Opinion ID: 1407684
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: introduction

Text: Through a succession of congressional land enactments passed during the latter part of the nineteenth century, this nation's policy of sequestering land for the exclusive use and control of Indian Tribes was replaced by a policy of allotting those lands to individual tribal members. [3] The general purpose behind the allotment policy was to abolish tribal sovereignty and the communal reservation system and thus force Indian assimilation into general society by breaking up tribal relations. [4] The Indian General Allotment Act of 1887, as amended and codified in 25 U.S.C. §§ 331 et seq., was one of the land acts furthering Congress' allotment policy. The GAA empowered the President of the United States to allot tribal lands nationwide to individual Indian allottees without consent of the affected Indian Nations. Upon approval of an allotment under the Act, a trust patent would issue to an Indian allottee, declaring that the allotted land would be held by the United States in trust for a period of twenty-five years or longer. [5] During the trust period, allotted parcels were held for the sole use and benefit of the Indian to whom such allotment shall have been made, but restrictions on alienation of the land remained in effect. [6] Upon expiration of the trust period, a fee patent would then issue to the Indian allottee removing all restrictions as to sale, encumbrance, or taxation of said land. [7] The GAA also provided that upon issuance of the fee patent, each and every allottee shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside. [8] The latter provision served to further Congress' goal of Indian assimilation. [9] The policy of allotting tribal lands proved to be disastrous for the Indians, as well as administratively unworkable and economically wasteful. [10] In response to this failed policy, Congress in 1934 passed the Indian Reorganization Act and brought the era of allotment to a close. The Act, codified in 25 U.S.C. §§ 461 et seq., marked a return to the pre-GAA policy of tribal self-governance by proscribing any further allotments and extending indefinitely any trust periods then existing under a trust patent. [11] The Act also authorized the return to tribal ownership of any unallotted surplus Indian lands. [12] Except by authorizing reacquisition of allotted lands in trust, however, Congress made no attempt to undo the dramatic effects of the allotment years on the ownership of former Indian [now fee patented] lands. It neither imposed restraints on the ability of Indian allottees to alienate or encumber their fee-patented lands, nor impaired the rights of those non-Indians who had acquired title to over two-thirds of the Indian lands allotted under the [GAA]. [13] Even reacquisition by an Indian tribe of fee patented lands does not then reinstate the former restrictions on alienation or encumbrance of the lands. [14] The Quinault Indian Reservation was established by the Treaty with the Qui-nai-elts in 1859, otherwise known as the Treaty of Olympia. [15] The Quinault Indian Nation is the federally recognized governing body on the Quinault Indian Reservation. [16] The allotment process began on the Reservation in 1905. By 1934, when Congress halted all further allotments of tribal lands, approximately 2,340 trust allotments had been issued. [17]