75TH CONGRESS 3d Session

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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REPORT No. 2341

AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY TO TRANSFER TO THE CREDIT OF THE CHIPPEWA INDIANS OF MINNESOTA THE PROCEEDS OF A CERTAIN JUDGMENT ERRONEOUSLY DEPOSITED AS PUBLIC MONEY

MAY 11, 1938.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. BUCKLER of Minnesota, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9442]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9442), authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to transfer on the books of the Treasury Department to the credit of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, the proceeds of a certain judgment erroneously deposited in the Treasury of the United States as public money, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass with the following amendments:

Page 1, line 8, strike out the figures and words "$104,235.52, and being the proceeds of," and insert in lieu thereof the following: "$59,401.04, being the value of the timber at the time of conversion, as awarded in".

Page 2, at the end of line 11, change the period to a comma and insert the following: "together with the sum of $39,284.76, being the amount of interest collected by the United States in said action."

Page 2, line 15, after the word "Minnesota" insert a comma and the words "under contracts approved pursuant to section 2103 of the Revised Statutes of the United States".

The bill, as amended, is identical with S. 3849, and the amendments recommended by your committee conform to the recommendations of the Departments of Justice and the Interior.

The purpose of the bill is to correct an admitted error which resulted in the deposit in the Treasury of the United States as "public money" of the entire proceeds of a judgment obtained for timber which was the exclusive property of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota. The judgment was for $104,235.52, of which $59,401.04 represented the value of the timber; $39,284.76 represented interest on the value of

the timber from the date of conversion to the date of judgment; and $5,549.72 represented the costs of the litigation and interest. The only property interest the United States had in the judgment was reimbursement for the costs of the litigation. The balance of the judgment was received by the officers of the United States under an express trust, which required the deposit, as and when received, of $59,401.04, representing the value of the timber, in the interestbearing trust fund, and the interest annually accruing thereon in the non-interest-bearing trust fund, both standing to the credit of all the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota, and the deposit of $39,284.76, representing the interest on the value of the timber from the date of conversion to the date of judgment, in the noninterest-bearing trust fund standing to the credit of the Indians (sec. 7 of the act of Jan. 14, 1889, 25 Stat. 642, and trust deeds approved by the President Mar. 4, 1890, H. Doc. 247, 51st Cong., 1st sess). Through admitted error the entire amount of the judgment was, on July 12, 1902, deposited in the Treasury of the United States as public money.

The enactment of the bill, as amended, into law is recommended by the Secretary of the Interior. The Bureau of the Budget, before giving its approval, obtained reports on the bill (1) from the Treasury Department, showing the receipt of the proceeds of the judgment and the deposit of the entire amount to the credit of the United States as "public money"; (2) from the Department of Justice, advising that only $5,549.72 (the costs of the litigation paid by the United States) of the proceeds of the judgment should have been deposited to the credit of the United States, and the balance should have been deposited to the credit of the Indians, and that the Indians are legally entitled to the credits, principal and interest, authorized by the bill as amended; and (3) from the General Accounting Office, advising that the error in the deposit had never been corrected.

The bill, as amended, if enacted into law, will merely restore the Indians to the same position they would have been in had the error not occurred, and without loss or expense to the United States.

The report of the Secretary of the Interior is hereto attached and made a part hereof.

Hon. WILL ROGERS,

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, May 10, 1938.

Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This will refer further to your request for a report on H. R. 9442, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to transfer on the books of the Treasury Department to the credit of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota the proceeds of a certain judgment erroneously deposited in the Treasury of the United States as public money.

The judgment mentioned in the caption of the bill was recovered in 1902 by the United States for and in behalf of itself, in a suit brought against the Pine River Logging & Improvement Co., and others, for the wrongful conversion of pine timber taken from the Winnibigoshish and Leech Lake Indian Reservations, otherwise known as the Mississippi Reservation, in Minnesota (78 Fed. 319; 89 Fed. 907; and 186 U. S. 279). The suit was brought and maintained by the United States under the doctrine established in the case of United States v. Cook (19 Wallace 591) that as the owner of the fee to all lands embraced in Indian reservations, the United States can recover for itself, to the exclusion of the Indian tribe occupying a reservation, for the wrongful conversion of timber taken from the reservation lands.

The timber in this case was cut under five contracts between individual Indians and the defendants. The contracts were made pursuant to the general authority contained in the act of February 16, 1889 (25 Stat., 673), which provided—

"That the President of the United States may from year to year in his discretion under such regulations as he may prescribe authorize the Indians residing on reservations or allotments, the fee to which remains in the United States, to fell, cut, remove, sell or otherwise dispose of the dead timber standing or fallen, on such reservation or allotment for the sole benefit of such Indian or Indians.

The contracts permitted a cut of 2,750,000 feet. As a matter of fact 17,000,000 feet were cut, and the Supreme Court held that as to such excess both the Indians and the defendants were trespassers, and the United States was held entitled to recover for the conversion (186 U. S., 279). The Chippewa Tribe of Minnesota was not a party to the suit and was not represented by cour sel. The tribe had no opportunity to assert its interest in the subject matter of the suit, and to show that at the time the timber was taken, the United States held the lands of the Chippewa Indians, and the timber thereon subject to the trust declared in the act of January 14, 1889 (25 Stat., 642); and that the United States was obligated to execute the trust for the purposes set forth in the act, and to account to the Indians for the proceeds derived from the lands and timber upon their disposal. The argument might be advanced that the act of January 14, 1889, was superseded in part by the act of February 16, 1889, and that money accruing from the disposal of timber under the latter act did not belong to the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota as a whole. The answers to this argument are threefold: (1) The act of January 14, 1889, dealt specifically with the lands and timber of the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, and, therefore, was not superseded by the general act of February 16, 1889, dealing with all Indian reservations. (2) The agreements of cession executed by the Indians pursuant to the act of January 14, 1889, were not approved by the President until March 4, 1890; that was the effective date of the cessions, and the trust created thereby superseded the act of February 16, 1889. (3) Whether the act of January 14, 1889, was superseded by the act of February 16, 1889, is academic for the reason that the timber involved in this case was not cut and sold in conformance with the latter act, but was taken by trespassers wrongfully, in violation of the law. At the time of the conversion of the timber in 1891 and 1892, the provisions determinative of the ownership of the timber were the act of January 14, 1889, and the cessions approved in 1890.

The bill involves a charge against the Treasury of the United States in the aggregate sum of approximately $292,000, which includes the principal sum of $104,235.52, and simple interest at 5 percent from July 12, 1902.

By letter of March 15, 1938, the Treasury Department has advised that the principal sum of $104,235.52 was included in certificate of deposit No. 205, issued under date of July 12, 1902, by the vice president and cashier of the First National Bank, St. Paul, Minn., and covered into the general fund of the Treasury as miscellaneous receipts "Depredations on Public Lands," by covering warrant No. 1056, dated September 15, 1902.

Information contained in a letter dated January 10, 1938, to the Treasury Department from the Department of Justice indicates that included in the total judgment of $104,235.52 is an item of $4,963.97 representing costs advanced by the United States and recovered from the defendants. The Indians are not entitled to the costs recovered by the United States; hence, it is recommended that the amount of $4,963.97 with the interest thereon be eliminated from the claim. This would reduce the amount to about $278,000.

The verdict in this suit was for $59,401.04 principal and $28,868.90 interest. The defendant also paid as interest on the judgment accruing during the pendency of an appeal, the sum of $10,415.86. Since H. R. 9442 was introduced, S. 3849, a companion measure, was introduced in the Senate. The latter bill divides the amount of the judgment between principal and interest and deducts the costs. It is in more satisfactory form, and I suggest the House bill be amended to conform to the text of S. 3849. The following amendments would be necessary:

Page 1, line 8, change the amount from $104,235.52 to $59,401.04; strike out the words "proceeds of" and insert "value of timber at the time of conversion as awarded in".

Page 2, line 11, change the period to a comma and insert "together with the sum of $39,284.76, being the amount of interest collected by the United States from the defendants in said action."

It is further recommended that section 2 of the bill be amended by the insertion of a comma and the words "under contracts approved pursuant to section 2103

of the Revised Statutes of the United States," after the word "Minnesota" on page 2, line 15.

If amended as suggested, I recommend that H. R. 9442 receive favorable consideration.

The Acting Director of the Bureau of the Budget has advised that if the bill is amended in accordance with the foregoing suggestions it then would not be in conflict with the program of the President. He forwarded to the Department a copy of a letter from the Attorney General favoring the bill, if certain amendments were made. The amendments proposed by the Attorney General are included in my recommendations. The principal purpose of those amendments is to segregate principal and interest, so that the United States will not be paying interest on a noninterest-bearing account carried on the books of the Treasury.

Sincerely yours,

E. K. BURLEW, Acting Secretary of the Interior.

75TH CONGRESS 3d Session

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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REPORT No. 2343

AUTHORIZING CAIRO BRIDGE COMMISSION TO ACQUIRE BY PURCHASE, AND TO IMPROVE, MAINTAIN, AND OPERATE TOLL BRIDGE ACROSS MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT OR NEAR CAIRO, ILL.

May 12, 1938.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. CHAPMAN, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9287]

The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9287) to authorize the Cairo Bridge Commission, or the successors of said Commission, to acquire by purchase, and to improve, maintain, and operate a toll bridge across the Mississippi River at or near Cairo, Ill., having considered and amended the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass.

Amend the bill as follows:

Page 2, line 2, after the word "purchase" insert the following words: "at a price to be approved by the Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads of the Department of Agriculture."

The bill has the approval of the War and Agriculture Departments, as will appear by the letters attached.

Hon. CLARENCE F. LEA,

War DepartMENT, Washington, February 23, 1938.

Chairman, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. LEA: The Department refers to your letter of February 2, 1938, in which you request a report on the accompanying bill, H. R. 9287, Seventy-fifth Congress, third session, being a bill to authorize the Cairo Bridge Commission, or the successors of said commission, to acquire by purchase, and to improve, maintain, and operate a toll bridge across the Mississippi River at or near Cairo, Ill. Congress by act approved April 2, 1926, granted its consent to the Cairo Bridge & Terminal Co., to construct, maintain, and operate bridges across the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Ill., where said rivers join. Pursuant to the authority granted, the Cairo Bridge & Terminal Co. has constructed, and now maintains and operates, a toll bridge across the Mississippi River extending from Cairo, Ill., to the opposite shore in Missouri. The company, however, did not construct a bridge across the Ohio River.