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Show LXXX REPORT OP THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. Prior to 1880 comparatively few contracts between Indians and attor-neys mere submitted to this office for approval. Since that time fifty-t I I. six have been approved, of which eighteen have been executed. The claims of the Indians, for the prosecution of which these eighteen con. tracts were made, were allowed, and $7,239,462.48 is shown by the , : records of this office to have been paid to the several Indian tribes or ' placed to the credit of their fi~uds. There have been paid out throngh this offioe to the attorneys representing the Indians $276,543.02, the fees in a few other instances being paid, if paid at all, by the Indian tribe party to the contract. In the caseof the Choctaw "net proceeds" claim,'the fee, amounting to $142,939.93, was paid, if paid at all, through the office of the First Auditor of the Treasury. A table showing the contracts approved by this office since January 1,1880, the date of each, with dates of their approval and expiration, the parties to each, the service to be rendered, compensation, amount of claim, fees paid, if any, and the amount, if any,recorered for the Indians, . . mill be found on page OLXXVI of the Appendix. A table showing the contracts now pending for consideration in this office will also be found in the Appendix, page c~xxxrr. Believing the object of the statute to be as stated above, in consider-ing contracts presented for my approval, I have conceived it to he my . . duty to look to the interest of the Indian parties thereto, and I hare disapproved all contracts submitted to me that provided for the collec- . tion of claims that should be paid in the ordinary course oE the busi-ness of this Department, or in the due execution of the laws of the united States and its treaties mith the various tribes. I have also withheld my approval from co~ltracts that necessitated work which belonged properly to Indian agents. In the settlement of every Indian claim against the Government , , there are two great factors, the Iniliarl Office and Congress. The rec-ords of all treaties and agreements made with Indians and of all moues6 paid to them are kept in the Indian offioe, and any attorney for the Indians, prosecuting any claim in their behalf, is necessarily obliged to depend almost entirely npon the rccords of this offioe for the presenta-tion of his case. Usually, also, the greater part of the work in search-ing treatiee and records is performed by the Indian Office. It seems to me that this is one of the proper functions of this office, and that a doe regard for tho rela,tion oE gnardiau, which the natio~l sustains to these wards, requires, as a matter of good faith, that every claim'of whatever nature brought by the Iudians against the Govern-ment should be promptly and exhaustively examined by the Commis- . , sioner of Indian Affairs, and transmitted to Congress through the De-partment with the Commissioner'n recommendations thereon. The faithful and intelligent prosecution of this work requires the ad-vice and services of a solicitor, who should be appointed for this pur-pose by the Government. |
