” As none of the Indians of this country have permanent places of abode, in their hunting excursions they wander over an immense region, extending from the fisheries at and below Salmon falls, on the Shoshonee river, near the Oregon line, to the sources of that stream, and to the buffalo country beyond.“

“Article II. The several routes of travel through the Shoehonee country, now or hereafter used by white men, shall be and remain forever free and safe for the use of the Government of the United States, and of all emigrants and travellers under its authority and protection, without molestation or injury from any of the people of said nation. And if depredations should at any time be committed by bad men of their nation, the offenders shall be immediately seized and delivered up to the proper officers of the United States, to be punished as their offences shall deserve; and the safety of all travellers passing peaceably over said routes is hereby guaranteed by said nation. Military agricultural settlements and military posts may be established by the President of the United States along said routes, femes may be maintained over the rivers wherever they may be required, and houses erected and settlements formed at such points as may be necessary for the comfort and convenience of travellers.

“Article III. The telegraph and overland stage lines having been established and operated through a part of the Shoshonee country, it is expressly agreed that the same may be continued without hindrance, molestation, or injury from the people of said nation, and that their property, and the lives of passengers in the stages, and of the employees of the respective companies shall be protected by them.

“And further, it being understood that provision has been made by the Government of the United States for the construction of a railway from the plains west to the Pacific ocean, it is stipulated by said nation that said railway, or its branches, may be located, constructed, and operated, without molestation from them, through any portion of the country claimed by them.“

“It is understood the boundaries of the Shoshonee country, as defined and described by said nation, is as follows: On the north, by the mountains on the north side of the valley of Shoshonee or Snake River; on the eastj by the Wind River mountains, Peenahpah river, the north fork of Platte or Koo-chin-agah, and the north Park or Buffalo House, and on the south, by Yampah river and the Uintah mountains. The western boundary is left undefined, there being no Shoshonees from that district of country present; but the bands now present claim that their own country is bounded on the west by Salt Lake.” 18 Stat. 686-6.

“After the making of the treaty of July 30, 1863, the plaintiff bands became widely scattered over northern Utah and Nevada, and southern Idaho. In 1873 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs appointed a commission to investigate all tribes and bands in this region and to ascertain their number and the probability of gathering them upon one or more reservations where they could be more immediately under the care of the Government. The commission made an exhaustive investigation into the mattersentrusted to it and reported that it had no trustworthy information as to the number of bands of the Northwestern Shoshone Indians. The commission further reported that a part of the Northwestern Shoshones under Pocatello (who signed the treaty of July 30, 1863) had already gone to the Fort Hall (Idaho) Reservation in southeast Idaho, and that Chief Tav-i-wun-shea, with his small band, had gone to the Wind River (Wyoming) Reservation created and set apart under the treaty with the Eastern Shoshones in 1868. Toomontso (who had signed the Northwestern Treaty of July 30) and his band at about this time took up their abode on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation and an indefinite number of Indians of this band had gone to the Wind River Reservation. Eventually the remnants of the bands of Indians under San Pitz (a signer of the Northwestern Shoshone treaty of July 30), and Saigwits, also a party to the treaty, were induced by the commission to remove to the Fort Hall Indian Reservation, thus making a total of 400 Northwestern Shoshone Indians on the Fort Hall Reservation. The commission further reported that a careful enumeration disclosed that there were 400 Northwestern Shoshone Indians in southern Idaho. In 1873 a number of Northwestern Shoshone Indians had gathered in northeastern Nevada and were assigned by the Indian Agent in Nevada to a small area in that section as a home. On May 10, 1877, this tract, by order of the President, was withdrawn from sale or settlement and set apart as a reservation for the Northwestern Shoshone Indians. However, in 1879, all the Indians thereon, numbering about 300, were removed to the Western Shoshone Indian Reservation known as the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in southwestern Idaho and northern Nevada.” 95 Ct. CI. at 677.

Article X. All grants of land made by the Mexican Government or by the competent authorities, in territories previously appertaining to Mexico, and remaining for the future, within the limits of the United States, shall be respected as valid, to the same extent that the same grants would be valid, if the said territories had remained within the limits of Mexico… .“

“Second. The American Government by suppressing the Xth article of the Treaty of Guadalupe did not in any way intend to annul the grants of lands made by Mexico in the ceded territories. These grants, notwithstanding the suppression of the article of the Treaty, preserve the legal value which they may possess; and the grantees may cause their legitimate titles to be acknowledged before the American tribunals.

“Conformably to the law of the United States, legitimate titles to every description of property personal and real, existing in the ceded territories, are those which were legitimate titles under the Mexican law in California and New Mexico up to the 13th of May 1846, and in Texas up to the 2d March 1836.” Treaties, id., vol. 5, p. 381.