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BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

ON

H. R. 22362,

MAKING APPROPRIATION TO PAY ESTHER ROUSSEAU
FOR HORSES KILLED UPON THE CHEYENNE
RESERVATION IN THE STATE OF
SOUTH DAKOTA.

DECEMBER 18, 1906.

WASHINGTON:
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
REULIVED

MAY 18 1925

DOCUMENTS DIVISION

575

1905 C82

fat!

CLAIM OF ESTHER ROUSSEAU.

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D. C., December 18, 1906.

The committee this day met at 11 o'clock a. m., Hon. James S. Sherman in the chair.

STATEMENT OF R. W. STEWART, ESQ., OF HURON, S. DAK., ACCOMPANIED BY C. E. RICHARDSON, ESQ., OF WASHINGTON, D. C.

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Mr. BURKE. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Stewart is here, representing Mrs. Rousseau, named in the bill. It is a claim in the same sense as are some of the other Indian claims that come here.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Stewart, we will be very glad indeed to hear what you have to say in reference to the bill, and as the meeting was called for the express purpose of considering this bill, you will not be limited as to time. Take such time as you desire.

Mr. STEWART. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I desire to thank you for the courtesy of being permitted to present this matter to you. Mr. Richardson, of Washington, and myself appear here as attorneys for Esther Rousseau, who is the subject of this House resolution, or bill, No. 22362, which proposes to appropriate $50,000 for the payment to her of damages incurred by reason of the killing of horses upon the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation during the year 1897.

Esther Rousseau is a mixed blood Sioux Indian, having all the rights of an Indian under the decissions of the courts of highest resort of the United States. She was the owner of a band of horses numbering about 1,000.

Perhaps I had better premise what I have to say about the number of horses, in order to give you gentlemen who are not perhaps acquainted with the western conditions an idea of the actual situation out there.

A person owns a band of horses or a herd of cattle, and they let them range on what was formerly known as the Great Sioux Indian Reservation, and let them roam on what is called the Cheyenne River and the Standing Rock Reservation. It is a tract of land as large as some of the States of the Union in the East, and these people range their cattle and horses there by putting a brand upon them. There is usually out in that country what is known as a spring round-up and a fall round-up; the spring round-up for the purpose of branding the new stuff, and the fall round-up for market. You can imagine people can not exactly determine the precise number of cattle and horses they own under conditions of that kind. They have that brand, and that is

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