Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/221/317.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 10:00:13+00:00

Document:
[221 U.S. 317, 318] Mr. Thomas L. Sloan for Hallowell.
Assistant Attorney General Harr for the United States.
Simeon Hallowell, plaintiff in error, was convicted in the district court of the United States for the district of Nebraska upon the charge of having introduced whisky into the Indian country, in violation of the act of January 30, 1897. 29 Stat. at L. 506, chap. 109. After sentence, Hallowell took the case to the circuit court of appeals for the eighth circuit, and that court certified to this court the question hereinafter set forth.
'That the defendant, Simeon Hallowell, an Omaha Indian, is and was, on the 1st day of August, 1905, an allottee of land granted to him on the Omaha Indian Reservation, in Thurston county, Nebraska; that the allotment so made to him was made under the provisions of the act of Congress of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat. at L. 341, chap. 434); that the first or trust patent was issued to him in the year 1884, and that the twenty-five year period of the trust limitation has not yet expired; and that the fee [221 U.S. 317, 319] title of the allotment so made to him is still held by the United States.
'That the defendant, Simeon Hallowell, on the 1st day of August, 1905, procured at a point outside the said reservation one-half gallon of whisky, which he took to his home, which was within the limits of the Omaha Indian Reservation, and upon an allotment which he had inherited, and which allotment was made under the provisions of the act of Congress of August 7, 1882, and the title of which is held by the government, as the twenty-five- year trust period has not expired. That he took the said whisky into and upon this allotment for the purpose of drinking and using the same himself, and that he did drink said whisky and did give some of it to his friends or visitors to drink.
'That the said Omaha Indian Reservation has been allotted practically in whole, and that many of the allotments of deceased Omaha Indians have been sold to white people, under the provisions of the act of Congress of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. at L. 245, 275, chap. 888); that within the original boundary limits of the Omaha Indian Reservation there are many tracts of land that have been sold, under the provisions of said act, to white persons who are the sole owners thereof, and that the full title to such lands has passed to the purchaser, the same as if a final patent without restriction upon alienation had been issued to the allottee.
'That all of the Omaha Indians who were living in the year 1884, and by law entitled to allotments, received them.
As appears from the certificate upon which this case is submitted, the trust period named in the section had not expired at the time the alleged offense was committed.
It is apparent that, at the time of the commission of the alleged offense, the place wherein it was alleged to have been committed was a part of lands allotted to an Indian; that the title to the lands allotted was still held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the Indian to whom the allotment had been made; that the plaintiff in error had been declared to be a citizen of the United States, and entitled to the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizenship, and entitled to the benefit of the laws, civil and criminal, of the state of Nebraska, in which the Indian allotment was situated, and upon which the offense is alleged to have been committed.
Obviously this act in terms embraced the acts stated in the agreed statement of facts, which we have set forth above. The liquor was introduced into the Indian country and into an Indian allotment, while the title to the same was still held in trust by the government.
The contention of the plaintiff in error is that the act cannot be applied to him because, at the time charged, he had become a citizen, and not subject to such regulation as a ward of the government; and furthermore, that the territory in question had become subject to the jurisdiction of the state of Nebraska, to whose police regulations upon the subject of the liquor traffic he was alone amenable.
When this case was certified here, Re Heff, 197 U.S. 488 , 49 L. ed. 848, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 506, had been decided, but the subsequent cases of the United States v. Celestine, 215 U.S. 278 , 54 L. ed. 195, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 93, and United States v. Sutton, 215 U.S. 291 , 54 L. ed. 200, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 116, were yet undetermined. We had occasion to consider these cases in Tiger v. Western Invest. Co., 221 U.S. 286 , 55 L. ed. --, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 578, and need not here repeat what was there said concerning them.
In United States v. Sutton, supra, it was held that a conviction could be had under the act of January 30th, 1897 (29 Stat. at L. supra), for the offense of introducing liquor into an Indian reservation. It is true that in the Sutton Case the reservation was within the limits of the state of Washington, and that state had disclaimed jurisdiction over Indian lands, which were to remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States, and it was held that while this fact did not deprive the state of the right of punishing crimes committed on such reservation by other than Indians or against Indians. ( Draper v. United States, 164 U.S. 240 , 41 L. ed. 419, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 107), that where jurisdiction and control over Indian lands remained in the United States, Congress had the right to forbid the intro- [221 U.S. 317, 324] duction of liquor into such territory, and to provide for the punishment of those found guilty thereof. Couture v. United States, 207 U.S. 581 , 52 L. ed. 350, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 259, was cited, where a conviction for introducing liquor into the Indian country was affirmed.
It is a result of the recent cases decided in this court (Couture v. United States, 207 U.S. 581 , 52 L. ed. 350, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 259; United States v. Celestine, 215 U.S. 278 , 54 L. ed. 195, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 93; United States v. Sutton, 215 U.S. 291 , 54 L. ed. 200, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 116, and Tiger v. Western Realty Co., 221 U.S. 286 , 55 L. ed. --, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 578) that the mere fact that citizenship has been conferred upon Indians does not necessarily end the right or duty of the United States to pass laws in their interest as a dependent people. A discussion of the matter in those cases renders further comment unnecessary now. Furthermore, in the present case liquor was introduced into an allotment the title to which was still held by the United States, and concerning which it had the power to make rules and regulations under the authority of the Constitution of the United States. While for many purposes the jurisdiction of the state of Nebraska had attached, and the Indian as a citizen was entitled to the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizenship, still the United States, within its own territory and in the interest of the Indians, had jurisdiction to pass laws protecting such Indians from the evil results of intoxicating liquors, as was done in the act of January 30, 1897, which made it an offense to introduce intoxicating liquors into such Indian country, including an Indian allotment. In this view, the question certified will be answered in the affirmative, and it is so ordered.

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