Morrison Waite

“ It amounted in truth to little more than a restricted and qualified right to alienate portions of the land to its inhabitants for building or cultivation, and to use the remainder for commons, for pasture lands, or as a source of revenue, or for other purposes. ”

“ City and County of San Francisco v. Scott
There is no federal question in this case. The right of San Francisco under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to the lands in dispute as pueblo lands is not denied. Precisely what that right was may not be easy to state. Mr. Justice FIELD, speaking for the court, said, in Townsend v. Greely, 5 Wall. 336: 'It was not an indefeasible estate; ownership of the lands in the pueblos could not in strictness be affirmed. ”