Rainbow v. Young

161 F. 835, 88 C.C.A. 653, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4392
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 8, 1908
DocketNo. 2,642
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 161 F. 835 (Rainbow v. Young) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rainbow v. Young, 161 F. 835, 88 C.C.A. 653, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4392 (8th Cir. 1908).

Opinion

VAN DEVANTER, Circuit Judge.

This appeal calls in question an order discharging a writ of habeas corpus. There is no controversy about the facts, which are as follows; The appellants are Indian policemen at the Winnebago Indian Reservation, in Thurston county, Neb. That reservation consists of 100 acres of land belonging to the United States upon which it maintains an Indian agencj and an Indian train[836]*836ing school for the benefit of the Winnebago tribe, to the members of which allotments in severalty of the adjacent lands have been made under Act Feb. 8, 1887, c. 119, 24 Stat. 388. The duties of an Indian agent at that agency, or at least such of them as pertain to the matters here stated, have been devolved upon the superintendent of the training school under a provision in Act March 3, 1903, infra. Somewhat recently, when payments of certain lease moneys were about to be made at that agency to the members of the tribe by such superintendent, he was directed by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to require collectors to remain away from the agency on the days when the payments were being made; and among those who were duly notified of that direction was Thomas L. Sloan, an attorney of Fender, Neb. On one of the days fixed for making the payments Mr. Sloan, disregarding the notice so given to him, went to the agency for the purpose of making collections from Indians to whom lease moneys were then to be paid. After he had made some collections, and while he was there for the purpose of making others, he was requested by the superintendent to leave the agency and to remain away during the day so fixed for making the payments. 'He refused to do’ so, and the appellants then removed him from the reservation, and also prevented him from returning to the agency during that day. In doing so they acted under a verbal order given to them as members of the agency police by the superintendent, who was executing the commissioner’s direction. The appellants used no more force than was necessary, and did nothing of which Mr. Sloan could complain, if the superintendent’s order to them was a lawful one. Subsequently they were taken into custody by the appellee upon a warrant issued by the county judge of Thurston county upon a complaint made by Mr. Sloan, wherein he charged them with a criminal assault under the laws of the state of Nebraska by reason of their removal of him from the reservation in che circumstances just stated. While they were so in custody and awaiting a trial or examination, a writ of habeas corpus was sued out in their behalf upon a petition presented to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Nebraska, wherein it was alleged that their imprisonment was unlawful because the act with which they were charged was done in the discharge of a duty placed upon them as agency policemen in pursuance of a law of the United States. At the final hearing upon the petition, the Circuit Court was of opinion ■that there was no statutory authority for the direction given by the commissioner, and that it was invalid in the absence of such authority, and so. discharged the writ and remanded the appellants to the appellee’s custody.

Of the questions discussed by counsel, we deem it necessary to here notice the single one of the commissioner’s authority to give the direction which was disregarded by Mr. Sloan and in the orderly execution of which he was removed from the reservation. While the members of the Winnebago tribe have received allotments in severalty and have become citizens of the United States and of the state of Nebraska, their tribal relation has not been terminated. They are not permitted to alienate, mortgage, or lease their allotments without the sanction of the Secretary of the Interior. Their lease moneys are collected and [837]*837disbursed by officers of the United States. Their lands and some at least of their other property áre not taxable; and. the United States maintains a reservation, an agency, and a training school for their benefit. In short, they are regarded as being in some respects still in a state of dependency and tutelage which entitles them to the care and protection of the national government; and when they shall he let out of that state is for Congress alone to determine. United States v. Rickert, 188 U. S. 432, 23 Sup. Ct. 478, 47 L. Ed. 532; Matter of Heff, 197 U. S. 488, 25 Sup. Ct. 506, 49 L. Ed. 848; Cherokee Nation v. Hitchcock, 187 U. S. 294, 307, 308, 23 Sup. Ct. 115, 47 L. Ed. 183; McKay v. Kalyton, 204 U. S. 458, 27 Sup. Ct. 346, 51 L. Ed. 566; Dick v. United States, 208 U. S. 340, 28 Sup. Ct. 399, 52 L. Ed. --; United States v. Thurston County, 74 C. C. A. 425, 143 Fed. 287; Hollister v. United States, 76 C. C. A. 337, 145 Fed. 773; Beck v. Flournoy, etc., Co., 12 C. C. A. 497, 65 Fed. 30; United States v. Mullin (D. C.) 71 Fed. 682. Besides, the reservation from which Mr. Sloan was removed is the property of the United States, is set apart and used as a tribal reservation, and in respect of it the United States has the rights of an individual proprietor (see Commonwealth v. Clark, 2 Metc. [Mass.] 23; Commonwealth v. Dougherty, 107 Mass. 243; Low v. Elwell, 121 Mass. 309, 23 Am. Rep. 272; Fossbinder v. Svitak, 16 Neb. 499, 20 N. W. 866; Harshman v. Rose, 50 Neb. 113, 69 N. W. 755), and can maintain its possession and deal with intruders in like manner as can an undividual in respect of his property (Camfield v. United States, 167 U. S. 518, 524, 17 Sup. Ct. 864, 42 L. Ed. 260; Jourdan v. Barrett, 4 How. 168, 185, 11 L. Ed. 924; Stephenson v. Little, 10 Mich. 433). With these observations, we turn to the statutes bearing upon the authority of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and in considering them it is well to remember, as was said in United States v. Macdaniel, 7 Pet. 1, 14, 8 L. Ed. 587, that:

“A practical knowledge of the action of any one of the great departments of the government must convince every person that file head of a department, in the distribution of its duties and responsibilities, is often compelled to exercise his discretion. He is limited in the exercise of his powers by the law; but it does not follow that he- must show statutory provision for everything he does. Xo government could be administered on such principles. To attempt to regulate by law the minute movements of every part of the complicated machinery of government would evince a most unpardonable ignorance on the subject. Whilst the great outlines of its movements may be marked out, and limitations imposed on the exercise of its powers there are numberless things which must be done, that can neither be anticipated nor defined, and which are essential to the proper action of the government.”

The Revised Statutes contain these sections:

“Sec. 441 (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 252). The Secretary of the Interior is charged with the supervision of public business relating to the following subjects: * * * Third, The Indians.”
“Sec. 463.

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Bluebook (online)
161 F. 835, 88 C.C.A. 653, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4392, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rainbow-v-young-ca8-1908.