Dicke v. Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes, Inc., 6875.

• Decision Date: 17 May 1962
• Docket Number: No. 6875.,6875.
• Citation: 304 F.2d 113
• Parties: Sam DICKE, Theodore Cutnose, for and on behalf of themselves and all other members of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Indians, whose names are appended, and all other members of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Indians, Appellants, v. CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO TRIBES, INC., an Oklahoma corporation; Woodrow Wilson; John Fletcher; William Howard Payne; Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and Garner Pettigrew, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

304 F.2d 113 (1962)

Sam DICKE, Theodore Cutnose, for and on behalf of themselves and all other members of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Indians, whose names are appended, and all other members of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Indians, Appellants, v. CHEYENNE-ARAPAHO TRIBES, INC., an Oklahoma corporation; Woodrow Wilson; John Fletcher; William Howard Payne; Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and Garner Pettigrew, Appellees.

No. 6875.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

May 17, 1962.

James E. Grigsby, Oklahoma City, Okl. (Harry R. Palmer, Jr., Oklahoma City, Okl., was with him on the brief) for appellants.

William Howard Payne, Oklahoma City (Arthur P. Scibelli, of counsel, was with him on the brief) for appellee.

Before MURRAH, Chief Judge, and PICKETT and LEWIS, Circuit Judges.

LEWIS, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs appeal from an order of the District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma dismissing for lack of jurisdiction a claim for relief sought against the defendant Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.¹ Plaintiffs are all enrolled members of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes and by their complaint sought to adjudicate the title to certain lands held in the tribal name and to obtain relief from designated management acts of the Tribe affecting the subject lands. Claim of jurisdiction in the federal courts is based upon 28 U.S.C.A. § 1331 (federal question) and 28 U.S.C.A. § 2201 (declaratory relief). The order of dismissal was premised upon the conclusion that the defendant Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma was not subject to suit absent the consent of Congress and that such consent was not existent. The correctness of the district court's order requires an interpretation of Public Law No. 86-791, 74 Stat. 1029 (Sept. 14, 1960) which provides in pertinent part:

"The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to convey to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes a fee simple title to approximately three thousand nine hundred acres of such lands, together with the improvements thereon. * * * The title of the tribes to any land conveyed pursuant to this action shall be subject to no exemption from taxation or restriction on use, management, or disposition because of Indian ownership."

The Secretary of Interior acting for the United States by authority of the cited statute and in the words of the statute quitclaimed the subject lands to the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes in fee simple by deed dated January 1961. Record title thus rests in the Tribes as such and tribal control of the lands has been maintained by the governing body of the Tribes, a business committee consisting of fourteen members, seven Cheyennes and seven Arapahoes elected by popular vote of the Indians.

The legal history of the status of Indian tribes under state and federal law presents a complex and ever-changing concept of an artificial entity progressing from independent but helpless sovereignty toward a status of complete integration in the legal, economic and moral life of the people of the United States. Complete integration would, of course, contemplate the availability of civil courts within the federal and state systems to adjudicate controversies of all natures, even those between tribes and members of the tribe, as here. And certain it is that the wording of the September 14th statute that the "title * * * to any land conveyed * * * shall be subject to no * * * restriction * * * because of Indian ownership" is...