Joseph McKenna

“ On the other hand, the defendants in error contend that the prohibition against the assignment of the scrip is strictly of the scrip as such, not of the rights or powers conferred by it. That the provision of the statute is not a prohibition upon the alienation of the land, but is intended to protect the government against controversies about the transfer of the scrip, and to require and secure all of the steps and proceedings to be in the name of the Indian, and the title to be issued in his name. ”

“ The intent to transfer the scrip not being illegal, but only ineffectual, could not affect the power where not expressed in the same instrument, or in one equal in degree, as evidence. Whether the power to sell would be upheld in an instrument, upon its face a transfer, the former being only incidental, we do not decide.'
Gilbert v. Thompson was affirmed and applied in Thompson v. Myrick, 20 Minn. 205, Gil. 184. The latter case came to this court (99 U.S. 291, 25 L. ed. 324) , and its doctrine was approved. ”

“ It does not define the extent or kind of improvements. It permits a location to be made upon 'unoccupied land . . . upon which they (half-breeds) have respectively made improvements.' Residence is not required, either initial or subsequent, temporary or continuous. The purpose of the provision of the statute would seem, therefore, necessarily to be identification, notice of appropriation, and the kind and extent of improvements only to be necessary for that. ”