Red Lake, Pembina & White Earth Bands v. United States

164 Ct. Cl. 389, 1964 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 45, 1964 WL 8580
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJanuary 24, 1964
DocketAppeal No. 7-62
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 164 Ct. Cl. 389 (Red Lake, Pembina & White Earth Bands v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Red Lake, Pembina & White Earth Bands v. United States, 164 Ct. Cl. 389, 1964 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 45, 1964 WL 8580 (cc 1964).

Opinion

Durfee, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from an award and judgment of the Indian Claims Commission entered June 18,1962 which granted a net award of $2,034,889.15 to the Red Lake and Pembina Bands of Indians after deducting prior payments of $635,774.87 and gratuity offsets in the amount of $699,061.57.1

The lands involved lie in the Red River Valley of the North, are located partially in North Dakota and partially in Minnesota, and are known as Royce Area 445 Minnesota 1, North Dakota 1. The Red Lake and Pembina Bands ceded [393]*393the lands to the United States by Treaty, October 2,1863 (13 Stat. 667, Proclaimed May 5,1864).

Since the land involved was the subject of claims by other parties, it was stipulated below that the Turtle Mountain and Little Shell Bands of Chippewa were constituent parts of the Pembina Band which executed the 1863 Treaty.

1. We will first deal with appellants’ claim of ownership of the Sheyenne-Goose area. The Commission found that the appellant bands did not own Indian title to the 2,311,660 acres lying west of the Ned Niver of the North between the Goose and the Sheyenne Eivers in 1863. Appellants contend that the Commission erred as a matter of law in holding against the Treaty, which explicitly included the disputed area, since substantial and compelling evidence was present to sustain the treaty boundary. But the Commission must rely on all available materials and aid it can muster. It j need not consider any one piece of evidence conclusive, even f if that piece of evidence be the Treaty of cession. If the ¡ finding of the Commission is supported by substantial evi- ¿ dence, it must stand. Miami Tribe of Oklahoma v. United States, 150 Ct. Cl. 725; 281, F. 2d 202 (1960), cert. denied, 366 U.S. 924.

To establish Indian title appellants must establish ex- \ elusive occupation of the lands in question. Substantial \ evidence was introduced to disprove exclusive occupation and control over the Sheyenne-Goose tract. The Sisseton and Wahpeton Indians, autonomous bands of Sioux, ceded this same tract of land to the United States by Treaty of February 19, 1867 (15 Stat. 505) followed by the Agreement of June 22,1874 (18 Stat. 167). But the mere cession treaty was > not sufficient to establish Indian title when compensation for) the land was claimed by the Sioux in this court. The Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands of Sioux Indians v. United States, 58 Ct. Cl. 302 (1923), aff'd 277 U.S. 424. In answer to the argument there raised that the Government, in negotiating the Treaty, recognized Indian title and was estopped from denying such title, the court said:

* * * it may well be that the motive which prompted such generous conduct [inclusion of the tract in the Treaty] was more in the interest of composing hostility [394]*394to be feared from the Indians without so acting, (at 328).

Clearly, the court rejected the argument similar to the one here raised that the lands described in the Treaty were conclusively the property of the ceding Indians.

Further, the failure of the Sioux to make claim for the disputed territory during the negotiations of the 1863 Treaty is understandable. The Sioux were hard pressed with other matters in that year.2

We reject appellants’ contention that the Commission’s weighting of the 1863 Treaty was error as a matter of law and hold, after a consideration of the evidence, that the Commission’s conclusion that appellants did not possess Indian title to the disputed tract is supported by substantial evidence.

2. The Commission found that the average per acre value of the remaining 7,488,280 acres was 45 cents in 1863. It ruled that the Treaty consideration of eight cents an acre was unconscionable and granted a gross award of $3,369,-726.00, which sum less the $609,480.36 already paid on the claim, left a balance of $2,760,245.64. This balance was held to be subj ect to further credits and offsets.

Appellants here assert that the 45 cents per acre value found by the Commission is contrary to the evidence. But while the test of valuation is “fair market value” used in the sense of “what it fairly may be believed that a purchaser in fair market conditions would have given for it * * *” N.Y. v. Sage 239 U.S. 57, 61 (1915), there were few if any willing buyers for these lands in 1863. Absent evidence of actual market conditions, we pointed out in Otoe and Missouria Tribe of Indians v. United States, 131 Ct. Cl. 593, 131 F. Supp. 265 (1955), cert. denied, 350 U.S. 848, that other conditions, such as economic resources either actual or potential, record sales of neighboring lands, markets and transportation, should be considered. The Commission took these factors into account. It examined the three approaches taken by Mr. Davis, plaintiffs’ expert witness, and extracted from his reports much useful data. The Commission also [395]*395considered the testimony of defendant’s witnesses. Accepting neither party’s witnesses as being the last word, the Commission extrapolated from all the valuation evidence before it and concluded that the average per acre value of the 7,488,280 acre tract was 45 cents. The Commission in so doing did not wholly disagree with evidence presented by appellants to the effect that some of the acreage was more valuable; nor did the Commission wholly disagree with ap-pellee’s evidence that some of the acreage was of considerably less worth. After consideration of the entire record, we conclude that the Commission’s finding on value was supported by substantial evidence.

. 3. The third issue raised in this appeal is whether the Commission was correct in offsetting gratuities in the amount of $699,061.57 against the award.

a. Appellants first contend that the Commission was outside its jurisdiction in allowing an offset in any amount. The pertinent part of the statute, Section 2 of the Indian Claims Commission Act (25 U.S.C. § 70a) reads:

_ * * * the Commission may also inquire into and consider all money or property given to or funds expended gratuitously for the benefit of the claimant and if it finds that the nature of the dawn and the entire course of dealings and accounts between the United States and the claimant in good conscience warrants such action, may set off all or part of such expenditures against any award made to the claimant * * *. [Emphasis supplied.]

Appellants read the if clause (the portion emphasized) as requiring the Commission to make explicit affirmative findings. Such a construction is too strained. We do not think it necessary that the Commission make such specific findings; an implicit finding to that effect is sufficient, and was.here present.

After quoting sec. 2 of the Act, supra, the Commission in its opinion, 9 Ind. Cl. Com. 457 at 514, stated:

In our findings of Fact No. 58 through 65 we have applied these provisions

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Bluebook (online)
164 Ct. Cl. 389, 1964 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 45, 1964 WL 8580, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/red-lake-pembina-white-earth-bands-v-united-states-cc-1964.