Chippewa Indians of Minnesota v. United States Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, 228

• Decision Date: 17 May 1937
• Docket Number: No. 228,228
• Citation: 81 L.Ed. 1156,57 S.Ct. 826,301 U.S. 358
• Parties: CHIPPEWA INDIANS OF MINNESOTA v. UNITED STATES (RED LAKE BAND OF CHIPPEWA INDIANS OF MINNESOTA, Interveners). *
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

301 U.S. 358

57 S.Ct. 826

81 L.Ed. 1156

CHIPPEWA INDIANS OF MINNESOTA

v UNITED STATES (RED LAKE BAND OF CHIPPEWA INDIANS OF MINNESOTA, Interveners). ^*

No. 228.

Argued Feb. 2, 1937.

Decided May 17, 1937.

Appeal from the Court of Claims.

Messrs. Webster Ballinger, of Washington, D.C., and D. S. Holmes, of Duluth, Minn., for appellants.

Mr. Golden W. Bell, Asst. Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for appellee the United States.

Mr. Fred Dennis, of Detroit Lakes, Minn., for appellee Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians of Minnesota.

Mr. Justice VAN DEVANTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This was a suit by the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota against the United States to recover the value of 663,421 acres of land alleged to have been ceded to the defendant under an express trust for the benefit of the plaintiffs and subsequently disposed of or appropriated by the defendant in disregard of the trust and of the rights of the plaintiffs. This 663,421 acres comprised what is hereinafter described as the diminished Red Lake Reservation.

The suit was brought and conducted under permissive legislation.¹ The defendant traversed the allegations of the plaintiffs' petition; and by leave of court, and in virtue of authority given in the permissive legislation, the Red Lake Band of Chippewas intervened for the purpose of opposing the plaintiffs' claim and of protecting its own interests. After a full hearing the court made special findings of fact and rendered a judgment for the defendant. 80 Ct.Cl. 410. The plaintiffs were allowed an appeal to this Court under a special supplement to the permissive legislation.

The Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, plaintiffs below and appellants here, comprise those who are designated in the Act of January 14, 1889, infra, as 'all the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota,' otherwise described in the permissive legislation already mentioned,² as all who are 'entitled to share in the final distribution of the permanent fund' provided for in section 7 of the act of 1889.

The findings below are too long to be repeated here and will be much summarized.

About the beginning of the last century the Chippewas constituted one of the larger Indian tribes in the northerly part of the United States. In early treaties they were dealt with as a single tribe and were shown to be occupying a large area reaching from Lake Huron on the east to and beyond Lake Superior on the west.³ In later treaties they were regarded as divided into distinct bands; and particular bands in some instances a single band and in others a limited plurality of bands—were recognized as occupying separate areas in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Eastern Dakota, and as entitled to hold or cede the same independently of other bands and of the Chippewas as a whole. ⁴ Some of the bands became permanently settled in Michigan and Wisconsin. Others—usually as a single band and exceptionally as a group of a few bands—became the recognized occupants and holders of twelve separate reservations in Minnesota. It is to these Minnesota bands and reservations that this suit relates.

One of the bands in Minnesota was the Red Lake which had come to include or be associated with the Pembina band. For a long period these two bands had been the exclusive occupants of the Red Lake Reservation, the largest of all. The next largest reservation was the White Earth. Its occupants were mostly members of the Mississippi bands; but some members of the latter were occupying older reservations which the White Earth had been designed to displace. This reservation contained an unusual proportion of land well suited for individual Indian allotments; and a small part of it had been allotted to individual Indians. The ten smaller reservations require no other special mention than that some of the Indians belonging to them had received individual allotments in them.

By an act of January 14, 1889, c. 24, 25 Stat. 642, Congress proposed to all bands of Chippewas in Minnesota a plan for their relief and civilization through allotments in severalty, cession and sale of lands not required for allotments, placing and proceeds of sales, less various expenses, in a permanent interest-bearing fund as hereinafter stated, using the interest for the support and education of these Indians, and ultimately distributing per capita the principal of the fund.

The act created a commission to negotiate with the different bands for a complete cession to the United States of their title and right to all of each reservation, 'except the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations, and to all and so much of these two reservations as in the judgment of said commission is not required to make and fill the allotments required by this and existing acts, and shall not have been reserved by the Commissioners for said purposes.'

The cession was to be made for the purposes and upon the terms stated in the act and was to be sufficient as to each reservation, except the Red Lake, if made in writing by two-thirds of the male adults over eighteen years of age in the band occupying and belonging to such reservation, and as to the Red Lake was to be sufficient if made in like manner 'by two-thirds of the male adults of all the Chippewa Indians in Minnesota.' All cession agreements were to become effective if and when approved by the President.

For the purpose of ascertaining whether the proper number of Indians joined in the cession, and for the further purpose of making allotments and payments to individual Indians, the act required the commissioners to make an accurate census of each band, classifying the members as male and female adults and male and female minors, and further classifying the minors into those who were and those who were not orphans.

As soon as the census was taken and the cession obtained the approved, all of the Chippewas in Minnesota, except those on the Red Lake Reservation, were to be removed to the White Earth Reservation; and as soon as practicable allotments in severalty were to be made on the Red Lake Reservation to the Indians belonging to that reservation, and on the White Earth Reservation to all of the other Chippewa Indians in Minnesota—all allotments to be in conformity with the act and with another designated statute.⁵ These provisions for allotments were qualified by other provisions to the effect, first, that no existing allotment in any of the reservations should be disturbed, except with the allottee's individual consent; secondly, that existing allotments in the White Earth Reservation were ratified and should be adjusted in tenure, conditions and quantity to the allotments provided for in the act; and, thirdly, that any Indian on any of the reservations might in his discretion take his allotment under the act on the reservation where he was so residing, instead of being removed to and taking an allotment on the White Earth Reservation.

As soon as the cession was obtained and approved the lands ceded to the United States were to be surveyed; and as soon as practicable after the survey the lands so ceded were to be examined and classified as pine lands or agricultural lands, and such as were classified as pine lands were to be appraised with particular regard to the quantity and quality of the pine, and were to be sold by the United States at public auction, for cash, at not less than the appraised value, in 40-acre or smaller parcels.

The agricultural lands 'not allotted under this act nor reserved for the future use of said Indians' were to be disposed of by the United States to actual settlers under the homestead law at $1.25 an acre, to be paid in five equal annual installments.

As provided in section 7 of the act, all money accruing from the disposal of the ceded lands, after deducting enumerated expenses, was to be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of 'all the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota' as a permanent interest-bearing fund for the period of fifty years. The interest was to be used for the support and education of such Indians, and at the end of the fifty years the permanent fund was to be divided and paid to 'all of said Chippewa Indiana and their issue then living' in cash and equal shares, subject to a reserved power in Congress to make limited appropriations from the fund during the fifty-year period for the purpose of promoting civilization and self-support among these Indians.

Under the act of 1889 the commission, besides making the required census, conducted separate negotiations with each of the bands with the following results:

1. The Red Lake and Pembina bands (sometimes spoken of collectively as the Red Lake bank or Red Lake Indians), occupying and belonging to the Red Lake Reservation, ceded to the United States, for the purposes and upon the terms stated in the act, their title and right to all of that reservation, save a designated tract containing 661,118 acres which the commission 'reserved' for the purpose of making and filling allotments to them. The cession was made by a written instrument showing what lands were reserved, and bearing the assent of more than two-thirds of the male adults over eighteen years of age in those bands.

2. The bands occupying and belonging to the White Earth Reservation, by a like instrument bearing a like assent, ceded to the United States their title and right to all of that reservation, save a specified tract which the commission had reserved for allotments. The instrument making this cession contained a further cession by such bands of their title and right to 'all and so much of the Red Lake Reservation as is not required and reserved under the provisions of said act to make and fill the allotments to the Red Lake Indians in quantity and manner as therein provided.'

3. As to each of the other ten reservations the band occupying and belonging to it, by a like instrument bearing a like assent, ceded the whole of such reservation to the United States, and...