Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/281/206/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 17:50:10+00:00

Document:
1. Mandamus is employed to compel performance of a ministerial duty and also to compel action in matters involving judgment and discretion, but not to direct the exercise of judgment or discretion in a particular way nor to direct the retraction or reversal of action already taken in the exercise of either. P. 281 U. S. 218.
2. When the duty of the Secretary of the Interior or other executive officer, in the administration of statutes, is in a particular situation so plainly prescribed as to be free from doubt and equivalent to a positive command, it is regarded as being so far ministerial that the performance may be compelled by mandamus. Id.
3. But when the duty is not thus plainly prescribed, but depends upon a statute or statutes the construction or application of which is not free from doubt, it is regarded as involving the character of judgment or discretion that cannot be controlled by mandamus. Id.
were omitted from the census by mistake or were born after it was taken.
(1) That a ruling of the Secretary of the Interior placing the children of an enrolled mixed-blood mother on the supplementary rolls upon the ground that they were entitled to annuities notwithstanding that she had abandoned her tribal relationship before the children were born was a ruling made in the exercise of a continuing administrative authority, and subject to be reconsidered by his successor and revoked for the future if found wrong. United States v. Atkins, 260 U. S. 220, distinguished. P. 281 U. S. 216.
(2) The questions whether the fund is a tribal fund and whether, with the tribe still existing, the distribution of the annuities is to be confined to members of the tribe (with exceptions not here material) are questions involving the exercise by the Secretary of the Interior of judgment and discretion as to which he cannot be controlled by mandamus. P. 281 U. S. 221.
(3) The continued existence of the tribe, having been recognized by Congress and by the Secretary of the Interior, is not open to question in this case. Id.
(4) The time fixed for the final distribution of the fund is so remote that no one is now in a position to ask special relief or direction respecting that distribution. P. 281 U. S. 222.
Certiorari, 279 U.S. 833, to review a judgment of the court of appeals of the District of Columbia, which reversed a ruling of the Supreme Court of the District denying a writ of mandamus.
the supplemental rolls of the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota and to pay to each of them a per capita share of all future distributions, whether of interest or principal, made from the fund created under § 7 of the Act of January 14, 1889, c. 24, 25 Stat. 642.
The writ was denied by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, but that ruling was reversed by the Court of Appeals, 30 F.2d 989, and the matter is here for review on certiorari.
the act made provision for obtaining, through a commission, a cession of all of their tribal lands, save portions of the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations needed for allotments; for using the unceded lands in making allotments in severalty, which were to be held subject to prescribed restrictions against alienation, incumbrance, and taxation during a period of twenty-five years, or longer, if the President so directed, and for selling the ceded lands and creating with the net proceeds an interest-bearing fund which was to be held in the United States Treasury and expended for the benefit of the Indians, as will appear later on.
The act required that the cession have the assent of two-thirds of the male adults and have the approval of the President; directed that the commission obtaining the cession make a census roll of each band or tribe as a guide in ascertaining whether the requisite number of Indians assented to the cession and in making contemplated allotments and payments; required, with exceptions not here material, that the Indians other than those on the Red Lake Reservation be removed to the White Earth Reservation, there to receive allotments, and directed that, after the completion of necessary preliminaries, allotments be made to all of the Indians as soon as practicable.
The contemplated cession was obtained from the Indians and was approved by the President, March 4, 1890. The intended census rolls were made and transmitted to the Secretary of the Interior. Several provisions of the act have now been fully executed, and others are still in process of administration. The fund created from the proceeds of the sale of the ceded lands is a large one, and the relators here are asserting a right to share in all future distributions therefrom.
"Sec. 7. That all money accruing from the disposal of said lands in conformity with the provisions of this act shall, after deducting all the expenses of making the census, of obtaining the cession and relinquishment, of making the removal and allotments, and of completing the surveys and appraisals, in this act provided, be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of all the Chippewa Indians in the Minnesota as a permanent fund, which shall draw interest at the rate of five percentum per annum, payable annually for the period of fifty years, after the allotments provided for in this act have been made, and which interest and permanent funds shall be expended for the benefit of said Indians in manner following: One-half of said interest shall, during the said period of fifty years, except in the cases hereinafter otherwise provided, be annually paid in cash in equal shares to the heads of families and guardians of orphan minors for their use, and one-fourth of said interest shall, during the same period and with the like exception, be annually paid in cash in equal shares per capita to all other classes of said Indians, and the remaining one-fourth of said interest shall, during the said period of fifty years, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, be devoted exclusively to the establishment and maintenance of a system of free schools among said Indians, in their midst and for their benefit, and at the expiration of the said fifty years, the said permanent fund shall be divided and paid to all of said Chippewa Indians and their issue then living, in cash, in equal shares: Provided, That Congress may, in its discretion, from time to time, during the said period of fifty years, appropriate, for the purpose of promoting civilization and self-support among the said Indians, a portion of said principal sum, not exceeding five percentum thereof.
The United States shall, for the benefit of said Indians, advance to them as such interest as aforesaid the sum of ninety thousand dollars annually, counting from the time when the removal and allotments provided for in this act shall have been made, until such time as said permanent fund, exclusive of the deductions hereinbefore provided for, shall equal or exceed the sum of three million dollars, less any actual interest that may in the meantime accrue from accumulations of said permanent fund; the payments of such interest to be made yearly in advance, and, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, may, as to three-fourths thereof, during the first five years, be expended in procuring livestock, teams, farming implements, and seed for such of the Indians to the extent of their shares as are fit and desire to engage in farming, but as to the rest, in cash, and whenever said permanent fund shall exceed the sum of three million dollars, the United States shall be fully reimbursed out of such excess, for all the advances of interest made as herein contemplated and other expenses hereunder."
Comptroller, after observing that the clauses were obscurely worded, ruled that the construction given to them by the commission had become the true construction through its adoption in actual practice, and should be respected accordingly. 3 Comp. Dec. 158. All subsequent payments have been made, as the prior ones were, in accordance with that construction.
Manifestly, some preliminary steps would need to be taken before the interest annuities could be rightly paid. The number of Indians entitled to participate would need to be ascertained so that the per capita share to be paid to each could be calculated, and those so entitled would need to be listed so that the paying tellers would know whom to pay. From the beginning, these practical needs have been met by taking the commission's census rolls as a primary guide, eliminating the names of Indians dying after those rolls were made, making supplemental rolls of Indians erroneously omitted from the census rolls and of Indian children entitled to participate but born after the census was taken, and using the two sets of rolls -- appropriately brought up to date and made to include only persons in being at the time -- as a correct basis for the necessary calculation and listing.
This general statement will open the way for a better appreciation of the special facts and contentions in the present case.
The nine relators are minor children of Sarah and Mall Kadrie, and were born, the first four in Canada and the others at International Falls and St. Paul in Minnesota, after their mother had abandoned her tribal relations and was permanently residing with her husband among white people. So, while all of the relators have a minor fraction of Minnesota Chippewa blood, they were born of parents having no tribal relations then or since, and have lived only in white communities.
"All children born to annuitants either before or since the last preceding payment, who have not already been enrolled, should be enrolled with their parents. This includes cases where the mother is an Indian woman married to a white man, and such woman and her issue are recognized by the tribe as belonging thereto, and where the family so founded identifies itself and affiliates with the tribe of which the mother is a recognized member. When an Indian woman, by her marriage with a white man has, in effect, withdrawn from the tribe and is no longer identified with the tribal community and interests, the offspring of such a marriage are not entitled to share in annuities or other benefits as Indians, and must not be enrolled."
In 1919, the Secretary of the Interior, following an opinion given by the solicitor for that Department, ruled that Mrs. Kadrie's children were entitled to share in the interest annuities. The children born up to that time were then placed on the supplemental rolls, and those born thereafter were enrolled soon after birth. All then shared for a time in the annuities. In 1927, a succeeding Secretary of the Interior, adopting and applying an opinion given by a succeeding solicitor, held that these children were not entitled to share in the interest annuities, and accordingly directed that their enrollment be cancelled and no further payment be made to them.
In the present petition, the relators assert that the decision of the Secretary of the Interior in 1927, although given after notice and hearing, is void in that the then Secretary was without power to reconsider and revoke the decision of his predecessor in 1919 on the same matter, and they further assert that the decision in 1927 is otherwise wrong, in that it rests upon untenable rulings to the effect that the fund established under § 7 is a tribal fund, and is held and being administered as such by the United States, that the tribe has not been dissolved, and that the right to share in the annuities from the fund is confined to members of the tribe save in exceptional instances which do not include the relators. Upon these grounds, the relators seek a writ of mandamus directing, in substance, that the Secretary of the Interior put aside the decision of 1927 and restore and give effect to that of 1919.
in 1919 was not a judgment pronounced in a judicial proceeding, but a ruling made by an executive officer in the exertion of administrative authority. That authority was neither exhausted nor terminated by its exertion on that occasion, but was in its nature continuing. Under it, the Secretary who made the decision could reconsider the matter and revoke the decision if found wrong, and so of his successor. The latter was charged, no less than the former had been, with the duty of supervising the payment of the interest annuities and of causing them to be distributed among those entitled to them and no others, and, if he found that individuals not so entitled were sharing in the annuities by reason of a mistaken or erroneous ruling of the former, his authority to revoke that ruling and stop further payments under it was the same as if it had been his own act. [Footnote 6] The power and duties of such an office are impersonal and unaffected by a change in the person holding it.
except for such fraud or mistake as would afford ground for avoiding a judgment in adversary proceedings. There is no like provision in the Act of 1889. Nor does it contain any mention of supplemental rolls. They are administrative devices intended to safeguard and facilitate the distribution of the annuities. No doubt they are intended to be evidential of the right to share therein, but there is no basis for holding them conclusive or not subject to revision.
As the decision of the Secretary in 1927 was made in the exercise of lawful authority, it becomes necessary to examine the complaint that the decision on the merits is wrong. In doing so, there is need for having in mind the limited scope of the remedy here invoked.
upon him the jurisdiction to make. Mandamus has never been regarded as the proper writ to control the judgment and discretion of an officer as to the decision of a matter which the law gave him the power and imposed upon him the duty to decide for himself. The writ never can be used as a substitute for a writ of error. Nor does the fact that no writ of error will lie in such a case as this, by which to review the judgment of the Secretary, furnish any foundation for the claim that mandamus may therefore he awarded."
"Inasmuch as the decision of the Secretary, revoking his prior approval of the proposed adjustment, was not arbitrary or capricious, but was given after a hearing, and in the exercise of a judgment and discretion confided to him by law, it cannot be reviewed, or he be compelled to retract it, by mandamus."
in last analysis, this is a mere argument seeking to destroy a lawful power by the suggestion of a possible abuse."
It is apparent that, with the question of the Secretary's authority resolved against the relators, the only question open in this proceeding is whether the decision of 1927 was given is the discharge of a ministerial duty controllable by mandamus or of a duty requiring the exercise of judgment or discretion not thus controllable.
and is not open to question here. [Footnote 11] With the tribe still existing, the criticism by counsel for the relators of the Secretary's decision in other particulars loses much of its force.
The time fixed for the final distribution is as yet so remote that no one is now in a position to ask special relief or direction respecting that distribution.
From what has been said, it follows that the case is not one in which mandamus will lie.
Judgment of Supreme Court affirmed.
These Indians formerly were part of the Chippewa or Ojibway Nation of the Great Lakes region. The Nation comprised many subordinate bands or tribes, some of which came to be permanently located in Canada and others in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and perhaps other states. The bands or tribes which came to be seated in Minnesota have latterly been designated as the Chippewas of Minnesota by way of distinguishing them from those seated elsewhere. Treaties, September 24, 1819, 7 Stat. 203; June 16, 1820, 7 Stat. 206; August 5, 1826, 7 Stat. 290; July 29, 1837, 7 Stat. 536; October 4, 1842, 7 Stat. 591; February 22, 1855, 10 Stat. 1165; March 11, 1863, 12 Stat. 1249; October 2, 1863, 13 Stat. 667; May 7, 1864, 13 Stat. 693; March 19, 1807, 16 Stat. 719; House Doc. Vol. 61, 59th Cong., 1st Sess. pp. 277-280; History of Ojibway Nation, Copway, pp. 170-171; Minn.His.Soc.Cols. Vol. 5, pp. 37-40, 507-509; also Vol. IX, pp. 55-56.
Acts March 3, 1875, c. 131, § 15, 18 Stat. 420; February 8, 1887, c. 119, § 6, 24 Stat. 390; August 9, 1888, c. 818, § 2, 25 Stat. 392.
"The ancestor must be found to have been of the tribal membership at the time of the creation of the trust. . . . His descendants (whether children or grandchildren) take an interest not as tribal members, but as of the ancestor's blood, his blood entitling him and them alike, because it was tribal blood."
"Sarah Kadrie and her children are 'issue' of her mother, a full-blood Chippewa Indian duly enrolled, and, as such, they will be entitled at the expiration of the trust period, to share in the distribution of the trust fund, and meanwhile they are equally entitled to share in the annuities arising from that fund. Those rights they have not forfeited either by acquiring foreign citizenship or by abandoning, or failing to acquire, residence on the Indian reservation or with the tribe."
Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, 187 U. S. 294, 187 U. S. 307; Gritts v. Fisher, 224 U. S. 640, 224 U. S. 642; Sizemore v. Brady, 235 U. S. 441, 235 U. S. 446; La Roque v. United States, 239 U. S. 62, 239 U. S. 66; Oakes v. United States, 172 F. 305, 307.
United States v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378, 102 U. S. 402-403; Noble v. Union River Logging R. Co., 147 U. S. 165, 147 U. S. 171; Garfield v. Goldsby, 211 U. S. 249, 211 U. S. 261-262.
West v. Standard Oil Co., 278 U. S. 200, 278 U. S. 210; Beley v. Naphtaly, 169 U. S. 353, 169 U. S. 364; Knight v. U.S. Land Association, 142 U. S. 161, 142 U. S. 181-182; New Orleans v. Paine, 147 U. S. 261, 147 U. S. 266; Greenameyer v. Coate, 212 U. S. 434, 212 U. S. 442; Parcher v. Gillen, 26 L.D. 34, 43; Aspen Consolidated Mining Co. v. Williams, 27 L.D. 1, 10-11. And see Pearsons v. Williams, 202 U. S. 281, 202 U. S. 284-285.
Commissioner of Patents v. Whiteley, 4 Wall. 522, 71 U. S. 534; United States ex rel. v. Black, 128 U. S. 40, 128 U. S. 48; Riverside Oil Co. v. Hitchcock, 190 U. S. 316, 190 U. S. 321-325; Louisiana v. McAdoo, 234 U. S. 627, 234 U. S. 633; Interstate Commerce Commission v. Waste Merchants' Assn., 260 U. S. 32, 260 U. S. 34.
Roberts v. United States, 176 U. S. 221, 176 U. S. 231; Lane v. Hoglund, 244 U. S. 174, 244 U. S. 181; Work v. McAlester-Edwards Co., 262 U. S. 200, 262 U. S. 208; Work v. Lynn, 266 U. S. 161, 266 U. S. 168, et seq.; Wilbur v. Krushnic, 280 U. S. 306.
Riverside Oil Co. v. Hitchcock, 190 U. S. 316, 190 U. S. 324-325; Ness v. Fisher, 223 U. S. 683, 223 U. S. 691; Knight v. Lane, 228 U. S. 6, 228 U. S. 13; Lane v. Mickadiet, 241 U. S. 201, 241 U. S. 208-209; Alaska Smokeless Coal Co. v. Lane, 250 U. S. 549, 250 U. S. 555; Hall v. Payne, 254 U. S. 343, 254 U. S. 347; Work v. Rives, 267 U. S. 175, 267 U. S. 183-184. And see United States ex rel. v. Hitchcock, 205 U. S. 80, 205 U. S. 86.
Acts of August 1, 1914, c. 222, 38 Stat. 592; May 18, 1910, c. 125, 39 Stat. 135; March 2, 1917, c. 146, 39 Stat. 979; May 25, 1918, c. 86, 40 Stat. 572; June 30, 1919, c. 4, 41 Stat. 14; February 14, 1920, c. 75, 41 Stat. 419; November 19, 1921, c. 133, 42 Stat. 221; January 30, 1925, c. 114, 43 Stat. 798; February 19, 1926, c. 22, 44 Stat., P. 2, 7; March 4, 1929, c. 705, 45 Stat. 1584.
United States v. Holliday, 3 Wall. 407, 70 U. S. 419; United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 188 U. S. 445; Tiger v. Western Investment Co., 221 U. S. 286, 221 U. S. 315.

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