UNITED STATES V. MILLE LAC CHIPPEWAS

• Decision Date: 09 June 1913
• Citation: 229 U. S. 498
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Mille Lac Band of Chippewa Indians

No. 736

Argued April 8, 9, 1913

Decided June 9, 1913

229 U.S. 498

APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS

Syllabus

When Congress passed the Act of January 14, 1889, adjusting relations with the Mille Lac Chippewas, a real controversy was subsisting which was thereby adjusted and composed, and the act is to be construed according to its plain and unambiguous terms.

Indians, no less than the United States, are bound by the plain import of the language of an act of Congress and an agreement conferring substantial benefits on them.

Under the Act of January 4, 1889, the Mille Lac Chippewas received substantial benefits, in consideration whereof they released their claims to lands in the Red Lake Reservation upon which there were valid preemption and homestead entries, and the United States is not bound to account to them for the proceeds of sale of such lands; but, as to the other lands, the United States held them in trust for the Mille Lac Chippewas, who are entitled to damages under the act on the basis of the value of such lands in 1889.

In interpreting a proviso in a statute, it will not be given a meaning that would amount to entirely rejecting it.

In a contract with Indians, such as that embodied in the Act of January 14, 1889, a reference to regular and valid preemption and homestead entries of land within a reservation would include all that were not fraudulent, and would not exclude all entries on the ground of invalidity because made on lands within an Indian reservation.

7 Ct.Cl. 415 reversed.

The facts, which involve the construction and interpretation of the various treaties, agreements, and statutes relating to the Mille Lac Reservation, are stated in the opinion.

Page 229 U. S. 499

MR. JUSTICE VAN DEVANTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was begun under the Act of February 15, 1909, 35 Stat. 619, c. 126, which authorized the Court of Claims

"to hear and determine a suit or suits to be brought by and on behalf of the Mille Lac Band of Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota against the United States, on account of losses sustained by them or the Chippewas of Minnesota by reason of the opening of the Mille Lac Reservation . . . to public settlement under the general land laws of the United States."

The lands to which the act and the suit relate are four fractional townships bordering on the Mille Lac in Minnesota, and three islands in that lake, comprising in all a little more than 61,000 acres. The suit was begun in the name of the Mille Lac Band, and the Court of Claims, two judges dissenting, gave judgment against the United States in the sum of 7,580.72, with a direction, in substance, that the amount recovered be credited to the Chippewas of Minnesota and distributed among them under the provisions of § 7 of the Act of January 14, 1889, 25 Stat. 642, c. 24, 47 Ct.Clms. 415. The case is here upon the appeal of the United States.

The judgment was sought and was rendered on the theory that the lands were set apart and reserved for the occupancy and use of the Mille Lac Band by Treaties of February 22, 1855, 10 Stat. 1165, March 11, 1863, 12 Stat. 1249, and May 7, 1864, 13 Stat. 693, and were subsequently relinquished to the United States pursuant to the Act of January 14, 1889, supra, upon certain trusts therein named, and that, in violation of those treaties and

Page 229 U. S. 500

that act, they were opened to settlement and disposal under the general land laws of the United States and were disposed of thereunder, to the great loss and damage of the Mille Lac Band or the Chippewas of Minnesota.

The arguments at the bar and the briefs are addressed to these questions: 1. The scope of the jurisdictional act; 2. the rights of the Indians in the lands under the treaties of 1863 and 1864; 3. the effect to be given to the Act of 1889 and its acceptance by the Indians; 4. whether the disposal of the lands, or any of them, under the general land laws, was violative of the rights of the Indians.

The jurisdictional act makes no admission of liability, or of any ground of liability, on the part of the government, but merely provides a forum for the adjudication of the claim according to applicable legal principles. Nor does it contemplate that recovery may be founded upon any merely moral obligation, not expressed in pertinent treaties or statutes, or upon any interpretation of either that fails to give effect to their plain import, because of any supposed injustice to the Indians. United States v. Old Settlers, 148 U. S. 427, 469; United States v. Choctaw Nation, 179 U. S. 494, 535; Sac and Fox Indians, 220 U. S. 481, 489.

Under the Treaty of 1855, supra, there were reserved for the occupancy and use of the Mississippi bands of Chippewas, of which the Mille Lac Band was one, six separate tracts of land in Minnesota. One of these embraced the townships and islands before mentioned, and came to be separately occupied by the Mille Lacs, although all the reservations were claimed in common by all the bands. By the Treaty of 1863, supra, the lands in the six reservations, the one occupied by the Mille Lacs being in terms included, were expressly ceded to the United States (Art. I), and one large tract of other lands in Minnesota was reserved for the future home of all the bands, including

Page 229 U. S. 501

the Mille Lacs (Art. II). Provision was made (Art. IV) for clearing and breaking a limited area in the new reservation for each of the bands, the Mille Lacs being in terms included, and (Art. VI) for removing the agency and sawmill from one of the ceded reservations to the new. Article XII of this treaty was as follows, special importance being now attached to its proviso:

"It shall not be obligatory upon the Indians, parties to this treaty, to remove from their present reservations until the United States shall have first complied with the stipulations of Articles IV and VI of this treaty, when the United States shall furnish them with all necessary transportation and subsistence to their new homes, and subsistence for six months thereafter: Provided, That, owing to the heretofore good conduct of the Mille Lac Indians, they shall not be compelled to remove so long as they shall not in any way interfere with or in any manner molest the persons or property of the whites."

The Treaty of 1864, supra, superseded that of 1863, and insofar as their provisions are material here, they were identical, so we shall speak only of the later one. In addition to the creation of the single large reservation, provision was made for the payment of large annuities to the Indians in consideration for the cession of the six original reservations, and it is not questioned that these annuities were duly paid to all the bands, including the Mille Lacs, nor that there was a full compliance with Articles IV and VI.

A treaty negotiated in 1867, 16 Stat. 719, eliminated a considerable portion of the large tract reserved by Article II of the Treaty of 1864 and substituted a new tract, consisting of thirty-six townships, which came to be known as the White Earth Reservation. This treaty is not important here, save as it explains subsequent references to the White Earth Reservation.

A controversy soon arose over the meaning and effect

Page 229 U. S. 502

of the proviso to Article XII of the Treaty of 1864, declaring

"that, owing to the heretofore good conduct of the Mille Lac Indians, they shall not be compelled to remove [from the old reservation to the new one] so long as they shall not in any way interfere with or in any manner molest the persons or property of the whites."

On the part of the executive and administrative officers, it was insisted -- not, however, without some differences among themselves -- that the proviso did not invest the Mille Lacs with any right in the old reservation expressly ceded by Article I of the treaty, but merely permitted them to remain thereon as a matter of favor; that one purpose of the cession was to enable the government to survey the lands and open them to settlement, and that it was not intended that the permission to remain should interfere with this. But the Mille Lacs maintained that the proviso operated to reserve the lands for their occupancy and use indefinitely, and that the lands could not be opened to settlement while they remained and conducted themselves properly towards the whites in that vicinity. The survey was made, the lands were declared open to settlement and entry, and entries in considerable numbers were allowed from time to time, but the Mille Lacs persisted in their claim and refused to move, although repeatedly entreated to do so. This continued to be the situation until the Act of 1889 was passed by Congress and accepted by the Mille Lacs and other Chippewas of Minnesota. In the meantime, an order was issued by one Secretary of the Interior suspending the allowance of further entries, as also further action upon those already allowed, and this order was recalled by a succeeding Secretary. Congress then passed the Act of July 4, 1884, 23 Stat. 76, 89, c. 180, directing that the lands should not "be patented or disposed of in any manner until further legislation." The entries allowed up to that time covered about 55,000 acres, or approximately nine-tenths of the lands, and some were under

Page 229 U. S. 503

investigation upon charges that they were fraudulent. After the passage of the Act of 1884, all further action was suspended awaiting further legislation.

That legislation came in the Act of 1889. It provided for a commission to negotiate with all the bands of Chippewas in Minnesota for the cession and relinquishment of all their reservations, excepting the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations, and for the cession and relinquishment of so much of them as should not be required for allotments. It further provided that the cession and relinquishment should be obtained as to each reservation, other than the Red...