Original Indian Title

Abstract

RECENT decisions of the Supreme Court recognizing the validity of original Indian title' make the existence and extent of such aboriginal ownership a relevant issue in title examinations whenever a chain of title is traced back to a federal grant or patent. Grantees who have relied on the Great Seal of a federal department as assuring the validity of land grant titles have not infrequently discovered to their sorrow the truth of the old French saying, "Meme le plus belle fille du monde ne peut donner que ce que I'a." Not even the Federal Government can grant what it does not have. The nature of Indian title and its extinguishment thus becomes, in those states that have been carved out of the Federal.public domain, a matter of concern to real property lawyers generally.