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Show REPOBT OF THE CO~ I B B ION E RO F INDIAN AFFA~&B. 105 and included certain tracts awarded to individual Indians and enu-merated in the aforesaid award.a Attorney-General Richard Olney, in his report to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, dated February 23, 1894 (H. Doc. No. 128, p. 4), states that in 1888 a bill and supplemental bill were filed by the United States against the parties in possession, in the United States circuit court, for the purpose of ascertaining and enforc-ing the title to the land of the Indians claimed and occupied by them, and to perfect title to the "Love speculation" tract and other tracts within the Qualla boundary, title to which the records of the county courts of North Carolina failed to establish as in the Indians. After such personal inquiry and investigation as he was himself able to make, he was of the opinion that it would be probably impracticable to establish the existence and contents of the lost title papers which were necessary to the establishment of the Indin claim thereto. In this state of things-believing that two agreements of compromise which had been submitted would, if carried into execution, secure the Indians a perfect title to the land inside of the Qualla boundary, and leave unsettled only a comparatively unimportant controversy as to certain tracts of land outside the boundary-he considered the propriety of the proposed compromise indubitable. He believed that the United States was bound to secure the land to the Indians or pay over to them the money expended in the purchase of the land. To secure the land it would be necessary to extend the present litigations, with their uncer-tainty of result, their great cost, and their inevitable delays; and as a matter of justice to the Indians and in the interest of the United States he had no hesitation in advising the acceptance of the two agreements of compromise. One of these agreements of compromise was to pay R. D. Gilmer, trustee and administrator of the estate of James R. Love, the sum of $1.25 per acre for the land lying between the Cathcart tract, the Hughes Ridge, and the Balsam and Smoky Range of mountains, esti-mated to contain about 33,000 acres of land. The other agreement of cempromise was to pay certain claimants therein named the sevwal sums agreed upon and therein stated, upon the execution of legal quitclaim deeds to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians to any and all lands claimed by them, respectively, inside of the Qualla boundary. These agreements of compromise were made subject to the approval of the Department of Justice and conditioned upon Congress making the necessary appropriation to carry the same into effect and the payment of the money to the claimants therein named, or their legally authorized attorneys. The amount of money necessary to carry these two agreements of compromise into effect was estimated not to exceed $68,000. aFor a copy of the deed see page 119 of House Ex. Doc. No. 128, Fifty-third Con- I . . gress, second session. |