Viewing page 47 of 47

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

-7-

passed the act for their relief.

The argument that now to make the appropriation authorized by the Act of Congress approved February 9, 1925, would create a precedent which would probably take millions of dollars out of the Treasury, can not be sustained by the facts. There is no other Indian case pending or decided where it appears that the Court of Claims under an Act of Congress allowed interest on the merits, as was done in the Omaha case, and subsequently such interest was disallowed because the Court had no jurisdiction to allow interest. Furthermore, Congress itself carries its shield of protection to the Treasury in all such cases should they arise. It may be taken for granted that no case without merit will receive its approval.

That the Omaha case has merit cannot be justly denied. Congress in authorizing the appropriation for the Omaha Indians by the Act of February 9, 1925, simply did an act of justice to the Indians as found by the Court of Claims after a full hearing on the merits. The Committees of Congress and the Secretary of the Interior, in recommending the enactment of said act and the President in approving same after it was unanimously passed by Congress, considered the fact that the Court of Claims allowed the Indians only 19.6 cents an acre for their lands, and the further fact that the Government withheld payment from these Indians for a period of nearly 70 years, and in the meantime had the use of the purchase price and a large profit besides. Had this case been between private parties, interest would have been allowed on the principal sum due as a matter of course.

The real and only precedent that a refusal at this time to appropriate the money due the Omahas would make is, [[underlined]]repudiation of an Act of Congress[[/underlined]] passed and approved in order to do tardy and partial justice to Indian wards of the Government.

Respectfully submitted,

THE OMAHA TRIBE OF INDIANS OF NEBRASKA,
By the Business Committee,
Macy, Nebraska