lers thereon, producing the sum of $4,058.06, and that the
price paid in no case was less than $4.50 per acre.

It is proposed by the bill under consideration to sell the remainder of
this allotted land to those who failed to avail themselves of the law of
1873 for the sum of $2.50 per acre.

Whatever may be said of the effect of the action of the Indian Bureau in
issuing certificates of allotment to individual Indians as it relates to
the title of the lands described therein, it was the only way that the
Government could perform its treaty obligation to furnish homes for any
number of Indians less than a tribe or band; and if these allotments did
not vest a title in these individual Indians they secured to them such
rights to the lands as the Government was bound to protect and which it
could not refuse to confirm if it became necessary by the issuance of
patents therefor.

These rights are fully recognized by the statute of 1873, as well as by
the bill under consideration.

The right and power of the Government to divest these allottees of their
interests under their certificates is so questionable that perhaps it
could only be done under the plan proposed, through an estoppel arising
from the acceptance of the price for which their allotted lands were
sold.

But whatever the effect of a compliance with the provisions of this bill
would be upon the title of the settlers to these lands, I can see no
fairness or justice in permitting them to enter and purchase such lands
at a sum much less than their appraised value in 1873 and for hardly
one-half the price paid by their neighbors under the law passed in that
year.

The occupancy upon these lands of the settlers seeking relief, and of
their grantors, is based upon wrong, violence, and oppression. A
continuation of the wrongful exclusion of these Indians from their lands
should not inure to the benefit of the wrongdoers. The opportunities
afforded by the law of 1873 were neglected, perhaps, in the hope and
belief that death would remove the Indians who by their appeals for
justice annoyed those who had driven them from their homes, and perhaps
in the expectation that the heedlessness of the Government concerning
its obligations to the Indians would supply easier terms. The idea is
too prevalent that, as against those who by emigration and settlement
upon our frontier extend our civilization and prosperity, the rights of
the Indians are of but little consequence. B