Haile v. Saunooke

• Decision Date: 13 July 1957
• Docket Number: No. 7418.,7418.
• Citation: 246 F.2d 293
• Parties: Henry Thomas HAILE, Jr., individually, and as Administrator of the estate of Agnes Lewis Haile, Deceased, et al., Appellants, v. Osley Bird SAUNOOKE, Bertha Saunooke, The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a Corporation, and the United States, in its capacity as a government and also as trustee for and guardian of The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the individual members thereof, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

246 F.2d 293 (1957)

Henry Thomas HAILE, Jr., individually, and as Administrator of the estate of Agnes Lewis Haile, Deceased, et al., Appellants, v. Osley Bird SAUNOOKE, Bertha Saunooke, The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a Corporation, and the United States, in its capacity as a government and also as trustee for and guardian of The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the individual members thereof, Appellees.

No. 7418.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued May 28, 1957.

Decided July 13, 1957.

Thomas A. Uzzell, Jr., Asheville, N. C. (Uzzell & DuMont, Asheville, N. C., Folts, Brammer, Bishop & Thomas, Chattanooga, Tenn., and O. L. Anderson, Murphy, N. C., on the brief), for appellants.

Frank M. Parker, Asheville, N. C., and William W. Ross, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C. (George H. Ward, Asheville, N. C., and George Cochran Doub, Asst. Atty. Gen., J. M. Baley, Jr., U. S. Atty., Marshall, N. C., and Melvin Richter, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., on the brief), for appellees.

Before PARKER, Chief Judge, and SOBELOFF and HAYNSWORTH, Circuit Judges.

PARKER, Chief Judge.

This is an action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained from the collapse of a swinging bridge over the Oconaluftee River on the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Swain County, North Carolina. The plaintiffs are citizens of Tennessee who were on a visit to the reservation and who were crossing the bridge to reach a tourist attraction operated by Osley Bird Saunooke and his wife, members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Saunooke and wife were named as defendants in the action along with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the United States "in its capacity as a government and also as trustee for and guardian of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the individual members thereof." The District Judge dismissed the action against the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and against the United States as trustee for and guardian of the band and the individual members thereof, but retained the action against the individual defendants and against the United States, other than as trustee and guardian, and allowed the United States additional time within which to plead to the complaint. He signed an order under Rule 54(b), Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. 28 U.S.C.A. severing from the action for purposes of appeal the cause of action as to which dismissal was entered, so as to allow immediate appeal from the order of dismissal and the plaintiffs have appealed therefrom.

It is to be noted that the action was not dismissed as to the individual defendants nor as to the United States, which might be liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act, 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1346, 2671 et seq., upon a proper showing of negligence on the part of its employees in the construction or maintenance of the bridge; but the dismissal extended only to the cause of action asserted against the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and against the United States as trustee or guardian for them. As recovery is sought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act for negligence of its employees in connection with the bridge, it is clear that the suit against it in its capacity as trustee for or guardian of the Indians could only be for the purpose of notifying it to defend the suit for them pursuant to Rule 17(c) of the Rules of Civil Procedure, or for the purpose of rendering any judgment which might be entered in the cause binding with respect to the property of the Indians which the government held for them as trustee or guardian.

It is well settled that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is an Indian Tribe within the meaning of the Constitution and laws of the United States. In United States v. Wright, 4 Cir., 53 F.2d 300, 303 we went carefully into the history of this remnant of the Cherokees of North Carolina and showed how they had acquired the lands upon which they were living and had reacquired their status as an Indian Tribe under the protection of the Government of the United States. We made reference to their recognition as a tribe by Congress in the Act of July 27, 1868, saying:

"By the purchases of Thomas, therefore, this Eastern Band of Cherokees had acquired the right to the possession of a large boundary of land in North Carolina, and by the North Carolina statute of 1866 they had acquired, with the approval of the government of the United States, permission to remain permanently in that state. Their economic status had thus been practically restored to what it was prior to the Treaty of New Echota; and Congress in the act of July 27, 1868, 15 Stat. 228, recognized this status by providing that the Secretary of the Interior should cause a new roll or census to be made `of the North Carolina or Eastern Cherokees,\' and that thereafter the Secretary of the Interior should `cause the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to take the same supervisory charge of the Eastern or North Carolina Cherokees as of other tribes of Indians.\' (Italics ours.)"

We pointed out how the lands of these Indians had been conveyed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the corporation created by the Legislature of North Carolina under a decree which provided that nothing therein should "be construed as interfering with the right of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs from exercising such supervisory charge over the person and property of said band of Indians and the members thereof and the contracts of said Indians as that officer now has by virtue of the Constitution of the United States and the treaties and laws in pursuance thereof." We pointed out also that the deed of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs contained the same proviso and that the title remained in the corporation until conveyed to the United States on July 21, 1925 pursuant to the provisions of the Act of June 4, 1924, 25 U.S.C.A. § 331 note. With respect to the guardianship exercised over this band of Indians by the United States, we said:

"Not only with respect to the acquisition and preservation of the title to this land, but also in practically every other way imaginable, the government of the United States from 1868 to the present day has continuously guarded and protected the interests of this band of Indians, and has done everything possible to promote their progress and development. It has supervised their contracts and instituted suits for the cancellation of contracts which were thought not advantageous to them. United States v. Boyd, C.C., 68 F. 577; Id., 4 Cir., 83 F. 547. It has appointed agents to guide them in the management of their affairs. It has built schools, including a large boarding school, and provided teachers for the education of their children. It has provided an experienced farmer to go among them and teach them the arts of agriculture. It has provided a hospital for the care of their sick, and has made provision for the care of their deaf, dumb, blind, and insane. It has provided a physician and a field nurse to go among them and care for the sick in their homes. It has furnished food and clothes for their school children, and has made allowances to members of the tribe to aid in their support. In other words, it has for more than sixty years treated them in all respects as wards of the nation, and has expended in recent years more than $100,000 annually for their support. It appears that for the fiscal year 1930 the appropriation for this purpose was approximately $135,000.

"* * * the life of this band of Indians, from an economic standpoint, both in its relation to the federal government and to the state, has been for more than sixty years practically that of other Indian tribes. Politically they have been subject to the laws of the state, but economically they have been wards of the federal government and cared for as such under the provisions of its laws."

The court expressly answered the argument, now made again, that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians had lost their status as an Indian Tribe by reason of their separation from the main body of the Cherokees that had gone to the Indian Territory, saying:

"The fact that the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians had surrendered the right to their tribal lands, had separated themselves from their tribe, and had become subject to the laws of the state of North Carolina, did not destroy the right or the duty of guardianship on the part of the federal government. The

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