Case: EUTIMIO MONTOYA v. THE UNITED STATES
Abbreviation: Montoya v. United States
Decision Date: 1901-02-11
Docket Number: 
Citation: 36 Ct. Cl. 577
Volume: 36
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: EUTIMIO MONTOYA v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Pages: 577–577

Head Matter:
EUTIMIO MONTOYA v. THE UNITED STATES.
[32 C. Cls. R. 349; 180 U. S. R. 261.]
On the claimant's Appeal.
Victoria is a Chiricahua Apache. When the Apaches are placed on the San Carlos Reservation in 1876, a number refuse to go there. In 1879 Victoria forms a band of disaffected Indians and escapes into Mexico. In 1880 a considerable number of the Mescaleros, but not a majority of the tribe, join him. In October, 1880, he and nearly all of his followers are killed. The Mescalero and Chiricahua tribes are in amity during Victoria’s war with the United States. The question now is whether Victoria’s band of disaffected Indians from different tribes was a band whose amity must be established.
The court below decides;
1. Victoria’s band of Apaches in 1880, composed of disaffected Indians from different tribes, confederated for the purpose of hostility against the United States without the consent of their respective tribes, constituted a band within the intent of the Indian depredation act 1891; and an action against the Mescalero tribe, then in amity, can not be maintained for depredations by Mescaleros under Victoria.
2. Where Indians leave their own tribe and transfer their allegiance to a newly organized band, their depredations are to be determined by the status of the band with which they are thus allied.
3. Where a few individual members of a tribe at peace, without its consent, confederate with a tribe at war, they will be considered as members of the hostile tribe. The political status of Indians and of the Indian tribes reviewed.

Opinion:
The decision of the court below, is affirmed on the same grounds.
Mr. Justice Brown
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court February 11, 1901.