United States v. Ramsey, 1061

• Decision Date: 01 June 1926
• Docket Number: No. 1061,1061
• Citation: United States v. Ramsey, 271 U.S. 467, 46 S.Ct. 559, 70 L.Ed. 1039 (1926)
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. RAMSEY et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

271 U.S. 467

46 S.Ct. 559

70 L.Ed. 1039

UNITED STATES

v RAMSEY et al.

No. 1061.

Argued April 22, 1926.

Decided June 1, 1926.

Mr. William D. Mitchell, Sol.Gen., of Washington, D. C., for the United States.

Messrs. Wm. S. Hamilton, of Pawhuska, Okl., and S. P. Freeling, of Oklahoma City, Okl., for defendants in error.

Mr. Justice SUTHERLANDdelivered the opinion of the Court.

The defendants in error, two white men, were charged, by an indictment returned in the court below, with the murder of one Henry Roan, a full-blood Osage Indian and a legal member of the Osage Tribe, committed 'in Osage county, in said district, in the Indian country, and in and upon the reservation theretofore and then established by law of the United States for the Osage Tribe of Indians, on and in a certain tract of land therein which was then and there under the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States and comprised a restricted surplus allotment, theretofore made under and according to the Act of Congress approved June 28, 1906, * * * the title to which said allotment * * * was held in trust by the United States and was inalienable' by the allottee, who had never had issued to her a certificate of competency authorizing her to sell the allotment.The indictment is drawn under section 2145, Rev. St. (Comp. St. § 4148), which extends the general laws of the United States as to the punishment of crimes committed in any place within the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, to the Indian country, with certain exceptions not material here.The court below sustained a demurrer to this indictment upon the ground that the allotment described in the indictment as the locus of the crime was not Indian country within the meaning of section 2145.Thereupon, the construction of the statute upon which the indictment is drawn being involved, the case was brought here on writ of error under the Criminal Appeals Act of March 2, 1907, c. 2564,34 Stat. 1246(Comp. St. § 1704).

The authority of the United States under section 2145 to punish crimes occurring within the state of Oklahoma, not committed by or against Indians, was ended by the grant of statehood.United States v. McBratney, 104 U. S. 621, 624, 26 L. Ed. 869;Draper v. United States, 164 U. S. 240, 17 S.Ct. 107, 41 L. Ed. 419.But authority in respect of crimes committed by or against Indians continued after the admission of the state as it was before (Donnelly v. United States, 228 U. S. 243, 271, 33 S. Ct. 449, 57 L. Ed. 820, Ann. Cas. 1913E, 710), in virtue of the long-settled rule that such Indians are wards of the nation, in respect of whom there is devolved upon the federal government 'the duty of protection and with the power'(United States v. Kagama, 118 U. S. 375, 384, 6 S. Ct. 1109, 30 L. Ed. 228).The guardianship of the United States over the Osage Indians has not been abandoned; they are still the wards of the nation (United States v. Osage County, 251 U. S. 128, 133, 40 S. Ct. 100, 64 L. Ed. 184;United States v. Nice, 241 U. S. 591, 598, 36 S. Ct. 696, 60 L. Ed. 1192); and it rests with Congress alone to determine when that relationship shall cease (Matter of Heff, 197 U. S. 488, 499, 25 S. Ct. 506, 49 L. Ed. 848;United States v. Celestine, 215 U. S. 278, 290, 30 S. Ct. 93, 54 L. Ed. 195).

The sole question for our determination, therefore, is whether the place of the crime is Indian country within the meaning of section 2145.The place is a tract of land constituting an Indian allotment, carved out of the Osage Indian reservation and conveyed in fee to the allottee named in the indictment, subject to a restriction against alienation for a period of 25 years.That period has not elapsed, nor has the allottee ever received a certificate of competency authorizing her to sell.As pointed out in Unitted States v. Bowling, 256 U. S. 484, 486, 41 S. Ct. 561, 65 L. Ed. 1054, there are two modes by which Indians are prevented from improvidently disposing of their allotments.One is by means of a certificate, called a trust patent, by the terms of which the government holds the land for a period of years in trust for the allottee with an agreement to convey at the end of the trust period.The other mode is to issue a patent conveying to the allottee the land in fee, but prohibiting its alienation for a stated period.Both have the same effect, so far as the power of alienation is concerned, but one is commonly called...