Ernest Leroy Wilkinson was born in Ogden, Utah, on 4 May 1899, to Robert and Cecilia Wilkinson. His father’s side of the family emigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1875, after converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the early 1870's. His mother’s family came from Denmark in 1865, after they joined the LDS church in 1860.

Wilkinson was baptized into the Church on 19 May 1907, but grew up rather inactively. He attended school in Ogden, and in 1913 enrolled in Weber Academy at his mother’s suggestion. At school, he was a very hardworking student and was involved in many activities, such as debate and student government. When Wilkinson finished his senior year at Weber Academy, he chose to attend the new Weber College for one year before entering Brigham Young University. It was around this time that World War I was going on and Wilkinson tried to enlist in the army. He was rejected, however, because of his small size. He instead enlisted in a Student Army Training Corps at BYU in October of 1918. Less than two months later, though, the War ended and the SATC closed. Wilkinson was then admitted into BYU as a sophomore. While he was a student there, he was very involved in student activities, including being elected class president. Wilkinson once said that he never allowed his studies to interfere with his college education.

He graduated from BYU in 1921 and accepted a position teaching at Weber College, from 1921 to 1923. It was at this point in his life that he met and married Alice Valera Ludlow. They were married on 15 August 1923. The couple immediately moved to Washington D.C., where they believed Wilkinson had a position working for Senator William King. However, that position fell through and he attained a job working at Business High School. He also took classes at George Washington University, where he was once again elected class president. He graduated from GWU in 1926, and went on to Harvard Law School, where he was awarded a doctor of juridical science degree. In 1927, Wilkinson accepted a position as a professor of law at the New Jersey Law School, and in 1928, also accepted a position with Hughes, Schurman, and Dwight, a prominent New York City law firm. In 1932, he resigned as a professor at the New Jersey Law School in order to work full-time at the law firm. Three years later, Wilkinson decided to end his employment with the firm, and accepted a partnership offer with Walter G. Moyle. That same year, 1935, several Indian tribes engaged Wilkinson to represent them in various law suits. He worked with Moyle for the next five years, when he decided to maintain his own law firm, which he did from 1940 to 1950. A majority of his work during that time was concentrated on preparing Indian tribal claims for trial.

In July of 1950, George Albert Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, telephoned Wilkinson and offered him the position of President of Brigham Young University. Wilkinson accepted the offer and was inaugurated as President of the University in October of 1951. It was also during this time that he formed the law firm of Wilkinson, Boyden and Cragun, which was later changed to Wilkinson, Cragun, and Barker, in 1953. By this time, Wilkinson was beginning to be known among Indian tribes and many tribes sought him out to represent them. He continued his service as president of BYU, without accepting a salary, for thirteen years. He then resigned, announcing his intention to run for Senate. He lost the senatorial election and returned to BYU as president, once again. He stayed at BYU for seven more years, when he submitted his resignation and ended his term of presidency in July of 1971. During all this time, Wilkinson’s family was growing. He and his wife, Alice, had five children, Ernest Ludlow, Marian, Alice Ann, David Lawrence, and Douglas Dwight. He enjoyed the time spent with his family after his resignation. Ernest Wilkinson died on 6 April 1978.

John Wiley Cragun was born on 8 December 1906, in Ogden, Utah, to Wiley Gidoni Cragun and Joanna Dyan Seaman. He began working in the Interior Department in the field of accounting before he began to study the law. He later became an associate in Ernest Wilkinson’s law firm in 1938. He left to be an associate of Robert Ash in a tax practice. In 1950, he returned to Wilkinson, Boyden, and Cragun as a partner. He was known to be an expert in writing briefs. He married three times and had two children. John Cragun died on 31 March 1969.

Robert Whitney Barker was born on 9 July 1919, in Ogden, Utah. He received his Bachelor of Science degree, with honors, at the University of Utah and then received his Juris Doctor at Georgetown University. Barker practiced law as a partner in the firm of Barker and Barker from 1947 to 1948 and then became an associate member in Ernest Wilkinson’s firm from 1948 to 1950. In 1951, he left Wilkinson’s firm to be an administrative assistant for Senator Wallace F. Bennett for two years. Barker then returned to the law firm of Wilkinson, Cragun, and Barker, as a partner. He served as a Regional Representative of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the Philadelphia region. He also served as the legal representative of the Church in Washington, D.C. During World War II, he served as a major in the Field Artillery in Africa, Sicily, and Europe. Robert Barker died in 1987.

Beginning in the late 1920's and early 1930's, the United States became aware for a need to reform Indian administration. For nearly sixteen years, the U.S. government proposed and rejected bills regarding the American Indians. Finally, on 2 August 1946, the Indian Claims Commission Act was passed and the Commission was set into motion. The Indian Claims Commission was created on 13 August 1946 after three constituted members were sworn in on 10 April 1946 by President Harry S Truman. President Truman named as Chief Commissioner, Edgar E. Witt, former Lieutenant Governor of Texas, and as his two assistant Commissioners, Louis J. O’Marr, an ex-Attorney General of Wyoming, and William M. Holt, a Nebraska lawyer.

The Indian Claims Commission was established as an independent agency to hear and determine claims against the United States on behalf of any tribe, band, or other identifiable group of American Indians living within the United States. The claims against the U.S. had to be filed within five years of the creation of the ICC or Congress would no longer consider special legislation for individual tribes. Congress also permitted the ICC only ten years to process all claims against the United States. Though there were limitations on the ICC, it did help to remove two obstacles for Indians: they no longer had to have a title to their lands that was made legitimate by the sovereign through recognition to gain compensation for its taking, and the ICC established to eliminate the need for a special jurisdictional act to allow entrance into the Court of Claims.

The creation of the Indian Claims Commission was spurred by many things. (1) There was increased awareness in Congress, stimulated by numerous jurisdictional acts, of the moral wrongs that needed to be faced and fixed, (2) there was a growing movement for reform of Indian administration in the 1920’s and 1930’s, (3) the end of the claims would remove a burden from the Congress, courts, and bureaucracy, (4) the matter of the unsettled land title that these claims raised, (5) by the 1930’s, the clash between the Interior Department and the Justice Department over Indian claims did not fit well with the broader issue of legislative reorganization, and (6) to protect tribes from excess attorney fees, which the law mandated a ten percent maximum on legal charges.

The Commission began its first full fiscal year in July 1947 with an appropriation of $150,000. The difficulty encountered with the ICC was unexpected. The claims brought up by the American Indians were not few; many of the same tribes filed more than one claim. Also, many different tribes filed claims for the same land. Because of the overwhelming amount of claims, the ICC did not really take off until five years after its initiation. Realizing that the ICC was not given sufficient time, Congress extended the life of the Commission in 1956, 1961, 1967, 1972, and 1976. The Indian Claims Commission was abolished on 30 September 1978, after over thirty years of existence.

The end result of the Commission was that 549 claims were finished out of 850 originally filed and fifty-seven percent of the claims received awards. Over $800 million was awarded on 285 claims, but this did not meet the demands of the Indians. They wanted their land back and not money. The Commission had failed to fulfill its mandate to achieve a truly final settlement of the Indian Claims. It was a case where “primarily white bureaucrats attempted to deal with Indian issues without consulting those who both knew more about the problems and were to be bound by the resultant policies.”