SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 66 
iN) 
N 
The full-blood Indians, however, and those who could not be 
legitimately recognized as mixed-bloods, were under the protection 
of the United States Government. They had no right or power to 
alienate their property without the Government’s consent ; and when 
the attention of the authorities was called to the wholesale depriva- 
tion of the Indian of his land and timber, due steps were taken not 
Fic. 87——Chippewa_ mixed-blood, 
French-Indian, looking strikingly like a 
Japanese. 
only to prevent the continuation of such deprivation but to recover 
for the Indian all property that was taken from him illegally. Com- 
missions were appointed to investigate the conditions; the Indians 
were thoroughly questioned as to their genealogy and blood mixture, 
and in the course of years hundreds of actions were brought before 
the courts for the recovery of their property. 
As these cases proceeded and the defense developed, it became 
evident that the most urgent and important problem was to deter- 
