John Hessin Clarke

“ The rolls of the Seminole Tribe were compiled by the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes, a quasi judicial tribunal, to which large powers were given by statute for that specific purpose, and the action of the Commission, when approved by the Secretary of the Interior, made 'final' by the statute, so conclusively settles all questions within its jurisdiction as to membership in the tribe and as to the rights of the Indians to tribal property, that they are subject to attack, as the judgments of courts are, only for fraud and mistake-of which there is no suggestion in this record. ”

“ All statutes of descent and distribution are arbitrary expressions of the purpose of the lawmaking power and that the provisions of such a statute do not happen to meet the notions of justice of a court is not sufficient reason for indulging in an interpretation which modified their plain and unambiguous terms. ”

“ There is nothing in the act to indicate an intention on the part of Congress or of the tribe that the words, 'Seminole citizens,' as used in the second, shall have any other meaning than that specifically given to them in the first paragraph but, on the contrary, both the natural and the legal inference from their being used in such juxtaposition is that the same meaning shall be given them and that if a different or more comprehensive meaning had been intended it would have been expressed. ”