Northern Cheyenne Tribe v. Hollowbreast

• Decision Date: 19 May 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75-145,75-145
• Citation: Northern Cheyenne Tribe v. Hollowbreast, 425 U.S. 649, 96 S.Ct. 1793, 48 L.Ed.2d 274 (1976)
• Parties: The NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBE, Petitioner, v. William HOLLOWBREAST et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

425 U.S. 649

96 S.Ct. 1793

48 L.Ed.2d 274

The NORTHERN CHEYENNE TRIBE, Petitioner,

v William HOLLOWBREAST et al.

No. 75-145.

Argued March 29, 1976.

Decided May 19, 1976.

Syllabus

Section 3 of the Northern Cheyenne Allotment Act of 1926 (Act) reserves coal and other mineral deposits underlying lands on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation for the Tribe's benefit, but further provides that 50 years after approval of the Act such deposits "shall become the property of the respective allottees or their heirs" and that the "unallotted lands" shall be "subject to the control and management thereof as Congress may deem expedient for the benefit of said Indians." In 1968 Congress amended the Act to reserve the mineral rights "in perpetuity for the benefit of the Tribe," subject to a prior judicial determination that the allottees had not been granted vested rights to the mineral deposits by the Act. As authorized by the 1968 amendment the Tribe brought suit against the allottees to determine whether the allottees, or their heirs or devisees, had received a vested property right in the minerals under the Act. The District Court held that the Act did not grant the allottees vested rights in the mineral deposits, construing "unallotted lands" in § 3 as including such deposits. The Court of Appeals reversed, construing § 3 as an unconditional, noncontingent grant of the mineral deposits to the allottees, in the absence of any express statement of Congress' intent to retain power over the deposits. Held: The Act did not give the allottees of surface lands vested rights in the mineral deposits underlying those lands. This reading of the Act is supported by its legislative history, which indicates a congressional intent to sever the surface estate from the interest in the minerals and no intent to grant allottees a vested future interest in the mineral deposits and thereby relinquish "control and management thereof as Congress may deem expedient for the benefit of said Indians." Such conclusion is also supported by the fact that the agency charged with executing the Act construed it as not granting the allottees any vested rights. Pp. 654-660.

505 F.2d 268, reversed.

Stev H. Chestnut, Seattle, Wash., for petitioner.

Steven L. Bunch, Helena, Mont., pro hac vice, by special leave of Court, and by Lewis E. Brueggemann, Billings, Mont., for respondents.

Mr. Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question to be decided is whether the Northern Cheyenne Allotment Act, Act of June 3, 1926, 44 Stat. 690, gave the allottees of surface lands vested rights in the mineral deposits underlying those lands. The District Court for the District of Montana held that the Act did not grant the allottees vested rights in the mineral deposits. 349 F.Supp. 1302 (1972). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. 505 F.2d 268 (1974). We granted certiorari. 423 U.S. 891, 96 S.Ct. 876, 47 L.Ed.2d 96 (1975). We agree with the District Court and reverse.

I

The 1926 Act statutorily established the Northern Cheyenne Reservation pursuant to the federal policy expressed in the General Allotment Act of 1887, 24 Stat. 388,¹ and provided for the allotment of tracts of land to individual tribal members. Section 1 of the A declared the lands constituting the reservation "to be the property of (the Northern Cheyenne) Indians, subject to such control and management of said property as the Congress of the United States may direct." Section 2 set up a procedure for allotment of agricultural and grazing lands. Section 3, 44 Stat. 691, upon which the question for decision in this case turns, reads as follows:

"That the timber, coal or other minerals, including oil, gas, and other natural deposits, on said reservation are hereby reserved for the benefit of the tribe and may be leased with the consent of the Indian council under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe: Provided, That at the expiration of fifty years from the date of the approval of this Act the coal or other minerals, including oil, gas, and other natural deposits, of said allotments shall become the property of the respective allottees or their heirs: Provided further, That the unallotted lands of said tribe of Indians shall be held in common, subject to the control and management thereof as Congress may deem expedient for the benefit of said Indians."

On its face, § 3 provides that title to the mineral deposits would pass to the allottees, or their heirs,² 50 years after approval of the Act, or in 1976. But the phrasing might also be read to imply a reserved power in ngress to terminate the allottees' interest before that date. Thus, the critical question is whether Congress could, as it purports to have done in 1968, terminate the grant without rendering the United States constitutionally liable to pay the allottees just compensation.

A supervening event of particular significance was the considerable increase in value of coal reserves under the allotted lands that occurred in the 1960's due to increasing energy demand and the concomitant need for new sources of energy.³ Until this occurred, the reservation of the deposits until 1976 for the benefit of the Tribe had not significantly benefited it, because mining of most of the coal was not economically feasible. There was also substantial concern that, because one-third of the allottees did not live on the reservation, if control of strip mining passed in 1976 to the individual allottees, serious adverse consequences might be suffered by the Indians living on the reservation. In addition, Congress believed that injustice might result if the benefits to be realized by individual Indians depended upon whether coal was found under particular allotted lands. S.Rep.No.1145, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1968); H.R.Rep.No.1292, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 2 (1968). These considerations led Congress in 1968 to terminate the grant to allottees and to reserve the mineral rights "in perpetuity for the benefit of the Tribe." Act of July 24, 1968, Pub.L. 90-424, 82 Stat. 424.⁴ The termination was, however, expressly conditioned upon a prior judicial determination that the allottees had not been granted vested rights to the mineral deposits by the 1926 Act. Congress so conditioned the termination to avoid the possibility of a successful claim for damages against the United States by the allottees under the Just Compensation Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The 1968 amendment authorized the Tribe to commence an action against the allottees in the District Court for Montana "to determine whether under (the 1926 Act) the allottees, their heirs or devisees, have received a vested property right in the minerals which is protected by the fifth amendment," and provided that the reservation of the minerals in perpetuity for the benefit of the Tribe "shall cease to have any force or effect" if the court determines that "the allottees, their heirs or devisees, have a vested interest in the minerals which is protected by the fifth amendment." ⁵

II

Both the Tribe and the allottees argue that the plain meaning of § 3 of the 1926 Act, providing that the mineral deposits "shall become the property of the respective allottees" 50 years after the effective date of the Act, compels a declaratory judgment in their favor. The Tribe argues that this provision can only be read to grant an expectancy, while the allottees maintain that it unequivocally grants a vested future interest.⁶ Both in- terpretations are consistent with the wording of the Act, and we therefore must determine the intent of Congress by looking to the legislative history against the background of principles governing congressional power to alter allotment plans.

The District Court agreed with the Tribe, reading "unallotted lands" in § 3 as including the mineral deposits, since the Act expressly severed the mineral deposits from the surface of the allotted lands and subjected unallotted lands "to the control and management thereof as Congress may deem expedient for the benefit of said Indians." 349 F.Supp., at 1309-1310. The Court of Appeals rejected the District Court's interpretation of "unallotted lands" as including the severed mineral deposits, rendering them subject to congressional control and management; rather, it read § 3 to be an "unconditional, noncontingent grant of (the mineral) deposits to the allottees," and noted the absence of any "clear expression of Congress's retained power." 505 F.2d, at 271-272.

The Court of Appeals erred in its basic approach to construction of the 1926 Act. Its view was that Congress must be regarded as having relinquished its control over Indian lands in the absence of an express statement of its intent to retain the power.⁷ Just the opposite is true. The Court has consistently recognized the wideranging congressional power to alter allotment plans until ose plans are executed. E. g., Chase v. United States, 256 U.S. 1, 7, 41 S.Ct. 417, 418, 65 L.Ed. 801, 806 (1921); United States v. Rowell, 243 U.S. 464, 468, 37 S.Ct. 425, 427, 61 L.Ed. 848, 851 (1917); Sizemore v. Brady, 235 U.S. 441, 449-450, 35 S.Ct. 135, 136-137, 59 L.Ed. 308, 311-312 (1914); Gritts v. Fisher, 224 U.S. 640, 648, 32 S.Ct. 580, 583, 56 L.Ed. 928, 933 (1912); Stephens v. Cherokee Nation, 174 U.S. 445, 484, 19 S.Ct. 722, 736, 43 L.Ed. 1041, 1042 (1899). This principle has specifically been applied to uphold congressional imposition on allottees of restraints against alienation of their interests or expansion of the class of beneficiaries under an allotment Act. E. g., United States v. Jim, 409 U.S. 80, 93 S.Ct. 261, 34 L.Ed.2d 282 (1972); Brader v. James, 246 U.S. 88, 38 S.Ct. 285, 62 L.Ed. 591 (1918). The extensiveness of this congressional authority, as well as "Congress' unique obligation toward the Indians," Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 555, 94 S.Ct. 2474, 2485, 41 L.Ed.2d 290, 303 (1974), underlies the judicially fashioned canon of...