Best v. Polk
Supreme Court of the United States
Error to the District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi; the case being thus: By virtue of a treaty made October the 20th, 1832,* the Chickasaw Nation of Indiaus, in the belief that it was better to seek a home west of the Mississippi, ceded their lands to the United States, who agreed to survey and sell them on the same terms and conditions as the other public lands, and to pay the proceeds to the nation.
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Error to the District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi; the case being thus: By virtue of a treaty made October the 20th, 1832,* the Chickasaw Nation of Indiaus, in the belief that it was better to seek a home west of the Mississippi, ceded their lands to the United States, who agreed to survey and sell them on the same terms and conditions as the other public lands, and to pay the proceeds to the nation. In order, however, that the people of the tribe should not be deprived of a home until they should have secured a country to remove to, they were allowed, after the survey and…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Davis
In order to carry out in good faith Indian treaties, effect must be given to the intention of the parties to them; and from the different provisions of the treaties which are applicable to this case, no well-founded doubt can exist of the proper Construction to give to the sixth article. The cession in the first treaty contemplated the ultimate abandonment of the lands by the Indians. This treaty did not prove satisfactory, and the Indians asked, and the United States conceded to them, a limited quantity of land for a permanent home. This object could not be obtained if it were meant to give…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Bagnell v. BroderickSupreme Court of the United States · 1839
- Polk's Lessee v. WendellSupreme Court of the United States · 1820
3Cited by55 opinions
- Jones v. MeehanSupreme Court of the United States · 1899
- Knight v. United States Land Assn.Supreme Court of the United States · 1891
- Mahn v. HarwoodSupreme Court of the United States · 1884
- Wright v. RoseberrySupreme Court of the United States · 1887
- Doolan v. CarrSupreme Court of the United States · 1887
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