William R. Day

“ Under § 23, authority is given 'to all persons of lawful age and sound mind to devise and bequeath all his estate, real and personal, and all interest therein;' but no will of a full-blood Indian, devising real estate, and disinheriting parent, wife, spouse, or children of a full-blood Indian, is valid until acknowledged before and approved by a judge of a United States court in the territory, or by the United States commissioner. ”

“ It is for that body, and not the courts, to determine when the true interests of the Indian require his release from such condition of tutelage.
The privileges and immunities of Federal citizenship have never been held to prevent governmental authority from placing such restraints upon the conduct or property of citizens as is necessary for the general good. Incompetent persons, though citizens, may not have the full right to control their persons and property. The privileges and immunities of citizenship were said, in the Slaughter-House Cases, 16 Wall. ”

“ The Choctaw and Chickasaw act provided (§ 16) that:
'All lands allotted to the members of said tribes, except such land as is set aside to each for a homestead as herein provided, shall be alienable after issuance of patent as follows: One fourth in acreage in one year, one fourth in acreage in three years, and the balance in five years,-in each case from date of patent; provided, that such land shall not be alienable by the allottee or his heirs at any time before the expiration of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribal governments for less than its appraised value.' Act of July 1, 1902, 32 Stat. ”

“ It is competent for a private donor, by deed or other conveyance, to create an estate of that character; that is to say, it is competent for a private person to make a conveyance of real property and to withhold from the donee for a season the power to sell or otherwise dispose of it. ”

“ Bearing in mind the rule that the legislation of Congress is to be construed in the interest of the Indian, it may be fairly held that the statute does not contemplate a surrender of jurisdiction over an offense committed by one Indian upon the person of another Indian within the limits of the reservation; at any rate, it cannot be said to be clear that Congress intended by the mere grant of citizenship to renounce entirely its jurisdiction over the individual members of this dependent race.'
In United States v. ”