Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States

64 F. Supp. 312, 105 Ct. Cl. 725, 1946 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 26
United States Court of Claims·Decided February 4, 1946·No. C-531(18-24)·Published·Cited by 17 cases

Opinion

LITTLETON, Judge.

The act of March 2, 1889, 25 Stat. 888, divided the then existing Great Sioux Reservation into seven separate reservations (including the one for the Santee Sioux in Nebraska), and sec. 21 thereof directed the sale or disposition for the benefit of the Sioux Tribe of all land not included in such separate reservations or otherwise reserved. It also authorized in section 8 general allotments to the Sioux Indians on the several reservations and the issuance of patents therefor, and such allotments were made. Sec. 12 authorized the Secretary of Interior to negotiate with the tribes on the various reservations for the sale and release by the Indians and purchase by the United States, subject to approval by Congress, of reservation lands not allotted or otherwise reserved for public entry and sale by defendant. Art. 7 of the treaty of 1868, 15 Stat. 638, relating to elementary education, was continued in force by sec. 17 for twenty years after February 10, 1890. Further extensions of these educational provisions were made from year to year in certain subsequent acts. Sea 17 also created a permanent fund by an advance of $3,000,000 for the Sioux Tribe with interest at 5 percent. This $3,000,000 and certain other expenditures under the act of 1889 were under secs. 17 and 22 thereof to be reimbursed to the United States. Sec. 19 provided that “all the provisions” of the treaty of 1868, “and the agreement * * * approved” February 28, 1877, 19 Stat. 254, “not in conflict with the provisions and requirements of this act, are hereby continued in force according to their tenor and limitation, anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.” Sec. 22 provided that all money accruing from disposal of lands under that act should be used solely for repayment of reimbursable items and the creation of a permanent interest-bearing trust fund. Sec. 26 provided that all expenses for surveying, platting, and disposal of lands opened to settlement should be borne by the Government. Sec. 28 provided that the provisions of the act should become effective only upon acceptance thereof and consent thereto by the different bands of the Sioux Nation of Indians in the manner and form (signing by three-fourths of the adult male Indians) prescribed by art. 12 of the treaty of 1868. Plaintiff duly accepted and consented to the act and it became effective, by Proclamation, February 10, 1890.

In the continuation and carrying out of the policies, purposes, and provisions of the treaty of 1868 and of the acts of February 28, 1877 and March 2, 1889, supra, the several acts of 1895, 1902, 1906, 1907, 1908, and 1910 (referred to in the findings) were enacted to provide for sale and disposition by the Government, as trustee, of certain unallotted reservation lands involved in six of the seven cases now under consideration, and for deposit of the net proceeds therefrom in trust funds, with certain provisions as to interest thereon, for the Indians concerned.

Case No. 21 (Crow Creek Reservation) involves a trust fund of $274,848.33 created under the act of March 2, 1895, from principal and interest paid to plaintiff by the United States in connection with the Crow Creek Reservation to carry out an agreement made with the Sioux Tribe to-secure acceptance of the act of 1889.

The seven cases now under consideration (C-531 (18) to (24), inclusive, present nine claims, or issues, seven of which are involved in two or more of the cases. All claims made by the Sioux Tribe under treaties of 1851, 1868, and subsequent agreements and acts of Congress, except one claim made in the amended petition in Case 22, were originally included and set forth in a single petition filed under the jurisdictional act, 41 Stat. 738, which authorized the institution of suit within five years thereafter. Twenty-four separate amended petitions were subsequently filed in 1934, soon after completion by defendant and delivery to plaintiff of the accounting report required by the allegation of the original petition. The Indians of the Sioux Tribe, made plaintiffs in the original and amended petitions, consisted of the Sioux tribes or bands located on eight separate areas within the Great *318 Sioux Reservation known as the Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Cheyenne, Crow Creek, and Lower Brulé Reservations in South Dakota; the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota; the Santee Reservation in Nebraska, and the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana.

The defendant’s accounting report of seven volumes extends and covers all transactions to. June 30, 1925. It was prepared with respect to all questions raised by plaintiff in the original petition concerning its properties, monies, and other specific transactions between the tribe and the Government. It was completed and furnished to plaintiff April 19, 1932, and the original of the accounting report was filed by defendant on July 12, 1934 as evidence in the original case, 84 Ct. Cl. 16. In June, 1934, plaintiff, for convenience of preparation, trial, and -decision, filed twenty-four separate amended petitions on the basis of the original petition and defendant’s accounting report, separating therein the questions and facts involved in the several issues raised by the original petition. All these twenty-four cases have been tried and submitted, and, with exception of the seven here under consideration and C-531 (11) argued and submitted in October, 1945, on final accounting, they have all been finally decided.

The instant cases, which involve claims of plaintiff in behalf of the tribes or bands on six separate reservations, were tried and briefed separately, but since one or more of the questions presented in each case are involved in two- or more other cases they are grouped herein for the purpose of decision.

The claims made herein by plaintiff-and the cases in which such claims are involved are as follows:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States, 64 F. Supp. 312, 105 Ct. Cl. 725, 1946 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 26 (cc 1946).

64 F. Supp. 312 (Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. United States
41 Fed. Cl. 525 (Federal Claims, 1998)
White Mountain Apache Tribe v. United States
26 Cl. Ct. 446 (Court of Claims, 1992)
Red Lake Band v. United States
17 Cl. Ct. 362 (Court of Claims, 1989)
Minnesota Chippewa Tribe v. United States
14 Cl. Ct. 116 (Court of Claims, 1987)
Navajo Tribe of Indians v. United States
9 Cl. Ct. 336 (Court of Claims, 1986)
Sioux Tribe of Indians v. United States
6 Cl. Ct. 91 (Court of Claims, 1984)
Yankton Sioux Tribe v. United States
623 F.2d 159 (Court of Claims, 1980)
United States v. Oneida Nation of New York
576 F.2d 870 (Court of Claims, 1978)
United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians
518 F.2d 1298 (Court of Claims, 1975)
Creek Nation v. United States
152 Ct. Cl. 747 (Court of Claims, 1961)