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Show REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. CXXIX tions committed since December 1,1873, because the latter part of the seventeenth seotion of the act of June 30,1834 (containing the limitation clause which barred claims if not filed within three years from the date of the depredation).was omitted from seotion 2156 of the Reviseci Statutes, which is a re-enatment of the first part of said sevenkent.h section. Thus when the Revised Statutes went into effect December 1, 1873, the limitation clause was removed, and the bar being no longer opera-tive, claims oonld be filed st any time, if for a depredation committed subsequent to that date. A recent decision, however, has placed De-cember 1, 1870, instead of December 1,1873, as the time subseqoent to which claims may originate and still be entitled toinvestigation, for the reason that if the bar had not become complete by the expiration of the full time to which it was limited, it was ineffectual and inoperative. Under these decisions the claims on file have beeu classified as sub-ject to consideration and not subject to consideration. The first class comprises two groups: One of claims on file March 3, 1885, whether barred or not; the other, claims filed since March 3, 1885, but for dep-redations oommitted since December 1,1870. The latter class may be subdivided into two groups, one containing defects curable by the claimants, and the other defects curable only by statute. Both groups may he again subdivided into several classes. Those defects curable by the parties are, (1) lack of proof in compli. ance with the Department rules, which require that the evidence of two witnesses should support each claim, that the tribe which committed the alleged depredations shall be designated, and that the testimony shall have been taken before someofficer duly authorized to administer oaths in such cases ; (2) loss of material papers in the case when the claim has at some time beeu sent to an agent or to Congress, or where the papers have been returned to claimant, his agent or attorney, for amendment and never refiled. The claims with defects curable only by statute are: (1) Those for depredations committed prior to December 1,1870, and not on file March 3,1885; (2) thoscin favor of citizens, but for depredations committed by Indians not in treaty relations; (3) those in favor of Indians because of depredatious by other Indians or by white men; aud (4) those in favor of white persons not citizens of the United States. The records do not show tkat any depredation claims were filed in this office prior to 1849, up to wl~ichti me the bureau was a part of tho WarDcpartment, although it is possible that some may have been so filed. If so, the record of them has never been transmitted here. Dur-ing the last forty years, or since this bureau was transferred to the In-terior Department, over 6,000 claims have been preseuted, hat the Qov-ernment has not carried out its oft-repeated guaralltj of "erel~tanl in-demnification" in even 300 of them. Prom 1796 to 1869 there was an implied contract on the part of the (iover11ment to pny its citizrils for property lost by Indian depredations L'out of a,ny II~OIIPJ ill the Treasury not ohherwise appropriated," and from 1869 to 1870 tho obligation still 9975-9*. |
