MISSISSIPPI CHOCTAW INDIANS JURISDICTIONAL ACT MARCH 21, 1938) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE OF COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. The Subcommittee on Indian Affairs met in the committee room of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Old House Office Building, at 10:30 a. m. Hon. Samuel Dickstein (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Also present: Hon. Elmer J. Ryan, member of the subcommittee, Mr. DICKSTEIN. The subcommittee will please be in order. This hearing of the subcommittee of the Committee on Indian Affairs has to do with S. 1478, "An act conferring jurisdiction on the Court of Claims to hear and determine the claims of the Choctaw Indians of the State of Mississippi.' Without objection the Chair will put into the record a copy of the proposed bill. (S. 1478 is as follows:) [S. 1478, 75th Cong., 1st Sess.] AN ACT Conferring jurisdiction on the Court of Claims to hear and determine the claims of the Choctaw Indians of the State of Mississippi Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Court of Claims be, and it is hereby, authorized and directed to hear and determine all claims against the United States of the Choctaw Indians of the State of Mississippi based upon the provisions of any treaty or agreement with or statute of the United States, or upon the failure of the United States to recognize or fairly and adequately to provide for the settlement of any interest, vested or contingent, of the aforesaid Choctaw Indians in administering or liquidating the assets or property of the Choctaw Nation and allotting in severalty the lands of said nation and distributing its property to the individual citizens of said nation enrolled on its final approved citizenship rolls, or for indemnification to the extent of the aggregate average value of the interest in any lands lost by them, as to which they shall be entitled to recover if the said court shall find that, by treaty provisions or by Acts of Congress, they would have been entitled to share therein upon identification and removal to and residence in the Choctaw Nation, and that the performance of any of these necessary conditions prior to the final closing of the citizenship rolls was prevented by the United States or by its officers or agents by their neglect, misrepresentation, failure to provide adequate or timely aid in removal after advising them against or obstructing private aid in their removal and the giving of assurances that the Government would so provide for their removal, disapproval of a general roll of identification embracing more than five hundred of the present claimants without consideration of the merits of their application for identification, failure to exercise reasonable diligence to give actual notice to many of said Indians of the limitations placed by Congress upon the exercise of their treaty rights, or by any other acts, conduct, or omissions not consistent with the rules of fair and honorable dealing with Indians under the circumstances and conditions then existing: Provided, however, That the jurisdiction conferred by this Act shall not extend to or embrace any claim or claims of any nature against the Choctaw Nation of Indians in Oklahoma, but solely to claims against the United States asserted by those Indians hereby authorized to sue, and no sum or sums recovered in any action hereby authorized or sums appropriated in payment or settlement thereof shall ever be the subject of a charge against or claim for reimbursement out of any of the property or funds of the said Choctaw Nation of Indians in Oklahoma, directly or indirectly, or as a set-off or counter-claim against any claim or demand of said Nation against the United States now or hereafter asserted, whether said claim or demand be of a legal or equitable nature, or for a gratuity. SEC. 2. That for the purposes of the action to be brought in said Court of Claims under the provisions of this Act, the said Indians are hereby recognized as having the status of a separate band with authority in their representatives to employ counsel and to execute and file a petition or petitions setting forth their claims, and to prosecute said suit or suits to a final determination: Provided, however, That any question which may arise, or objection which may be made, as to the representative character of the organization so acting on behalf of said Choctaw Indians of the State of Mississippi, shall be heard and adjudicated by the said Court of Claims in the suit or suits hereby authorized to be brought. SEC. 3. That any petition or petitions filed in the said Court of Claims under the provisions of this Act shall be submitted to said court within two years from the date of this Act, and said cause or causes shall thereupon be proceeded with in accordance with the law and practice of said court, and any claims not so presented within the said period of two years shall be thereafter forever barred: Provided, however, That, should the Court of Claims find that a petition so presented within said time is not presented by persons fairly representative of the said Indians, said court shall have the authority to permit amendments thereafter bringing proper parties before the court. SEC. 4. That the hearing and adjudication of said claims shall be governed by equitable principles and shall fairly and finally determine the merits of the claims of said Indians and the obligations of the United States to them in administering the affairs of Indians subject to the guardianship and authority of the United States, in accordance with the customary action and precedents in the conduct of the estates of incompetent Indians, if the court shall find that said Mississippi Choctaw Indians were in fact as a group incompetent to manage their own affairs. SEC. 5. That the amount of any judgment rendered in said cause when appropriated shall be set aside as a special fund to be paid or disbursed only upon such terms and conditions as Congress may by its subsequent legislation direct: Provided, however, That in entering its final judgment in said cause the Court of Claims shall hear and determine the amount, not to exceed 10 per centum of the amount of any final award, which on a quantum meruit basis it shall find to be a reasonable compensation for the respective services and expenses of James E. Arnold as the representative, and of William E. Richardson and Thomas E. Rhodes as attorneys for said Indians, heretofore rendered or which may hereafter be rendered in the suit authorized by the provisions of this Act, and shall as a part of said judgment award so much thereof as may be necessary to pay said compensation and reimbursement upon the basis herein directed to such person or persons, respectively, as the said court may find entitled thereto. SEC. 6. That said court shall have further jurisdiction to hear and determine any counterclaims or counterdemands on the part of the United States against the said Choctaw Indians of Mississippi upon the said basis of equity and justice as directed in respect to the adjudication of all matters under the authority of this Act. SEC. 7. That either party aggrieved by any final decision of the said Court of Claims in said cause shall have the right to appeal such final decision to the Supreme Court of the United States as provided by law in respect to appeals from the Court of Claims to said Supreme Court: Provided, That the question of the validity of the claim or claims of said Chocataw Indians against the United States, or any counterclaims or demands of the United States against said Indians, the appellate jurisdiction of said Supreme Court of the United States is hereby expressly extended to the hearing and determination of an appeal by or on behalf of said Choctaw Indians or the United States. SEC. 8. That for the purpose of this Act the term "Choctaws of the State of Mississippi" shall include only those persons who on July 1, 1902, were residents in the States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, having not less than oneeighth Choctaw Indian blood, and their descendants, and such persons as were thereafter identified on any approved roll of Mississippi Choctaws and their descendants, and shall not include any persons who were enrolled on the final citizenship rolls of the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma. Mr. DICKSTEIN. Now, who wants to be heard? Mr. CANTRELL. Mr. Chairman, I would, my name is William Cantrell, Jr., and I am legislative clerk to the Honorable Sam Rayburn, majority leader, House of Representatives. Mr. Rayburn introduced H. R. 6075, the companion bill to S. 1478. Mr. DICKSTEIN. What is the number of that bill? Mr. DICKSTEIN. We will be glad to hear you at this time. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM CANTRELL, JR., LEGISLATIVE CLERK TO THE MAJORITY LEADER, HON. SAM RAYBURN, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. CANTRELL. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the subcommittee, in the years 1903 and 1904, a number of full-blood Choctaw Indians who had been living in the State of Mississippi, and whose forefathers had lived in that State before it was a part of the United States, moved with their families to the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma, which is just across the Red River from the Fourth Congressional District of the State of Texas. These Indians came to the Choctaw Nation with the understanding and expectation, and I am told with the assurances of the representatives of the United States charged with the administration of Indian affairs, that their rights as Indians would be recognized, and that each would receive for himself and the members of his family allotments of land and Government aid to enable them to become selfsustaining farmers. After delays and many hardships, because these people were poor and inexperienced in making a livelihood under conditions so different from their former home, a number of families crossed over into Texas. There they received employment on farms and ranches. Their children have received suitable education and they have become a respected class of law-abiding citizens. While some of these families have settled in other parts of Texas, there are about 150 in the Fourth District. Their condition and history have excited the interest of the people of this section and those who have investigated the facts are satisfied that these Indians have a legitimate claim against the Federal Government. The purpose of the pending bills (S. 1478 introduced in the Senate by Senator Connally and H. R. 6075, the companion bill thereto, introduced in the House of Representatives by Mr. Rayburn) are intended to enable the Court of Claims to end the controversy which has existed for many years and decide whether or not the Government was responsible for the loss by these Choctaws of valuable and definite property rights. Several of these full-blood Mississippi Choctaws, so-called because prior to 1903 they had always lived in the State of Mississippi, filed a petition in the Court of Claims asking leave to intervene in a suit which Congress had authorized the Choctaw Nation to bring in the Court of Claims on any claim of the Choctaw Nation against the United States. This intervention was opposed by the Attorney General, and properly so as the court afterward held, on the theory that the jurisdictional act was not broad enough to cover the claims of this group of Choctaws who were not officially members of the present |