George Washington v. Charles Miller
| Decision Date | 14 December 1914 |
| Docket Number | No. 53,53 |
| Citation | 235 U.S. 422,59 L.Ed. 295,35 S.Ct. 119 |
| Parties | GEORGE WASHINGTON, Plff. in Err., v. CHARLES W. MILLER |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Mr. Lewis C. Lawson for plaintiff in error.
Mr. Nathan A. Gibson for defendant in error.
This was a suit to quiet the title to lands within what until recently was the Creek Nation in the Indian Territory. The lands were allotted to an enrolled Creek, who died intestate November 3, 1907, after receiving the usual tribal deeds approved by the Secretary of the Interior. He left no widow or descendant, but was survived by his father and mother, two half brothers and a half sister on the paternal side, and a half sister on the maternal side. The father was an enrolled Seminole and the mother an enrolled Creek. The half brothers and half sister on the paternal side were Seminoles and the half sister on the maternal side was a Creek. The plaintiff in the suit was in possession and claimed under a deed from the mother, executed July 16, 1909, and approved by the county court. See United States v. Knight, 124 C. C. A. 211, 206 Fed. 145. The father was a defendant and by his answer admitted the facts here stated, and insisted that, although not a Creek citizen, he was an heir of the deceased allottee, and as such had an interest in the lands. Upon this answer a judgment was given against him, which was affirmed by the supreme court of the state. 34 Okla. 259, 129 Pac. 58. He then sued out this writ of error.
The ultimate question for decision is whether the father was an heir, and that involves an ascertainment and interpretation of the applicable law of descent.
The allotment was made and the tribal deeds were issued under the act of March 1, 1901 (31 Stat. at L. 861, chap. 676), known as the original Creek agreement, and the modifying act of June 30, 1902 (32 Stat. at L. 500, chap. 1323), known as the supplemental Creek agreement.
Before coming to the provisions of those acts, it may be helpful to refer to the situation existing at the time of their enactment. Long prior thereto the Creek Nation had adopted laws of its own regulating the descent and distribution of property of its citizens dying intestate. Creek Laws of 1867, § 6; Perryman's Compiled Creek Laws of 1890, § 6, p. 32, § 8, p. 76; Bledsoe's Indian Land Laws, 2d ed. §§ 829-831. Congress also had dealt with that subject. By the act of May 2, 1890 (26 Stat. at L. 81, chap. 182), §§ 30 and 31, it had 'extended over and put in force in the Indian Territory' several general laws of the state of Arkansas, among which was chapter 49 of Mansfield's Digest of 1884, relating to descent and distribution. At first the operation of this act was materially restricted by a proviso declaring that 'the judicial tribunals of the Indian nations shall retain exclusive jurisdiction in all civil and criminal cases arising in the country in which members of the nation by nativity or by adoption shall be the only parties; and as to all such cases the laws of the state of Arkansas extended over and put in force in said Indian Territory by this act shall not apply.' But the proviso lost much of its force when the act of June 7, 1897 (30 Stat. at L. 83, chap. 3), declared that 'the laws of the United States and the state of Arkansas in force in the [Indian] Territory shall apply to all persons therein, irrespective of race,' and was practically abrogated when the act of June 28, 1898 (30 Stat. at L. 495, chap. 517), abolished all tribal courts in the Indian Territory (§ 28) and provided (§ 26) that 'the laws of the various tribes or nations of Indians shall not be enforced at law or in equity by the courts of the United States in the Indian Territory.' Of course, these congressional enactments operated to displace the Creek tribal laws of descent and distribution, and to substitute in their stead the Arkansas law as expressed in chapter 49 of Mansfield's Digest.
Notwithstanding the situation just mentioned, provisions were inserted in the original Creek agreement of March 1, 1901, supra, which undoubtedly gave controlling effect to the Creek tribal laws rather than to the Arkansas law; and those provisions embraced allotments to living citizens as well as allotments on behalf of deceased citizens. Thus in § 7 it was provided that if, after a homestead had served the purposes of its creation, the allottee should die intestate, the land should 'descend to his heirs according to the laws of descent and distribution of the Creek Nation;' and in § 28 it was provided that, if a citizen or child entitled to enrolment should die before receiving his allotment and share of the funds of the tribe, the lands and money to which he would be entitled, if living, should 'descend to his heirs according to the laws of descent and distribution of the Creek Nation.' In other parts of the agreement the word 'heirs' was used without any accompanying explanation of who was intended, but this evidently was because the word was intended to have the same signification as in §§ 7 and 28, and therefore no further explanation was necessary.
But the purpose to give effect to the Creek tribal laws was soon changed, for the act of May 27, 1902 (32 Stat. at L. 258, chap. 888), not only expressly repealed so much of the act or agreement of March 1, 1901, as provided for descent and distribution according to the Creek tribal laws, but also declared: 'And the descent and distribution of lands and moneys provided for in said act shall be in accordance with the provisions of chapter forty-nine of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas in force in Indian Territory.' A little more than a month later what was said in the act of May 27, 1902, was repeated in § 6 of the supplemental Creek agreement of June 30, 1902, and was there qualified by two provisos which have an important bearing here. That section reads:
'The provisions of the act of Congress approved March 1, 1901 (31 Stat. at L. 861, chap. 676), in so far as they provide for descent and distribution according to the laws of the Creek Nation, are hereby repealed and the descent and distribution of land and money provided for by said act shall be in accordance with chapter 49 of Mansfield's Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas now in force in Indian Territory: Provided, That only citizens of the Creek Nation, male and female, and their Creek descendants, shall...
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