Stephen Johnson Field,
Noonan v. Caledonia Gold Mining Company…
“ By the second article, a district of country embracing the region known as the Black Hills of Dakota, and which includes the mining property in controversy, was set apart as a reservation for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of those Indians, and such other friendly tribes or individual Indians to whose admission, from time to time, they and the United States might consent. ”
Stephen Johnson Field,
Noonan v. Caledonia Gold Mining Company…
“ Those then in possession of mining claims, which had been taken up and developed in accordance with the rules of miners in mining districts of the country, were entitled to protection in their possessory claims as against the intrusion of others. The effect of the withdrawal of the district from the reservation, and the consequent end of the prohibition, was to leave the predecessors of the plaintiff exempt from liability to be disturbed for their unlawful entry on the land, and free to take measures under the mining laws for the perfection of their claims. ”
Stephen Johnson Field,
Noonan v. Caledonia Gold Mining Company…
“ Evidence of what had been done by them, the location of their claim, its extent, the amount of work done in its development, was competent, not as creating any absolute right to the property, but as showing the existence and condition of the property when their possession became lawful under the new agreement. Whether they should be protected in holding the property afterwards depended upon their future compliance with the laws, statutory and mining, governing the possession and use of mineral lands in Dakota. ”
