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Court of Claims awarded sixteen and a half million dollars to the Alcea Band of Tillamook Indians. The award was based on the aboriginal land holdings of these Indians and firmly established the right of the Indians to recover for loss of their lands even if their title was not specifically recognized by the United States Government. This means that many tribes, though they cannot base their claims on treaties, yet will be able to recover. Your attorneys had filed an amicus brief in this case before the United States Supreme Court. 

The Choctaw and Chickasaw case, decided lately, held, among other things that the taking of land from Indians for a sum very much less than its true value is evidence in itself of fraud. This is very important because there are many cases in which Indians were paid small amounts of money for their land. Under ordinary principles of law, this would keep them from collecting again. But under the attitude of the Court, as stated in the Choctaw-Chickasaw case, if the government paid much less than a fair price, there is at least a chance of the Indians collecting the difference between what they were paid and what their land was worth. 

The Western Old Settlers Cherokee case was also decided upon appeal by the Court of Claims. This was a claim by a group that had previously sued under a jurisdictional act that had recovered some money. The government contended that the case had been tried and the Indians had no right to have it tried again. The court ruled, however, that the Claims Commission Act was broader than the jurisdictional act and that the suit could be prosecuted.  This case was also important to many tribes that have previously filed suit in the Court o Claims.  Some of them, perhaps, can file new suits and get additional money.

The Osage case was one in which the court made technical rulings that may make things difficult for Indian claimants.  It decided that Section 5 of the Act, under which the government is held responsible for "unfair" dealings could be involved as a separate cause of action but not jointly with the other actions of the Act.  The case has now been appealed to the Court of Claims.

During this period, also, the Ute case was settled with the Department of Justice.

The Pawnee case, recently decided, held that the lands for which the Indians claimed were not held by them peaceably and alone, but were disputed between them and other tribes.  However, the court made some statements that indicate that tribes which shared lands peaceably with other tribes can recover for their share of the value of such land.

A very small percentage of the tribes have been able to get attorneys to handle their causes for them.  Now that the big Ute settlement has been made, and now that the Alcea case has been decided, it is to be hoped that more high class attorneys will become interested in Indian claims cases.  The main difficulty is that the Indians do not have money to pay fees in advance.  It is hard for lawyers to take cases on which they can't get their money for years and on which they sometimes even 

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