Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/175/1/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 18:34:21+00:00

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A good title to parts of the lands of an Indian tribe may be granted to individuals by a treaty between the United States and the tribe, without any act of Congress, or any patent from the Executive authority of the United States. The question in every case is whether the terms of the treaty are such as to manifest the intention of the parties to make a present grant to the persons named.
A treaty between the United States and an Indian tribe must be construed not according to the technical meaning of its words to learned lawyers, but in the sense in which they would naturally be understood by the Indians.
When the United States, in a treaty with an Indian tribe, and as part of the consideration for the cession by the tribe of a tract of country to the United States, make a reservation to a chief or other member of the tribe of a specified number of sections of land, whether already identified or to be surveyed and located in the future, the treaty itself converts the reserved sections into individual property; the reservation, unless accompanied by words limiting its effect, is equivalent to a present grant of a complete title in fee simple, and that title is alienable by the grantee at his pleasure, unless the United States, by a provision of the treaty, or of an act of Congress, have expressly or impliedly prohibited or restricted its alienation.
"there shall be set apart from the tract .hereby ceded a reservation of six hundred and forty acres near the mouth of the Thief River for the chief Moose Dung"
was to grant him an alienable title in fee in the quantity of land at the designated place, subject only to its selection in due form and to the definition of its boundaries by survey and patent.
The right of inheritance at the time of the death of the grantee in 1872 in land granted in fee by the United States by an Indian treaty to a member of an Indian tribe, whose tribal organization was still recognized by the government of the United States, is controlled by the laws, usages and customs of the tribe, and not by the law of the state in which the land lies, nor by any action of the Secretary of the Interior.
The construction of treaties is the peculiar province of the judiciary, and, except in cases purely political, Congress has no constitutional power to settle the rights under a treaty or to affect titles already granted by the treaty itself.
This was a bill in equity filed in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Minnesota by Patrick Meehan and James Meehan, citizens of Wisconsin, against Ray W. Jones, a citizen of Minnesota, to quiet title in a strip of land ten feet wide along the westerly shore of the Red Lake River, in the County of Polk and State of Minnesota, extending from the northeasterly intersection of the plat of the Village of Thief River Falls with the shore at a point near the junction of the two rivers, and being a part of lot 1 in section 34, township 154, and range 43.
For convenience, the parties will be designated throughout this opinion according to their position in the court below; the Meehans, now appellees, as the plaintiffs, and Jones, now appellant, as the defendant.
By article 2, those bands of Chippewas ceded to the United States all their right, title, and interest in a large tract of country to the west of Thief River in the State of Minnesota, including all the American Valley of the Red River of the North.
"In consideration of the foregoing cession, the United States agree to pay to the said Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewa Indians the following sums, to-wit: twenty thousand dollars per annum for twenty years, the said sum to be distributed among the Chippewa Indians of the said bands in equal amounts per capita."
"To encourage and aid the chiefs of said bands in preserving order and inducing, by their example and advice, the members of their respective bands to adopt the habits and pursuits of civilized life, there shall be paid to each of the said chiefs annually, out of the annuities, of the said bands, a sum not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars, to be determined by their agents according to their respective merits. And for the better promotion of the above objects, a further sum of five hundred dollars shall be paid at the first payment to each of the said chiefs to enable him to build for himself a house."
by blood to the said Chippewas of the said Red Lake or Pembina bands, who has adopted the habits and customs of civilized life, and who is a citizen of the United States, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land, to be selected at his option, within the limits of the tract of country hereby ceded to the United States, on any land not previously occupied by actual settlers or covered by prior grants, the boundaries thereof to be adjusted in conformity with the lines of the official surveys when the same shall be made, and with the laws and regulations of the United States affecting the location and entry of the same."
"Provided, that no scrip shall be issued under the provisions of this article, and no assignments shall be made of any right, title, or interest at law or in equity until a patent shall issue, and no patent shall be issued until due proof of five years' actual residence and cultivation, as required by the act entitled 'An Act to Secure Homesteads on the Public Domain.'"
"Upon the urgent request of the Indians, parties to this treaty, there shall be set apart from the tract hereby ceded a reservation of six hundred and forty acres near the mouth of Thief River for the chief Moose Dung, and a like reservation of six hundred and forty acres for the chief Red Bear on the north side of Pembina river."
Moose Dung, or Monsimoh, was one of the principal chiefs of the Red Lake band of Chippewa Indians, and his name was the first of the Indian signatures to the treaty, all of which were by marks only.
"I have taken the mouth of Thieving River as my inheritance. I do not ask the chiefs here where I shall go. I make my home there. I wanted it for a reservation for myself. . . . I used to think that this was the proper place for me to settle; that it would be an inheritance for my children -- where all my children could have enough to live on in the future."
"I accept of the proposition, because I see that I am going to be raised from want to riches -- to be raised to the level of the white man. . . . You and the government have used every exertion for a great many years to bring about a treaty. I do not want you to exert yourselves in vain. I now give up the tract of country."
"at the end of a session of three and a half hours' duration, Moose Dung, who has stood for an hour weighing and deliberating on every separate provision of this treaty, asking for this explanation and that modification, appearing to labor under a serious sense of the great responsibility he was taking, at last touched the pen which was to affix his vicarious sign-manual to the treaty,"
and the other chiefs followed his example.
The plaintiffs also, against the like objection, introduced testimony of the secretary of the commission, of the official interpreter and of other persons, Indians as well as white persons, who were present at the negotiation of the treaty, to the same effect.
red robes," and ever since the making of the treaty, his father and himself, in succession, sustained tribal relations with the Red Lake band of Chippewa Indians, and that band continued to be recognized as an Indian tribe by the government of the United States.
On June 27, 1879, the United States Indian agent at White Earth, Minnesota, wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington that Moose Dung the younger, the only surviving son of Moose Dung named in the treaty, requested that the land selected by his father might be set aside for his benefit. On July 25, 1879, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs answered that Moose Dung the younger should at once locate the desired lands in accordance with the description in the treaty, and that it must be shown to the satisfaction of the Office of Indian Affairs that his father left no other children. On September 10, 1879, the agent replied that "the heirs of Moose Dung" had selected the lands (describing them particularly) that had been selected by the elder Moose Dung before his death. On September 30, 1879, the Secretary of the Interior, on the recommendation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, approved "the selection made by the heirs of Moose Dung," and directed the Commissioner of the General Land Office to "take the necessary steps for the protection of the said lands so reserved for the benefit of those entitled, as contemplated by the treaty stipulations," and they were thereupon set apart accordingly, and were designated on all government maps as "Moose Dung's Reservation."
From the time of this selection, Moose Dung the younger lived upon, exercised dominion over, and claimed to own the land so selected, and cultivated part of it, leased other parts of it for pasturage, and sold sand off it.
after its contents had been fully explained to him through an interpreter. On November 10, 1891, this lease was recorded in the registry of deeds for the county. The plaintiffs accepted the lease and paid the rent according to its terms, and in 1892 they erected a large saw mill on the bank of Thief River, a short distance below the strip leased, and entered upon this strip, drove piles and strung booms in the river opposite, and stored logs there, and thenceforth used the strip as one shore of the mill-pond appurtenant to their saw mill.
The land selected by Moose Dung was near the village of Thief River Falls, which, when this lease was made, contained some fifty inhabitants and had no railroad and no important industry, and land there was of little value. But in 1892, after the erection of the plaintiffs' saw mill, the Great Northern Railway Company built a railroad to the village, a large settlement sprang up there, and the land increased in value.
without the written consent of the lessor, his heirs or assigns, and the approval of the Secretary of the Interior."
The circuit court held that the reservation in the treaty to the elder Moose Dung was in the nature of a grant of title to him, burdened with no restriction or condition save that of selection and identification; that, upon the selection and location, the title in the selected lands vested in Moose Dung the younger as his eldest son and successor; that the latter's lease of November 9, 1891, to the plaintiffs was a valid and subsisting lease of the strip in controversy, and needed no approval by the Secretary of the Interior; that the lease made on July 20, 1894, to the defendant, and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, was subordinate to the lease to the plaintiffs, and, as against them, conveyed no right to the occupancy or use of the strip, and that the plaintiffs were entitled to have the rights and privileges under the earlier lease vested and quieted in them as against the claims of the defendant. 70 F. 453. The defendant appealed to this Court.
The fundamental question in the case is what was the nature of the title which the elder chief Moose Dung took under the treaty of October 2, 1863, between the United States and the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewa Indians? Was it a mere right of occupancy, with no power to convey the land except to the United States, or by their consent? Or was it substantially a title in fee simple with full power of alienation?
"The usual mode adopted by the Indians for granting lands to individuals has been to reserve them in a treaty, or to grant them under the sanction of the commissioners with whom the treaty was negotiated."
21 U. S. 8 Wheat. 598.
Accordingly, by several early treaties between the United States, of the one part, and the Chippewas and other Indian nations, of the other part, the said Indian nations acknowledged themselves to be under the protection of the United States, and of no other sovereign whatever; the United States relinquished and quitclaimed to the said nations respectively all the lands lying within certain limits, to live and hunt upon, and otherwise occupy as they saw fit; but the said nations, or either of them, were not to be at liberty to dispose of those lands, except to the United States. Treaties of January 21, 1785, art. 2; January 9, 1789, art. 3; August 3, 1795, arts. 4, 5; 7 Stat. 16, 29, 52.
"enacted and declared that no sale of lands made by any Indians, or any nation or tribe of Indians, within the United States shall be valid to any person or persons, or to any state, whether having the right of preemption to such lands or not, unless the same shall be made and duly executed at some public treaty held under the authority of the United States."
"no purchase or grant of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indians, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States, shall be of any validity, in law or equity, unless the same be made by a treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
"No purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indian, or nation or tribe of Indians, within the bounds of the United States shall be of any validity in law or equity unless the same be made by treaty, or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
1 Stat. 472, 746. And this language of the temporary acts of 1796 and 1799 was repeated in the first permanent enactment upon the subject, being the Act of March 30, 1802, c. 13, § 12. 2 Stat. 143.
It is well settled that a good title to parts of the lands of an Indian tribe may be granted to individuals by a treaty between the United States and the tribe, without any act of Congress, or any patent from the Executive authority of the United States. Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheat., above cited; Mitchel v. United States, 9 Pet. 711, 34 U. S. 748; Doe v. Beardsley, 2 McLean 417, 418; United States v. Brooks, 10 How. 442, 51 U. S. 460; Doe v. Wilson, 23 How. 457, 64 U. S. 463; Crews v. Burcham, 1 Black 356; Holden v. Joy, 17 Wall. 211, 84 U. S. 247; Best v. Polk, 18 Wall. 112, 85 U. S. 116; New York Indians v. United States, 170 U. S. 1. The question in every case is whether the terms of the treaty are such as to manifest the intention of the parties to make a present grant to the persons named.
The Indian tribes within the limits of the United States are not foreign nations; though distinct political communities, they are in a dependent condition, and Chief Justice Marshall's description, that "they are in a state of pupilage," and "their relation to the United States resembles that of a ward to his guardian," has become more and more appropriate as they have grown less powerful and more dependent. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 5 Pet. 1, 30 U. S. 17; Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U. S. 94, 112 U. S. 99; United States v. Kagama, 118 U. S. 375, 118 U. S. 382-384; Stephens v. Cherokee Nation, 174 U. S. 445, 174 U. S. 484.
"There is the more reason for supposing that the Cherokee chiefs were not very critical judges of the language, from the fact that everyone makes his mark; no chief was capable of signing his name. It is probable the treaty was interpreted to them. . . . Is it reasonable to suppose that the Indians, who could not write, and most probably could not read, who certainly were not critical judges of our language, should distinguish the word 'allotted' from the words 'marked out?'"
acknowledged, would, it would seem to me, do injustice to the understanding of the parties. How the words of the treaty were understood by this unlettered people, rather than their critical meaning, should form the rule of construction."
6 Pet. 31 U. S. 582.
"these reservations are excepted out of the grant made by treaty, and did not therefore pass by it; consequently, the title remains as it was before the treaty -- that is to say, the lands reserved are still held under the original Indian title,"
and therefore "the Indian occupants cannot convey them to individuals, and no valid cession can be made of their interest but to the United States." 2 Ops.Atty.Gen. 587.
"No purchase, grant, lease, or other conveyance of lands, or of any title or claim thereto, from any Indian nation or tribe of Indians, shall be of any validity in law or equity unless the same be made by treaty or convention entered into pursuant to the Constitution."
Indians" might include a purchase or lease from any Indian acting by authority derived from his tribe only. Johnson v. McIntosh, 8 Wheat. 543, 21 U. S. 593; Smith v. Stevens, 10 Wall. 321, 77 U. S. 323; Goodell v. Jackson, 20 Johns. 693, 723. But the inference appears to us to be irresistible that Congress did not intend that there should thenceforth be any general restriction upon the alienation by individual Indians of sections of land reserved to them respectively by a treaty with the United States. And this view is confirmed by the reenactment of the provision, in the very words of the act of 1834, in section 2116 of the Revised Statutes, and by the course of decision in this Court in a series of opinion which may conveniently be considered in their chronological order.
"It was so much carved out of the territory ceded, and remained to the Indian occupant, as he had never parted with it. He holds, strictly speaking, not under the treaty of cession, but under his original title confirmed by the government in the act of agreeing to the reservation."
title, can hardly be reconciled with the later judgments of the Court, to be presently considered, one of which was delivered by the same learned judge. Crews v. Burcham, 1 Black 352.
"shall have their right to the said four leagues of land reserved to them and their heirs and assigns forever. The said land to be taken out of the lands ceded to the United States by the said Caddo nation of Indians as expressed in the treaty to which this article is supplementary. And the said four leagues of land shall be laid off in one body,"
"We think that the treaty gave to the Grappes a fee simple title to all the rights which the Caddoes had in these lands as fully as any patent from the government could make one. The reservation to the Grappes, 'their heirs and assigns forever' creates as absolute a fee as any subsequent act upon the part of the United States could make. Nothing further was contemplated by the treaty to perfect the title. Brooks being the alienee of the Grappes for the entire reservation, he may hold it against any claim of the United States, as his alienors would have done."
10 How. 51 U. S. 460. In that case, therefore, an agreement that the persons named "shall have their right"
to "certain lands reserved," and the lands "shall be laid off," was given the same effect as a present grant or patent. It is true that the treaty there in question reserved the right to those persons, "and their heirs and assigns forever." But the like construction has since been given to reservations unaccompanied by any words of inheritance.
"the United States agree to grant to each of the following persons the quantity of land annexed to their names, which lands shall be conveyed to them by patent. . . . The foregoing reservations shall be selected under the direction of the President of the United States after the lands shall have been surveyed and the boundaries to correspond with the public surveys."
"The Pottawatomie nation was the owner of the possessory right of the country ceded, and all the subjects of the nation were joint owners of it. The reservees took by the treaty, directly from the nation, the Indian title, and this was the right to occupy, use, and enjoy the lands, in common with the United States until partition was made in the manner prescribed."
"The treaty itself converted the reserved sections into individual property. The Indians as a nation reserved no interest in the territory ceded, but, as a part of the consideration for the cession, certain individuals of the nation had conferred on them portions of the land to which the United States title was either added or promised to be added, and it matters not which for the purposes of this controversy for possession. The United States held the ultimate title, charged with the right of undisturbed occupancy and perpetual possession in the Indian nation, with the exclusive power in the government of acquiring the right. Although the government alone can purchase lands from an Indian nation, it does not follow that, when the rights of the nation are extinguished, an individual of the nation who takes as private owner cannot sell his interest. The Indian title is property, and alienable unless the treaty had prohibited its sale. So far from this being the case in the instance before us, it is manifest that sales of the reserved sections were contemplated as the lands ceded were forthwith to be surveyed, sold, and inhabited by a white population, among whom the Indians could not remain."
23 How. 64 U. S. 463-464.
referred to the right to occupy, use, and enjoy the land in common with the government, and had no relation to the legal title."
1 Black 66 U. S. 356-357.
By those two decisions it was determined that the "reservations," created by the treaty with the Pottawatomies of October 27, 1832, in favor of individual Indians, by the words "the United States agree to grant" to each of them sections of land, "which lands shall be conveyed to them by patent," had the effect of granting a present and alienable interest to each. In both those decisions, Chief Justice Taney concurred -- which is worthy of special notice in view of the different opinion, above cited, which he had given, when Attorney General, upon the effect of similar reservations in a treaty made with another band of Pottawatomies seven days earlier, but promulgated by the President at the same time as this treaty. 7 Stat. 378, 399. And the two decisions were cited and approved by this Court, speaking by Mr. Justice Matthews, in Prentice v. Stearns (1885), 113 U. S. 435, 113 U. S. 446-447. See also the opinion delivered by Mr. Justice Miller in the circuit court in Prentice v. Northern Pacific Railroad (1890), 43 F. 270, 275.
"the said Kansas nation shall never sell, relinquish, or in any manner dispose of the lands herein reserved to any other nation, person, or persons whatever without the permission of the United States for that purpose first had and obtained."
"all the title, interest, and estate of the United States is hereby vested in the said reservees, who are now living, to the land reserved, set apart, and allotted to them,"
force, efficacy, or binding effect to any contract, in writing or otherwise, for the sale or disposition of any lands named in this act, heretofore made by any of said reservees or their heirs,"
and it was further enacted that if any of the reservees or the heirs of anyone deceased should not desire to occupy the lands to which they were entitled by the provisions of this act, the Secretary of the Interior, upon their request, should be authorized to sell the lands for their benefit and to issue patents to the purchasers. 12 Stat. 21. In Smith v. Stevens (1870), a deed made by one of those half-breeds, shortly after the passage of that act, without the authority or assent of the Secretary of the Interior, was adjudged by this Court, speaking by Mr. Justice Davis, to be void upon the single ground "that the statute, having provided the way in which these half-breed lands could be sold, by necessary implication prohibited their sale in any other way." 10 Wall. 77 U. S. 321, 77 U. S. 326.
contemplated. Nor was this necessary, for the treaty proceeded on the theory that a grant is as valid by a treaty as by an act of Congress, and does not need a patent to perfect it. We conclude, therefore, that the treaty conferred the title to these reservations, which was complete when the locations were made to identify them."
18 Wall. 85 U. S. 116.
"The treaty granted the land, but the location had to be fixed before the grant could become operative. After this was done, the estate became vested and the right to it perfect, as much so as if the grant had been directly executed to the reservee."
"By this language, a title in fee passed to such persons as were above the age of twenty-one. The term 'reservation' was equivalent to an absolute grant. The title passed as effectually as if a grant had been executed. . . . The treaty has not contemplated a further grant, or other evidence of title, showing conclusively that, by the terms used it was intended that a perfect title was thereby intended to be secured. The Indian, then, under whom complainants claim, had in herself an absolute and unconditional title in fee simple. The title was conferred by the treaty; it was not, however, perfect until the location was made; location was necessary to give identity. The location it seems wad duly made, and thus the title to the land in controversy was consummated by giving identity to that which was before unlocated."
Niles v. Anderson (1841), 5 How. (Miss.) 365, 383; Wray v. Doe (1848), 10 Sm. & Marsh.. 452, 461.
of the Interior to issue patents in fee simple of said lands, when located and apportioned, to said Indians."
12 Stat. 1238. In Libby v. Clark (1886), 118 U. S. 250, this Court, approving and affirming the judgment of the Supreme Court of Kansas, delivered by Mr. Justice Brewer, in 14 Kan. 435, held that a deed to a white person from one of those chiefs, of land patented to him pursuant to the treaty, but executed before he had become a citizen of the United States, was void for the single reason that the treaty itself, as construed by the court, expressly provided, in article 7, that no Indian should alien or encumber the land allotted to him until he had, according to the terms of the treaty, become a citizen of the United States.
"the tracts of land herein stipulated to be granted shall never be leased or conveyed by the grantees, or their heirs to any persons whatever without the permission of the President of the United States."
7 Stat. 321. Of course, under such a provision, no alienation could be valid without the approval of the President. Pickering v. Lomax (1892), 145 U. S. 310; Lomax v. Pickering (1899), 173 U. S. 26.
The clear result of this series of decisions is that, when the United States, in a treaty with an Indian tribe, and as part of the consideration for the cession by the tribe of a tract of country to the United States, make a reservation to a chief or other member of the tribe of a specified number of sections of land, whether already identified, or to be surveyed and located in the future, the treaty itself converts the reserved sections into individual property; the reservation, unless accompanied by words limiting its effect, is equivalent to a present grant of a complete title in fee simple, and that title is alienable by the grantee at this pleasure, unless the United States, by a provision of the treaty, or of an act of Congress, have expressly or impliedly prohibited or restricted its alienation.
The letters of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, referred to in the supplemental brief of the defendant, expressing the views entertained in his office at sundry times as to the effect of a reservation in an Indian treaty to particular Indians without words of present grant, or of inheritance, were for the most part written before the subject had been considered by this Court, and they fall far short of establishing such a uniform practical construction of the term by the Executive Departments as would warrant the court in overruling its own opinions as expressed in the cases above stated.
The Treaty of October 2, 1863, between the United States and the Red Lake and Pembina bands of Chippewa Indians, now before the Court, contains in itself peculiarly strong evidence that it was intended to vest in the elder chief Moose Dung a full and complete title in the land reserved to him.
And this construction is fortified by other provisions of the treaty quoted at the beginning of this opinion.
By the eighth article, it is "agreed that the United States shall grant to" each male adult half-breed or mixed-blood who is related by blood to these Indians, who has adopted the habits and customs of civilized life, and who is a citizen of the United States, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres, to be selected out of the tract ceded, and in conformity with the official surveys when made. That article was amended by the Senate by providing that no scrip should be issued under its provisions, and no assignment should be made of any right, title, or interest before the issue of a patent, and no patent should be issued until due proof of five years' actual residence and cultivation, as required by the homestead act. Act of May 20, 1862, c. 75; 12 Stat. 392; Rev.Stat. §§ 2289, 2291.
"to encourage and aid the chiefs of said bands in preserving order, and inducing, by their example and advice, the members of their respective bands to adopt the habits and pursuits of civilized life,"
each chief was to be paid not only a certain sum annually out of the annuities payable to the bands by the treaty, but also, at the time of the first payment, a further sum of five hundred dollars "to enable him to build for himself a house."
The provisions of that article are wholly inconsistent with the theory that the title of the chiefs Moose Dung and Red Bear, respectively, in the reservation of six hundred and forty acres each, unconditionally set apart for them, was to be less absolute than the title of the half-breeds in their homesteads would be after the conditions of the treaty respecting them had been complied with.
"there shall be set apart from the tract hereby ceded as reservation of six hundred and forty acres near the mouth of the Thief River for the Chief Moose Dung,"
and a reservation of a like quantity of land at another place designated for the Chief Red Bear was intended by the United States and was understood by the Indians, and took effect, as a present grant to each of these two chiefs of an alienable title in fee in that quantity of land at the designated place, subject only to its selection in due form, and to the definition of its boundaries by survey and patent.
at the negotiations which preceded its execution, for, whether that evidence be admitted or rejected, the conclusion must be the same.
"every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom allotments shall have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty,"
"declared to be a citizen of the United States, whether said Indian had been or not by birth or otherwise a member of any tribe of Indians within the territorial limits of the United States, without in any manner impairing or otherwise affecting the rights of any such Indian to tribal or other property."
24 Stat. 390. That provision might not enable individual Indians to alienate lands which were not before alienable. Beck v. Flournoy Co., 65 F. 30; Eells v. Ross, 64 F. 417; Coombs, Petitioner, 127 Mass. 278. But it certainly does not take away a power of alienation conferred by the treaty under which the allotment was made.
Another question of importance, fully argued at the bar, is whether Moose Dung the younger inherited all his father's rights in the reservation. This question is presented by the record in a peculiar aspect.
In the amended bill (which is the only one in the record transmitted to this Court) the plaintiffs claimed title under the lease made to them by Moose Dung the younger on November 7, 1891, and alleged that at the date of that lease he was the owner in fee simple of the lands in question.
In the answer filed January 15, 1895, to that bill, the defendant denied its allegations, and claimed title under the reservation to Moose Dung the elder in the treaty, his selection of lands and the setting apart of them by the government as such reservation, and the lease executed by Moose Dung the younger (so the answer alleged, in substantial accord with the form of the lease itself) "as his oldest son, heir at law, and successor as chief of the Red Lake band of Chippewa Indians,"
"conceded, treated, and designated said selection as a reservation which said Moose Dung was entitled to possess and control, subject, however, to the control of the overseers and agents of the government of the United States."
The plaintiffs filed a general replication to the answer.
On May 21, 1895, the plaintiffs introduced the deposition of John George Morrison, who testified that he was fifty-five years old, was a Scotch half-breed and had a quarter of Chippewa blood, had lived with the Red Lake band of Chippewa Indians all his life, spoke both English and Chippewa, was a special interpreter at the negotiation of the treaty, and was acquainted with the laws, customs, and usages of the Chippewa Indians, and that, according to those laws, customs, and usages, a chief like the elder Moose Dung had the right to select a piece of land and to use it as his home, and upon his death his eldest son would inherit all his land, and succeed to his office and powers as chief of the band, and the witness was not cross-examined on this point.
"it was admitted by complainants' solicitor that the living chief Monsimoh was the eldest son and successor to all rights of his father under the treaty of October 2, 1863, and the son of the chief Monsimoh who signed that treaty."
and does now hold all the right, title, and interest in and privileges pertaining to said premises as such heir at law and successor of the said deceased Chief Moose Dung."
On July 23 and 24, 1895, the defendant introduced testimony of Moose Dung the younger, and of other Indians, showing that his father had two wives, both living at the same time, and left six surviving descendants: three children, (1) Moose Dung the younger, the eldest son by the first wife, (2) a daughter by the first wife, and (3) a daughter by the second wife, and three grandchildren, (4) a son of a deceased daughter by the first wife, (5) a daughter of a deceased daughter by the first wife, and (6) a son of a deceased son by the second wife.
Moose Dung the younger, when so examined as a witness for the defendant, testified, on cross-examination that he owned the land in question; that his father, when he died, left the land to him alone, and that, by the customs of the Red Lake Indians he, upon the death of his father, being his eldest son by his first wife, succeeded him as chief, and was entitled to succeed to all his land, and, being asked, "Who first spoke to you about these other sisters and children having some interest in the land?," answered, "No one said anything to me about it."
"to fully investigate the subject as to who are the legal heirs of old chief Moose Dung, for the purpose of ascertaining to whom said rent should be paid,"
"be determined to be the heirs of old chief Moose Dung for the purposes of this lease, and that the rents arising from leasing the land granted him by said treaty be divided among them equally;"
4th, a letter, dated April 23, 1895, from the Secretary of the Interior to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs concurring in the recommendation and returning the papers; 5th, a letter dated May 4, 1895, from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Indian agent, informing him of the decision of the Secretary of the Interior and directing him to distribute the proceeds of the lease in his hands in accordance with that decision.
signed by the mark of Moose Dung the younger, and of each of the five other descendants of Moose Dung the elder, acknowledging the receipt from the Indian agent of one sixth of $200, "being my share for two quarters rental on lands leased to Ray W. Jones," and a lease, executed July 19, 1895, by Moose Dung the younger and the five other descendants of his father to the defendant, for twenty years from July 20, 1894, of the lot described in the lease to the defendant of that date, the defendant paying rent according to the conditions of that lease, as amended and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
On the coming in of the court on September 3, 1895, the defendant's solicitor -- pursuant to a notice given by him to the plaintiffs' solicitor on August 3, 1895, after all the evidence in the case had been taken -- moved the court for leave to file a supplemental answer, alleging that Moose Dung the younger and the five other descendants of his father, above mentioned, were each entitled to one-sixth of the land in controversy and had, in accordance with the lease made by Moose Dung the younger to the defendant in 1894 and its approval by the Secretary of the Interior, been paid their shares of the rent provided for in that lease and approval, and had likewise themselves executed a lease ratifying and confirming that lease.
On September 9, 1895, the court denied the motion for leave to file the supplemental answer; on September 17, 1895, the cause was argued and submitted, and on November 9, 1895, the court entered the final decree for the plaintiffs.
not stated in the record. They may have been the late stage of the case at which the motion was made, and a failure to satisfy the court that the facts now attempted to be set up were not known or at least easily accessible to the defendant or his solicitor long before. But, as this Court might, even now, if justice appeared to require it, allow an amendment of the pleadings, this part of the case may be more satisfactorily disposed of by considering what the effect of those facts would have been had they been duly pleaded. Liverpool Steam Co. v. Phenix Ins. Co., 129 U. S. 397, 129 U. S. 447; Wiggins Ferry v. Ohio & Mississippi Railway, 142 U. S. 396, 142 U. S. 413-414.
The Department of the Interior appears to have assumed that, upon the death of Moose Dung the elder in 1872, the title in his land descended by law to his heirs general, and not to his eldest son only.
But the elder Chief Moose Dung, being a member of an Indian tribe, whose tribal organization was still recognized by the government of the United States, the right of inheritance in his land at the time of his death, was controlled by the laws, usages, and customs of the tribe, and not by the law of the State of Minnesota, nor by any action of the Secretary of the Interior.
In United States v. Shanks (1870), 15 Minn. 369, it was adjudged by the Supreme Court of Minnesota that a probate court of the state had no jurisdiction over the estate of a chief of a tribe of Chippewa Indians to whom a section of land, to be located by the Secretary of the Interior, had been "granted in fee simple" by the treaty between the United States and that tribe of May 7, 1864 (13 Stat. 693), and had accordingly been located and a patent therefor issued to him. See also Dole v. Irish (1848), 2 Barb. 639; Hastings v. Farmer (1850), 4 N.Y. 293, 294.
"This people have their own customs and laws by which they are governed. Because some of those customs have been abandoned, owing to the proximity of their white neighbors, may be an evidence of the superior influence of our race, but does not tend to prove that their tribal organization is not preserved. There is no evidence in the record to show that the Indians with separate estates have not the same rights in the tribe as those whose estates are held in common. . . . As long as the United States recognize their national character, they are under the protection of treaties and the laws of Congress, and their property is withdrawn from the operation of state laws."
5 Wall. 72 U. S. 756-757. See also the opinion delivered by Judge Woods, with the concurrence of MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, in the circuit court, in Wau-pe-man-qua v. Aldrich (1886), 28 F. 489, 495.
Following that decision of this Court, it was held by the Supreme Court of Kansas in an opinion delivered by MR. JUSTICE BREWER, that land patented to an Indian woman of the Shawnee tribe under the treaty of 1854 descended, upon her death according to the law of her tribe, and not according to the Kansas statute of descents. Brown v. Steele (1880), 23 Kan. 672.
BREWER, then circuit judge, saying that the Secretary of the Interior "had no judicial power to adjudge a forfeiture, to decide questions of inheritance, or to divest the owner of his title without his knowledge or consent."
as to the laws, customs, and usages of the Indians upon that subject.
The title to the strip of land in controversy, having been granted by the United States to the elder chief Moose Dung by the treaty itself and having descended, upon his death, by the laws, customs, and usages of the tribe, to his eldest son and successor as Chief Moose Dung the younger, passed by the lease executed by the latter in 1891 to the plaintiffs for the term of that lease, and their rights under that lease could not be divested by any subsequent action of the lessor, or of Congress, or of the Executive Departments. The construction of treaties is the peculiar province of the judiciary, and, except in cases purely political, Congress has no constitutional power to settle the rights under a treaty, or to affect titles already granted by the treaty itself. Wilson v. Wall, 6 Wall. 83, 73 U. S. 89; Reichart v. Felps, 6 Wall. 160; Smith v. Stevens, 10 Wall. 321, 77 U. S. 327; Holden v. Joy, 17 Wall. 211, 84 U. S. 247.

References: art. 2
 art. 3
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