Patents for California Lands.

sons, (as is alleged to be the case here,) their remedy is to petition the district judge for an injunction, and if he grants it, the patent will be stayed until the injunction is dissolved. Nothing of this kind has been done. The patents must issue.

But neither the decree of the court, nor the survey, nor the patent, is conclusive on anybody but the Government and the patentee. The rights of the third parties are expressly saved in the act of Congress. If, therefore, there be any grounds for the complaint made in this petition. from Butte county, those who claim a title adverse to the patentee have still a chance to establish it in the court of the State.

proper

There is nothing in the case which authorizes me to interfere. The Attorney General has a certain supervisory control over the investigation of these California land claims while the contest upon them is between the United States and the Mexican grantees; but his power is gone when the Government ceases to have an interest, and private parties alone are concerned.

I am, most respectfully, yours, &c.,

Hon. JACOB THOMPSON,

Secretary of the Interior.

J. S. BLACK.

Kansas Indians.

KANSAS INDIANS.

1. The Kansas nation of Indians and the half-breed reservees are in lawful possession, and have a perfect right to enjoy the peaceful occupation of

their lands.

2. The power of the Government ought to be used to protect them against all lawless trespassers, without reference to the question whether their title be a fee or only a usufruct.

3. The trade and intercourse law, passed 30th June, 1834, is applicable to the Indian reserved land in Kansas and Nebraska, and ought to be executed for their protection.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE,

September 26, 1857. SIR: Your communication of August 20, 1857, presents the following case:

A treaty was made on the 3d of June, 1825, at St. Louis, between the superintendent of Indian affairs, on the part of the United States, and the chiefs, headmen and warriors of the Kansas nation of Indians. By the first article of this treaty the Kansas ceded to the United States all the lands lying within the State of Missouri, to which the said nation had title or claim, lying west of the State of Missouri within certain described boundaries. It was stipulated by the second article that, from the cession aforesaid, a reservation for the use of the Kansas nation should be made of a tract of land to begin twenty leagues up the Kansas river, and to include their village on that river, extending west thirty miles in width, through the lands ceded in the first article, to be surveyed and marked under the direction of the President, and to such extent as he may deem necessary, and at the expense of the United States.

By the sixth article it was further stipulated, that from the lands above ceded to the United States, there shall be made reservations of one mile square for each of the halfbreeds of the Kansas nation, who were designated in the treaty by name, to be located on the north side of the Kansas river, in the order of their names, commencing at

Kansas Indians.

the line of the Kansas reservation, and extending down the Kansas river for quantity.

Among other provisions of this treaty it was also agreed, by the tenth article, that, lest the friendship which is now established between the United States and the said nation should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but, instead thereof, complaint shall be made by the injured party to the other, &c.; and by the eleventh section, that the Kansas nation shall ever remain under the protection of the United States, and in friendship with them.

Another treaty was made on the 14th of January, 1846, at the Methodist mission, in the Kansas country, by which two millions of acres of land, on the east part of their country, embracing the entire width, thirty miles, and running west for quantity, were ceded by the Kansas tribe of Indians to the United States. (9 Stat. at Large, 842.)

Individual reservees, under the treaty of 1825, now complain that their lands are intruded upon by white trespassers, their timber cut down, destroyed, or sold, and their reservations laid waste or occupied by force. Communications are constantly received at the Indian Office of intrusions and ontrages by lawless whites. The reports submitted from the Indian Office allege that repeated trespasses and waste upon the reserves have taken place. (Report of Commissioner Manypenny, March 24, 1857.) The rights of the Indian wards of the Government have been · questioned and trampled upon, the efforts of their agents to protect them in person and property have been thwarted and rendered abortive by lawless combinations of speculators, and further invasions of their vested rights are threatened by men who seem to consider a resort to brute force perfectly legitimate, where the property of Indians is to be the prize. (Report of Commissioner Denver, April 29, 1857.) In many instances the Indian reservees have been deprived of their property, and their lives endangered by an attempt to resist intrusion upon the lands set apart for their use. (Secretary Thompson's letter, August 20, 1857.)

Kansas Indians.

Upon this state of facts, certain questions were propounded on the 14th of November last, to my predecessor, and being unanswered, they are now submitted to me, as to the nature of the title by which the Kansas halfbreeds hold their individual reserves, and also as to the applicability of the trade and intercourse law of the 30th June, 1834, to the Indian reserved lands in Kansas and Nebraska.

1. As to the nature of the title by which the Kansas half-breeds hold their individual reserves.

By the treaty of St. Louis, the Kansas nation and the half-breed reservees are in lawful possession of their respective reservations, and have a perfect right to enjoy the peaceable occupation of their lands. Against all other individuals, or combinations of individuals, their title is perfect and absolute; and under that treaty the Indians may claim security in their reservations, through the protection of the United States, by the highest sanction. I deem it, therefore, wholly unnecessary to determine, or even to inquire, whether the half-breeds have a title in fee, or only a usufruct interest; whether the original Indian title be extinguished or remain in the tribe; whether an inheritable estate be vested in the individual reservees, or the reversionary interest be still in the nation. Neither can it be of any importance, in the present state of things, whether the individual reservees can grant their lands, or whether their parents or their children be their legal heirs. It is of very little consequence to the Indian who shall inherit his lands when he is dead, if every man may plunder them while he is living; and it matters little to him whether he can grant them by deed, if they may be seized and held from him by force. To all the questions propounded by the late Commissioner, in his report of 15th November, 1854, now submitted to me, it is, in my judgment, sufficient to say, that the Indian half-breed reservees, their parents and their children, being in lawful possession of the respective sections reserved to them, their title can be questioned by no trespasser, intruder, or stranger, be he who he may;

Kansas Indians.

and that no white man, without authority of the President, has a right to set his foot upon an Indian reservation. Whether a fee be in the Kansas half-breed reservees, or the original Indian title be unextinguished and remains in the tribe, in either case the good faith of the United States is pledged, by solemn treaty, to protect the Indian occupant from trespassers, intruders, and wrong-doers of any sort; and the whole force of the Government, military as well as civil, should be promptly put forth, if necessary to vindicate that good faith.

2. As to the applicability of the provisions of the trade and intercourse law of the 30th June, 1834, to the Indian reserved lands in Kansas and Nebraska. By the 10th sec tion of the act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian tribes, and to preserve peace on the frontiers, passed 30th June, 1834, (4 Stat. at Large, 730,) it is enacted, "That the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and Indian agents and sub-agents shall have authority to remove from the Indian country all persons found therein contrary to law; and the President of the United States is authorized to direct the military force to be employed in such removal." What constitutes the Indian country for the purposes of this act, is described by boundaries in the first section of the act, and it includes the Kansas reservations-both the individual reservations to the half-breeds, and the reservation to the tribe. In my opinion, therefore, this act is applicable to the Indian reserved lands in Kansas and Nebraska, and the military force may be lawfully employed by the President to remove all trespassers and intruders that may be found upon these reservations, and to drive them from the lands upon which they have unlawfully entered. Moreover, under the 11th section of this act, besides being subject to removal by military force, every person who shall make a settlement on the Indian reserved lands, or shall survey or attempt to survey them, or designate any of the boundaries by marking trees, or otherwise, is subject to a penalty of one thousand dollars, and should be vigorously prosecuted under this act.