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Show 56 COM?dISSIONEB OF INDIAN AFFAIES. more than $80,000 in wagas during the year. On January 1, 1917, the Menominee log fund, from which all expenditures connected with logging operations at Neopit have been paid, was fully reimbursed for all expenditures therefrom. In addition to the excess funds which were then deposited in the 4 per cent fund, provided for by the act of March 28, 1908 (35 Stat. L., 51), and over 30,000,000 feet of manufactured lumber on hand, the Neopit operation had up to Janu-ary 1, 1917, increased the assets of the Menominee Indians to the extent of the value of the whole mssufacturing plant, inventoried at more than $1,000,000. FOBESFTIR ES.-NO serious fke loss was sdered during the summer and autumn of 1916. While human efforts are h o s t unavailing in the prevention and suppression of forest lires during an unfavor-able season, there is no doubt that the efficient lookout and patrol system now inaugurated on the Indian reservations having large timber areaa contributas materially to the prevention of large annual 6re lo-. The timber burned upon the Red Lake and Bad River Reservations during May, 1917, will undoubtedly be cut during the coming winter season. COURT DECISIONS. The following cases affecting Indians were decided during the last year: Wiakm8, CXieJ et al. v. City of Chkqo d d. (Z@ U. S., @4).- This was an action brought by eight Pottawatomie Indians, mem-bers of the Pokagon band and residents of Michigan, against the city of Chicago and certain corporations now occupying valuable lands within the geographical limits of Illinois, which have been re-claimed from Lake Michigan. The Indians claimed ownerahip of the lank in question under the treaty of Greenville of August 3, 1795 (7 Stat. L., 49). It wes held in this case that the treaty, supra, under which the Indians claimed did not convey a fee-simple title to the Indians; that under it no tribe could claim more than the right of continued occupancy; and that when this was abandoned, all legal right or interest which both tribe and its members had in the territory oame to an end. Hill, a minm, et d. v. ReynoEds, a minor (2@ 27. S., %I).-A decision of the Secretaq of the Interior adjudicating a contest over certain Choctaw and Chickasaw lauds, and awarding a patent under the agreement in the act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 505), and the supplemental agreement in the act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. L., 641), was upheld by the court in this case. Dickson v. Luck Land Ompamy (249 U. S., S71).-It was held in this case that the issuance of a feeaimple patent to a mixed-blood 'Chippewa Indian of the White Earth Indian Reservation, under the |