544 INDIAN LAND CESSIONS IX THE UNITED STATES [eth.axn.is 



It would appear from tliis that when the law was complied with, 

 tbose desiring lands wbich were iu possession of the Indians were 

 reiiuired to purchase them from the tribe. This was to be done iu the 

 presence of the surveyor or some oue authorized to act for the governor 

 of the province, and it was required that there should be an interpreter 

 approved by the governor. It was also requisite that the deed of 

 purchase should be approved. Whether orticial permission to make the 

 purchase was necessary does not appear. That the governor, or one 

 exercising authority iu the name of the King, had the power to refuse 

 approval of such purchase is certain, although this seems to have beeu 

 doubted by some of the commissioners appointed by the United States 

 to examine into the Spanish claims. 



The custom in Louisiana was substantially that described by Estrada 

 in the above-quoted letter. 



According to the report of the commissioners on the "Opelousas 

 claims,"' the Spanish functionaries seem to have made a distinction 

 between Indians who had partaken of the rite of baptism and other 

 Indians. The former appt^ar to have been considered capable of hold- 

 ing and enjoying lands iu as full and complete a manner as any other 

 subjects of the Grown of Spain. Sales by these Indians were generally 

 for small tracts, such as an Indian and his family might be supposed 

 capable of cultivating, and being passed before the proper Spanish 

 officer and tiled for record, were considered valid by the usages of the 

 Spanish government without ratification being necessary. But pur- 

 chases from other Indians, as those from a tribe or chief, were not 

 comi)lete until they had been ratified by the governor of the ])rovince, 

 the Indian sale transferring the Indian title and the ratification by the 

 governor being a relinijuishment of the right of the Grown. 



The testimony of Mr Charles L. Trudeau, many years surveyor- 

 general of the province of Louisiana under the Spanish government, 

 iu regard to the custom in this respect, which api)ears to have been 

 relied on by the commissioners, is as follows: 



The deponeut knows of no ordin.anct-s or regulations under any Governoi- of Lou- 

 isiana, except O'Keilly.by wbich the Indians, inbabitinjj lauds in the province, were 

 limited in their possessions to one league square about their villages, but this regu- 

 lation has not been adhered to by any of his successors. The deponent knows that 

 the custom was, that when a tribe of Indians settled a village by the consent of the 

 Government, that the chief fixed the boundaries, and where there were one or more 

 neighboring villages, the respective chiefs of those villages agreed upon and fixed 

 the boundaries between themselves, and when any tribe sold out its village, the com- 

 mandant uniformly made the conveyance according to the limits pointed out by the 

 chief. The lauds claimed by tlie Indians around their villages, were always considered 

 as their own, and they were always protected iu the unmolested enjoyment of it by 

 the Government against all the world, and has always passed from one generation to 

 another so long as it was possessed by them as their own property. The Indians 

 always sell their laud with the consent of the Government, and if, after selling their 

 village and the lands around it, they should, liy the permission of the Government 

 establish themselves elsewhere, they might again sell, having tirst obtained the per- 

 mission of the Government, and so on, as often as such permission was obtained, and 



