v. United States Pottawatomie Indians v. United States

• Decision Date: 17 April 1893
• Docket Number: Nos. 1,125 and 1,133,PAM-TO-PEE,s. 1,125 and 1,133
• Citation: 37 L.Ed. 613,13 S.Ct. 742,148 U.S. 691
• Parties: et al. v. UNITED STATES. POTTAWATOMIE INDIANS v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

148 U.S. 691

13 S.Ct. 742

37 L.Ed. 613

PAM-TO-PEE et al.

v UNITED STATES.

POTTAWATOMIE INDIANS

v. UNITED STATES.

Nos. 1,125 and 1,133.

April 17, 1893.

Petitions by Phineas Pam-to-pee and others, and by the Pottawatomie Indians, against the United States, under Act March 19, 1890, (26 St. p. 24, c. 39,) to recover moneys alleged to be due under certain treaties. The court of claims rendered a decree for petitioners, but disallowed some of their claims. 27 Ct. Cl. 403. Petitioners appeal. Affirmed.

Statement by Mr. Justice SHIRAS:

The questions involved in this case grow out of the stipulations of certain treaties entered into between the United States and the Pottawatomie Indians within the period covered by the years 1795 to 1846, inclusive. In some of the treaties, various tribes united with the Pottawatomies, but the tribes were recognized by the government as being distinct from one another, and their respective rights and duties under the treaties were therein defined and set forth. In others the Pottawatomie Indians were included in the tribe designated as the 'United Nation of Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawatomie Indians,' but the government seems to heve dealt with the United Nation as though it were identical with the Pottawatomie tribe, and we shall so consider it in the present case. By the various treaties the Indians ceded lands to the government, and received for the same other lands, money, etc., and also pledges of specified annuities. By a treaty made on September 26, 1833, the said United Nation ceded to the United States a tract of land on the western shore of Lake Michigan, containing 5,000,000 acres, and received as the consideration for the cession a reservation 5,000,000 acres in extent, west of the Mississippi river, various sums of money and the promise from the government of $280,000, to be paid in annuities of $14,000 a year for 20 years. It was provided by the treaty that a just proportion of the annuity money named therein, as well as a just proportion of the annuities stipulated for in the former treaties, should be paid, west of the Mississippi, to such portion of the nation as should have removed thither within three years, and that after the expiration of that time the whole amount of the annuities should be paid at the reservation west. On the day following the execution of theat treaty an article supplementary thereto was made on behalf of the chiefs and headmen of the nation, by which they ceded to the United States certain lands in the territory of Michigan, south of the Grand river, containing about 164 sections. It was agreed that the Indians making this cession should be considered as parties to the treaty of the preceding day, and be entitled to participate in the benefits of the provisions therein contained, as part of the United Nation. To the supplemental article another provision was added, as follows:

'On behalf of the chiefs and headmen of the United Nation of Indians who signed the treaty to which these articles are supplementary, we hereby, in evidence of our concurrence therein, become parties thereto.

'And, as since the signing of the treaty a part of the band residing on the reservations in the territory of Michigan have requested, on account of their religious creed, permission to remove to the northern part of the penisula of Michigan, it is agreed that in case of such removal the just proportion of all annuities payable to them under former treaties, and that arising from the sale of the reservation on which they now reside, shall be paid to them at l'Arbre Croche.'

Upon the basis of provisions contained in the various treaties, claims for unpaid annuities have been presented to congress from time to time on behalf of Indians alleged to represent the part of the band mentioned in the last provision of the said supplemental article , and for the purpose presumably, of having all questions connected with those claims finally settled, congress passed an act, which was approved March 19, 1890, (26 St. p. 24,) entitled 'An act to ascertain the amount due the Pottawatomie Indians of Michigan and Indiana.' The act is as follows:

'Whereas, representatives of the Pottawatomie Indians of Michigan and Indiana, in behalf of all the Pottawatomie Indians of said states, make claim against the United States on account of various treaty provisions which, it is alleged, have not been complied with, therefore,

'Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, that the court of claims is hereby authorized to take jurisdiction of and try all questions of difference arising out of treaty stipulations with the said Pottawatomie Indians of Michigan and Indiana, and to render judgment thereon. Power is hereby granted the said court to review the entire question of difference de novo, and it shall not be estopped by the joint resolution of congress approved twenty-eighth July, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled 'Joint resolution for the relief of certain Chippewa, Ottawa, and Pottawatomie Indians,' nor by the receipt in full given by said Pottawatomies under the provisions of said resolution, nor shall said receipt be evidence of any fact except of payment of the amount of money mentioned in it; and the attorney general is hereby directed to appear in behalf of the government, and if the said court shall decide against the United States the attorney general may, within thirty days from the rendition of the judgment, appeal the cause to the supreme court of the United States; and from any judgment that may be rendered the said Pottawatomie Indian may also appeal to said supreme court: provided, that the appeal of said Pottawatomie Indians shall be taken within sixty days after the rendition of said judgment, and the said courts shall give such cause precedence.

'Sec. 2. That said action shall be commenced by a petition stating the facts on which said Pottawatomie Indians claim to recover, and the amount of their claims, and said petition may be verified by a member of any 'business committee' or authorized attorney of said Indians as to the existence of such facts, and no other statements need be contained in said petition or verification.'

On behalf of the Pottawatomie Indians of Michigan and Indiana, John Critcher filed a petition in the court of claims, April 14, 1890, averring that he was the authorized attorney of the said Indians, as, he stated, would appear by an agreement between himself and the business committee of the Indians, dated September 29, 1887, and claiming certain unpaid annuities under the said treaties. The claimants exhibited a table showing by periods of five years, from 1836 to 1872, inclusive, an enumeration of the Indians in Michigan, and of those west of the Mississippi, from which it appeared that the average number of the former during that time was 291, and of the latter, 2,812. The petition contains a statement in detail of the various annuities claimed to be due, and asks for a judgment against the United States in the sum of $223,035.46, as being in the ratio of 291 to 2,812 to the entire amount alleged to have been pledged to all the Pottawatomie Indians under the various treaties, plus the amount of $38,000, the sum of the annuities for 19 years under the treaty of 1833. The latter sum was claimed on the assumption that the claimants should receive, of the annuities arising from the cession of their lands in southern Michigan, not a just proportion, but the whole amount. The claimants averred that the main tribe of Indians moved to their reservation west of the Mississippi, and that the part of the band which was to remove to the north did so remove in obedience to the terms of the provision supplementary to the treaty of 1833; that they are the representatives of that part of the band, and as such are entitled to all the benefits secured by the said supplemental provision.

On November 5, 1890, another petition was filed in the name of Phineas Pam-to-pee and 1,371 other Pottawatomie Indians of Michigan and Indiana, by John B. Shipman, their attorney, alleging that they were entitled to share in the annuities secured to the Pottawatomie Indians by the said treaties, that they were not represented in the petition first filed, and that the attorney named in that petition had no authority to act for them in the premises. This petition was filed on behalf of certain Indians, citizens of the United States, who were individually described by name and residence, alleged to be all the Pottawatomie Indians, so far as could be ascertained, resident in the said states, except not exceeding 250, from 91 of whom they alleged that the attorney named in the first petition derived his authority to act. The claimants stated, however, that their petition was intended for the benefit of all Indians included in the provisions of the act of congress who might choose to take part in the proceedings in the said court. They averred that the Indians designated in the act, or their ancestors, were parties to all the said treaties, and entitled to share per capita in the annuities secured thereby to the Pottawatomies, and that the conditions imposed upon them by the treaties had been complied with. The claimants alleged that they were entitled to a just proportion of all the annuities provided for by the treaties in question. They interpreted the last provision of the treaty of 1833, as did the claimants in the first petition, to be that the Indians exempted from the requirement of removal west should receive the entirety of the annuity stipulated for in that provision. Under the treaty of 1833 they, therefore, claimed the sum of $38,000, being $2,000 per year for the 19 years the same remained unpaid. They also contended that the perpetual annuities provided for should be capitalized, and the amounts thereof, in the sum of $446,000, added to the sum of the past unpaid determinate and...