Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/322/363/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 02:35:33+00:00

Document:
Full-blood Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes may not be divested of title to restricted land by a sale pursuant to a judgment of a state court in a partition proceeding to which the United States was not a party. Construing Act of June 14, 1918; Act of April 12, 1926. P. 322 U. S. 368.
Certiorari, 321 U.S. 758, to review the affirmance of a judgment which in a suit removed from a state court to the federal court and in which the United States intervened, quieted title to lands in the respondent here.
The question in this case is whether full-blood Indians of the Five Civilized Tribes may be divested of title to restricted land by a sale in partition proceedings to which the United States is not a party.
14, 1918 (25 U.S.C. § 355, 40 Stat. 606), Congress declared that such lands were "made subject to the laws of the State of Oklahoma, providing for the partition of real estate." [Footnote 2] By § 3 of the Act of April 12, 1926 (44 Stat. 239) Congress provided for the service upon the Superintendent for the Five Civilized Tribes of a prescribed written notice of the pendency of any suit to which a restricted member of the Tribes in Oklahoma or the restricted heirs or grantees are parties and which involves claims to "lands allotted to a citizen of the Five Civilized Tribes or the proceeds, issues, rents, and profits derived from the same." By that Act, the United States is given an opportunity to appear in the cause, and is bound by the judgment which is entered.
1941, respondent instituted in the same court the present action against the Indian heirs to quiet his title. Notice was served on the Superintendent. The heirs answered disclaiming any interest. At the instance of the United States, the cause was removed to the federal District Court as authorized by § 3 of the Act of April 12, 1926. The United States then answered, alleging that the partition proceedings were void for lack of the United States as a party and for want of service on the Superintendent under § 3 of the Act of April 12, 1926. It prayed that the deed in partition be set aside and title quieted in the heirs. The District Court held that the partition proceedings were valid, and quieted title in respondent. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 138 F.2d 985. The case is here on a petition for a writ of certiorari which we granted because of the importance in the administration of Indian affairs of the question presented.
language, nature, and purpose of Acts of Congress which vest jurisdiction over specified Indian affairs in a designated court that Congress not only has made that tribunal the exclusive agency to effectuate the federal policy, but also has dispensed with any requirement that the United States be a party to the proceedings. See Hy-yu-tse-mil-kin v. Smith, 194 U. S. 401, 194 U. S. 413-414. Winton v. Amos, 255 U. S. 373, 255 U. S. 392. But we do not think that Congress did more by those provisions of the Act of June 14, 1918, with which we are presently concerned than to grant the Oklahoma state courts jurisdiction over partition proceedings.
Restricted Indian land is property in which the United States has an interest.
"This national interest is not to be expressed in terms of property, or to be limited to the assertion of rights incident to the ownership of a reversion or to the holding of a technical title in trust."
functions which we have enumerated. That alone would not be fatal to respondent"s position if it could be inferred that those governmental interests were to be protected by means other than making the United States a party. But, as we have said, the Act in question purports to be no more than a jurisdictional statute. It fails to say that the United States is not a necessary party; nor does it suggest that the United States or its officers are confined to a limited role in the proceedings. Cf. United States v. Candelaria, 271 U. S. 432, 271 U. S. 444. We must read the Act in light of the history of restricted lands. That history shows that the United States has long been considered a necessary party to such proceedings in view of the large governmental interests which are at stake. We will not infer from a mere grant of jurisdiction to a state or federal court to adjudicate claims to restricted lands and to order their sale or other distribution that Congress dispensed with that longstanding requirement. The purpose to effectuate such a major change in policy must be clear.
state court may be implied. Service of process therefore might be had in the usual way (see Town of Okemah v. United States, supra, p. 966) even in absence of the 1926 Act.
35 Stat. 312; 44 Stat. 239; 45 Stat. 495; 47 Stat. 777. And see Parker v. Richard, 250 U. S. 235; Harris v. Bell, 254 U. S. 103; Stewart v. Keyes, 295 U. S. 403.
"That the lands of full-blood members of any of the Five Civilized Tribes are hereby made subject to the laws of the State of Oklahoma, providing for the partition of real estate. Any land allotted in such proceedings to a full-blood Indian, or conveyed to him upon his election to take the same at the appraisement, shall remain subject to all restrictions upon alienation and taxation obtaining prior to such partition. In case of a sale under any decree, or partition, the conveyance thereunder shall operate to relieve the land described of all restrictions of every character."
"That a determination of the question of fact as to who are the heirs of any deceased citizen allottee of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians who may die or may have heretofore died, leaving restricted heirs, by the probate court of the State of Oklahoma having jurisdiction to settle the estate of said deceased, conducted in the manner provided by the laws of said State for the determination of heirship in closing up the estates of deceased persons, shall be conclusive of said question."
"That whenever any nontaxable land of a restricted Indian of the Five Civilized Tribes or of any other Indian tribe is sold to any State, county, or municipality for public improvement purposes or is acquired under existing law by any State, county, or municipality by condemnation or other proceedings for such public purposes, or is sold under existing law to any other person or corporation for other purposes, the money received for said land may, in the discretion and with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, be reinvested in other lands selected by said Indian, and such land so selected and purchased shall be restricted as to alienation, lease, or incumbrance, and nontaxable in the same quantity and upon the same terms and conditions as the nontaxable lands from which the reinvested funds were derived, and such restrictions shall appear in the conveyance."
"Whenever any restricted Indian land or interests in land, other than sales or leases of oil, gas, or other minerals therein, are offered for sale pursuant to the terms of this or any other Act of Congress, the Secretary of the Interior shall have a preference right, in his discretion, to purchase the same for or in behalf of any other Indian or Indians of the same or any other tribe, at a fair valuation to be fixed by the appraisement satisfactory to the Indian owner or owners, or, if offered for sale at auction, said Secretary shall have a preference right, in his discretion, to purchase the same for or in behalf of any other Indian or Indians by meeting the highest bid otherwise offered therefor."
And see United States v. Jones, 109 U. S. 513, 109 U. S. 519-521.
See Cohen, Handbook of Federal Indian Law (1942), p. 381.

References: § 355
 § 3
 § 3
 § 3
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.