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the United States, and has no reference to and does not govern in determining the question submitted by you.

The contract was entered into in Kansas City, Mo., and provides for the leasing of said premises

"from the twenty-first day of December, A. D., 1904, to the * for thirtieth day of June, A. D., 1905,

*

*

*

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the sum of twenty-four dollars and fifty cents per month."

*

In the computation of time for a specified period from a particular day the general rule in the interpretation of contracts is to exclude the day thus designated and to include the last day of the specified period. (Sheets v. Selden's Lessee, 2 Wall., 177, 5 Comp. Dec., 362.) See also paragraph 4, section 4160, Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1899.

No intent to the contrary being expressed in the above contract this rule will govern in its interpretation, and the 21st day of December will accordingly be excluded in the computation of rent for the period from December 21 to 31, 1904. The word "month," when used in a contract, in the absence of an expressed intention to the contrary, means "calendar" month. (Guaranty Title, etc., Co. v. Green Cove Spring, etc., R. Co., 139 U. S., 137; Sheets v. Selden's Lessee, 2 Wall., 190; Am. and Eng. En., vol. 20, 2d ed., p. 369, and cases there cited.)

Furthermore, section 4160, Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1899, provides that in the construction of statutes "the word 'month' shall mean a calendar month," unless plainly repugnant to the intent thereof.

This section reenacts section 6570 of the Revised Statutes of 1889 of said State, which section was construed as applicable also to contracts. (Gray v. Worst, 129 Mo., 122.)

A "calendar month" is a month as designated in the calendar, without regard to the number of days it may contain. (Bishop on Contracts, sec. 1339; Black on Interpretation of Laws, p. 163.)

As the month of December has thirty-one days, the period from December 21 to 31 (exclusive of the 21st as heretofore stated) would be ten thirty-firsts of a month, instead of eleven thirty-firsts or ten-thirtieths as suggested by you, and rent should be computed accordingly.

APPROPRIATION FOR THE PAYMENT OF CLAIMS OF THE DELAWARE TRIBE OF INDIANS.

The phrase "Delaware tribe of Indians residing in the Cherokee Nation," as used in the act of April 21, 1904, which made an appropriation to pay certain claims of said tribe, includes only such Delaware Indians, by blood or adoption, and their descendants, as elected under the treaty of 1866 to preserve their tribal relations.

(Assistant Comptroller Mitchell to the Secretary of the Treas ury, March 1, 1905.)

I have received by your reference of the 9th ultimo a letter dated February 3, 1905, addressed to you by the Secretary of the Interior, as follows:

"Calling attention to departmental letter of January 6, 1905, relative to the $150,000 appropriated by the act of April 21, 1904 (33 Stat., 222), to pay the Delaware tribe of Indians residing in the Indian Territory for all claims and damages against the United States, and requesting you to take such action in the premises as you deem appropriate,' there is submitted herewith a communication from Mr. Richard C. Adams, attorney for the Delawares, urging that the roll of the Delawares entitled to participate in the distribution of said sum be prepared at as early a date as possible, and that the question of the rights of the Delawares, known as the Kansas Delawares, be determined, as was suggested by the AttorneyGeneral, by the Comptroller of the Treasury at an early date so that the agent (Union Agency, Ind. T.) will know whether to place their names upon this roll or not.'

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The Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, in a report of January 30, 1905, states that the rights of Kansas Delawares' to share in said fund will probably depend upon the terms of the acts of the national council of the Cherokee Nation admitting them to citizenship, and that this can only be deter mined by the records of the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes.

"In an opinion of September 3, 1904, the Attorney-General stated that

"Congress has authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to pay the sum appropriated "to the Delaware tribe of Indians residing in the Cherokee Nation," and if said tribe, in the exercise of the discretion given it by Congress to prescribe the manner of payment, provides for a payment per capita to the members of the tribe, the question of who are such members would seem to be a question of law for the Comptroller of the Treasury.""

The provision in the act of April 21, 1904 (33 Stat., 222), referred to in the letter of the Secretary of the Interior, is the last paragraph of section 21, Indian appropriation act for the fiscal year 1905, as follows:

"The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to pay to the Delaware tribe of Indians residing in the Cherokee Nation, as said tribe shall in council direct, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, in full of all claims. and demands of said tribe against the United States, and the same is hereby appropriated and made immediately available: Provided, That said sum shall be paid only after the tribal authorities, thereunto duly and specifically authorized by the tribe, shall have signed a writing stating that such payment is in full of all claims and demands of every name and nature of said Delaware Indians against the United States, which writing shall be subject to the approval of the President of the United States and shall have provided for the discontinuance of all actions pending in all courts wherein said Delaware Indians are plaintiff and the United States defendants."

The initial steps toward the removal of the Delaware tribe from Kansas, and their settlement on Cherokee lands in the Indian Territory, except such members of said tribe as should elect to sever their tribal relations and become citizens of the United States, appear in the Delaware treaty of 1866 (14 Stat., 793). The fourth article of the treaty provides:

"The United States agree to sell to the said Delaware Indians a tract of land ceded to the Government by the Choctaws and Chickasaws, the Creeks, or the Seminoles, or which may be ceded by the Cherokees in the Indian country, to be selected by the Delawares in one body in as compact a form as practicable, so as to contain timber, water, and agricultural lands, to contain in the aggregate, if the said Delaware Indians shall so desire, a quantity equal to one hundred and sixty (160) acres for each man, woman, and child who shall remove to said country, at the price per acre paid by the United States for the said lands, to be paid for by the Delawares out of the proceeds of sales of lands in Kansas, heretofore provided for. The said tract of country shall be set off with clearly and permanently marked boundaries by the United States, and also surveyed as public lands are surveyed, when the Delaware council shall so request, when the same may, in whole or in part, be allotted by said council to each member of said tribe residing in said country, said allotment being subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior."

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The ninth article of the treaty provides for the registration of all those Delawares who, under the election given them in the third article, elected to dissolve their tribal relations and become citizens of the United States. It further provides for the reservation from sale of their Kansas allotments and for granting to them patents therefor in fee simple with power of alienation. It prescribes their mode of procedure to become citizens, and provides for payment to them in just proportion, in cash or bonds, of the cash value of the credits of said tribe, principal and interest, then held in trust by the United States, and also, as the same should be received, their pro rata share of the proceeds from the sale of lands under the treaty, and that then they should cease to be members of the tribe. This article closes with the following words:

"There shall be granted to each of the Delawares who have thus become citizens a patent in fee simple for the lands heretofore allotted to them, and, if they do not remove with the nation, their pro rata share of all annuities and trust property held by the United States for them, the division to be made under the direction of the President of the United States, after which such persons shall cease to be members of the Delaware tribe and shall not further participate in their councils nor share in their property or annuities.

This Delaware treaty was concluded July 4, 1866. A few days later, to wit, July 19, 1866, a treaty was concluded with the Cherokees, in which Article XV provides as follows:

"The United States may settle any civilized Indians, friendly with the Cherokees and adjacent tribes, within the Cherokee country, on unoccupied lands east of 96°, on such terms as may be agreed upon by any such tribe and the Cherokees, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, which shall be consistent with the following provisions, viz: Should any such tribe or band of Indians settling in said country abandon their tribal organization, there being first paid into the Cherokee national fund a sum of money which shall sustain the same proportion to the then existing national fund that the number of Indians sustain to the whole number of Cherokees then residing in the Cherokee country, they shall be incorporated into and ever after remain a part of the Cherokee Nation, on equal terms in every respect with native citizens. And should any such tribe thus settling in said country decide to preserve their tribal organizations and to maintain their tribal laws, customs, and usages not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the Cherokee Nation,

they shall have a district of country set off for their use by metes and bounds equal to one hundred and sixty acres, if they should so decide, for each man, woman, and child of said tribe, and shall pay for the same into the national fund such price as may be agreed on by them and the Cherokee Nation, subject to the approval of the President of the United States, and in cases of disagreement the price to be fixed by the President.

"And the said tribe thus settled shall also pay into the national fund a sum of money, to be agreed on by the respective parties, not greater in proportion to the whole existing national fund and the probable proceeds of the lands herein ceded or authorized to be ceded or sold than their numbers bear to the whole number of Cherokees then residing in said country, and thence afterwards they shall enjoy all the rights of native Cherokees. But no Indians who have no tribal organizations, or who shall determine to abandon their tribal organizations, shall be permitted to settle east of the 96° of longitude without the consent of the Cherokee national council, or of a delegation duly appointed by it, being first obtained. And no Indians who have and determine to preserve their tribal organizations shall be permitted to settle, as herein provided, east of the 96 of longitude without such consent being first obtained, unless the President of the United States, after a full hearing of the objections offered by said council or delegation to such settlement, shall determine that the objections are insufficient, in which case he may authorize the settlement of such tribe east of the 96 of longitude."

In pursuance of the provisions of the Delaware and Cherokee treaties above cited, the Delaware tribe, exclusive of those who elected to sever tribal relations and become citizens of the United States, on the eighth day of April, 1867, entered into an agreement with the Cherokee Nation, in the preamble of which were cited Article XV of the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation, supra, and Article IV of the treaty between the United States and the Delaware tribe, supra. By this agreement the Cherokees sold to the Delawares for their occupancy, under conditions in the agreement set forth a quantity of land east of 96 west longitude, in the aggregate equal to 160 acres for each individual of the Delaware tribe who was enrolled upon a certain register made February 18, 1867, by the Delaware agent, being the list of the Delawares who elected to remove to the "Indian country," to which list might be added, "only with the consent of the Delaware Council, the names of such other Delawares as

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