summons and process issued or given to him by the peacemakers or any tribunal created according to the provisions of this chapter, and shall be entitled to receive for his services the same fees as are allowed by law to constables in courts held by justices of the peace. (As amended by chap. 229 of 1893, § 1.)

§ 55. Prosecution of actions and disposition of recovery.The Seneca nation may prosecute by the name of "The Seneca Nation of Indians," actions and proceedings to protect their rights and interests to the Allegany, Cattaraugus and “oil spring reservations," and may maintain an action of ejectment to recover the possession of any part of such reservations unlawfully withheld from them, and an action for injury to the soil of such res ervations, or for cutting down or removing or converting timber or wood growing or being thereon, or an action of replevin for timber or wood removed therefrom, and for the recovery of damage for injury to the common property or rights of such Indians, or for the recovery of money, property or effects, due or to become due, or belonging, or in any way appertaining to such Indians in common, or to the Seneca nation; and in every such suit, action or proceeding in relation to lands or real estate, situated within the said reservations, the Seneca nation may allege a seisin in fee; and every recovery in such action shall be as and for, and in reference to a fee; but neither such recovery or anything herein contained shall enlarge or in any way affect the rights, title or interest of the Seneca nation, or such Indians in and to such reservations, as between them and the grantees or assignees of the preemption right of such reservations under the grants of the state of Massachusetts. And no such action shall be defeated or barred on the ground that any land in relation to which such action is brought, or from which any timber or wood, logs or other property may have been removed or taken, and which may be the subject of any such suit, was in the possession of any individual Indian, but the occupancy of any part of the said reservations by any individual Indian, shall be deemed to have been and to be the possession of the Seneca nation; nor shall any license, consent, lease, agreement or any interest whatever, made or given by any individual Indian or Indians, be received in evidence in any such action in bar, defense or mitigation of damages, and when it shall be necessary to bring any such action before a justice of the peace, the same may be brought and maintained before any such justice, residing in the county where the defendant may be found,

whether the cause of action arose in such county or not. Actions or proceedings may be prosecuted by the Tonawanda nation by the name of "The Tonawanda Nation of Indians." If a bond or undertaking shall be necessary for the prosecution or defense of an action or proceeding, the attorney of either of such nations may execute a bond or undertaking in the name and in behalf of the nation, which nation shall be liable thereon. If any costs shall be recovered against either of such nations in any action prosecuted or defended by the attorney thereof, no execution shall be issued therefor, but such costs shall be paid by the treasurer of the state, out of any annuity or interest money payable by the state to such nation, upon producing to the comptroller a certificate of the attorney of such recovery, and a certified copy of the judgment awarding such costs. All sums recovered in any action brought by the attorney thereof for the benefit of either of such nations, after deducting such costs and expense as shall be certified to by the judge before whom the case was tried, shall be paid to the treasurer of the nation. (As amended by chap. 229 of 1893, § 1.)

§ 56. Allotment of lands. All lands on either the Allegany, Cattaraugus or Tonawanda reservations, except such as have been allotted by the national council, or lands on the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations, appropriated, cultivated and improved by an Indian or Indian family or the heirs thereof, in accordance with the laws and usages of the Seneca nation, or lands on the Tonawanda reservation, to which the possessors have become entitled in pursuance of law without an allotment, shall be held in common by the Seneca and Tonawanda nations, respectively, and be subject to the control of the council thereof. The common land shall not be appropriated by any Indian to his own use without the consent of the council, who shall, on application, allot to any Indian or Indian family, so much of the common lands as they shall deem reasonable and an equitable proportion in reference to the whole number not possessing land. A description of the land desired shall be submitted to the council. Upon the approval of the council, certified by the presiding officer and clerk thereof, such description may be recorded in the clerk's book of records. A description of lands on the Tonawanda reservation, appropriated, cultivated, and improved by any Indian or Indian family or the heirs thereof, after November fifteenth, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, may be recorded at any time in the

clerk's book of records. The possessors of lands on the Allegany, Cattaraugus and Tonawanda reservations, descriptions of which are recorded, shall, from the time of recording only, be entitled to maintain suits for encroachment or trespass thereon. (As amended by chap. 229 of 1893, § 1.)

§ 57. Repealed by chap. 229 of 1893, § 4.

58. Repealed by chap. 229 of 1893, § 4.

59. Trees and timber on reservation.-Except as provided by this section, no person shall cut, remove, cause to be removed, or assist in removing from the Allegany, Cattaraugus or Tonawanda reservations any wood, trees or timber thereon, nor shall any Indian sell or dispose of any timber or trees on such reservations, or any manufacture therefrom; and every such sale or disposition shall be void. Except as provided in this section, any person who shall cut, remove or cause to be removed from either of such reservations, or any Indian who shall sell or dispose of any trees or timber thereon, or any manufacture therefrom, shall be liable to a penalty of twice the value of such property, recoverable for the benefit of the nation occupying the reservation.

An Indian residing on the Allegany or Cattaraugus reservations, or any member of the Tonawanda nation residing on the Tonawanda reservation, may sell or dispose of, for his own benefit, any trees or timber, or the manufacture thereof, on any lands allotted to or entered by him; and, upon obtaining a permit from the council, signed by the presiding officer and clerk thereof, may manufacture shingles or staves from any trees or timber on any wild lands of the nation not allotted to or entered by any other Indian, and may dispose of the same for his own benefit; and, upon obtaining such permit, may cut and draw logs from such wild lands to be sawed into lumber and boards to be actually and in good faith used by him on such reservation, but not to be sold or disposed of by him. No person not a member of the nation occupying such reservation shall be employed by any Indian in manufacturing shingles or staves, or in removing timber, or in cutting down trees for that purpose.

The council of the Seneca nation may sell or dispose of any trees or timber on the wild lands of the Allegany or Cattaraugus reservations, and the proceeds of such sale or disposition shall be for the benefit of such nation.

$$ 70-72

Article IV.

ARTICLE IV.

THE SENECA INDIANS ON THE ALLEGANY AND CATTARAUGU,

RESERVATIONS.

SECTION 70. Confirmation of nationality.

71. Exclusion of villages from reservations; lease of lands therein. 72. The president.

73. General powers and duties of the council.

74. The attorney.

75. Vacancies in elective offices.

76. Payment of annuities.

77. Policemen at annual fair.

§ 70. Confirmation of nationality.-The Seneca Indians residing on the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations shall, subject to the limitation provided by law, hold and possess such reservations as a distinct community.

8 71. Exclusion of villages from reservations; lease of lands therein. Those parts of the Allegany reservation included in the villages of Vandalia, Carrollton, Great Valley, Salamanca, West Salamanca and Red House, as surveyed, located and established pursuant to an act of congress approved February 19, 1875, have been constituted parts of the several towns within which they are located, and all the general laws of the state are extended over and apply to the same; except that this section shall not authorize the taxation of any Indian or the property of any Indian, not a citizen of the United States. Lands in such villages held under lease from the Seneca nation of Indians, and which the holders thereof are entitled to have renewed by virtue of such act of congress, shall be for all purposes considered a freehold estate, and the right of dower and tenancy by the curtesy shall attach thereto, and such lands, upon the intestacy of the holder, shall descend the same as a freehold of inheritance. But the rights of the Indians in such leases shall descend as provided by the laws of the Seneca nation of Indians.

§ 72. The president. The president of the Seneca nation shall preside over the deliberations of the council and shall have only a casting vote therein. He shall from time to time give to the council information of the state of the nation, and recommend such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; and shall take care that the laws applicable to the nation be faithfully executed. He shall have power to convene the council in extra

The Seneca Indians on the Allegany and Cattaraugus Reservations. §§ 73-74 session as often as, in his judgment, the interests of the nation require, and to fill all vacancies that may occur therein until such vacancy be filled by election. In the absence of the president, the council shall choose from among their own number a presiding officer, pro tempore.

§ 73. General powers and duties of the council.-The council of the Seneca nation shall meet annually on the first Tuesday of December, and in extra session whenever called by the president. Ten of the councilors shall be necessary to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The council shall have power,

1. To appropriate the moneys of the nation for the purpose of discharging the debts thereof, but all appropriations of public money shall be by an affirmative vote of at least of* ten of the councilors elected.

2. To fix the salaries of all officers of the nation whose salaries are not defined by law.

3. To determine on the laying out and working of roads and highways, and to make by-laws for the regulation of such work. 4. To pass by-laws and ordinances, not inconsistent with law, for the protection and improvement of the common land of the nation, for the regulation of fences, for the prevention of trespass of cattle and other animals; and may provide a penalty of not exceeding five dollars, for the violation of any by-law or ordinances, recoverable by any officer of the nation for the benefit of the nation, before the peacemakers' court of the reservation in which the offender resides or in which the offense is committed. (As amended by chap. 229 of 1893, § 1, and chap. 253 of 1900.)

874. The attorney. The office of attorney of the Seneca nation of Indians shall continue. The governor shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, to be such attorney, a person who shall have been an attorney and counselor of the supreme court for at least three years. The term of office of such attorney shall be three years and he shall be paid by the state an annual salary of one hundred and fifty dollars. He shall advise such Indians in relation to their affairs, and in relation to controversies between themselves, or with any other person; shall, with the assent of the council, prosecute such actions and proceedings as he may deem proper and necessary; and shall defend all actions brought against such nation of Indians, or any of them, by white persons. If any suit shall be brought by such attorney for such Indians, without the assent of the council, he shall not *So in the original.