United States v. Jackson

• Citation: 50 S.Ct. 143,74 L.Ed. 361,280 U.S. 183
• Decision Date: 06 January 1930
• Docket Number: No. 57,57
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. JACKSON et al
• Court: United States Supreme Court

280 U.S. 183

50 S.Ct. 143

74 L.Ed. 361

UNITED STATES

v JACKSON et al.

No. 57.

Argued Dec. 5, 1929.

Decided Jan. 6, 1930.

In accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress of July 4, 1884, c. 180, § 1 (23 Stat. 76, 96; 43 U. S. C. 190 (43 USCA § 190)), the United States, on December 11, 1891, issued to Jack Williams, an Indian, a trust patent on certain lands. The patent recited that the United States would hold the lands in trust for the sole use and benefit of Williams, or, in case of his decease, of his widow and heirs, for a period of 25 years from the date thereof, and that at the expiration of such time the United States would convey the land to Williams, or his widow or heirs, in fee and free of the trust or any incumbrance whatever.

Before the expiration of the 25-year trust period, Williams died, and his interest in the land passed to his widow and sole heir, Nellie Williams, an Indian woman. She held the land until March 18, 1921, more than four years after the trust period, by its terms, would have expired, and then deeded it to Jack Jackson, also an Indian. In the succeeding year-October 10, 1922-she died, leaving a will by which the same property was devised to Bob Roberts, a tribale Indian.

The deed to Jackson was recorded November 3, 1922; but the Secretary of the Interior has never approved it.

Nellie Williams' will, and the devise to Roberts therein contained, were approved by the Secretary of the Interior, December 1, 1923.

This is a suit by the United States against the heirs of Jack Jackson. It is brought on behalf of Bob Roberts, and its purpose is to quiet title in him to the lands in question. The position of the United States is that while it is true that the deed to Jackson was made after the original 25-year trust period, with its attendant restrictions on alienation, had, by the terms of the trust patent, expired, it further appears that the restrictions on the alienation of this land by Williams or his heirs has been continued in force and extended by a series of 1-year executive orders from 1916 to 1919, and by a further 25-year executive order issued in 1920. The executive orders in question were, it is urged, authorized by the Act of Congress of June 21, 1906 (chapter 3504, 34 Stat. 325, 326).

The United States therefore argued that the deed to Jackson, having been made while there was a restriction on alienation, and not having been approved by the Secretary of the Interior, was void.

The District Court (27 F.(2d) 751) held that the Act of June 21, 1906, did not authorize the President to continue the restrictions on alienation contained in the patent issued to Williams. The purpose of the 1906 act, said the District Court, was to permit the continuation of restrictions in patents issued to Indian allottees, that is, to Indians who received patents under the General Allotment Act of February 8, 1887, which created the Indian allotment system, or under any of its subsequent amendments (25 USCA § 331 et seq.); but that the 1906 act did not purport to give the President a like power with respect to Indians who received their patents under the Act of July 4, 1884 which conferred homestead entry rights upon Indians.

The court therefore held that the restrictions on the alienation of this land had expired at the time Williams' widow deeded it to Jackson; that there was no statute expressly extending the restrictions, and no statute authorizing the President so to do; that the deed to Jackson conformed to the law of the state where it was executed, and it was valid.

The United States appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The judges of that court, being in doubt, have certified to us, conformably to section 239 of the Judicial Code, as amended by the Act of February 13, 1925 (chapter 229, 43 Stat. 936, 938, 28 USCA § 346), the two following questions of law concerning which our instruction is desired for the proper decision of the cause:

'1. Could the trust period and the restriction of alienation in an Indian homestead patent issued under the Act of July 4, 1884 (43 USCA § 190), be extended by executive orders?

'2. Did the Act of June 21, 1906 (25 USCA § 391), authorize the President in his discretion to continue restrictions on alienation in patents issued under the Indian Homestead Act of July 4, 1884 (43 USCA § 190)?'

The Attorney General and Mr. Richardson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 186-188 intentionally omitted] Mr. Chief Justice TAFT, after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the Court.

The statute under which the Indian, Jack Williams, secured his trust patent to the land here involved, was that of July 4, 1884 (chapter 180, 23 Stat. 96 (43 USCA § 190)), the pertinent part of section 1 of which is printed in the margin.¹ Its purpose and effect were to extend to the Indian wards of the United States, subject, however, to the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, the privileges then enjoyed by citizens of the United States under the federal homestead laws. It was provided that patents issued to Indians for homestead lands under the act should, however, recite that the United States holds the land in trust for the sole use and benefit of the Indian for a period of 25 years, and that at the expiration of such period the United States would convey the same by final patent to the Indian or his widow and heirs in fee and discharged of the trust. The trust patent here issued to Williams conformed to these requirements of the law.

The first question certified to us by the Circuit Court of Appeals is whether, after an Indian had acquired a trust patent under the provisions of this statute, power remained in the Congress to extend, or to provide that the Executive, in his discretion, might extend, before its expiration and before there had come to be issued to the Indian a patent in fee, the period of the trust with its resulting restrictions on alienation. We do not think that our decisions leave any doubt, not only that it is within the power, but that it is the duty, of the Congress, where it finds conditions which warrant it, so to do. We have had frequent occasion to point out the duty of the United States to protect its wards, the Indians, and the consequent broad extent of its power over them and their affairs. United States v. Kagama, 118 U. S. 375, 384, 6 S. Ct. 1109, 30 L. Ed. 228; United States v. Nice, 241 U. S. 591, 597, 36 S. Ct. 696, 60 L. Ed. 1192. There is nothing in the act of 1884 which indicates any disposition on the part of the United States to dispossess itself of its powers and duties as guardian, or so to change the status of its wards as to leave them no longer subject to manifestations of its protection. On the contrary, the provisions of the act leave no doubt that it is an act done by the United States in its capacity as guardian, and that the rights conferred by the act upon the Indians were so conferred principally because they were wards of the government. This is shown by the provisions exempting Indians from the payment of the usual fees, and by the provision respecting the form of the trust patent, and the restrictions on alienation.

This being so, we fail to find anything in the Act of June 21, 1906 (25 USCA § 391), which transcends the valid powers of the government over its wards. Passing, for the moment, the question whether the act of 1906 was intended to apply to Indian homesteaders claiming under the act of 1884, and assuming, for the purposes of question No. 1, that the word 'allottee' was intended to include such Indians, we find that the act provides:

'That prior to the expiration of the trust period of any Indian allottee to whom a trust or other patent containing restrictions upon alienation has been or shall be issued under any law or treaty the President may in his discretion continue such restrictions on alienation for such period as he may deem best. * * *' 25 USCA § 391.

This does not involve any question of an attempt to destroy vested rights. The power of the United States, delegated by the act to the President, is to be exercised prior to the issuance of final patent. It has been held that until final patent be issued no vested right is obtained by the Indian which would support a constitutional objection to the enlargement of the period of the restriction. See United States v. Allen (C. C. A.) 179 F. 13, 22, 23; United States v. Hemmer (D. C.) 195 F. 790.

What has here occurred is that the United States has conferred a privilege upon its wards-as such-and has surrounded its final acquisition with restrictions calculated to secure the advantage of the privilege to those intended to be benefited. Finding that the restrictions authorized at the time of the extension of the privilege will not, in all cases, be long continued enough to secure this result, Congress has authorized the Executive, in his discretion, to continue the restrictions for such period as he may deem best. That this is within the constitutional power of Congress must be considered as concluded by our decisions in Tiger v. Western Investment Company, 221 U. S. 286, 31 S. Ct. 578, 55 L. Ed. 738, Heckman v. United States, 224 U. S. 413, 32 S. Ct. 424, 56 L. Ed. 820, and Brader v. James, 246 U. S. 88, 38 S. Ct. 285, 62 L. Ed. 591.

The first question must be answered in the affirmative.

But it is suggested, and the District Court has held, that since the language of the Act of June 21, 1906, refers only to Indian allottees, it cannot be considered as authorizing the President to continue restrictions on alienation in patents issued to Indian homesteaders under the Act of July 4, 1884. In ruling that the 1906 act did not apply to the trust patent issued to Williams since he was not an allottee, but an Indian homesteader, claiming by virtue of the 1884 act which extended the benefits of the homestead laws to the Indians, and not under the General...