United States v. Sam Pelican

• Decision Date: 24 February 1914
• Docket Number: No. 787,787
• Citation: 232 U.S. 442,34 S.Ct. 396,58 L.Ed. 676
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err., v. SAM PELICAN and Tony Ponterre, alias Alex Licomte
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

232 U.S. 442

34 S.Ct. 396

58 L.Ed. 676

UNITED STATES, Plff. in Err.,

v SAM PELICAN and Tony Ponterre, alias Alex Licomte.

No. 787.

Argued January 13, 1914.

Decided February 24, 1914.

Assistant Attorney General Wallace for plaintiff in error.

No appearance for defendant in error.

[Syllabus from page 443 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Hughes delivered the opinion of the court:

The defendants were indicted for the murder, on August 30, 1913, of Ed Louie, a full-blood Indian and a member of the Colville tribe. It was charged that the crime was committed 'at a point about 9 miles northwest of the town of Curlew, in the county of Ferry, state of Washington, in the Indian country, to wit, upon the allotment of one Agnes, an Indian, being lot 3 of section 26, and lot 9 of section 35, in township 40 north, or range 32 E. W. M., in the northern division of the eastern district of Washington, said land being then held in trust by the United States for the said Agnes for the period of twenty-five years from the date of the trust patent; to wit, from the 6th day of December, A. D., 1909.'

The indictment was based upon § 2145 of the Revised Statutes, which provides that, save as stated, 'the general laws of the United States as to the punishment of crimes committed in any place within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, except the District of Columbia, shall extend to the Indian country' (see Rev. Stat. § 5339, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3627; Criminal Code, 35 Stat. at L. 1088, chap. 321, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 1588, §§ 272, 273, 341).

A demurrer was filed upon the ground that it did not appear that the crime had been committed within 'the Indian country,' and hence that the court was without jurisdiction. In connection with the hearing upon the demurrer the parties stipulated that the land described in the indictment as the place of the crime had been allotted to the Indian Agnes under the act approved February 8, 1887 [24 Stat. at L. 388, chap. 119], and the act in amendment and extension thereof approved February 28, 1891 [26 Stat. at L. 794, chap. 383], and that this land was situated on that part of the Colville Indian Reservation which had been opened to settlement and entry by the act of Congress. See act of July 1, 1892, 27 Stat. at L. 62, chap. 140. The district court, holding that the Agnes allotment was not a part of the Indian country within the meaning of the statute, sustained the demurrer; and the government brings this writ of error under the criminal appeals act, March 2, 1907 (34 Stat. at L. 1246, chap. 2564).

There can be no doubt that the Colville Reservation, set apart by Executive order on July 2, 1872 (Exec. Ord. Ind. Reserv. [1912 ed.], 194, 195; 1 Kappler, 915, 916), and repeatedly recognized by acts of Congress, was a legally constituted reservation. Re Wilson, 140 U. S. 575, 577, 35 L. ed. 513, 514, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 870. As such it was included in the 'Indian country' to which § 2145 of the Revised Statutes refers, and it was none the less embraced within that description because it had been segregated from the public domain. Donnelly v. United States, 228 U. S. 243, 269, 57 L. ed. 820, 831, 33 Sup. St. Rep. 449, Ann. Cas. 1913E, 710. The inquiry then, is whether, with respect to the part States, 164 U. S. 240, 242, 247, 41 L. ed. in the described allotment, the United States v. United States, 228 U. S. 243, 271, 272, 57 L. ed. 820, 832, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. with crimes committed by or against Indians upon the lands within the reservation was not affected by the admission of the state of Washington into the Union (act of February 22, 1889, chap. 180, 25 Stat. at L. 676, 677; Draper v. United States, 164 U.S. 240, 242, 247, 41 L. ed. 419, 420, 421, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 107; Donnelly of the reservation with certain exceptions—was 'vacated and restored to the public 449, Ann. Cas. 1913E, 710); and we pass to the consideration of the effect of the Federal legislation by which the reservation was diminished.

By the act of July 1, 1892, chap. 140, 27 Stat. at L. 62, a specified tract or portion of the reservation—with certain exceptions—was 'vacated and restored to the public domain,'

July 4, 1884, chap. 180, 23 Stat. at L. 76, 79; February 8, 1887, chap. 119, 24 Stat. at L. 388; February 28, 1891, chap. 383, 26 Stat. at L. 794; July 1, 1892, chap. 140, 27 Stat. at L. 62; February 20, 1896, chap. 24, 29 Stat. at L. 9; March 6, 1896, chap. 42, 29 Stat. at L. 44; June 18, 1898, chap. 465, 30 Stat. at L. 475; July 1, 1898, chap. 545, 30 Stat. at L. 571, 593; March 22, 1906, chap. 1126, 34 Stat. at L. 80 and it was provided that this tract should be open to settlement and entry by the proclamation of the President, and should be disposed of under the general laws applicable to the disposition of public lands in the state of Washington. The exceptions were made by Congress in order to care for the Indians residing on that portion of the reservation. Every such Indian was entitled to select therefrom 80 acres which were to be allotted to the Indian in severalty (§ 4). The titles to the lands selected were to 'be held in trust for the beneflt of the allottees, respectively, and afterwards conveyed in fee simple to the allottees or their heirs,' as provided in the acts of February 8, 1887 (24 Stat. at L. 388, chap. 119), and February 28, 1891 (26 Stat. at L. 794, chap. 383). Further, certain school and mill lands within the described tract were reserved from the operation of the statute, unless othekr lands were selected in their stead (§ 6).

The evident purpose of Congress was to carve out of the portion of the reservation restored to the public domain the lands to be allotted and reserved, as stated, and to make the restoration effective only as to the residue. The vacation and restoration which the statute accomplished (§ 1) was of the statute, unless other lands were and allotment of lands in severalty to the individual members of the Indians of the Colville Reservation' for which the act provided. In 1898, in furtherance of the same object, Congress required the completion of the allotments as soon as practicable, and not later than six months after the President's proclamation (act of July 1, 1898, chap. 545, 30 Stat. at L. 571, 593). Accordingly the President issued his proclamation on April 10, 1900, declaring that the restored portion of the reservation would be open to settlement and entry on October 10, 1900, and an appropriate clause was inserted which saved and excepted such tracts as had been or might be 'allotted to or reserved or selected for the Indians, or other purposes,' under the governing statutes. 31 Stat. at L. 1963, 1965. The government presents extracts from the records of the Department of the Interior which purport to show that the actual allotment to the Indian Agnes, of the land described in the indictment, had been made prior to the date of this proclamation, and we are asked to take notice of that fact. We find it to be unnecessary to pass upon this, but we shall assume, in view of the grounds of the decision below, that the allotment was duly made under the statutory provisions to which we have referred, and it follows that these allotted lands must be demed to be among those excepted from the portion of the reservation which was thrown open to settlement.

Although the lands were allotted in severalty, they were to be held in trust by the United States for twenty-five years for the sole use and benefit of the allottee, or his heirs, and during this period were to be inalienable. That the lands, being so held, continued to be under the jurisdiction and control of Congress for all governmental purposes relating to the guardianship and protection of the Indians, is not open to controversy. United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 437, 47 L. ed. 532, 536, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 478; McKay v. Kalyton, 204 U. S. 458, 466, 468, 51 L. ed. 566, 570, 571, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 346; Couture v. United States, 207 U. S. 581, 52 L. ed. 350, 28 Sup. Ct. Rep. 259; United States v. Celestine, 215 U. S. 278, 290, 291, 54 L. ed. 195, 199, 200, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 93; United States v. Sutton, 215 U. S. 291, 54 L. ed. 200, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 116; Marchie Tiger v. Western Invest. Co. 221 U. S. 286, 315, 316, 55 L. ed. 738, 749, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 578; Hallowell v. United States, 221 U. S. 317, 55 L. ed. 750, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 587; United States v. Wright, 229 U. S. 226, 237, 57 L. ed. 1160, 1166, 33 Sup. Ct. Rep. 630. Thus, in the act of January 30, 1897, chap. 109, 29 Stat. at L. 506, relating to the introduction of intoxicating liquor 'into the Indian country,' it is expressly provided that this term 'shall include any Indian allotment while the title to the same shall be held in trust by the government, or while the same shall remain inalienable by the allottee without the consent of the United States.' This statute was upheld in United States v. Sutton, 215 U. S. 291, 54 L. ed. 200, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 116, as a valid exercise of Federal power with respect to allotments made under the act of February 8, 1887, within the Yakima Reservation in the state of Washington. Again, in Hallowell v. United States, 221 U. S. 317, 55 L. ed. 750, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 587, the Federal jurisdiction under the same statute was sustained with respect to an allotment to an Omaha Indian in Nebraska, the title being held in trust by the government under the act of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat. at L. 341, chap. 434). There it appeared that practically all the lands in the Omaha Reservation had been allotted, and that many of the allotments of deceased Indians had passed into the hands of the whites, without out restrictions, under the provisions of the act of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. at L. 275, chap. 888). Further, the Omaha Indians were exercising the rights of citizenship within the state, and the defendant himself, who was charged with taking liquor to his own allotment, was a citizen and had served...