United States v. West

• Decision Date: 04 February 1929
• Docket Number: No. 4780.,4780.
• Citation: 30 F.2d 989
• Parties: UNITED STATES ex rel. KADRIE et al. v. WEST, Secretary of the Interior.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

30 F.2d 989 (1929)

UNITED STATES ex rel. KADRIE et al. v. WEST, Secretary of the Interior.

No. 4780.

Court of Appeals of District of Columbia.

Submitted November 7, 1928.

Decided February 4, 1929.

Webster Ballinger, of Washington, D. C., for appellants.

O. H. Graves and Leo A. Rover, both of Washington, D. C., for appellee.

Before MARTIN, Chief Justice, and ROBB and VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justices.

VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justice.

Appellants, plaintiffs below, filed a petition in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, for a writ of mandamus to compel the defendant, Secretary of the Interior, to restore the names of the relators to the supplemental rolls of the Chippewa Indians in the state of Minnesota, and to pay them their per capita share in all future money payments that may hereafter be made from the funds now in the Treasury of the United States belonging to said Indians. From a judgment in favor of the defendant, this appeal was taken.

By the Act of Congress of January 14, 1889, 25 Stat. 642, the United States submitted a proposal to all the different bands or tribes of Chippewa Indians in the state of Minnesota, with the view of locating them upon the White Earth and Red Lake Reservations. The act provided, among other things, for a commission to negotiate with the Indians, scattered in different bands throughout the state of Minnesota, for the relinquishment and cession of their lands, in lieu of rights to be accorded them under the act, in the Red Lake and White Earth Reservations.

It appears that the relators are the minor children of Sarah Kadrie, who was the daughter of Mary Blair, a member of the White Earth band of Chippewa Indians in Minnesota, and who was duly enrolled as such in the census roll made by the Commissioners under the act of 1889, and as such was entitled to and participated in the allotment of lands under said act. In 1892 there was born to Mary Blair, in lawful wedlock, Sarah Cogger, mother of relators, who was enrolled on the supplemental rolls, and who has at all times received her per capita share of all money payments made under the 1889 act. In 1909 Sarah Cogger, while attending an Indian school, was married to one Mall Kadrie, a naturalized citizen of the United States, and the relators are the children of this marriage. Following the respective births of the relators, Mary I. Kadrie, Evelina Kadrie, and Amit K. Kadrie, their names were entered upon the rolls by the proper officers of the United States, pursuant to the practice then in force of enrolling the lineal issue of the original enrolled and allotted ancestor.

The act of 1889 provides: "That in any case where an allotment in severalty has heretofore been made to any Indian of land upon any of said reservations, he shall not be deprived thereof or disturbed therein except by his own individual consent separately and previously given, in such form and manner as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior." Section 1.

Section 3 of the act provides: "That as soon as the census has been taken, and the cession and relinquishment has been obtained, approved, and ratified, as specified in section one of this act, all of said Chippewa Indians in the state of Minnesota, except those on the Red Lake Reservation, shall, under the direction of said Commissioners, be removed to and take up their residence on the White Earth Reservation, and thereupon there shall, as soon as practicable, under the direction of said Commissioners, be allotted lands in severalty to the Red Lake Indians on Red Lake Reservation, and to all the other of said Indians on White Earth Reservation, in conformity with the Act of February eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, entitled `An act for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the territories over the Indians, and for other purposes'; and all allotments heretofore made to any of said Indians on the White Earth Reservation are hereby ratified and confirmed with the like tenure and condition prescribed for all allotments under this act."

The act then provides that Indians who desire may take allotments on the reservation where they lived at the time of the removal, instead of being removed and taking an allotment on the White Earth Reservation. This privilege accorded the Indians of taking allotments on the reservation where they lived, as well as the right accorded those already having allotments to retain the same, is in accord with the general policy theretofore adopted by the government of inducing the Indians to abandon their tribal relations and adopt the customs of civilized life. We are, however, only indirectly concerned in this case with the matter of allotments, since the relief here sought is against certain funds standing to the credit of the Chippewa Indians in the Treasury of the United States, derived from the sale of lands belonging to the Indians in excess of the allotments made under the act.

Section 7 of the act in part provides as follows: "That all money accruing from the disposal of said lands in conformity with the provisions of this act shall, after deducting all the expenses of making the census, of obtaining the cession and relinquishment, of making the removal and allotments, and of completing the surveys and appraisals, in this act provided, be placed in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of all the Chippewa Indians in the state of Minnesota as a permanent fund, which shall draw interest at the rate of five per centum per annum, payable annually for the period of fifty years, after the allotments provided for in this act have been made, and which interest and permanent fund shall be expended for the benefit of said Indians in manner following: One-half of said interest shall, during the said period of fifty years, except in the cases hereinafter otherwise provided, be annually paid in cash in equal shares to the heads of families and guardians of orphan minors for their use; * * * and at the expiration of the said fifty years, the said permanent fund shall be divided and paid to all of said Chippewa Indians and their issue then living, in cash, in equal shares."

In accordance with a recommendation made by the Indian agent at the White Earth Reservation in 1916, the names of these relators were stricken from the rolls. Thereafter the mother, Sarah Kadrie, petitioned the Secretary of the Interior for a revocation of the order striking relators' names from the rolls. The matter was referred to the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior for an opinion determinative of their rights. The Solicitor in his opinion, in passing upon the rights of relators, said:

"In the particular case giving rise to a call for this opinion, Sarah Kadrie, née Cogger, was a full-blood Chippewa Indian woman born on the reservation in the year 1892, subsequent to the cession and the original enrollment. She was an only child of her mother, a member of the original enrollment. As such, she is entitled to participate for herself in the annuities, and...