Crain v. First National Bank

206 F. Supp. 783, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3790
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedJune 21, 1962
DocketCiv. No. 61-464
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 206 F. Supp. 783 (Crain v. First National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crain v. First National Bank, 206 F. Supp. 783, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3790 (D. Or. 1962).

Opinion

EAST, District Judge.

This Court has jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter of this action under Title 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 2201-2.

The plaintiff was a member of the Klamath Indian Tribe and is an enrollee of the later-described final tribal roll.

The defendant is a national banking association with its head office in Portland, Oregon, and is acting as a trustee in the possession and management of the plaintiff’s estate pursuant to the terms and provisions of a trust arrangement, established without the joining of the [785]*785plaintiff, between the defendant and the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary).

The United States of America petitioned and was granted leave to join as an intervenor herein. Mr. Elbert L. Mikesell, an attorney of Grants Pass, Oregon, has appeared by brief amicus curiae.

ACT OF CONGRESS AND ACTION OF SECRETARY INVOLVED

An Act of Congress popularly known as the Klamath Termination Act (Act), providing for termination of Federal supervision over the Klamath Indian Tribe, was enacted by the 83rd Congress on August 13, 1954. That law is codified as Title 25 U.S.C.A. § 564.

Under the terms of the Act, the tribal roll was closed as of August 13, 1954, and thereafter the Secretary, pursuant to the directions of the Act, caused to be established the final tribal roll and published the same in the Federal Registry on March 13, 1958.

Section 564d of the Act provides that immediately after appraisal of the tribal properties and approval thereof by the Secretary, each enrollee was given an opportunity to elect to withdraw from the tribe (and have his interests in the tribal property converted into money and paid to him) or to remain in the tribe and participate in the tribal management plan. Plaintiff duly elected to withdraw from the tribe.

Section 564n of the Act, as amended, provides that prior to the transfer or paying over of the money-representing the withdrawing enrollee’s interest in the tribal property, as provided, “the Secretary shall protect the right of members of the tribe who are minors, non compos mentis, or in the opinion of the Secretary in need of assistance in conducting their affairs, by causing the appointment of guardians for such members * * * or by such other means as he may deem adequate without application from the member, including but not limited to the creation of a trust of such member’s property with a trustee selected by the Secretary, * * *

On or about June 10, 1958, the Secretary, pursuant to the authority of § 564n, determined the plaintiff to be “in need of assistance” in conducting his affairs and selected the defendant as trustee to receive and administer the plaintiff’s liquidated share of tribal properties. On June 17, 1958, the Secretary and the defendant executed and made delivery of the trust agreement referred to as Exhibit A to defendant’s answer.

ISSUE PRESENTED

The sole issue presented by the pleadings is whether the trust agreement and resultant trustee’s possession and management of plaintiff’s properties is void ab initio for the reason that that part of the Act authorizing the execution of the trust agreement aforesaid violates the plaintiff’s Constitutional rights, at least to the extent that his property is taken without due process. As stated in the defendant’s brief, the plaintiff does not complain of the trustee’s administration of his estate nor has he requested that some other agency manage his property. The plaintiff’s sole reason for bringing this action is to acquire complete and uncontrolled use of his liquidated share of tribal properties.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE INDIANS

A few selected excerpts from the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States can more poignantly describe the role of the United States of America over the Indians than can the language of the writer. An early classic, although harsh, treatment of this rule is taken from United States v. Kagama, 118 U.S. 375, 383, 384, 6 S.Ct. 1109, 30 L.Ed. 228 (1885):

“These Indian tribes are the wards of the nation. They are communities dependent on the United States. Dependent largely for their daily food. Dependent for their political rights. They owe no allegiance to the States, and receive from them no protection. Because of the local ill feeling, the people [786]*786of the States where they are found are often their deadliest enemies. From their very weakness and helplessness, [which is] largely due to' the course of dealing of the Federal Government with them and the treaties in which it has been promised, there arises the duty of protection, and with it the power. This has always been recognized by the Executive and by Congress, and by this court whenever the question has arisen.
“The power of the General Government over these remnants of a race once powerful, now weakened and diminished in number, is necessary to their protection, as well as to the safety of those among whom they dwell. It must exist in that government, because it never had existed anywhere else, because the theatre of its exercise is within the geographical limits of the United States, because it has never been denied, and because it alone can enforce its laws on the tribes.”

A more charitable, but equally frank, statement of the source and continued exercise of this power and duty by the Government is found in the case of Board of Com’rs of Creek County v. Seber, 318 U.S. 705, 715, 63 S.Ct. 920, 87 L.Ed. 1094 (1942):

“This power is not expressly granted in so many words by the Constitution, except with respect to regulating commerce with the Indian tribes, but its existence cannot be doubted. In the exercise of the war and treaty powers, the United States overcame the Indians and took possession of their lands, sometimes by force, leaving them an uneducated, helpless and dependent people, needing protection against the selfishness of others and their own improvidence.
“Of necessity, the United States assumed the duty of furnishing that protection, and with it the authority to do all that was required to perform that obligation and to prepare the Indians to take their place as independent, qualified members of the modern body politic.”

We only remind ourselves of the fact, without comment thereon, that the Government has from time to time established educational, rehabilitation and cultural facilities and advantages for the Indians to the point where it has, over a period of years, brought about the gradual termination of supervision by the Government over the various Indian tribes and the granting of citizenship to the individual, culminating, so far as we are presently concerned, in the Act of Congress under consideration. Everyone concerned is happy with the general termination of governmental guardianship of a tribal society and the recognition of the dignity of the individual, thus bringing to an end a policy of governmental guardianship by reason of one being a member of a given race, and the establishment of a continued private guardianship because of individual proclivities only.

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Related

Crain v. First National Bank Of Oregon
324 F.2d 532 (First Circuit, 1963)
Crain v. First National Bank of Oregon
324 F.2d 532 (Ninth Circuit, 1963)
Reed v. United States National Bank of Portland
213 F. Supp. 919 (D. Oregon, 1963)
Foster v. First National Bank of Oregon
213 F. Supp. 884 (D. Oregon, 1962)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
206 F. Supp. 783, 1962 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crain-v-first-national-bank-ord-1962.