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UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

I am advised that such services, necessary to complete the preparation of a manual useful to this Department, would involved an expenditure for salaries totaling approximately five thousand dollars. In view of the understandings upon which this project was based, I should like to request that personnel employed by the Department of Justice for this project be temporarily detailed to the Office of the Solicitor of this Department for the purpose of preparing the legal manual which this Department needs. The time, period, and personnel involved in such a detail within the financial limits above suggested, can be worked out, I am confident, to the satisfaction of all concerned, if it is your decision that the Department of Justice extend this measure of cooperation towards the completion of this project. In view of the fact that generous provision for the completion of the handbook is already contained within your present Lands Division Budget, I trust that you will be in a position to make such a detail without undue inconvenience. The matter of eliminating injustices based upon ignorance of legal rights and responsibilities is one in which I feel a particular concern and I shall be very happy to have an assurance of your cooperation in any efforts towards this objective.

so that the original purpose of this Department in collaborating in this project may be fulfilled.

Unfortunately, this work would require legal, editorial, and clerical services for which neither the present budget of the Department nor our 1941 budget, already submitted, make provision.

UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
WASHINGTON

I am advised that the compilation is now practically complete and is in actual use by the attorneys of your Department, but that the preparation of the handbook has been indefinitely deferred and work thereon terminated. I understand that materials for the entire handbook have already been collected and that about one third or one half of the book is already in rough draft form. While I do not wish to comment on the question of whether the completion of this projected manual would be of value to the Department of Justice, I in my opinion, of great value must say that it would be of value to the Department of the Interior.

The file of materials already prepared and available to your attorneys would be of little practical use to the attorneys of this Department and of no use to our employees in the field, where the lack of any manual on the law governing Indian affairs is a major source of administrative and legal difficulties. I am therefore most anxious to see the materials already collected reduced to handbook compass so that the original purpose of this Department in collaborating in this project may be fulfilled.

Unfortunately, this work would require legal, editorial, and clerical services for which neither the present budget of the Department nor our 1941 budget, already submitted, makes provision.

Description of the duties and responsibilities of the position of Assistant Solicitor - Felix S. Cohen.

The duties of this position will be performed under the general supervision of the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, and in collaboration with attorneys of the Department of Justice.

Will assume general responsibility for the compilation and preparation of a manual on the law relating to Indian affairs which will serve as a general guide and handbook for United States attorneys in various parts of the United States, and other government attorneys in the departmental service in Washington and in the field.

This work involves compilation of Indian Statutes which have not been compiled or codified, and annotation of the statutes with reference to decided cases, Attorneys General opinions and opinions of the Solicitor of the Interior Department. On the basis of such materials, a general guide or handbook is to be prepared covering the entire subject of all laws relating to the Indian.

The work involved is of great importance to the Justice and Interior Departments and the correlation and systematizing of the Indian laws, and the opinions of the law officers, will be of particular value to the legal and administrative officers of the Indian Service, who at present find the legal authorities, upon which administrative action is based, in hundreds of scattered sources. In view of the historical difficulty and complexity of the law relating to Indian Affairs, the task of systematizing the statutes and legal opinions and preparing a handbook on this subject is one of peculiar difficulty.

Will direct and supervise the work of five or more attorneys who will assist in this work.

Will continue to serve as a member of the Board of Appeals, and in the absence of the Solicitor and the First Assistant Solicitor, will serve as Acting Solicitor of the Department as authorized by the Secretary May 11, 1938 (Order No. 1279).

Excerpt from memorandum from Secretary signed by Solicitor Margold.
Filed December 12, 1938.

In cooperation with the Department of Justice and at the request of Assistant Attorney General McFarland, Mr. Cohen will be detailed to that Department for an estimated twelve months, to direct and supervise the preparation of a manual on the law relating to Indian affairs, which is to serve as a general guide or handbook for attorneys of the Justice Department and attorneys and administrative officers of this Department. This work is of importance to the Interior Department as well as to the Department of Justice, and of particular value to the legal and administrative officers of the Indian Service, who at present must find the legal authorities upon which administrative action is based, from hundreds of scattered sources.

This work involves compilation of Indian Statutes which have not hitherto been compiled or codified, and annotation of these statutes with reference to decided cases, Attorneys General opinions, and opinions of Solicitors of the Department of the Interior.

In agreement with the Department of Justice, Mr. Cohen's work will be performed in accordance with the provisions of Section 601 of the act approved June 30, 1932, on a repay basis to the appropriation, Salaries, Office of Solicitor, Dept. of Interior.

NOTE:

**Footnote 15:** Although the problem is not involved, the quotation is found in both cases. Proper dicta.

**Footnotes 15 (b), (c), and (d):** (b) and (c) deal with headrights which are a right to share in tribal property and not individualized, therefore not a case of individual rights in his own property. Inasmuch as this chapter deals with individual rights in tribal property and not tribal property, it is not too important to discuss in detail the distinction. The phrases quoted and the manner in which presented indicate that the definitions are loose and general. The sentence is used as a basis for the conclusion for the sentence after the one ending with the word "float". The fact that the cases are incidences of right after enrollment, but before allotment or segregation and are not cases of pre-enrollment indicates how much and yet how little the enrollee has. If the cases were instances of pre-enrollment, they would be less valuable.

Excerpt from classification sheet submitted by Solicitor Margold
December 12, 1938 and approved by Civil Service Commission March
11, 1938.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE POSITION:

## 6.4 Tribal Power to Contract

### Texts

Duerr, Course of Lectures on the Const. Jurisprudence of the U. S. (1856), pp. 281-286.

Kent, Commentaries on American Law, (ed. Gould), 14th edition (1896), pp. 379-399.

Rice, A Treatise on the Modern Law of Real Property (1897), pp. 80-82.

Gray, Limitations of the Taxing Power (1906), Secs. 763, 764, 920, 930, 946b, 1720, 1720a.

Crandall, Treaties, Their Making and Enforcement (1916), pp. 133, 134, 200, 245, 399.

Burdick, The Law of the American Constitution (1922), pp. 4-6, 312-317, 325, 326.

Willoughby, The Const. Law of the United States (1929), pp. 290, 360-402, 1328, 1368.

### Periodicals

68 Atlantic Monthly 540, 676; 62 Cent. L. 399; 13 Green Bag 399; 7 Iowa L. B. 232; 2 Johns Hopkins Univ. Studies 385; 12 id. 467; 16 Jour. Comp. Leg. 78; 2 Minn. L. Rev. 177; 14-17 Proc. Tenn. B. A. 144; 3 R. Okla. B. A. 208; 18 Yale L. Rev. 328; 39 id. 307.

### Government Publications

S. Ex. Doc., No. 32, 32nd Cong., 1st sess.; H. R. No. 98, 42nd Cong., 3rd sess.; H. Ex. Doc., No. 12, 43rd Cong. 1st sess.; H. Ex. Doc., No. 61, 43rd Cong., 1st sess.; H. R. No. 478, 43rd Cong., 1st sess.; H. R. No. 186, 44th Cong., 2nd sess.

### General Statutes Special Statutes

2:110

5:46

5:98

7:142

14:236

14:289

19:134

19:242

20:749

24:623

25:308

26:123

28:568

35:421

42:994

9:337

18:291

18:330

25:240

25:452

26:712

27:86

27:417

27:468

27:470

27:753

28:579

33:319

33:567

34:55

39:47

39:1195

40:1316

41:404

41:585

41:623

41:738

41:1097

43:21

43:27

43:133

43:137

43:139

43:366

43:537

43:636

43:644

43:729

43:795

43:886

43:1133

44:555

44:801

44:807

44:922

44:1263

44:1349

44:1401

45:944

45:1027