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As another accomplishment of the Indian Congress during the past three years he mentioned the decisions on questions of Aboriginal rights; that for many years there was a tendency to disregard the ownership rights of Indians. He mentioned a United States Supreme Court decision handed down the past year establishing Indian rights to their lands; that the Aboriginal rights the Indians had before the white man came and which they were fighting for then, have been recognized by the U. S. Supreme Court as the Indian's rights; that this recognition means much in terms of money to many Indians - the Apaches, the Alaskan Indians, and other tribes which had lands taken from them. He stated that the theory of the Claims Act which was sponsored by the Indian Congress is that the Indians should be paid by the United States, for the lands taken from them, based on its value as of the date of taking and that it was something for the Indians to fight for - with the new methods at their command - and not only that, but for the land the Indians now have. He urged the Indians not to let any more of their land slip out of their hands and to hold on to it.

He stated that Indians in their fight to save their property had new weapons of two kinds, first, law - legal procedure; secondly, political procedure; that Indians should support such people that help them out; that on legal matters they should see their lawyer and pay them so that they will do your work. He stated that this was the basis of the Indian Congress and that by means of these weapons the Indians can carry their program forward and establish themselves as leading citizens of the country; that the public is more and more looking up to the Indians and admiring them.

He stated that the Indian Congress when organized enclosed a plank in its platform to defend the rights of the Alaskan Indians and that the Indian Congress through its General Counsel, and Executive Secretary, Mrs. Ruth M. Bronson, had spent a tremendous amount of time on that matter in an effort to defend "one of the most outrageous attacks on their property rights" - in the project put forth to sell the timber off of their lands to the pulp companies to make newspaper. That Congress, the President and the Secretary of the Interior were all in accord with taking the property from them and that a law was passed in spite of all the opposition permitting them to sell the timber off their lands.

He stated that when steps were taken to advertise for the sale of the timber that he and his associates as representatives of the Alaska Indians warned the big companies that if they bought that timber from the United States and paid the Government for it that the Alaska Indians would sue them and that they would have to pay the Indians; that the Indians would regard them as trespassers and that they would stand on their Constitutional rights for protection of their property, in the Courts of the land; that he as Attorney for the Indians, pointed out that the Santa Fe Railroad had to pay the Indians in a similar case. He stated that by reason of this assertion of Indian rights the sale of timber had been delayed and 

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