Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/109/329/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 20:16:23+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 109 › Dubuque & S.C. R. Co. v. Des Moines Valley R. Co.
Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company v.
Previous decisions of this Court have settled: 1. That the grant of lands in 1846 to Iowa Territory for the improvement of the Des Moines River did not extend above the Raccoon Fork. 2. That the odd numbered sections within five miles of the river above Raccoon Fork and below the east branch, to which Indian title had been extinguished, did not pass under the act of 1856, granting lands to Iowa to aid in the construction of railroads. 3. That the act of 1862 transferred the title from the United States and vested it in Iowa for the use of its grantees under the river grant.
The Court now decides: 4. That when the act of 1862 took effect, there was no Indian title in the way of the grant, and the title of the defendants in error in this suit was perfected. 5. That the reservation made by the executive under the act of 1846 is to have effect according to its terms, and not according to any mistaken interpretation which may at some time have been given to it.
procured from the land office an illegal certification to certain designated sections within the grant, whereby the plaintiff's title was disquieted, and they prayed judgment that the lands might be decreed to them.
The answer set up that the lands in question were set apart prior to the act of 1856 as part of the lands granted to the State of Iowa by the Act of August 8, 1846, and that the defendants had succeeded to the rights of the state under the latter grant, and were entitled to the lands in controversy.
The district court gave judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. The supreme court of the state on appeal reversed that judgment. The cause was brought before this Court by writ of error. The facts necessary to the understanding of the issues involved appear in the opinion of the Court.
1. That the grant of lands to the Territory of Iowa for the improvement of the Des Moines River, made by the Act of August 8, 1846, c. 103, 9 Stat. 77, did not extend above the Raccoon Fork. Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company v. Litchfield, 23 How. 66.
v. Baker, 17 Wall. 144; Homestead Company v. Valley Railroad Company, 17 Wall. 153; Wolsey v. Chapman, 101 U. S. 767.
2. The reservation as in fact made was along the east branch, and not the main river, where these lands are.
These objections present the only questions we have now to consider.
1. As to the Indian title.
"to be assigned and allotted, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the tribes now living thereon, or to such other tribes as the President may locate thereon for hunting and other purposes."
"Beginning at the upper fork of the Des Moines River and passing the source of the Little Sioux and Floyds Rivers to the fork of the first creek, which falls into the Big Sioux or Calamet on the east side."
upper fork of the Des Moines as understood by the parties when the treaty was concluded. If the Lizard, then all are north of the line; if the east branch, all, or nearly all, are south.
On the 28th of July and the 5th of August, 1851, treaties were negotiated with the Sioux by which they surrendered all their title to lands in Iowa. The ratification of these treaties, in the form they were originally made, was not advised by the Senate, but on the 23d of June, 1852, certain amendments were proposed on the acceptance of which the President was authorized to conclude the treaties "as amended." The amendments were agreed to by the Indians on the 4th and 8th of September, 1852, and the ratification of the treaties was duly proclaimed on the 24th of February, 1853.
"one equal moiety, in alternate sections, of the public lands (remaining unsold and not otherwise disposed of, encumbered, or appropriated) in a strip five miles in width on each side of said river, to be selected,"
"SIR: I herewith return all the papers in the Des Moines case, which were recalled from your office about the first of the present month."
the surveys have progressed or may hereafter be completed and returned."
"A. H. H. STUART, Secretary"
"The Commissioner of the General Land Office."
In obedience to these instructions, lists were made out as the surveys progressed, and submitted to the Secretary for his approval. His last approval, before the passage of the railroad grant of 1856, was on the 17th of December, 1853. The lands now in controversy were not surveyed at that time, and were not included in this or any of the lists previously made.
"I am willing to recognize the claim of the state, and approve the selections without prejudice to the rights, if any there be, of others, thus leaving the question as to the proper construction of the statute entirely open to the action of the judiciary."
for his approval as the surveys were completed and returned. At this time, all the Indian title that could, by any possibility, interfere with the grant, as claimed by the state, was in the process of extinguishment. Treaties which were to have that effect had already been negotiated with the Indians, and were waiting ratification by the United States. There could hardly have been a doubt in the minds of any of the parties that long before any judicial determination of the matters in dispute every vestige of Indian title would be gone. Hence, to leave "the question of the construction of the statute" -- that is to say, the effect of the grant -- "entirely open," all the lands within the limit, surveyed or unsurveyed, and, as we think, encumbered by an Indian title or unencumbered, were reserved from sale until the "action of the judiciary." This reservation was in force when the act of 1856 was passed, and it is the reservation which this Court had held prevented the grant under that act from attaching to the lands within the limits of the river grant as claimed by the state. The act of 1862 afterwards, in express terms, granted to the state, for the use of its grantees, "the alternate sections, designated by odd numbers, lying within five miles of said river, between the Raccoon Fork and the northern boundary of the state." At this time, there was no Indian title in the way of the grant, and if the reservation was good as against the railroad companies in 1856, the title of the Des Moines Valley Railroad Company, the grantee of the state, was perfected.
2. As to the east branch.
settlements between the state and the United States by allowances in account. The same may be said of the marks on the plats sent out from the General Land Office to the local land officers. They were clerical mistakes, growing out of an imperfect knowledge of the geography of the country. They did not change the reservation, but only gave wrong information as to what it was. There is no question of estoppel as a consequence of the mistake involved. The railroad grant of 1856 was subject to the reservation for the river grant. There is no pretense of fraud anywhere, and the record does not show that the conduct of the appellants or their grantors has been in any way influenced by the plats or the unauthorized selections and certificates. They knew or ought to have known that the reservation was confined to the river lands, and that the branch was not the river. Hence the reservation is to have effect according to its terms, and not according to any mistaken interpretation which may at some time have been given to it.

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