Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/215/56/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 14:54:59+00:00

Document:
The grant in letters patent, issued in pursuance of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of September 27, 1830, 7 Stat. 333, conveying the tract described to the Choctaw Indians in fee simple to them and their descendants to inure to them while they should exist as a nation and live thereon, was a grant to the Choctaw Nation, to be administered by it as such; it did not create a trust for the individuals then comprising the nation and their respective descendants in whom as tenants in common the legal title would merge with the equitable title on dissolution of the nation.
"all persons of Choctaw or Chickasaw Indian blood and descent, and members of a designated class of persons for whose exclusive use and benefit a special grant was made"
of certain property in Oklahoma. The principal defendants are the Secretary of the Interior; McCurtain, Chief of the Choctaws; Johnston, Governor of the Chicasaws, and all persons whose names appear with theirs on the rolls of "citizens" of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, respectively, and all persons whose names appear upon the "freedmen" rolls of those Nations, as approved by the Secretary of the Interior on or before March 4, 1907, these being the persons to whom the Secretary of the Interior is proceeding to allot the above-mentioned property, being all the property of the tribe. The main object of the bill is to restrain the allotment to the defendants, and to undo it so far as it has taken place, to establish the title of the plaintiffs for the purpose of allotment, and to have a new distribution decreed. A firm of lawyers is joined on the allegation that they have received a portion of the property under a fraudulent arrangement. The bill was demurred to for want of equity and for want of jurisdiction in the court.
The circuit court examined the treaty and conveyance under which the plaintiffs claim, and held that they did not confer the rights alleged in the bill; that the right to share in the distribution depended on membership in one of the two tribes, except in the case of freedmen, specially provided for; that who were members of the respective tribes, and entitled to enrollment as such, was a matter for Congress to determine; that Congress had adopted certain rolls when finally approved by the Secretary of the Interior; that the Secretary had acted and the plaintiffs had been excluded; that his action was final, and that the court had no jurisdiction in the case. The demurrer to the jurisdiction was sustained, the bill was dismissed, and the plaintiffs appealed to this Court.
The plaintiffs found their claim upon the Choctaw Treaty of Dancing Rabbit creek, September 27, 1830, Article 2, 7 Stat.
"the United States, under a grant specially to be made by the President of the United States, shall cause to be conveyed to the Choctaw Nation a tract of country west of the Mississippi River, in fee simple, to them and their descendants, to inure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it,"
"as intended to be conveyed by the aforesaid article 'in fee simple, to them and their descendants, to insure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it,' liable to no transfer or alienation except to the United States or with their consent."
"to be held on the same terms that the Choctaws now hold it, except the right of disposing of it, which is held in common with the Choctaws and Chickasaws, to be called the Chickasaw district of the Choctaw Nation."
The plaintiffs say that the patent conveyed the legal title to the Choctaw Nation in trust for such persons as were members of the tribe at the date of the treaty, or of the Chickasaw tribe at the date of the treaty with them, and their respective descendants, and that, upon the dissolution of the Nation, the legal title merged with the equitable title, and the designated class became the absolute owners of the property as tenants in common.
The plaintiffs, in aid of their view, refer to various indications that the policy of the United States already was looking toward the disintegration of the Indian tribes, point out that the words on which they rely were interlined in the government draft at the instance of the Indians, and from these and other circumstances argue that their construction is confirmed. They say that the dominant phrase is "in fee simple to them and their descendants," and that the use of the plural "them"
shows a transition from the Nation as formal grantee to the members as beneficiaries. They say that "descendants" was used instead of "heirs" or "children" to avoid questions of legitimacy, or giving an absolute title to living members and their children, and to establish a principle of devolution suitable to the mode of life and unions in those Indian tribes. They conclude that the words "inure to them while they shall exist as a nation and live on it" only mark the duration of the legal title, and do not cut down the equitable right conferred by the earlier words.
verb in the very next article. ("The Choctaw Nation of Indians consent and hereby cede.") Therefore, the second article says "to them", rather than "to it," just as it says "while they [i.e., the Nation] shall exist as a nation," and it adds to the untechnical "in fee simple" untechnical words of limitation of a kind that would indicate the intent to confine the grant to the Nation, which "successors" would not, and at the same time, to imply nothing as to the rules for inheritance of tribal rights, as "heirs" might have seemed to do. We may compare "for the government of the Choctaw Nation of red people and their descendants," in Article 4. The word was addressed to the Indian mind.
the grant has reference to the corporate existence of the Nation as such, and very plainly qualifies the absoluteness of the earlier words, "in fee simple." The suggestion that it limits the duration of the legal title only, but leaves a trust outstanding, is simply arbitrary. If the plural signifies the members of a class constituted cestuis que trustent, the limitation would attach to the trust. But the only answer necessary is that no such separation or intent can be discovered in the words.
What we have said shows another sufficient answer to the plaintiffs' claim. They say and argue, as they must, in order to make out their right to a distribution to themselves, that the Choctaws and Chickasaws no longer exist as nations. But, if so, the grant also was at an end when the nations ceased to be, and it rested with the bounty of the United States to decide what should be done with the land, except so far as it already had been decided by treaties or statutes upon which the plaintiffs do not and cannot rely. It is said that, by Article 18, in case of any well founded doubt as to the construction of the treaty, it is to be construed most favorably toward the Choctaws; but there is no well founded doubt, except whether the construction contended for would have been regarded as favorable to the Choctaws, since it would have cut down the autonomy that the treaty so carefully expressed. See further Stephens v. Cherokee Nation, 174 U. S. 445, 174 U. S. 488; Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, 187 U. S. 294, 187 U. S. 307; Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U. S. 553, 187 U. S. 568.
was to be made among the "citizens" of the tribes according to the rolls, and by § 12 the allottees were to have undisturbed possession when the report of the allotments had been made to the Secretary of the Interior and confirmed by him. By § 29 an agreement with the Choctaws and Chickasaws on the matter was ratified, and, by Act of July 1, 1902, c. 1362, 32 Stat. 641, a further agreement was ratified, which again excluded all except those whose names were on the roll. Art. 35. The bill charges that these agreements, as well as a part of the Act of 1898, were void as excluding some of the plaintiffs who were not residents of the Nation on June 28, 1898, and as not having been approved by the class, or a majority of the class, alleged to have been designated by the treaty and patent that we have discussed. The bill goes on to allege that rolls were prepared by the commission, and approved by the Secretary, within the time allowed by the statutes (Act of April 26, 1906, c. 1876, § 2, 34 Stat. 137), and that the time has expired, but the rolls were not made in conformity to the Act of 1898, and are not correct, but fraudulent, in various particulars set forth.
"to the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw tribes, their heirs and successors, to be held in common; so that each and every member of either tribe shall have an equal, undivided interest in the whole,"
of 1854; therefore, it is unnecessary to construe this treaty. Neither do the plaintiffs claim under any title to be derived from the statute providing for distribution according to the rolls of citizenship. They do not allege that they are citizens, or attempt to bring themselves within any grant later than the treaty and patent that we have discussed. They disclose that their names are not upon the rolls, and that the decision of the Secretary of the Interior has been against them, and they show no reason for our not accepting the rolls and decision as final according to the terms of distributing acts. West v. Hitchcock, 205 U. S. 80; Garfield v. United States, 211 U. S. 249, 211 U. S. 259.

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