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Show ! REPORT ,OF THE COMXISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 11 a of the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (5 Peters, 17). Chief Justice Warshall .said, in delivering the opinion of the court, that- They (the Indians) and their country are oonsidered by foreign nations, as wall as by oorselves, as being so oompletely under the sovereignty and dominion of the United States, that soy attempt to aoqoire their laoda, or to form i politioal oonnsc-t, ion with them, wo u l d h considered by all as an invasion of o ~ trer ritory end an ! act of hostility . I By the laws of Spain-proper portions of the soil of Louisiana were allotted td the Indians, and care was ; taken to make the aaquisition valuable by preventing t,he intrusion of white settlers. The laws of the Indiea direct' ed that when Indisns gnra up their lends to the whites, others shonld be assigned to thew, and tbelauds allotted to the Indian tribes by the Spanish offioera in pucruancs of tho laws of the Iutlies, were given to -them in oomplete ownership, eqoally, a3 if thsy were held under B. ~olnpleteg rant. But,as the Indians were considered in a. atate of pupilage, the authority of the pub-lic offioers who were constitnted their go~rdi ausw s s necsssarg to a valid alienation ofjtheir property. (ICent Corn., Vol. 3, p. 310.) 0 The people of all the English colonies, especially those of New Eng- ! land, settled their towns upon the basis of title procured by equitable purchase from the Iudians with the consent of the several colonial gov-ernments, except in a few instanoee where lands were acquired by con-qnest after a Far mhioh was deemed to have been just and necessary, . ' (Ibid.) The English Government never attempted to 'interfere with the internal affairs of the Indian tribes further than to keep out the I agents of fbreign powers. Being located witllin the territorial limit8 ' of the country claimed by England, and being unable to relinhnish any rights in the lar~ds occupied by them to any government ex-cept the Government of Great Britaiu, the Indian tribes in the Britiah aolo~iiesw ere regarded as domesti?, dependent nations, or dependedt ; allies. They were considered as natious competent to maintain the re-lations of peace ant1 war (Worcl~ester v. Qeovyia, 6 Peters, 584) and to I govern themselres under the protection of the Gorerr~menot f Great Britain. \ After the Far of the Eerolution, or noon tlieatta~inmenot f independ-ence, the United States succeedecl tto the right8 of Grent Britain, and ' , continued the policy iustitutecl by that Govgrnmeut. The protection given mas understood by all parties as only binding the Indians to the Government of the United States as clepentleut allies. . . I. ' ' SUBJECTS BUT NOT CITIZENS. As the aettielnent of the collrrtry adrai~ceda,n t1 as tbe de~uaudosf an increasing. populatiou required, the United States adopted tile policy , , of extinguishing, as far as possible, the title of the varioos tribes to the territory in wliich each respectively clainied a right, and of devolirrg t,o |