74TH CONGRESS 1st Session

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SENATE

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REPORT No. 463

COINS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY OF HUDSON, N. Y.

APRIL 11, 1935.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. WAGNER, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 6457]

The Committee on Banking and Currency, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6457) to authorize the coinage of 50-cent pieces in commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the city of Hudson, N. Y., having considered the same, report favorably thereon to the Senate, and recommend that the bill do pass without amendment.

The bill directs the coinage by the Director of the Mint of 10,000 silver 50-cent pieces of a design to be selected by the Director of the Mint in commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the city of Hudson, N. Y. All provisions of existing law relating to subsidiary silver coins of the United States and to their coinage, and all penal laws relating thereto, are made applicable to the coins directed by the bill to be coined.

The coins authorized by the bill are to be issued at par and only upon the request of the committee, person, or persons duly authorized by the mayor of the city of Hudson, N. Y., and upon payment to the United States of the face value of the coins. It is specifically provided that the United States shall not be subject to any expense in connection with the making of models or master dies, or in any other preparations for the coinage authorized by the bill.

O

Mr. THOMAS of Oklahoma, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 2375]

The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2375) authorizing an appropriation for payment to the Osage Tribe of Indians on account of their lands sold by the United States, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass without amendment.

A treaty was negotiated with the Great and Little Osage Indians under date of September 29, 1865 (14 Stat. L. 687), wherein the said Indians, for the purpose of improving their condition, granted authority to the United States to sell certain lands therein described. Article I of the said treaty, after agreeing to the repayment of the money advanced by the United States, provided for the creation of what is known as the "Osage civilization fund", in the following language:

The remaining proceeds of sale shall be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of the "civilization fund", to be used, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, for the education and civilization of Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States.

By the act of February 6, 1921 (41 Stat. L., 1097), the said Osage Indians were authorized to sue the United States in the Court of Claims to recover the amount placed in the said "civilization fund" arising from the sale of their lands, less any proper off-sets, including gratuities. Suit was instituted under the said act, the case being known in the Court of Claims as "B-38", and the Court of Claims delivered its opinion thereon May 28, 1928 (66 Ct. Cl. 64).

The Court of Claims found that the Osages, who negotiated the said treaty, were full-blood Indians, ignorant of the English language, and that this treaty was negotiated in 3 hours' time, so that it was plainly apparent that its full import as to the "civilization fund"

was not understood by them. The court, in its opinion, used the following language:

At the time the treaty was negotiated the Osages were hostile to certain other tribes, among them the Pawnees, Cheyennes, and the Cherokees, and would not knowingly have agreed to part with any of their funds for the benefit of such hostile tribes. It is fair to assume that they interpreted the words "Indian tribes" to mean the tribe of Great and Little Osage Indians to the exclusion of other tribes. The civilization fund which was created by the treaty did not come into existence until 1873, at which time the first moneys came into the Treasury. There is no other instance in connection with treaties by the United States with the Indians where the United States has applied the proceeds of sales of lands of one tribe for the benefit of another.

The Court of Claims found that the only amount of the civilization fund expended for the benefit of the Osage Indians was the sum of $189.55, and that the major portion, $776,493.25, was used for the benefit of other Indians scattered throughout the United States. On April 11, 1911, the balance of the said fund, $248.78, was covered into the surplus funds of the Treasury. The Osage Indians, therefore, were never paid $776,742.03, the net balance received by the United States from the sales of their lands.

The Court of Claims made specific findings of fact as part of the opinion of May 28, 1928, which findings support the conclusion that the Osages understood the treaty to mean that they were to have the full benefit of the moneys received from the sale of their lands under the said treaty, the said findings of fact being as follows:

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III

The chiefs signing the treaty were all full-blood blanket Indians, none of them understood or could read, write, or speak the English language, and all affixed their signatures by mark. The same is true of all the other Indians who affixed their signatures after those of the chiefs, and who were of lesser rank, with the exception of one brave at Fort Smith who understood and could speak English.

IV

The treaty negotiations were conducted at Fort Smith, Ark., with the Southern Osages, through an interpreter by the name of L. P. Chouteau, a half-breed Osage, and with the Northern Osage Indians at Canville trading post, Kansas, through an interpreter, one Alexander Beyett, also a half-breed Osage. The qualifications of these two men as interpreters of a treaty like the one here in dispute do not sufficiently appear. The time consumed at Fort Smith in council upon the provisions of the treaty cannot be ascertained. At Canville trading post the treaty was negotiated and signed in 3 hours.

The record does not disclose any facts as to the negotiations preliminary to the signing of the treaty affecting the matter of price to be paid and of acreage and location of the property to be conveyed, nor who represented the Government in these preliminary matters, nor who represented the Indians.

V

At the time of making the treaty of 1865 the Osages were practically all fullblood blanket Indians, who could not read, write, or understand the English language, and had had little contact with the whites and that principally as to the simple affairs of life, such as bartering skins for supplies. Some education of the younger generation was being undertaken in a mission school. There were very Its

few mixed bloods among the Osages in 1865. The tribe was very poor. members lived mostly by the chase, and animals of the chase were rapidly disappearing. The affairs of the Osages were in the hands of the full bloods, who held all positions of leadership, and it was with the full bloods the treaty negotiations were conducted.

VI

The Osage language comprises a very few root words, but which with derivations make upward of a thousand words. It does not have a word equivalent to "civilization" or one equivalent to "fund", but these words can be explained in Osage so that "civilization fund" can be fairly understood. To describe "Indian tribes", meaning other tribes as well as the Osage, it is necessary to enumerate the specific tribes known to the Osages, or else to designate the Osages and use a word signifying "other than", or foreign, which in the Osage language are words of insult.

At the time the treaty was negotiated the Osages were hostile to certain other tribes, among whom were the Pawnees, Cheyennes, and Cherokees. They would not knowingly have agreed to the application of any of their funds to the benefit of such hostile tribes or of any tribe other than their own. They interpreted the words "Indian tribes", as they appear in Article I of the said treaty of September 29, 1865, to mean the tribe of the Great and Little Osage Indians to the exclusion of all other Indian tribes, and used the said words therein with that exclusive meaning.

VII

The "civilization fund", created by Article I of the said treaty, did not come into existence until the year 1873, at which time the first moneys came into the Treasury of the United States from the sale of Osage lands. There is no other instance where the United States has applied the proceeds of sale of lands of one tribe to the benefit of another.

VIII

The Osage Nation as a body had been loyal to the United States in the Civil War and had furnished 244 warriors to the Union armies. Shortly before the treaty of 1865 was made with said nation, the treaty commissioners informed a large gathering of Indian tribes living in the Southwest that the Civil War having closed, the United States intended to make new treaties with the Indian tribes generally. That as to those who had sided with the Confederacy it would be lenient, but would require certain conditions of them; but as to those who had been loyal, the United States intended to recognize their loyalty in a signal manner in the new treaties. The United States recognized the Osage Nation as a body as loyal, though a few bands had left the body of the nation and joined the Confederacy.

IX

Receipts of moneys from the sale of lands to settlers under the treaty of 1865 were slow in coming into the Treasury. The Osages at this time were in want and official reports made in the seventies by their agents show that they all, full bloods and half-breeds, believed the United States would give them the proceeds of the "civilization fund" or interest on it, and waited, looking forward to relief. There was great dissatisfaction among them when they learned in 1876 that the "civilization fund" was being used for the benefit of Indians other than Osages. They protested to their agent, Cyrus Beede, who wrote the Government as follows:

"Dissatisfaction exists among the Osages on account of a provision in their treaty with the Government, made in 1865, wherein it was provided that certain proceeds of the sale of a part of their reservation be applied to the civilization of Indian tribes throughout the United States without distinction. Upon careful inquiry I find no member of the tribe who claims to have understood the interpretation as given in the treaty; all claim to have accepted this provision to apply exclusively to beneficial purposes for the Osages, and my knowledge of the nature, character, and wants of Indians, especially the Osages, their extreme poverty at the time, and absolute need of all their available means for their own support, leads me to conclude that they were overreached; that they did not understandingly make this large contribution, aggregating many thousand dollars, to the support of other wards of the Government."

From that time on the Osages have steadfastly complained and protested against the interpretation given the treaty and employed counsel to aid them. In a number of Congresses bills passed one House of Congress or were reported favorably by committees for their relief, but it was not until the present jurisdictional act that a measure was enacted into law. The jurisdictional act was passed after the claim had been fully investigated in committee, witnesses examined, and its nature and occasion fully made known.

S. Repts., 74-1, vol. 1--51