So NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Judge Cuthbert W. Pound of the New York Court of Appeals 
writing in the Columbia Law Review, (February 1922), said: 
The Nation owes a duty to its wards, if it continues to treat the 
New York Indians as such, either to enact a code of civil and 
criminal laws for the Indian reservations, or to subject them to 
state law, or to put an end to the tribal relations and leave the State 
supreme over the individual Indians as it alone has power to do. 
(Heckman v. United States). The power of Congress over the 
tribal relations of the Indians and the Indians themselves is said to 
be a political one, not subject to control by the courts, and it 1s held 
in authoritative cases that until Congress declares that Government 
guardianship over the Indians shall cease, its full and exclusive 
legislative power over them continues. This power rests not on any 
specified grant of legislative authority, but on the implied authority 
which subjects the conduct and property of dependent persons within 
the jurisdiction to governmental tutelage. (Lonewolf v. Hitchcock, 
1903, 187 U. S. 553, 565, 23 Sup. Ct. 216). It would follow that 
such power is paramount to treaty or state law. 
From the above opinions it would appear that there are three pos- 
sible solutions of the New York Indian problem, namely: 
1 A determination of the status of the New York Indians by the 
Supreme Court of the United States, the case being adjudged upon 
the rights and disabilities of these Indians as guaranteed by legisla- 
tion and treaty; or 
2 A declaration of status by congressional enactment, said dec- 
laration being based upon present needs, circumstances and condi- 
tions, together with a consideration of the changes that have come 
over the country and over the Indians during the last century. A 
congressional declaration would ignore perhaps existing laws and 
treaties and give the case an entirely new alignment. 
3 An act of Congress delegating to the State of New York 
authority to act as its agent in civil and criminal cases arising from 
violations of state and federal laws and regulations on the several 
reservations, but not binding the State to federal treaty obligations 
or annuity payments charged to the Government. 
There are several methods by which the State can force Congress 
to act. If the Indians of the State are the wards of the Federal 
Government, then New York could make the following requests of 
the Federal Government: 
1 Request the Federal Government to supply the schools, teachers, 
asylums, poor relief, roads, agricultural help and public health pro- 
visions, now supplied by the State, at the same time notifying the 
Federal Government that the State ought not to be expected or re- 
quired longer to care for federal wards. 
