that the Interior Department will not hold the tenants of Marcus Pete responsible to the United States for fees or rentals paid to Marcus Pete between now and until further notice from this office on the lands above described, and that such notice should be brought to the attention of all persons who have been heretofore advised to make payment of rentals to representatives of he Interior Department and to other persons who may be tenants of Marcus Pete on the above-described lands. Please acknowledge receipt of this communication and be guided accordingly. Sincerely your, Approved July 26, 1937. WILLIAM ZIMMERMAN, Jr., Assistant Commissioner. AGUA CALIENTE INDIAN RESERVATION OCCUPATION LIST AS OF MARCH 9, 1937 |