Dissenting
Opinion, December 22, 1914.
Syllabus
by the Court.
Lands
allotted to freedmen of the Chickasaw Nation by virtue of the
provisions of the Act of Congress of July 1, 1902, c. 1362,
32 Stat. 641, are subject to taxation under the laws of the
state of Oklahoma.
Error
to District Court, Garvin County; R. McMillan, Judge.
Action
by Stephen W. Allen and others against J. F. Trimmer
Treasurer of Garvin County. Judgment for defendant and
plaintiffs bring error. Affirmed.
Kane
C.J., and Turner, J., dissenting.
W. R
Wallace and Albert Rennie, both of Pauls Valley, for
plaintiffs in error.
Chas
West, Atty. Gen., and C.J. Davenport, Asst. Atty. Gen., for
defendant in error.
BLEAKMORE
J.
Plaintiffs
in error, plaintiffs below, began this action in the trial
court to restrain the collection of taxes for the years 1909,
1910, 1911, and 1912 upon lands allotted to them from the
public domain of the Chickasaw Nation as Chickasaw freedmen,
claiming that said lands were exempt from taxation by virtue
of the provisions of laws under which said allotments were
made. To review the judgment of the trial court sustaining a
demurrer to their petition, this proceeding in error is
prosecuted.
These
plaintiffs are the former slaves of the Chickasaws and their
descendants. All their rights to the lands allotted to them
were acquired under the provisions of certain agreements
between the United States and the Choctaw and Chickasaw
Tribes of Indians and congressional acts relative to such
tribes and their lands.
Determination
of the sole question involved--are the lands allotted to
Chickasaw freedmen exempt from taxation--requires an
examination of such treaties and laws; and lengthy quotations
therefrom will necessarily be made.
The
treaty between the United States and these tribes proclaimed
July 10, 1866 (14 Stat. 769), after declaring that slavery
should never exist in said nations, provides:
"Article III. The Choctaws and Chickasaws, in
consideration of the sum of three hundred thousand dollars,
hereby cede to the United States the territory west of the
98~ west longitude, known as the leased district, provided
that the said sum shall be invested and held by the United
States, at an interest not less than five per cent, in trust
for the said nations, until the legislatures of the Choctaw
and Chickasaw Nations respectively shall have made such laws,
rules, and regulations as may be necessary to give all
persons of African descent, resident in said nations at the
date of the treaty of Fort Smith, and their descendants,
heretofore held in slavery among said nations, all the
rights, privileges, and immunities, including the right of
suffrage, of citizens of said nations, except in the
annuities, moneys, and public domain claimed by, or belonging
to, said nations respectively; and also to give to such
persons who were residents as aforesaid, and their
descendants, forty acres each of the land of said nations on
the same terms as the Choctaws and Chickasaws, to be selected
on the survey of said land, after the Choctaws and Chickasaws
and Kansas Indians have made their selections as herein
provided; and immediately on the enactment of such laws,
rules, and regulations, the said sum of three hundred
thousand dollars shall be paid to the said Choctaw and
Chickasaw Nations in the proportion of three-fourths to the
former and one-fourth to the latter,--less such sum, at the
rate of one hundred dollars per capita, as shall be
sufficient to pay such persons of African descent before
referred to as within ninety days after the passage of such
laws, rules, and regulations shall elect to remove and
actually remove from the said nations respectively. And
should the said laws, rules, and regulations not be made by
the legislatures of the said nations respectively, within two
years from the ratification of this treaty, then the said sum
of three hundred thousand dollars shall cease to be held in
trust for the said Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and be held
for the use and benefit of such of said persons of African
descent as the United States shall remove from the said
territory in such manner as the United States shall deem
proper,--the United States agreeing, within ninety days from
the expiration of the said two years, to remove from said
nations all such persons of African descent as may be willing
to remove; those remaining or returning after having been
removed from said nations to have no benefit of said sum of
three hundred thousand dollars, or any part thereof, but
shall be upon the same footing as other citizens of the
United States in the said nations."
Prior
to 1897 various acts were passed by the Chickasaw Legislature
relative to their freedmen, pursuant to the treaty of 1866,
supra, none of which became effective, not being approved by
the proper authority
of the United States, and therefore have no important bearing
on the question here involved.
By
section 29 of the agreement between the United States and the
Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes of Indians of date April 23,
1897, and ratified and confirmed by the act of June 28, 1898
(known as the Atoka Agreement, 30 Stat. at L. 505, c. 517),
it is provided:
"That all the lands within the Indian Territory
belonging to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians shall be
allotted to the members of said tribes so as to give each
member of these tribes so far as possible a fair and equal
share thereof, considering the character and fertility of the
soil and the location and value of the lands. * * *
That the Commission to the Five Civilized Tribes shall make a
correct roll of Chickasaw freedmen entitled to any rights or
benefits under the treaty made in eighteen hundred and
sixty-six between the United States and the Choctaw and
Chickasaw Tribes and their descendants born to them since the
date of said treaty, and forty acres of land, including their
present residences and improvements, shall be allotted to
each, to be selected, held, and used by them until their
rights under said treaty shall be determined, in such manner
as shall hereafter be provided by act of Congress.
That the lands allotted to the Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen
are to be deducted from the portion to be allotted under this
agreement to the members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Tribes
so as to reduce the allotment to the Choctaws and Chickasaws
by the value of the same.
That the said Choctaw and Chickasaw freedmen who may be
entitled to allotments of forty acres each shall be entitled
each to land equal in value to forty acres of the average
land of the two nations. * * *
All the lands allotted shall be nontaxable while the title
remains in the original allottee, but not to exceed
twenty-one years from date of patent, and each allottee shall
select from his allotment a homestead of one hundred and
sixty acres, for which he shall have a separate patent, and
which shall be inalienable for twenty-one years from date of
patent. This provision shall also apply to the Choctaw and
Chickasaw freedmen to the extent of his allotment. Selections
for homesteads for minors to be made as provided herein in
case of allotment, and the remainder of the lands allotted to
said members shall be alienable for a price to be actually
paid, and to include no former indebtedness or
obligation--one-fourth of said remainder in one year,
one-fourth in three years, and the balance of said alienable
lands in five years from the date of the patent."
By the
terms of the agreement between the United States and the
Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, made on the 21st of March,
1902, and ratified and confirmed by the act of July 1, 1902,
c. 1362, 32 Stat. 641, known as the "Supplemental
Agreement," it is further provided:
"There shall be allotted to each member of the Choctaw
and Chickasaw Tribes, as soon as practicable after the
approval by the Secretary of the Interior of his enrollment
as herein provided, land equal in value to three hundred and
twenty acres of the average allottable land of the Choctaw
and Chickasaw Nations, and to each Choctaw and Chickasaw
freedman, as soon as practicable after the approval by the
Secretary of the Interior of his enrollment, land equal in
value to forty acres of the average allottable land of the
Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations; to conform, as nearly as may
be, to the areas and boundaries established by the government
survey, which land may be selected by each allottee so as to
include his improvements. * * *
13. The allotment of each Choctaw and Chickasaw freedman
shall be inalienable during the lifetime of the allottee, not
exceeding twenty-one years from the date of certificate of
allotment. * * *
15. Lands allotted to members and freedmen shall not be
affected or incumbered by any deed, debt, or obligation of
any character contracted prior to the time at which said land
may be alienated under this act, nor shall said lands be sold
except as herein provided."
The
same agreement provides as follows:
"36. Authority is hereby conferred upon the Court of
Claims to determine the existing controversy respecting the
relations of the Chickasaw freedmen to the Chickasaw Nation
and the rights of such freedmen in the lands of the Choctaw
and Chickasaw Nations under the third article of the treaty
of eighteen hundred and sixty-six, between the United States
and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations, and under any and all
laws subsequently enacted by the Chickasaw Legislature or by
Congress.
37. To that end the Attorney General of the United States is
hereby directed, on behalf of the United States, to file in
said Court of Claims, within sixty days after this agreement
becomes effective, a
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