Sisseton & Wahpeton Bands of Indians v. United States

42 Ct. Cl. 416, 1907 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 29, 1907 WL 895
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 13, 1907
DocketNo. 22524
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 42 Ct. Cl. 416 (Sisseton & Wahpeton Bands 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
Sisseton & Wahpeton Bands of Indians v. United States, 42 Ct. Cl. 416, 1907 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 29, 1907 WL 895 (cc 1907).

Opinion

BaRney, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

■ By act of Congress of March 3, 1901 (31 Stat., 1078), this court was empowered to hear, ascertain, and report to Congress what members of the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota or Sioux Indians remained loyal to the Government of the United States and were not concerned in the depredations of certain bands of Sioux Indians named in the act of Congress February 16, 1863, infra, and to hear, ascertain, and report to Congress what annuities provided by the treaty with said bands of July 23,1851, infra, would now be due if the said act of Congress had not been passed. Under the authority of that act a petition was filed in this court, and upon trial it was decided that upon the evidence produced it was impossible to determine who the individual members [422]*422were who remained loyal and did not participate in the depredations mentioned. (39 C. .Cls. B.., 112.)

By a provision contained in an act of Congress approved June 21, 1906, other and further jurisdiction upon the same matter was conferred upon this court, which provision is quoted in full in the findings; but the only part of the same, the effect of which is necessary for discussion in this opinion, is as follows:

“ That jurisdiction be, and hereby is, conferred upon the Court of Claims in Congressional case numbered twenty-two thousand five hundred and twenty-four, on file in said court, entitled ‘ The Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Sioux Indians against the United States,’ to further receive testimony, hear, determine, and render final judgment in said cause, for balance, if any is found due said bands, with right of appeal as in other cases, for any annuities which would be due to said bands 'of Indians under the treaty of July twenty-third, eighteen hundred and fifty-one (Tenth Statutes at Large, page nine hundred and forty-nine), as if the act of forfeiture of the annuities of said bands, approved February sixteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, had not been passed; and to ascertain and set off against the amount found to be due to said Indians, if any, all payments or other provisions of every name or nature made to or for said bands by the United States, or to or for any members thereof, since said act of forfeiture was passed, which are properly chargeable against said unpaid annuities.”

In order to better understand the subject of account between the claimant and the Government, we believe it to be necessaiy to give a brief history of the treat}'- and other relations between the parties during the time this account has been pending. And in so doing we shall only refer to such matters as are in dispute, and shall make no reference to other matters and appropriations about which there is no contention, excepting as the same may incidentally affect the matters under discussion.

In the year 1851 there were four bands of the Sioux Indians in Minnesota, divided into two groups: One generally known as the Lower Sioux, and consisting of the Medwakan-ton and Wahpakoota bands, and the other generally known as the Upper Sioux, consisting of the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands, who are the claimants in this case. In that year the [423]*423United States entered into a treaty with the claimant Indians, by the terms of which they bound themselves to pay these Indians the sum of $305,000 and a yearly annuity of $13,600 for fifty years (10 Stat., 949). Thereafter annual appropriations were made by Congress for the payment of these installments, until the passage of the forfeiture act of 1863, hereinafter mentioned. In the year 1862 an outbreak of the Sioux Indians occurred, in which they committed terrible depredations and outrages upon the settlers in Minnesota, constituting one of the darkest pages in the history of Indian warfare. It is undisputed that at least a part of the claimant Indians were engaged in this outbreak and massacre, together with the Lower Sioux above mentioned. The Lower Sioux were, however, located nearer the white settlement, and for this reason probably a larger proportion of them participated in the outrages.

Because of these outrages committed by the Sioux Indians, Congress, on the 16th of February, 1863, passed an act by which the annuities provided for by the treaty of 1851 were forfeited to the Government;, and in the same act a portion of these annuities then remaining in the Treasury unpaid, together with some annuities to become due under said treaty, was appropriated for the relief of the white settlers who had suffered from these depredations. (12 Stat. L., 652.)

Afterwards Congress recognizing the fact that all of these bands were not engaged in this outbreak, but on the contrary that some of them had assisted in suppressing it, from time to time, appropriated moneys to members of the claimant bands, as well as members of the Loiver Sioux, in" payment for such assistance. The sums so paid to members of both the Lower Sioux and Upper Sioux amounted in the aggregate to $206,353.30. (26 Stat., 1038;. 21 Stat., 624; 28 Stat., "889.) In these general appropriation acts it was mentioned that these payments were made as part of the annuities provided for in the treaty of 1851 notwithstanding the forfeiture.

In 1858 the claimant Indians concluded another treaty with the United States, containing the following provision:

“ The Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota or Sioux Indians acknowledge their dependence on the Government of [424]*424the United States, and do hereby pledge and bind themselves to' preserve friendly relations with the citizens thereof, and to commit no injuries or depredations on their persons or property * * * ; but in case of any such injury or depredation, full compensation shall, as far as practicable, be made therefor out of their moneys in the hands of the United States, the amount in all cases to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior(12 Stat. L., 1039.)

After the suppression of the outbreak of 1862, the United States removed from their then reservations at least some of the Sioux Indians who were engaged in it, although there appears to be some dispute as to whether all of the claimant Indians were so removed; but from the view we take of the case, as hereinafter more fully stated, that question is immaterial and is not here discussed.

The cost of such removal, together with the damages which were paid by the Government to the white sufferers in addition to the sum before mentioned, and sums appropriated from time to time for the support of the claimant Indians, including the Lower Sioux, amounted to $1,778-,-709.48. If we deduct from this amount the cost of removal, $163,060.06, the sum paid would be $1,615,649.42. (Senate Doc. No. 68, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session, 20.)

April 22, 1867, another treaty was concluded between the claimant Indians 'and the United States (15 Stat., 505-511), by which -the Indians ceded to the United States “ the right to construct wagon roads, railroads, mail stations, telegraph lines, and such other public improvements as the interests of the Government may require, over and across the lands claimed by said bands (including their reservation as hereinafter designated) over any route or routes that may be selected by authority of the Government, said lands claimed being bounded,” etc.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 Ct. Cl. 416, 1907 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 29, 1907 WL 895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sisseton-wahpeton-bands-of-indians-v-united-states-cc-1907.