Pel-Ata-Yakot v. United States

• Decision Date: 12 January 1911
• Citation: 188 F. 387
• Parties: PEL-ATA-YAKOT v. UNITED STATES et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Idaho

188 F. 387

PEL-ATA-YAKOT v. UNITED STATES et al.

United States Circuit Court, D. Idaho, Northern Division.

January 12, 1911

Clay McNamee and James L. Harn, for complainant.

C. H Lingenfelter, U.S. Atty., for defendants.

DIETRICH District Judge.

From the bill it appears that the complainant is a Nez Perce Indian woman, and was the wife of one Benjamin Types, a Nez Perce Indian, at the time of his death, which occurred on February 7, 1899. It further appears that, pursuant to treaty stipulations, and under authority of certain acts of Congress ratifying the same, certain lands embraced in what is known as the Nez Perce Indian reservation, in Nez Perce county Idaho, were allotted to Benjamin Types in 1893; the title however, being held by the United States in trust for 20 years, subject to the provisions of the treaty and the general allotment act Feb. 8, 1887, c. 119, 24 Stat. 388. The complainant avers that after the death of Benjamin Types the several superintendents of the Nez Perce Indian agency, at Lapwai, Idaho, recognized her and one James Types, the son of the deceased by a former wife, as the sole heirs of the deceased, but that since the month of October, 1909, the superintendents have wrongfully and unlawfully refused longer to recognize her as one of the heirs, and have declined to pay over to her any share of the rents and profits arising from the lands embraced in the allotment; but, upon the other hand, they have recognized the defendant Mary Types as an heir, paying over to her the share of the rents which rightfully belongs to the plaintiff, and that the defendant Mary Types has been unlawfully in possession of the allotment since October, 1909. The complainant prays for a decree declaring that she and James Types are the only lawful heirs of the deceased Benjamin Types, and requiring the defendant Mary Types to account for the rents, issues, and profits wrongfully received from the agents of the government. The bill was filed June 16, 1910. The case is submitted upon an amended demurrer interposed by the defendants, by which the question of jurisdiction is raised.

The suit, like several others of a similar nature heretofore brought in this court, was doubtless instituted under the provisions of Act Feb. 6, 1901, c. 217, 31 Stat. 760 amending Act Aug. 15, 1894, c. 290, 28 Stat. 286. I have never been fully satisfied that by these acts Congress intended to confer upon the courts...