Baker v. United States

• Decision Date: 29 September 1921
• Docket Number: 5530.
• Citation: 276 F. 283
• Parties: BAKER et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

276 F. 283

BAKER et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 5530.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

September 29, 1921

Rehearing Denied December 5, 1921.

John Embry, of Oklahoma City, Okl. (Seymour Foose, of Watonga Okl., and Embry, Johnson & Kidd, of Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief), for plaintiffs in error.

Herman S. Davis, Asst. U.S. Atty., of Oklahoma City, Okl. (Herbert M. Peck, U.S. Atty., of Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief) for the United States.

Before HOOK and STONE, Circuit Judges, and JOHNSON, District Judge.

HOOK Circuit Judge.

Ed Baker and Ernie Black were convicted and sentenced for conspiring to defraud the United States in respect of its trust duties to certain members of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Tribes of Indians and their allotted lands in Blaine county Okl. (Criminal Code, Sec. 37 (Comp. St. Sec. 10201)). They prosecute this writ of error.

According to its general policy with reference to tribal titles to Indian lands, the government adopted in the case of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes the familiar plan of individual allotments. As they were not regarded competent to be intrusted with complete title and control, it was provided as a protective but forward step towards ultimate, full emancipation that the government should hold the titles in trust for the allottees and their heirs for the period of 25 years. Afterwards the Secretary of the Interior was authorized by statute to issue patents in fee in individual cases in which he was satisfied that the Indians were competent and capable of managing their own affairs. Finally, the Secretary was generally given discretion to remove restrictions on the alienation of allotments of deceased Indians and to issue unrestricted patents to their heirs in fee. It was upon the above situation that the conspiracy charged was predicated.

In general outline the indictment alleged that the defrauding of the United States was to be accomplished by practicing deception upon the Commissioners of Indian Affairs and through him upon the Secretary of the Interior as to the competency and qualifications of certain incompetent Indian heirs and by procuring by those means the issue to them of patents in fee for the lands held in trust for them by the United States, and, that being done, by procuring from the patentees deeds of conveyance to the accused and other persons. The machinery of the deception was set forth in detail. It consisted of false claims, proofs, and reports as to the competency of the Indians and their ability to manage their own affairs and the submission of them to the government officials at Washington for their action. A local official at the Cantonment Agency, Okl., was indicted as a coconspirator, but was acquitted at the trial.

The trial court excluded from the consideration of the jury all the overt acts that were not alleged to have been committed within the statutory period of limitation, that is, within three years prior to the indictment. Another was withdrawn for insufficiency of proof, and still another fell because it was alleged to have been committed by the local official who was acquitted. Upon this it is contended that no overt acts charged in the...