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at this time to present to you, John W. Cragun to give the response. Now following the conclusion of his remarks I would like John to stay here at the speaker's table for questions later on. John Cragun:
"Thank you President Garry, and thank you Mr. Rowledge, and thank you members of the NCAi. On behalf of those to whom you have paid tribute,here, I would like to respond with a word of thanks. You know, last January when the Caponin case arrived, it was a blustering sleazing snowy day in Washington and the Indians were running a little scared on the tax case. The history of Indian tax litigation hadn't been anything to fill us with overcaution, shall we say. The Capoeman case had been lost in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on oil royalties from a lot of restricted land. Sprkinler refused to review it and the Internal Revenue Bureau was proceeding against Indians all over the country and had proceeded against them. The Polap? [[written text?]] tribe, goodness knows how they happend to have that much faith, [strikethrough] but they [/strikethrough] hired an attorney , a man by the name of Peterson, in Tacoma, Wash. He carried through 2 [strikethrough] 0 [/strikethrough] or 3 cases for them and it would rule against the Indians. But they persevered and when he died they hired another lawyer a man known to many of you, Kenneth R. L. Simmons, a one time member of the Bureau and by then in private practice. Kenneth filed suit in the western district of Washington and strangely enough he won it. He filed in behalf of Norton Caponin Capoeman who was listed on your program to give the response which I am giving, but he was unable to be here. He has taken the place of the Chairman of the Quinalt Tribe who had a son, so I am having to fill in before I ever became acquainted with this case whereas it could have been given from his own knowledge. When that case was completed, Mr. Summons in turn died. Thereupon the Quinalts hired the firm of which I am a member and it was argued in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco and again we were lucky. It was a ? The government directed it upon the Supreme Court and we were pretty nervous about it. It was a bitter cold day, as I say, a pretty cloudy day out. Your office manager, ? the case was well briefed Mr. in the meantime on behalf of the Affiliated Tribe of the Northwest had brought and won the suit of Julia Nicodemus arising out of crop rentals on her allotment from the Couer d'Alene reservation. First it was ruled against him and he got the court

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-11-28 18:15:15