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Show Uinta council, 3. friendly manner, so that wheth .r you consent to the provisions of said acts of Congress or not, we will part as friends. I will now read the provisions of the Acts of Congress referred to and after reading them through, will then go back to the beginning and explain them sentence by sentence. (Reads the Act) Now, my friends, I wish to explain this matter rery carefully. I have just read the Act to you and want you to aik me any questions in reference to it you may desire so that you will be brought to understand every phase of the law, I want you to understand that no official of the Department Is responsible fcr this legislation. Congress makes the laws and we all have to obey them, and it therefore becomes the Secretary's duty to carry out this law. Until quite recently, the policy of our Gove rrunent has been •that Indians had unquestioned right to all land3 of their respective reservations, but a recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States is that Indians have no right to any part of their reservations except what they ma;/ require for allotments in in severalty or can make proper use of. This was the decision of the Supreme Court on January 5th last in the case of a Kiowa Indian of Oklahoma named Lone Wolf, which Involved the question of the Indian'3 title to lands. Tha court decided that the Government had the right to legislate in regard to the surplus lands of Indians without consulting the Indians concerned. But if they take allotments, they oannot be disturbed,- their title to the lands allotted to them being secured to them by law. By that decision of the supreme Court, Congress has the legal right to legislate in regard to Indian lands, and Congress has enacted a law which requires you to take |
