Louis Brandeis

“ The Act of 1912 made possible the release of parts of the trust fund from time to time. The risks to be incurred at any one time could be made quantitatively as small as the Secretary of the Interior might deem advisable; and by the regulations, the risk was reduced in degree, by virtue of the requirement, that the money must be 'deposited in bank and expended under supervision of the superintendent, subject to instructions from the Indian Office, if the Secretary of the Interior so directs.' The policy of education and development through the bank account had been tried and found promising. ”

“ Even if the whole trust fund should be released and, despite supervision, improvidently spent, the legally competent allottee would still have his homestead and his share in valuable undivided oil, gas and coal rights; and the legally incompetent, his surplus lands in addition. There is nothing in the act or in the facts to which it applies that indicates a purpose to extend governmental control to property in which released funds may be invested. And there are in both the Act of 1906 and in that of 1912, provisions which show that Congress intended to restrict the tax exemption. ”

“ The regulations greatly exte ded the field of operation by providing that one legally incompetent might get such release where he had made good use of the moneys theretofore paid him or of the lands under his control. It is education through the responsibility for spending, not the property purchased with released moneys, which constitutes the instrumentality employed by the government in fitting the individual Osage Indian to take his full part as a citizen of the United States. ”