OCR Text |
Show 25 ought always to govern this court, to decide nothing beyond what is necessary to the judgement we are to render, we leave that question until it shall be made in some case where the rights of citizenship are necessarily involved. But we have no hesitation in saying that their status is not, in the face of the facts we have stated, to be determined solely by the circumstances that some officer of the Government has appointed for them an agent, even if we could take judicial notice of the existence of that fact, suggested to us in argument. Turning our attention to the tenure by which these communities hold the land on which the settlement of defendant was made, we find that it is wholly different from that of the Indian Tribes to whom the Act of Congress applies. The United States have not recognized in these latter any other than a passing title with right of use, until by treaty or otherwise that right is extinguished. And the ultimate title has been always held to be in the United States, with no right in the Indians to transfer it, or even their possession, without consent of the Government. It is this fixed claim of dominion which lies at the foundation of the Act forbidding the white man to make a settlement on the lands occupied by an Indian Tribe. The Pueblo Indians, on the contrary, hold their lands by a right superior to that of the United States. Their title dates back to grants made by the Government of Spain before the Mexican revolution, a title which was fully recognized by the Mexican Government, and protected by it in the Treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, by which this country and the allegiance of its inhabitants were transferred to the United States. With the purpose of carrying into effect this provision of that Treaty, Congress directed the Surveyor-General of New Mexico to make inquiry into all grants of the Spanish and Mexican Governments, and to report to that body on their validity. Such reports were made from time to time, one of which included, and recommended for confirmation this claim of 'the Pueblo of Taos, in the County of Taos,' not the Pueblo Indians of Taos, but the Pueblo of Taos; and by an Act of Congress of December 22, 1858, 11 Stat, at L., 374, the title was confirmed, and the Commissioner of the Land Office was ordered to 'Issue the necessary instructions for the survey of all of said claims, as recommended for confirmation by the said Surveyor-General, and cause a patent to issue therefore, as in ordinary cases to private individuals: Provided, That this confirmation shall only be construed as a relinquish-^ ment of all title and claim of the United States to any of said lands, and shall not affect any adverse valid rights, should such exist.' |