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For more than 50 years the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians has been seeking permission from the U.S. federal government to go to Court to argue that the federal government cheated their ancestors.
Under the Treaty of 1853, the Cow Creek Indians were to receive $12,000 for 800 square miles of land and a reservation.
The Cow Creek Band never received the reservation and only $1,000. was paid.Washington (UPI)
For three generations the Cow Creek Indians of Oregon have been trying to fight a battle for their land in a courtroom.
For more than 50 years they have been seeking permission to go to court to argue that the government cheated their ancestors when they signed a treaty in 1853.
Under the treaty, the Indians were to get $12,000 for 800 square miles of land---a little more than 2 cents an acre---and a small reservation. Their descendants say only $1,000 was paid and they never got the reservation.
A 1946 law says no court may hear any Indian claim s arising before 1947 if it was not presented to the Indian Claims Commission by 1951.
But Oregon lawmakers have introduced bills to exempt the Cow Creeks so they may file suit in the U.S. Court of Claims.
Chairman John Melcher, D-Mont., of Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, says the Indians have suffered "obvious injustices."
Last week, Melcher’s committee and the House Interior Committee held a joint hearing on the bills.
Forrest Gerard, assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the Interior Department, told the committee since the Indians are now armed with new documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act to back their claims it has become "far more complex and of a far larger magnitude than we had originally believed."
"Until we have had the time to evaluate this new information," he said, "we do not favor passage of the legislation."
The Cow Creek group is headquartered in Canyonville, where it is reported to have 500 members.
Also appearing in behalf of the Indians was Stephen Dow Beckman, associate professor of history at Lewis and Clark College.
He said the descendants of those Indians have labored long for an opportunity to tell how the lands were taken.
"As a person very familiar with the course of American Indian history, I strongly feel that this case is one demanding action," he said. "I urge you to approve this proposed legislation and permit these people to have their day in court."
The Indians listened patiently. To them it was an old story.
"To the government, we were truly a forgotten people," testified Tribal Council President Ellis Buschmann.
The tribe almost made it in 1932, only to stymied by President Herbert Hoover.
From 1924 to 1932, the Cow Creeks, with the help of Oregon members of Congress, tried five times to win passage of legislation to let them sue the government.
In 1932, they almost won.
Both the houses of Congress passed the bill, but Hoover vetoed it. The nation was in the grip of the Great Depression, and Hoover explained the country could not afford such litigation.