Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/224/413/index.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 22:36:12+00:00

Document:
The United States has capacity to maintain a suit to set aside conveyances made by allottee Indians of allotted lands within the statutory period of restriction, and this suit brought against numerous defendants, all of whom were grantees of allottees of the same tribe, is properly maintainable in equity; the return of the consideration to the grantee is not essential; there is no defect of parties because the allottee Indians making the conveyances are not joined; there is no misjoinder of causes of action, and the bill is not multifarious.
Congress has power to extend the restrictions upon alienation of allotted lands by allottee Indians, Tiger v. Western Investment Co., 221 U. S. 286, and so held that the provision for extending the period of alienation of lands allotted in severalty to full-blood Cherokees in the Act of May 27, 1908, 35 Stat. 312, c.199, is a valid exercise by Congress of its power over Indian affairs.
The relations of the United States to the Cherokee Indians as established by treaties and statutes reviewed, and held that, in executing the policy of extinguishing the tribal organization and title, and the allotment of the tribal lands in severalty, the intent of Congress was to fulfill the national obligation not only by an equitable apportionment of the property, but by safeguarding, through suitable restrictions, the individual ownership of the allottees.
The placing of restrictions upon the right of alienation was an essential part of the plan of individual allotment of tribal lands among the members of the Five Civilized Tribes, and such restrictions evinced the continuance to this extent of the guardianship of the United States over the Indians as wards of the Nation.
Conferring citizenship upon an allottee Indian is not inconsistent with retaining control over his disposition of lands allotted to him. Tiger v. Western Investment Co., 221 U. S. 286.
The maintenance of limitations prescribed by Congress as part of its plan for distribution of Indian lands is distinctly an interest of the United States, and one which it may sue in its own courts to enforce.
A transfer of allottee lands in violation of statutory restrictions is not simply a violation of the proprietary rights of the Indian, but of the governmental rights of the United States.
Where there is a violation of the rights of the United States, and a justiciable question as to the effect thereof, the United States may invoke the jurisdiction of a court of equity, and a pecuniary interest in the controversy is not essential. United States v. American Bell Telephone Co., 128 U. S. 315.
Congress has power to authorize the government to sue to maintain the statutory restrictions upon alienation of Indian allottee lands. Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 15 U. S. 373.
Where Congress has power to authorize the government to sue, an appropriation for expenses of suits already brought is a recognition of the right to bring them, and so held that the provisions of the Act of May 27, 190, 35 Stat. 312, c.199, and of subsequent acts making appropriations for suits brought to cancel conveyances made by Cherokee allottee Indians in violation of statutory restrictions on alienation are within the power of Congress.
The presence of the Indian grantors as parties to suits brought by the United States to set aside conveyances of allotted lands made in violation of statutory restrictions on alienation is not essential; nor are the grantees placed in danger of double litigation by reason of the absence of the grantors as parties.
The effect of an act of Congress passed in pursuance of a policy and a matter of general knowledge cannot be destroyed so as to assist those who attempted to profit by violating its provisions, and so held that, when a conveyance is made by an allottee Indian in violation of statutory restrictions on alienation, the return of the consideration is not an essential prerequisite to a decree of cancellation.
the decree should provide in cancelling the transfers for a return of the consideration and the bringing in a parties of any person whose presence might be necessary.
The bill in a suit brought to cancel for the same reason in each instance a large number of conveyances of allotted lands, made by different members of the same tribe to different defendants, held not to be multifarious in this case as it is manifestly in the interest of justice to avoid unnecessary suits; nor is there in such a case a misjoinder of causes of action.
179 F. 13 modified and affirmed.
The United States, by its Attorney General, upon the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, brought this suit in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Oklahoma to cancel certain conveyances of allotted lands made by members of the Cherokee Nation. Demurrer to the bill was sustained by the circuit court, and the bill was dismissed. United States v. Allen and similar cases, 171 F. 907. The judgment was reversed by the circuit court of appeals, and the trial court was directed to proceed with the suits in accordance with the views expressed in its opinion. 179 F. 13. The government states in its brief that, between July 14, 1908, and October 12, 1909, the United States brought 301 bills in equity against some 16,000 defendants to cancel some 30,000 conveyances of allotted lands, made by as many or more grantors, members of the Five Civilized Tribes, upon the ground that the conveyances were in violation of existing restrictions upon the power of alienation. It is said that the selection and grouping of defendants in each case was determined by the substantial identity of the facts and propositions of law upon which the question of alienability of the lands depended.
Forty-six bills were filed to cancel 3715 conveyances of lands of Cherokee Indians.
to the Act of April 26, 1906, 34 Stat. 137, c. 1876. The grantors were not made parties. There are involved a number of separate conveyances to distinct grantees, parties defendant, two of whom prosecute this appeal from the judgment of the circuit court of appeals.
The bill alleges that, under the treaties between the United States and the Cherokee Tribe of Indians and its members, the United States granted to the Cherokee Tribe certain lands in the Indian Territory, now the Eastern District of Oklahoma, and obligated itself by the terms of these treaties and of its laws to protect the Cherokee Tribe in the enjoyment of the lands granted; that, according to the terms of said treaties and laws, and of the patent to the lands, the Cherokee Tribe and every member thereof have at all times been and now are without power to dispose of any interest in the lands without the authority of the United States, or otherwise than in the manner it prescribed; that the government of the United States, by reason of the helpless and dependent character of the Indian tribes, and of their several members, is the guardian and has exclusive control of their property, by virtue of which there is imposed upon the United States the duty to do whatever may be necessary for their guidance, welfare, and protection; that the Cherokee Tribe has always been and is now treated as a tribe of Indians by the government of the United States and its several branches; that this tribe is now under the care of an Indian agent duly appointed under the laws of Congress, and large sums are still appropriated by Congress for the benefit and protection of the tribe and of its individual members, and for the maintenance of schools, and that, under the laws of Congress, the government of the United States still has a large sum of money in its possession belonging to the tribe, and there still remains unallotted a large area of tribal lands, the common property of the tribe.
regulate and govern the affairs of the Cherokee Tribe of Indians and its members, having in view their welfare and the carrying out of its treaty obligations, Congress, by the Act approved July 1, 1902, 32 Stat. 716, c. 1375, provided that the lands belonging to the Cherokee Tribe in the present State of Oklahoma should be allotted in severalty among its members, but deeming the Indians to be untutored and improvident, and still requiring the protection and supervision of the general government, it was provided by this act that the portion of the lands so allotted as homesteads should be inalienable, and further that the allotted lands other than homesteads should be alienable only in five years after the issuance of patent to the allottee, and that, in accordance with its provisions, the Act of Congress was duly ratified by the Cherokee people on the seventh day of August, 1902.
by public laws of the United States of which the defendants had knowledge, and by which they were put upon inquiry and notice as to all matters concerning the condition of the particular tracts of land mentioned in the bill; that the deeds had been secured by the defendants in willful violation of law and of the duty which rested upon this nation and every member thereof, and for the purpose of unlawfully encumbering the allotted lands, and that, by causing the deeds to be recorded, the defendants had unlawfully obtained an apparent title or interest of record in the lands described in defiance of said agency supervision and in open violation and contempt of the laws of the United States, to the irreparable injury of the Indians and in direct interference with the supervision and control, policy, and duty of the government of the United States in that behalf.
or to encumber the title to lands located within the Eastern District of Oklahoma, and duly allotted to members of the Five Civilized Tribes or belonging to said tribes, have been executed and placed on record by the defendants herein and other persons and corporations, in contravention of the treaties entered into between the United States and the several Indian tribes and the laws of the United States, and that, unless the United States shall be permitted to join in its bills numerous defendants, against each of whom it has a like cause of action, and against each of whom it seeks the same relief, and whose pretended claims are based upon similar facts and involve precisely the same questions of law, it will be driven to the necessity of bringing a great number of distinct and separate suits, and that it will be practically impossible for the United States to prosecute, and for the courts to adjudicate and dispose of, so large a number of separate and distinct suits within any reasonable length of time.
The bill prays that the specified conveyances be declared void, and that the title to the lands described be decreed to be in the allottees or their heirs, subject to the terms, conditions, and limitations contained in the treaties, agreements, and laws of the United States. Discovery of all claims to lands allotted to any of the Cherokee Tribe, or to unallotted lands of the tribe, and the surrender of instruments for cancellation, are sought, and it is also prayed that all defendants in possession or claiming possession be ordered to vacate or to cease making such claims, and that the United States have such other and further relief as may be proper.
(1) That the United States has no capacity to maintain the suit.
(2) That the bill is wholly without equity.
(3) That there is a defect of parties.
(4) That there is a misjoinder of alleged causes of action.
(5) That the bill is multifarious.
The appeal from the judgment of the circuit court of appeals, which reversed the judgment of the circuit court sustaining the demurrers, is taken under § 3 of the Act of June 25, 1910, c. 408 (36 Stat. 837).

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