The Native American Embassy Website is updated daily!
Every day, hundreds of American Indian and American Indian related laws, treaties & photos are
added from our archives numbering in the tens of thousands!
![[Dividing Line Image]](Images/div.gif){kind=small}
|
|
Washington : Government Printing Office
|
|
|
|---|---|
| Chap. 701 | Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Indians. |
| Chap. 701 | Claims. |
| Sec. 2 | Presentation of claims. |
| Sec. 2 | Time limitation for filing petition. |
| Sec. 2 | Amendments to petition. |
| Sec. 2 | Audit of accounts. |
| Sec. 3 | Settlement, etc., of rights of Indians. |
| Sec. 4 | Joining of other Indians to suit. |
| Sec. 5 | Use of documents, etc., as evidence. |
| Sec. 6 | 716 Set-offs, etc. |
| Sec. 6 | 25 U.S.C. § 475a. |
| Sec. 6 | 25 U.S.C. §§ 461-479. |
| Sec. 7 | Attorneys' fees. |
| Sec. 8 | Deposit of amounts recovered to credit of Indians. |
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That jurisdiction is hereby conferred upon the Court of Claims, subject to review by the
Supreme Court of the United States on writ of certiorari as in other cases, to hear, examine, adjudicate, and render judgment in any and all legal and equitable claims of whatsoever nature which the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Indians of the Flathead Reservation of Montana, or any tribe or band thereof, may have against the United States.
That suit or suits under this Act may be instituted by the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Indians, or any tribe or band thereof, either separately or jointly, as party or parties plaintiff, against the United States as party defendant, by filing within five years after the approval of this Act a petition or petitions in the Court of Claims and serving with respect to each suit a copy thereof on the Attorney General of the United States, who, either in person or by some attorney from the Department of Justice to be designated by him, shall appear and defend the interests of the United States. Such petition or petitions shall set forth the facts upon which the claim or claims for recovery is or are based and shall be verified by the attorney or attorneys employed by said Indians, under contract approved in accordance with existing law, to prosecute said claims, which may be made upon information and belief, and no other verification shall be necessary. The petition or petitions shall be subject to amendment at any time prior to final submission of the case to the Court of Claims. Such petition or petitions may, in addition to alleging specific claims, demand a general accounting of all funds and property expended or used by the United States for the account of said Indians, in which event the General Accounting Office shall within a reasonable time from date of filing said petition or petitions make a complete audit of said accounts, and, in addition to the usual copies furnished the Attorney General, shall furnish a copy thereof to the attorney or attorneys for said Indians; and the court, after full hearing, shall state the account and render judgment in accordance therewith.
That at the trial of any suit instituted hereunder the court shall settle and determine the rights therein, both legal and equitable, of said Indians against the United States, notwithstanding lapse of time or statutes of limitation. In the determination of the validity of any claim asserted or defense interposed hereunder, the court shall have the full power and authority of a court of equity.
That the court shall have authority, by proper orders and process, to make parties to any suit or suits instituted hereunder any other tribe, band, or group of Indians deemed by it necessary or proper to a final determination of the matters in controversy.
That in any suit instituted hereunder any letter, paper, document, map, or record in the possession of any officer or department of the United States (or certified copies thereof) may be used in evidence, and the departments of the Government of the United States shall give full and free access to the attorney or attorneys for said Indians to such letters, papers, documents, maps, or records as may be useful to said attorney or attorneys in the preparation for trial or trials of such suit or suits.
That no payment or payments which have been made by the United States upon any claim or claims asserted in any suit brought hereunder, or expended for any of the said Indians, shall operate as an estoppel against any suit brought hereunder, but there shall be set off against any recovery obtained by said Indians hereunder any payment made by the United States on any claim asserted by said Indians, together with such gratuity expenditures as are directed to be set off by the Act of Congress, approved August 12, 1935 (49 Stat. 596): Provided, That no moneys expended for the benefit of said Indians under the Wheeler-Howard Act, approved June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984), shall be applicable as set-offs.
That upon the final determination of any suit or suits instituted hereunder, the Court of Claims, in the event of judgment for said Indians shall determine such fees or compensation to be paid the attorney or attorneys as said court shall find reasonable or equitable, and in addition thereto such actual and necessary expenses as shall have been incurred by the attorney or attorneys in the prosecution of said claims. In no case shall the fees or compensation decreed by said Court of Claims be in excess of the amount stipulated in the contract or contracts approved by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs and the Secretary of the Interior, and in no event to exceed 10 per centum of the amount of the recovery, and shall be paid out of any money appropriated by Congress for the benefit of said Indians pursuant to any judgment hereunder.
That the amount of any judgment recovered for said Indians, less attorneys' fees and expenses, shall be placed to the credit of said Indians in the Treasury of the United States and shall draw interest at the rate of 4 per centum per annum from date of judgment and shall thereafter be subject to appropriation by Congress and used for the benefit of said Indians, including, but without limitations, the purchase of lands, livestock, farming implements, erection of buildings and improvements, and for productive enterprises, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and the consent of said Indians.
Approved, July 30, 1946.
|
|