the dissolution of the tribal organizations and the distribution of the tribal property. By § 15 of the act of March 3, 1893, c. 209 (27 Stat. 612, 645), it was provided: "The consent of the United States is hereby given to the allotment of lands in severalty not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one individual within the limits of the country occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles; and upon such allotments the individuals to whom the same may be alloted shall be deemed to be in all respects citizens of the United States, and upon the allotment of the lands held by said tribes respectively the reversionary interest of the United States therein shall be relinquished and shall cease." And by § 16 of the same act provision was made for the appointment of commissioners to enter into negotiations with the Five Civilized Tribes "for the purpose of the extinguishment of the national or tribal title to any lands within that Territory now held by any and all of such nations or tribes, either by cession of the same or some part thereof to the United States, or by the allotment and division of the same in severalty among the Indians of such nations or tribes, respectively, as may be entitled to the same, or by such other method as may be agreed upon between the several nations and tribes aforesaid, or each of them, with the United States, with a view to such and [sic] adjustment, upon the basis of justice and equity, as may, with the consent of such nations or tribes of Indians, so far as may be necessary, be requisite and suitable to enable the ultimate creation of a State or States of the Union which shall embrace the lands within such India [sic] Territory." But in executing this policy, Congress was solicitous to conserve the interests of the Indians and to fulfill the national obligation, not simply by assuring an equitable apportionment of the property, but by safeguarding the individual ownership of allottees through suitable restric 224 U.S. Opinion of the Court. tions which were designed to secure them in their possession and to prevent their exploitation. The necessity for legislative action, and the purposes to be subserved, were fully presented in the report submitted in May, 1894, by the Senate Committee on the Five Civilized Tribes (S. Rept. No. 377, 53d Cong. 2d Sess.), a portion of which is quoted in the statement of facts made by the court in Stephens v. Cherokee Nation, supra, pp. 447-451. The committee said (p. 448): "This section of the country was set apart to the Indian with the avowed purpose of maintaining an Indian community beyond and away from the influence of white people. We stipulated that they should have unrestricted selfgovernment and full jurisdiction over persons and property within their respective limits, and that we would protect them against intrusion of white people, and that we would not incorporate them in a political organization without their consent. Every treaty, from 1828 to and including the treaty of 1866, was based on this idea of exclusion of the Indians from the whites and non-participation by the whites in their political and industrial affairs. We made it possible for the Indians of that section of country to maintain their tribal relations and their Indian polity, laws and civilization if they wished so to do. And, if now, the isolation and exclusiveness sought to be given to them by our solemn treaties is destroyed, and they are overrun by a population of strangers five times in number to their own, it is not the fault of the Government of the United States, but comes from their own acts in admitting whites to citizenship under their laws and by inviting white people to come within their jurisdiction, to become traders, farmers and to follow professional pursuits."" And, referring to the tribal lands, the report continued: "The theory of the Government was when it made title to the lands in the Indian Territory to the Indian tribes as bodies politic that the title was held for all of the Indians VOL. CCXXIV-28 of such tribe. All were to be the equal participators in the benefits to be derived from such holding. But we find in practice such is not the case. A few enterprising citizens of the tribe, frequently not Indians by blood but by intermarriage, have in fact become the practical owners of the best and greatest part of these lands, while the title still remains in the tribe-theoretically for all, yet in fact the great body of the tribe derives no more benefit from their title than the neighbors in Kansas, Arkansas or Missouri. As we have said, the title to these lands is held by the tribe in trust for the people. We have shown that this trust is not being properly executed, nor will it be if left to the Indians, and the question arises what is the duty of the Government of the United States with reference to this trust? While we have recognized these tribes as dependent nations, the Government has likewise recognized its guardianship over the Indians and its obligations to protect them in their property and personal rights. In the treaty with the Cherokees, made in 1846, we stipulated that they should pass laws for equal protection, and for the security of life, liberty and property. If the tribe fails to administer its trust properly by securing to all the people of the tribe equitable participation in the common property of the tribe, there appears to be no redress for the Indian so deprived of his rights, unless the Government does interfere to administer such trust." The commission for which provision was made by the act of 1893-known as the Dawes Commission-also made reports to Congress (November 20, 1894, and November 18, 1895), "finding a deplorable state of affairs and the general prevalence of misrule." In the report of November 18, 1895, the commission said: "There is no alternative left to the United States but to assume the responsibility for future conditions in this Territory. It has created the forms of government which have brought 224 U.S. Opinion of the Court. about these results, and the continuance rests on its authority. The commission is compelled by the evidence forced upon them during their examination into the administration of the so-called governments in this Territory to report that these governments in all their branches are wholly corrupt, irresponsible, and unworthy to be longer trusted with the care and control of the money and other property of Indian citizens, much less their lives, which they scarcely pretend to protect." Stephens v. Cherokee Nation, supra, pp. 452, 453. By the acts of June 10, 1896, c. 398 (29 Stat. 321, 339), and of June 7, 1897, c. 3 (30 Stat. 62, 84), the authority of the Dawes Commission was continued and extended; and provision was made for the hearing and determination of applications for citizenship in the tribes and for the making of rolls of membership. It was further provided by the statute of 1897, that none of the acts, ordinances, and resolutions (with certain stated exceptions) of the council of either of the Five Tribes should take effect if disapproved by the President. Then followed the act of June 28, 1898, c. 517 (30 Stat. 495), a comprehensive statute embracing provisions as to the enrollment of members of the tribes and for the allotment of "the exclusive use and occupancy of the surface of all the lands of said nation or tribe susceptible of allotment, among the citizens thereof, as shown by said roll, giving to each, so far as possible, his fair and equal share thereof, considering the nature and fertility of the soil, location and value of the same." By this legislation "the United States practically assumed the full control over the Cherokees as well as the other nations constituting the five civilized tribes and took upon itself the determination of membership in the tribes for the purpose of adjusting their rights in the tribal property." Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, supra, p. 306. Between 1898 and 1902, allotment agreements with the Five Civilized Tribes were approved by Congress. The allotment act of July 1, 1902, which related to the Cherokees (32 Stat. 716, c. 1375), provided (§ 63) that the tribal government should not continue longer than March 4, 1906. But by joint resolution of Congress passed March 2, 1906, the tribal existence and government of this tribe and of the others were "continued in full force and effect for all purposes under the existing laws until all property of such tribes, or the proceeds thereof, shall be distributed among the individual members of said tribes unless hereafter otherwise provided by law." 34 Stat. 822. A similar provision was contained in the act of April 26, 1906. 34 Stat. 137, 148. The placing of restrictions upon the right of alienation was an essential part of the plan of individual allotment; and limitations were imposed by each of the allotment agreements. The separate statutes were supplemented by the general acts of 1906 and 1908, already mentioned. These restrictions evinced the continuance, to this extent at least, of the guardianship which the United States had exercised from the beginning. That the conferring of citizenship was in no wise inconsistent with the retention of control over the disposition of the allotted lands, was expressly decided in the case of Tiger v. Western Investment Co., supra, in which the conclusions of the court were thus stated (p. 316): "Conceding that Marchie Tiger by the act conferring citizenship obtained a status which gave him certain civil and political rights, inhering in the privileges and immunities of such citizenship unnecessary to here discuss, he was still a ward of the Nation so far as the alienation of these lands was concerned, and a member of the existing Creek Nation. Upon the matters involved our conclusions are that Congress has had at all times, and now has, the right to pass legislation in the interest of the Indians as a dependent people; that there is nothing in |