LXVI REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF JNDIAN AFFAIRS. 
 
of the Department and of Congress with reference'to the Indians in 
question. 
In the case of the United States v. Rlitchie, decided at the December 
term, 1854 (17 Howard, 525), involving the title of Solano, a California

Indian, to a tract of land in California, the court, in speaking upon the

subject of the citizenship under Mexico of the Indian race, and referring

to certain legislation had by the first Mexican Congress, said: 
These solemn declarations of the political power of the Government had the
effect 
necessarily to invest the Indians with the privileges of citizenship as effectually
as 
had the Declaration of Independence of the United States of 1776 to invest
all those 
persons with those privileges residing in the country at the time, and who
adhered to 
the interest of the colonies. (3 Pet., 99, 121.) 
The court, however, further said: 
It is conceded that the lands in question do not belong to the class called
Pueblo 
lands, in respect to which we do not intend to express any opinion, either
as to the 
power of the authorities to grant or the Indians to convey. 
In 1867 Mr. Chief Justice Slough, sitting in the United States Court 
for the first judicial district of the Territory of New Mexico, held, in
a 
lengthy opinion delivered in the case of the United States v. Benigno 
Ortiz, that the Pueblo Indians should be treated, "'not as under the

pupilage of the Government, but as citizens, not of a State or Terri- 
tory, but of the United States of America." (For full text of the decis-

ion, see Annual Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1867, pago 
217.) 
In the case of the United States v. Joseph (4 Otto, 614), the United 
States Supreme Court held that the Pueblo Indians were not Indian 
tribes within the meaning of the Indian intercourse act of June 30, 1834,

and the subsequent act of February 27, 1831, extending the trade and 
intercourse laws then in force with the Indian tribes over the Indian 
tribes in the Territories of INew Mexico and Utah; but forbore to ex- 
press any opinion as to their citizenship until the question judicially 
came before it. This case had reference to the Indians' lands, for the 
protection of which against intruders they were remitted to the statutes

of the Territory of New Mexico creating the several pueblos bodies 
corporate with power to sue and be sued in any court of law or equity 
of said Territory for or in respect of any claim, encroachment, or tres-

pass on such lands. (Sec. 1304, Revised Stat., N. M.) 
It nevertheless appears from the official records, that from the date 
of the ratification of the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, the Depart- 
me it, owing to the necessities growing out of the very exigencies of 
th( case, and in the exercise of its supervisory care over the Indians, 
har ever regarded the Pueblo Indians as Indians holding quasi tribal 
relhtions, and as such, within the line of the general policy established

by the United States for the governmnt of other Indian tribes; and 
that Congress has acquiesced in this view, is manifest in the repeated 
appropriations made for their civilization and support, for the pay of a

,esident ae agent, and for educational purposes. So, that it will be seen