Excerpt from The Case of the Seneca Nation Stated by Counsel at Buffalo, March 15th, 1921
Any allotment which has occurred has been under the law and by action of the Seneca Nation. As bearing on the injustice of the instigation of this suit by the Johns, it is to be observed that the bill fails to allege that they have exhausted any judicial remedy which they may have under tribal laws for the protection of any private rights which they claim. The bill charges by way of avoidance that those remedies (in the opinion of the United States) are inadequate. It appears from the allegations and is true, that a right of appeal lies from the tribal Surrogate to the Council of the tribe. No such appeal was taken.
The writ of subpoena here was served on the parties named defendant by the marshal of this Court who, the return shows or should show in order to serve it, invaded this Cattaraugus domain of the Senecas where he found those persons. The persons so served, as well as the Nation, are here to suggest to this Court, speaking through their counsel, its want of jurisdiction over them personally and over their domain and that the writ so served ought to be dismissed on the Court"s own motion as being an extravagant exercise of judicial authority because its issuance was an improper act, unfriendly to the Seneca Nation and, as the Senecas are advised, no federal official was authorized by the Congress of the United States to commit it.
The Senecas for that purpose come here because they assume that other departments of the government of the United States would be closed against them in complaining against a writ issued under color of judicial authority. The several grounds for their suggestion are respectfully laid before this honorable court as follows:
The Seneca Nation, as this Court should take judicial notice, is composed of some two thousand souls residing on the Allegany-Cattaraugus lands of the Seneca people where they find their living on improved lands which they till; that these lands are remnants of the ancient domain of the Senecas; that the relation of these people to the United States is that of friendly but politically separate neighbors; that that relationship in certain particulars is carefully defined by express treaties negotiated between the Senecas and the United States; that the last treaty in that series took place at Buffalo Creek on May 20, 1842, whereby a cession of all but their present domain was made and whereby the portion so ceded then passed, as the Senecas suppose, under the sovereignty of the United States.
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