Richard Nixon actually said...
In a comprehensive opinion, Attorney General Mitchell reviewed the unintentional but mistaken actions of 1907 and ruled that the executive order [Proclamation 725] of that time did not constitute a 'taking' of the land by the Government in the legal sense and that it can be restored by executive action now.
Context
Statement on Signing Executive Order Providing for Return of Certain Lands to the Yakima Indian Reservation.
05/19/1972