130 C. Cls. circumstances, and followed by extended negotiations between the Commissioner and taxpayer to develop a mutually satisfactory "constructive average base period net income." This interpretation leaves the usual procedure under § 710 et seq. complete in itself but subject, upon application, to ultimate adjustment in instances accepted by the Commissioner under § 722. We find no statement of a purpose that § 722 shall relieve taxpayers from penalties or interest charges due either to their defaults in paying, or their errors in computing, their taxes. On the contrary, it has been suggested that Congress considered relief under § 722 to be in the nature of a favor and as not relieving the taxpayer of its duty to pay the original tax when due. The regulations do not deal specifically with the issue before us but, from their beginning, in Treasury Regulations 109, they have been consistent with the interpretation given the Act by the Government. See § 30.722-5, as added by T. D. 5264, 1943 Cum. Bull. 761, as amended, T. D. 5393, 1944 Cum. Bull. 415. In addition to the practice of the Commissioner in the instant cases, there is in the record of the Premier Oil Co. case an undisputed affidavit by a Treasury Department reviewer to the effect that the policy followed was the administrative policy of the Bureau: "It is the policy of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in those cases where all or any part of a tax deficiency has been extinguished by application of the relief provisions of Section 722 of the Internal Revenue Code not to assess the extinguished portion of such deficiency. However, interest has been computed and assessed on the extinguished portion of the deficiency from the due date of the return to the thirtieth day after the agreement, Form 874, is filed or date of assessment, whichever is the earlier." [Emphasis supplied.] While Manning v. Seeley Tube & Box Co., 338 U. S. 561, relates to the carry-back provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, it is thoroughly consistent in principle with the above discussion. There the Court upheld the collection of interest on a deficiency which later was extinguished by carrying back a loss which occurred in a subsequent year. It treated the carry-back as a current adjustment of the tax previously determined, characterizing it as an "abatement" at 565. It recognized I. R. C., § 3771 (e), as a help to the interpretation of the statute, much as we recognize I. R. C., § 3771 (g), as a help here. See 567-568. The Court also there announced that "In the absence of a clear legislative expression to the con 829 130 C. Cls. trary, the question of who properly should possess the right of use of the money owed the Government for the period it is owed must be answered in favor of the Government." Id., at 566. While the deficiency for 1940 in the amount of $460,408.91 was properly determined without reference to § 722 and treated as a deficiency for that year by the Commissioner, it was not separately assessed as such. This was not necessary because, at the time of its determination and before its assessment, it was abated to $260,554.39. The latter sum, with interest in the amount of $217,376.07 computed on the whole deficiency of $460,408.91, was correctly and adequately assessed and paid. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the Government, in each case, is entitled to retain the interest now in controversy. Therefore, in No. 29, the judgment of the Court of Claims is reversed and, in No. 41, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed. MR. JUSTICE REED and MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS dissent. THE TEE-HIT-TON INDIANS, AN IDENTIFIABLE GROUP OF ALASKA INDIANS, PETITIONER, v. THE UNITED STATES [No. 50385] [128 C. Cls. 82; 348 U. S. 272] On writ of certiorari (347 U. S. 1009) to review a judgment of the United States Court of Claims holding that there is nothing in the legislation of Congress relating to Alaska which constitutes a recognition of any legal rights in the plaintiff tribe to the lands in suit. Plaintiff's petition dismissed. The judgment of the United States Court of Claims was affirmed by the Supreme Court February 7, 1955, in an opinion by Justice Reed. The syllabus of the Supreme Court opinion is as follows: The Tee-Hit-Ton Indians, an identifiable group of American Indians belonging to the Tlingit Tribe of Alaskan Indians, held not entitled to compensation under the Fifth Amendment for the taking by the United States of certain timber from Alaskan lands in and near the Tongass National Forest allegedly belonging to the Tee-Hit-Ton Indians. 130 C. Cls. 1. Neither § 8 of the Organic Act for Alaska of May 17, 1884, nor § 27 of the Act of June 6, 1900, providing for a civil government for Alaska, constituted a recognition by Congress of any permanent rights of Indians in Alaskan lands occupied by them; and this policy of nonrecognition was maintained and reflected by Čongress in the Joint Resolution of August 8, 1947, authorizing the sale of such timber without recognizing or denying the validity of any claims of possessory rights to land or timber. 2. Permissive Indian occupancy may be extinguished by Congress in its own discretion without compensation. Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheat. 543; Beecher v. Wetherby, 95 U. S. 517; United States v. Santa Fe Pacific R. Co., 314 U. S. 339. 3. The recovery in United States v. Tillamooks, 329 U. S. 40, 341 U. S. 48, was based upon statutory direction to pay for the aboriginal title in the special jurisdictional act to equalize the Tillamooks with the neighboring tribes, rather than upon a holding_that there had been a compensable taking under the Fifth Amendment. 4. The record does not sustain petitioners' contention that their stage of civilization, their concept of ownership of property and their treatment by Russia take them out of the rule applicable to the Indians of the States. On the contrary, it sustains the finding that their use of their lands was like the use of the nomadic tribes of the States Indians, and there was no evidence that the Russian handling of the Indian land problem was different from ours. 5. Indian occupancy, not specifically recognized as ownership by action authorized by Congress, may be extinguished by the Government without compensation. Mr. JUSTICE REED delivered the opinion of the Court. This case rests upon a claim under the Fifth Amendment by petitioner, an identifiable group of American Indians of between 60 and 70 individuals residing in Alaska, for compensation for a taking by the United States of certain timber from Alaskan lands allegedly belonging to the group. The area claimed is said to contain over 350,000 acres of land and 150 square miles of water. The Tee-Hit-Tons, a clan of the Tlingit Tribe, brought this suit in the Court of Claims under 28 U. S. C. 81505. The compensation claimed does not arise from any statutory direction to pay. Payment, if it can be 829 compelled, must be based upon a constitutional right in the Indians to recover. This is not a case that is connected with any phase of the policy of the Congress, continued throughout our history, to extinguish Indian title through negotiation rather than by force, and to grant payments from the public purse to needy descendants of exploited Indians. The legislation in support of that policy has received consistent interpretation from this Court in sympathy with its compassionate purpose. Upon petitioner's motion, the Court of Claims under its Rule 38 (b) directed a separate trial with respect to certain specific issues of law and any related issues of fact essential to the proper adjudication of the legal issues. Only those pertinent to the nature of the petitioner's interest, if any, in the lands are here for review. Substantial evidence, largely documentary, relevant to these legal issues was introduced by both parties before a Commissioner who thereupon made findings of fact. The Court of Claims adopted these findings and held that petitioner was an identifiable group of American Indians residing in Alaska; that its interest in the lands prior to purchase of Alaska by the United States in 1867 was "original Indian title" or "Indian right of occupancy." Tee-Hit-Ton Indians v. United States, 128 Ct. Cl. 82, 85, 87. It was further held that if such original Indian title survived the Treaty of 1867, 15 Stat. 539, Arts. III, and VI, by which Russia conveyed Alaska to the United States, such title was not sufficient basis to maintain this suit as there had been no recognition by Congress of any legal rights in petitioner to the land in question. 128 Ct. Cl. at 92. The court said that no rights inured to plaintiff by virtue of legislation by Congress. As a result of these conclusions, no answer was necessary to questions 2, 5 and 6. The Tee-Hit-Ton's petition was thereafter dismissed. Because of general agreement as to the importance of the question of compensation for congressionally approved taking of lands occupied in Alaska under aboriginal Indian use and claim of ownership, and the conflict concerning the effect of federal legislation protecting Indian occupation between this decision of the Court of Claims, 128 Ct. Cl., at 90, and the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Miller v. United States, 159 F. 2d 997, 1003, we granted certiorari, 347 U. S. 1009. The Alaskan area in which petitioner claims a compensable interest is located near and within the exterior lines of the Tongass National Forest. By Joint Resolu 130 C. Cls. tion of August 8, 1947, 61 Stat. 920, the Secretary of Agriculture was authorized to contract for the sale of national forest timber located within this National Forest "notwithstanding any claim of possessory rights." The Resolution defines "possessory rights" and provides for all receipts from the sale of timber to be maintained in a special account in the Treasury until the timber and land rights are finally determined. Section 3 (b) of the Resolution provides: "Nothing in this resolution shall be construed as recognizing or denying the validity of any claims of possessory rights to lands or timber within the exterior boundaries of the Tongass National Forest." The Secretary of Agriculture, on August 20, 1951, pursuant to this authority contracted for sale to a private company of all merchantable timber in the area claimed by petitioner. This is the sale of timber which petitioner alleges constitutes a compensable taking by the United States of a portion of its proprietary interest in the land. The problem presented is the nature of the petitioner's interest in the land, if any. Petitioner claims a "full proprietary ownership" of the land; or, in the alternative, at least a "recognized" right to unrestricted possession, occupation and use. Either ownership or recognized possession, petitioner asserts, is compensable. If it has a fee simple interest in the entire tract, it has an interest in the timber and its sale is a partial taking of its right to "possess, use and dispose of it." United States v. General Motors, 323 U. S. 373, 378. It is petitioner's contention that its tribal predecessors have continually claimed, occupied and used the land from time immemorial; that when Russia took Alaska, the Tlingits had a well-developed social order which included a concept of property ownership; that Russia while it possessed Alaska in no manner interfered with their claim to the land; that Congress has by subsequent acts confirmed and recognized petitioner's right to occupy the land permanently and therefore the sale of the timber off such lands constitutes a taking pro tanto of its asserted rights in the area. The Government denies that petitioner has any compensable interest. It asserts that the Tee-Hit-Tons' property interest, if any, is merely that of the right to the use of the land at the Government's will. That Congress has never recognized any legal interest of petitioners in the land and therefore without such rec |