PART 1.

An attorney of the said Indians to be appointed.

or removing, or converting any timber or wood growing or being thereon, or any action of replevin for any timber or wood removed therefrom, and may maintain any action or suit as aforesaid, for the recovery of any damage for any injury to the common property or rights of the said Indians, or for the recovery of any sum of money, property or effects, due or to become due, or belonging, or in any way appertaining to the said Indians in common, or to the said Seneca nation; and where such injury has been heretofore sustained, or any such damages have heretofore been suffered by the said Indians in common, or as a nation, actions therefor, and to recover damages for such wrongs may likewise be brought and maintained as herein provided, in the same manner and within the same time, as if brought by citizens of this state in relation to their private individual property and rights; and in every such suit, action or proceeding in relation to lands or real estate, situated within the said reservations, the said Seneca nation may allege a seisin in fee, and every recovery in such action, shall be as and for, and in reference to a fee; but neither such recovery or any thing herein contained shall enlarge or in any way affect the right, title or interest of the said Seneca nation, or of the said Indians in and to the said reservations, as between them and the grantees or assignees of the pre-emption right of the said reservations under the grants of the state of Massachusetts. And no such action shall be defeated or barred on the ground that any land in relation to which such action is brought, or from which any timber or wood, logs or other property may have been removed or taken, and which may be the subject of any such suit, was in the possession of any individual Indian, but the occupancy of any part of the said reservations by any individual Indian, shall be deemed to have been, and to be the possession of the said Seneca nation; nor shall any license, consent, lease, agreement or any interest whatever, made or given by any individual Indian or Indians, be received in evidence in any such action in bar, defence or mitigation of damages, and when it shall be necessary to bring any such suit before a justice of the peace, the same may be brought and maintained before any such justice, residing in the county where the defendant may be found, whether the cause of action arise in such county or not.

$ 2. The governor shall nominate, and by and with the consent of the senate, appoint some discreet and proper person, who shall have been a counsellor in the supreme court of this state for three years or more, to be the attorney of the Seneca nation of Indians, who shall hold his office for the term of three years, unless sooner removed by the senate, on His salary the recommendation of the governor. He shall receive a and powers. salary of one hundred and fifty dollars annually, to be paid by the treasurer on the warrant of the comptroller, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. He shall

from time to time advise the said Indians respecting controversies between themselves, and between them or any of them, and any other person; he shall prosecute and maintain all such actions, suits and proceedings for them or any of them, as he may find necessary and proper; and it shall be his duty on the written complaint of a majority of the chiefs of the reservation on which a trespass is alleged to have been committed, of any trespass having been committed on the lands in the said reservations, or of any timber, wood, or logs having been cut or carried away, or converted by any person to his own use, immediately to commence the proper suits for the recovery of such property, or of damages for any such injury. He shall also defend all actions brought against the Indians or any of them by white persons, and shall at all times when requested by them, or any chief, advise them in relation to their affairs. In case it shall be necessary to execute any bond for the prosecution or maintenance of any suit or proceeding in behalf of the said Indians or any of them, or for the defense of any suit or proceeding against them, the said attorney may execute the same in the name and behalf of the said Seneca nation, who shall be bound thereby in the same manner as any citizen may be bound by his lawful agent and attorney in fact; and in case any costs shall be recovered in any action instituted by the said attorney or defended by him against the said Seneca nation, no execution shall be issued for the collection of the same, but the same shall be paid by the treasurer, on the warrant of the comptroller, out of any annuity or interest money payable by this state to the Seneca Indians, upon producing to the comptroller a certificate of the said attorney of such recovery, and a duly certified transcript of the judgment or of the docket thereof, awarding such costs. All sums recovered in any action brought by the said attorney, after deducting such costs and expenses as shall be certified by the circuit judge, or the vice-chancellor of the eighth circuit to be reasonable and proper, shall be paid over to the treasurer of the Seneca nation of Indians, if there be one, and if there be none, then to such person as shall be appointed to receive the same by a majority of the chiefs of the said Indians in full council assembled, such appointment to be certified by the United States agent for the said Indians, if there be one. And the said sums so paid over shall be applied to the benefit of the said Indians as shall be directed by a majority of their chiefs in full council assembled, except that no part of any sum recovered in any such suit shall be paid to or in any way applied for the benefit of any Indian, who shall have been examined as a witness in such suit on behalf of the Seneca nation. And in every suit or proceeding authorized by this act, any individual Indian of the said Seneca nation, may if otherwise competent, be received and examined as a witness

CH. XXVL

PART I

Penalty for

selling li

dians.

on behalf of the Seneca nation, notwithstanding his being a member of the said nation.

See Laws of 1847, ch. 365.

S3. Every person who shall sell or give to any Indian of quor to In- the said Seneca nation any spirituous liquor or any intoxicating drink, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars, and not more than fifty dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Pawns or pledges for

hibited

S 4. Every person who shall receive from any Indian of iquor pro- the said Seneca nation, either absolutely in payment or exchange, or in pawn or pledge for the payment in whole or in part, for any spirituous liquor or intoxicating drink, sold or delivered, or to be sold or delivered to such Indian or to any other Indian of the said nation, any blanket, wearing apparel, implement or other goods or chattels, shall forfeit ten times the value of the article so received, to be sued for and recovered with costs, by the attorney of the said Seneca nation and in their name, and the amount recovered and collected shall be paid over as herein before directed in respect to sums recovered for the said Seneca nation, and for their benefit; and any Indian of the said Seneca nation shall be a competent witness to prove the receipt of such goods or chattels, and shall also be competent to prove the sale or gift of any intoxicating drink to any Indian of the said nation. And any article or property, sold, exchanged or pawned or pledged as aforesaid, for spirituous liquor or any intoxicating drink, may be reclaimed and recovered by the Indian so selling or pledging the same, from the person to whom the same shall have been sold or pledged, or from any other person to whom the same may have been delivered, assigned, sold or transferred, and for the recovery of the same such Indian may maintain an action in any court having cognizance thereof; and in case such action shall not be brought or commenced within twenty days from the sale or pledge of such article or property, then it shall be lawful. for the peace-makers of the reservation to which such Indian belonged, if any such peace-maker shall be chosen according to the provisions of this act, to demand, sue for and recover the article or property so sold or pledged, in any court having cognizance thereof, in and by their name of office; in which action the Indian who made such sale or pledge shall be a competent witness for the plaintiffs.

The peacemakers may call special meetings.

[§ 5 repealed by Laws of 1847, ch. 365.]

$6. The peace makers of the two reservations, or a majority of them, may call special meetings of the chiefs of the said Seneca nation, by giving at least ten days notice to each chief, or to some member of his family, of the time and place of such meeting; and the said chiefs, at any annual or special meeting, may determine on the laying out of their lands for

separate cultivation, improvement or occupancy, by any Indian and his family, and the quantity to each; and may make by-laws for laying out roads and highways, and making the same; for regulating and protecting or improving their common lands, for regulating fences and preventing trespasses by cattle or otherwise; and may provide a penalty, not exceeding five dollars, for violating or disobeying any such regulation or by-laws; and when any land shall be set apart for any Indian or family, the peace makers of the reservation shall lay out the same as shall have been directed, or in case specific instructions have not been given, as they shall judge reasonable and proper; and the said parcel shall be marked out and described by them, and the description thereof in writing shall be entered in a book by the said peace makers, and every parcel so allotted shall remain in the Indian to whom the same was assigned, and his legal representatives, but without the power of alienating or in any way disposing of the same except to some other Indian of the said nation, and when any such sale or disposition shall be made, the same shall be reported to the peace makers of the reservation and by them entered in the said book. The said chiefs at any such meeting may admit any Indian of any other tribe or nation to become an inhabitant of their reservation and to enjoy the same privileges with them. The peace makers shall lay out roads and highways as directed at such meetings, and from time to time direct the inhabitants of their reservation to work the same, so many days as shall have been directed at any such annual or special meeting; or in case no apportionment of highway labor upon the inhabitants of any reservation shall have been made at such meeting, then the same shall be made by the peace makers thereof according to the ability of such inhabitants; suits for penalties for disobeying or violating any regulation or by-law of any annual or special meeting made in pursuance of this act, may be brought by any Indian of the said nation before the peace makers of the reservation in which the offender may be, and they or a majority of them shall hear and determine the same as in other cases; the sums recovered and collected in any such suit, shall be paid over and applied as may be directed at any annual or special meeting aforesaid.

CH. XXVI.

to who are

settled.

$ 7. In case any dispute shall arise at any annual or special Disputes as meeting aforesaid, as to any Indian being a chief of said chiefs how nation, the same shall be determined by the vote of a majority of those present, whose title as chiefs shall not be questioned by any parties to such dispute. The chiefs at any meeting may provide a compensation for the clerk not exceeding one hundred dollars per year, to be paid out of their national funds. The clerk shall enter in his book a correct list of the chiefs of the said Seneca nation, under the direction of the existing chiefs, or a majority of them, and shall enter in such book from time to time, the names of those who shall be ap

PART L

Trespassers how re

moved.

Powers of commis

Sioners of highways.

Right of appeal.

Onondaga
Indians.

pointed chiefs, and shall erase the names of such as shall be dismissed, and in case of any dispute as to any person being a chief, the same shall be determined in the manner hereinbefore provided, and such entries shall be conclusive evidence of the fact of any Indian being a chief.

See Laws of 1847, ch. 365.

$8. A warrant to remove any trespassers or intruders upon any lands in the said reservations, and any warrant to commit any person for returning to any such lands after being removed, may be issued as now provided by law, by any circuit judge, or by any supreme court commissioner residing in any county adjoining the said reservation.

CHAP. 309.

AN ACT to provide for the opening and improving roads through the Onondaga Indian Reservation.

PASSED May 14, 1845. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

1. The commissioners of highways of the towns in the county of Onondaga, in which the Indian reservation lays, shall have the same power and jurisdiction over the reservation in their respective towns, to improve highways already laid out as is conferred upon commissioners of highways generally, by part one, chapter sixteen, article four, of the Revised Statutes, except that all decisions of the commissioners shall be served in writing upon the agent of said Indians, and said commissioners shall allow the said agent sixty days to appeal, as provided in the second section of this act.

$2. The Indians, through their agent, shall have the right of appeal from the decisions of said commissioners to the judges of the court of common pleas, who shall have full and entire jurisdiction over the whole subject, providing such appeal shall be made within sixty days from the service of notice of the decision of the commissioners upon their agent.

CHAP. 114.

AN ACT to provide for the education of the children of the Onondaga Indians in the county of Onondaga, and the children of the other Indians residing in this state. PASSED April 30, 1846.

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

$1. The agent of the Onondaga Indians in the county of Onondaga, appointed under the authority of this state, is