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Show RGPORT OF. THE SECRETARY OF THB ~TERIOR 25 of the Secretary of the Interior, suchlands having been purchased for homes and paid for with their trust funds. Also there is pending a suit to set aside sales of lands of the Eastern Band pf Cherokee Indians of North Carolina for unpaid assessments for 1926, in which case the defendants assert the unconstitutionality of the act of June 4,:1924 (43 Stat. L. 376,381), which provides that such lands shall be exempt.frpm taxation:after the expiration of the taxable year follow- %':!lie date of the ,act cited under which the restrictions were rewved. ~ . , - Some. tracts have been set apart for mission purposes, with the congent of $he Indians interested. The areas have usually been small. A few fee .patents have been issued to mission organizationion$ for sites that have been in use for not less than six years In most cqses they have been so .used 15 to 20 years. Under the act of Septemb,~21 ?1 922 (42 Stat. L. 994, 995), a reversionary clause is placed in each patent so issued. INDIAN SUITS AND JUDGMENTS The United Statks'court of Claims in the case of Osage Tribe 9. United States, No. B-38, commonly known:as the Osage civilization fund suit, held, May 28, 1928,.that it hadno power to change the terms of a treaty with the tribe, which "is the function and province of the political department of the Government"; and that the plainintiffs failed to sustain their claims. The attorneys for the Indians, it is understoaid, .will appeal to the Supreme Court. The Court of Claims held June 8, 1925 (53 Ct. Clms., 67), that the claim of the Yankton Band of Sioux to ownership of the so-called Red Pipestone Quarry property (640 acres) near Pipestone, Minn., was without merit as these Indians still possessed the restricted treaty right of quarrying stone therein. Upon appeal the United States Supreme Court held November 22, 1926 (272 U. S. 351)! that the quarry tract was the property of the Yanktons, and that it had been taken as under eminent domain for Indian school purposes by the Government.. The case was remanded to the lower court for a finding and decree as to the proper amount due the band for the value of the property so taken. April 16, 1928, thecourt of Claims awarded these Indians the sum of $100,000, with interest at 6 per cent from March 1, 1891, until paid. Appeal from the award has been taken to the supreme Court by the claim&ts. April 23, 1923, the Court of Claims dismissed as without merit the suit of the Sissetm and Wahpeton Sioux against the United States. The act of Maich 4, 1927 (44 Stat. L. 1847), authorized amappeal to, the Supreme Court, which in its decision of May 28, 1928, &med the finding of the lower court. The court held in brief that it had |
