Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States

64 F. Supp. 303, 105 Ct. Cl. 658, 1946 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 25
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 4, 1946
DocketNo. C-531 (11)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 64 F. Supp. 303 (Sioux Tribe of Indians 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
Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States, 64 F. Supp. 303, 105 Ct. Cl. 658, 1946 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 25 (cc 1946).

Opinion

LittletoN, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

In this case the plaintiff by a separate amended petition, No. 11, to the original petition, which included all claims of plaintiff against defendant, sued to recover the price stipulated in an agreement of March 2, 1889 (25 Stat. 888), with interest at 5 percent per annum for certain land ceded to defendant out of the Great Sioux Reservation created and set apart for plaintiff by the treaty of April 29, 1868 (15 Stat. 635).

In the first hearing and decision under Rule 39 (a) as to the legal right of plaintiff to recover on the claim made, the court held (97 C. CIs. 391) that the amount which became due plaintiff under the terms of the agreement of 1889, supra, was $5,307,655.87, representing the price agreed to be paid plaintiff for 9,261,592.62 acres of land found by the court to have been ceded under such agreement. The agreement of 1889 was proposed to plaintiff by an act of Congress approved March 2, 1889, supra, which, after extended negotiations by commissioners appointed by the President with the various bands of plaintiff at a number of agencies on the reservation, was accepted and ratified by plaintiff under art. 12 of the treaty of 1868, supra, and became effective by proclamation February 10, 1890 (26 Stat. 1554).

In 1888 Congress, by an act, proposed a similar agreement which was rejected by plaintiff because the price offered therein for the land to be ceded was not satisfactory, and for certain other reasons. The agreement proposed by the act of March 2, 1889, and accepted by plaintiff embodied the demands made by plaintiff when it rejected the previous act. By the agreement of 1889 the Great Sioux Reservation was divided into six separately described reservations known as the Pine Ridge, Rosebud, Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Crow Creek, and Lower Brulé Reservations, and provision was also made for a reservation in Nebraska for the Santee Sioux. In addition to the Indians of plaintiff [711]*711tribe on these reservations, certain other bands of Indians were treated as a part of the Sioux Tribe and entitled to participate in and share the benefits of the agreement of 1889. These bands were the Ponca (of Nebraska) and the Flandreau. These two bands and the “Northern Cheyenne of Tongue River (Montana)”, referred to in the account current in finding 9, are not made parties to the petition in this case.

After providing for the separate reservations and for the Ponca and Flandreau Indians, as above mentioned, the agreement ceded all the reservation land remaining and belonging to the Sioux Tribe, with certain exceptions not herein material, to the United States to become public lands. Section 21 provided that the ceded land would be opened for settlement and disposed of at $1.25 an acre for the first three years; seventy-five cents an acre for the next two years, and fifty cents an acre for the residue of the land then undisposed of, and that at the end of ten years from the effective date of the agreement (February 10, 1890) all undisposed of land would be paid for by the United States at fifty cents an acre. The agreement also provided that the total amount received and paid by the United States would be deposited to the credit of said Indians in a permanent fund.

The agreement authorized and directed certain expenditures for the benefit of the tribe for the purposes therein specified. Sec. 17 continued art. 7 of the treaty of 1868 for twenty years after February 10, 1890; provided for expenditures for livestock, farm implements and supplies, seeds for planting and cash payments to allottees, and made a permanent appropriation for these purposes to the end that these beneficial objects and payments, for the purpose of civilization and self-support, could be furnished and made when the agreement became effective and during the ten-year period allowed for disposal of and payment for the ceded land. This section and also sec. 22 provided for reimbursement of these expenditures out of the “permanent fund” of plaintiff. In addition to this permanent appropriation, an advance to plaintiff of $3,000,000 (reimbursable) was appropriated and made to the “permanent fund” at the [712]*712time the agreement became effective. Sec. 17 provides in full as follows:

That it is hereby enacted that the seventh article of the said treaty of April twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-eigiit, securing to said Indians the benefits of education, subject to such modifications as Congress shah deem most effective to secure to said Indians equivalent benefits of such education, shall continue in force for twenty years from and after the time this act shall take effect; and the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to purchase, from time to time, for the use of said Indians, such and so many American breeding cows of good quality, not exceeding twenty-five thousand in number, and bulls of like quality, not exceeding one thousand in number, as in his judgment can be under regulations furnished by him, cared for and preserved, with their increase, by said Indians: Provided, That each head of family or single person over the age of eighteen years, who shall have or may hereafter take his or her allotment of land in severalty, shall be provided with two milch cows, one pah of oxen, with yoke and chain, or two mares and one set of harness in lieu of said oxen, yoke and chain, as the Secretary of the Interior may deem advisable, and they shall also receive one plow, one wagon, one harrow, one hoe, one axe, and one pitchfork, all suitable to the work they may have to do, and also fifty dollars in cash; to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior in aiding such Indians to erect a house and other buildings suitable for residence or the improvement of his allotment; no sales, barters or bargains shall be made by any person other than said Indians with each other, of any of the personal property hereinbefore provided for, and any violation of this provision shall be deemed a misdemeanor and punished by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both in the discretion of the court; That for two years the necessary seeds shall be provided to plant five acres of ground into different crops, if so much can be used, and provided that in the purchase of such seed preference shall be given to Indians who may have raised the same for sale, and so much money as shall be necessary for this purpose is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated; and in addition thereto there shall be set apart, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of three millions of dollars, which said sum [713]

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64 F. Supp. 303, 105 Ct. Cl. 658, 1946 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 25, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sioux-tribe-of-indians-v-united-states-cc-1946.