United States v. Southern Ute Tribe or Band of Indians

• Decision Date: 26 April 1971
• Docket Number: No. 515,515
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner, v. SOUTHERN UTE TRIBE OR BAND OF INDIANS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

402 U.S. 159

91 S.Ct. 1336

28 L.Ed.2d 695

UNITED STATES, Petitioner,

v SOUTHERN UTE TRIBE OR BAND OF INDIANS.

No. 515.

Argued March 1, 1971.

Decided April 26, 1971.

Syllabus

Respondent's claims for compensation and accounting are barred by res judicata since they relate to land 'formerly owned or claimed by (the Conferderated Band of Utes) in western Colorado, ceded to (the United States) by the Act of June 15, 1880' and thus were subject to a final settlement reduced to a consent judgment, to which respondent was a party, made in 1950. Pp. 161—174.

191 Ct.Cl. 1, 423 F.2d 346, reversed.

Lawrence G. Wallace, Washington, D.C. for petitioner.

Glen A. Wilkinson, Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice BRENNAN delivered the opinion of the Court.

In 1951 the Southern Ute Tribe or Band of Indians, a part of the Confederated Bands of Utes, brought this claim before the Indians Claims Commission.¹ The claim asserted that the United States had violated its fiduciary duty to respondent by (1) disposing of 220,000 acres of land as 'free homesteads' although obligated by 21 Stat 203—204 (1880) and 28 Stat. 678 (1895) to seel the acreage for the respondent's benefit; and (2) by failing to account for the proceeds of 82,000 acres of land, which proceeds were, under the same Acts, to be held for the respondent's benefit. The Government's basic defense was res judicata by reason of Court of Claims consent judgments entered in 1950 between the United States and the Confederated Bands of Utes, including the respondent. ² Confederated Bands of Ute Indians v. United States, 117 Ct.Cl. 433 (1950). The Indian Claims Commission rejected the defense, 17 Ind.Cl.Comm. 28 (1966); but the Court of Claims, in an unpublished order, App. 57—58 remanded for the taking of additional evidence. On remand the Commission again rejected the defense, 21 Ind.Cl.Comm. 268 (1969), and the Court of Claims affirmed, two judges dissenting. 423 F.2d 346, 191 Ct.Cl. 1 (1970). We granted certiorari. 400 U.S. 915, 91 S.Ct. 173, 27 L.Ed.2d 154 (1970). We reverse.

The consent judgment entered in the Court of Claims gave effect to a settlement agreement which recited a stipulation of the parties that:

'(A) judgment * * * shall be entered in this cause as full settlement and payment for the complete extinguishment of plaintiffs' right, title, interest, estate, claims and demands of whatsoever nature in and to the land and property in western Colorado ceded by plaintiffs to defendant by the Act of June 15, 1880 (21 Stat. 199), which (a) the United States sold for cash * * * (b) disposed of as free homesteads * * * and (c) set aside for public purposes (between 1910 and 1938) * * *. There is filed herewith and made a part of this stipulation Schedule 1, which contains the legal descriptions of (lands) * * * disposed of by defendant as free homesteads and the remanining * * * acres * * * set aside by the defendant for public purposes. * * * However, the judgment to be entered in this case is res judicata, not only as to the land described in Schedule 1, but * * * also as to any land formerly owned or claimed by the plaintiffs in western Colorado, ceded to defendant by the Act of June 15, 1880 * * *.' 117 Ct.Cl., at 436—437 (emphasis added).

The lands involved in the present suit were not included in Schedule 1; rather, the Government relies upon the clause that the consent judgment was 'res judicata * * * also as to any land * * * ceded to defendant by the Act of June 15, 1880 * * *.'

Both the Indian Claims Commission and the Court of Claims rejected the Government's res judicata defense on the ground that the claim concerning the lands involved in this action was not compromised by the 1950 settlement because those lands were not among the lands 'ceded to defendant by the Act of June 15, 1880.'

Decision of this case turns, then, upon the proper interpretation of the agreement, embodied in the Act of 1880, between the United States and the Ute Indians as it relates to the settlement agreement, reduced to judgment in 1950, between the same parties. The determination of that interpretation requires a somewhat lengthy factual recitation.

In the latter half of the 19th century, what is now the Confederated Bands of Utes, composed of the Uncompahgre Utes, the White River Utes, and the Southern Utes, exchanged their aboriginal lands in New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado for a reservation of approximately 15.7 million acres lying wholly within Colorado. 13 Stat. 673 (1864); 15 Stat. 619 (1868). Although the acreage was undivided, the White River Utes lived in the northern portion of the reservation, the Uncompahgre Utes inhabited the central part, and the Southern Utes occupied the southern region. The reservation, however, survived little longer than a decade in this form. In 1874 the Utes approved the Brunot Cession of 3.7 million acres of the east-central portion of the reservation after valuable mineral deposits had been discovered there. 18 Stat. 36 (1874).³ The result of the cession was almost to sever the reservation, leaving the Southern Utes wedged between the southern boundary line of the Brunot Cession and the New Mexico border, at the southernmost part of the reservation on a strip of land 15 miles wide and 110 miles long. This strip, which includes the lands at issue here, is referred to by the parties as Royce Area 617, and the remainder of the reservation after the Brunot Cession is referred to as Royce Area 616. ⁴

Within eight years, only the Southern Utes remained in Colorado: the White River Utes and the Uncompahgre Utes departed for Utah before 1882 as a consequence of the massacre in 1879 of Indian Agent Meeker and others at White River station. The public outcry over this incident led to negotiations with the Confederated Bands which produced the Act of 1880.

The central feature of the Act of 1880 was the termination of tribal ownership in the reservation lands, and the limitation of Indian ownership to such lands as might be allotted in severalty to individual Indians. The purposes of that provision were to destroy the tribal structure and to change the nomadic ways of the Utes by forcibly converting them from a pastoral to an agricultural people. See 10 Cong.Rec. 2059, 2066 (1880). The Act recited that it was enacted to accept 'the agreement submitted by the confederated bands of Ute Indians in Colorado, for the sale of their reservation in said State * * *.' 21 Stat. 199 (1880). Thus, it was provided that the Confederated Bands 'cede to the United States all the territory of the present Ute Reservation in Colorado, except as hereinafter provided for their settlement.' 21 Stat. 200 (1880). The settlement provisions stipulated that the White River Utes would leave Colorado 'and settle upon agricultural lands on the Uintah Reservation in Utah,' ibid., and that '(t)he Uncompahgre Utes agree to remove to and settle upon agricultural lands on Grand River, near the mouth of the Gunnison River, in Colorado,' ibid., or if insufficient agricultural land was found there, go to Utah (which they soon did). The Southern Utes were to 'remove to and settle upon the unoccupied agricultural lands on the La Plata River, in Colorado; and if there should not be a sufficiency of such lands on the La Plata River and in its vicinity in Colorado, then upon such other unoccupied agricultural lands as may be found on the La Plata River or in its vicinity in New Mexico.' Ibid. Finally, it was provided that 'all the lands not so allotted, the title to which is, by the said agreement of the confederated bands of the Ute Indians, and this acceptance by the United States, released and conveyed to the United States, shall be held and deemed to be public lands of the United States and subject to disposal,' but only for the financial benefit of the Utes. 21 Stat. 203—204 (1880).

The plain wording of the Act cedes to the United States all of the nonallotted acreage of the reservation, including that in the 15-mile strip (Royce Area 617) occupied by the Southern Utes. The Court of Claims' opinion acknowledges this, stating that:

'The most significant aspects to be gleaned from this (1880) Act * * * is that the Confederated Bands (Southern Utes included) seemed to cede their entire Colorado reservation Royce Area 616 and 617—and moreover promised to accept allotments in severalty in various sectors within and beyond reservation boundaries. As sole consideration for these promises, the Bands were to receive shares in the proceeds of unallotted land sales remaining after certain Government reimbursements. The Southern Utes were apportioned a one-third share and like their confederates understood that such monies would be held by defendant in trust for their benefit.' 423 F.2d, at 350, 191 Ct.Cl., at 10 (1970) (emphasis in original).

Thus, if inquiry were to end with the wording of the 1880 Act, the consent judgment barred respondent's claim.

The Commission and the Court of Claims did not, however, end their inquiry with the wording of the Act of 1880. Both of those tribunals considered the conduct of the United States in relation to respondent tribe in the years subsequent to passage of the Act of 1880. Even so, the basis of their rejection of the res judicata defense does not emerge from their opinions with complete clarity. The Court of Claims read the Commission's first opinion, 17 Ind.Cl.Comm. 28 (1966), as holding that the Southern Utes expressly withheld the southern strip from the land ceded by the 1880 Act: 'The Commission found that the Act of 1880 'reserved' Royce Area 617 for the Southern Utes.' 423 F.2d, at 350, 191 Ct.Cl., at 10. Some language at that point of the opinion suggested that the Court of Claims was in agreement with that view—'the following sequence of events * * * support the conclusion that plaintiffs at any rate did not cede their reservation (Royce Area 617) under the agreement of 1880.' Ibid. However, the opinion later turns the...