Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/898

884 FEDERAL SEPOBTEB. �•. Samb— What CoNSTHifCTioN To BB Ado^ted — Third Parties. �The coBstruction of atreaty to be taken as the true one is the one which bas been adopted and acted upon by all the parties to it, unless the parties to it were mutually led into this construction by fraud or mistake. In a case where the mutual construction was in the face of the language used, and the right- of third parties had intervened, the language would be taken as goveming. �10. APPBOPRIATBD LaNDS — SuiiSEQtJBNT LaWS. �A tract of land lawf ully appropriated to any purpose becomes thereaf ter sev- ered from the mass of public lands, and no subsequent law or proclamation will be construed to embrace it, or to operate upon it. Although no exception is made, congress cannot be supposed to include it by a law general in its terms. This doctrine applies with more force to Indian than to military reser- vations. �11, Indians' Titles— When Devbsted. �As soon as Indians part with their title the land ceases to be Indian country without any further act of congress, unless, by the treaty by whieh the Indians- part^ imthiheir title, or by tome aet of congres» or tome executive arder ofithe president, a different ruk was made applicable. �This is a civil suit, in the nature of an action of debt, to recover.from defendant a penalty of $1,000, for having violated the law of the United States by being in the Indian country oontrajy to said law. The complaint charges that the defendant heretofore, to-wit, on the flfth day of September, A. D. 1879, being in the Indian country contrary to law, was removed by the mili- tary forces of the United States, and that afterwards, to-wit, on the tenth day of August, A. D. 1880, he, the said defendant, did return to said Indian country, and was found therein, contrary to the fonn of the statute'ih snch case made and provided.' For this reason plaintifE claims an action hath accrued against the defendant. �The defendant files his amended answer, in which he denies that he owes and is indebted to the plaintiflt in the sum pf $1,000, or {iny other sum, in manner andform as stated in the complaint. He denies that on the third day of May, 1880, or the tenth day of August of that year, or at any other time, he was in the Indian country, or any part thereof. He denies that he was at any time removed from the Indian country, or any part therepf. Defendant further claims that by a treaty entered intobetween the United States and the Seminole tribe of Indians, on March 21, 1866, they sold to the United States a large tract of land then owned by said tribe in the country known as the Indian Territory, situated between the Canadian river and the North Fork of the Canadian river, and between the ninety-seventh and ninety-eighth degrees of west longitude; that said lands have ever since been, and are now, the property of the United States by an absolute and perfect title in fee-simple, and that they are a part of the public domain of the United States ; that there is no Indian nation or tribe that has any title or right to any part of the same, or any occupancy or possession thereof. �Defendant further answers that he made a settlement on section 14, in town- ship 11 north, of range 3 west of the Indian meridian, under the pre-emption and homestead laws enacted by the congress of the United States ; that said sec- tion is a part of the land sopurchased and acquired by the United States from the Seminole Indians, and that it is situated within 40 miles of the line of the ��� �