United States v. Taylor

33 F.2d 608, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1335
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedJune 28, 1929
DocketNo. 637
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 33 F.2d 608 (United States v. Taylor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Taylor, 33 F.2d 608, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1335 (W.D. Wash. 1929).

Opinion

CUSHMAN, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). Section 2128 et seq. of the Revised Statutes made provision for the licensing of Indian Traders. These statutes have been changed by later laws in certain particulars (19 Stat. 200, § 5 [25 USCA § 261]; 31 Stat. 1066; 32 Stat. 1009, § 10; Compiled Statutes, § 4127 et seq., 25 USCA § 261 et seq.), yet no contention is made that plaintiff is not entitled to such relief as that prayed to prevent trading without the permission of' the Commissioner of Indian Affairs upon the Quillehute Indian Reservation. Light v. United States, 220 U. S. 523, 31 S. Ct. 485, 55 L. Ed. 570.

The question is whether the Quillehute river, at the place, in question, is itself within or without the Quillehute Reservation (articles 2 and 6 of the Treaty with the Quinaielt and Quillehute Indians, 12 Stat. 971; 2 Kappler, 719; Executive Order of February 19, 1889, creating the Quillehute Indian Reservation; 1 Kappler, 923). It will not be neeessary herein to review all of the matters which have been discussed by counsel.

A defense common to all of the defendants is that the Quillehute river is a navigable meandered stream, and not within the reservation. Unless the latter contention, that the portion of the river where these trading barges are maintained is not within the reservation, has been established, plaintiff is entitled to prevail.

The Quillehute Reservation contains less than 2 square miles and is at the mouth of the Quillehute river, which flows directly into the Pacific Ocean about 35 miles south of Cape Flattery. The river is about 5 miles in length. The distance from its mouth to the head of the tide is 2% miles. It is not made entirely clear by the evidence how far the river is navigable. Beyond question it is navigable to the mouth of the Dickey river, where a wharf is maintained. The Diekey river, which in the field notes of the survey of 1881-82 is called the Dickedoeh’tedar river, enters the Quillehute about a mile above its mouth. The point at which the barges of the defendants are maintained is less than one-half mile from the present river mouth, which is south of the barges.

The reservation was created in 1889, just prior to the admission of Washington as a state. The river mouth was then one-half mile north of where the barges are being maintained. The water where the barges are located was then in the nature of a lagoon, [611]*611mafia so by the stoppage, in 1876, of what was then and is now the present mouth of the river. The evidence concerning this part of the river corroborates, in the main, the report of Thomas W. Symons, captain, Corps of Engineers, made in 1895 to the effect that:

“ * * * Below this it gets deeper and in the lower half mile it has a depth of 10 to 15 feet at low tide. * * * The river just before reaching the ocean widens out into a small bay or tidal basin. This, at high tide, is about 800 feet wide and 4,000 feet long. It is separated from the ocean by a low sand tongue. The entrance channel is at the northern end of this sand tongu®, and is about 150 feet wide and at the throat is about 10 to 12 feet deep. It opens out into a shallow bay studded with concealed rocks, which are so dangerous as to render the bay practically unnavigable. * * * The river formerly opened out to the south, into what is marked Quillayute Harbor. This harbor is, as far as known, free from dangerous rocks and is pretty well sheltered from the northwest winds of summer.”

Lieutenant Shunk, Corps of Engineers, reported in 1894, in part, as follows:

«* • • The river formerly emptied into the lower bay, marked Quillayute Harbor at the point A. It could then be entered by vessels drawing 10 feet, and was visited by schooners in the fur trade. * * * In the spring of 1876 a log jam at the old mouth caused the river to break through the north end of the sand spit into the upper bay. This bay is exposed, and so studded with concealed rocks that vessels are afraid to enter. An Indian named Captain Socks owns a 10-ton sloop, the Dart, which he occasionally takes in and out through a tortuous channel, but no one else will attempt it. The present mouth is 150 feet wide and 10 to 12 feet deep. It is sometimes wider and shallower. The old course of the river, south of the present mouth, is marked by a slough about half a mile long. This has filled up to some extent in its upper part, but there is still a channel 10 feet deep at low tide. Between the lower end of this slough and Quillayute Harbor, there is a low sandy isthmus, about 150 yards wide. The inhabitants wish the river to be returned to its former position.”

The evidence shows that, during the time the south mouth was as described by Lieutenant Shunk, a substantial, if not the greater, part of the river-ocean navigation, was accomplished by means of a portage across the sandy isthmus filling the then old mouth. Lieutenant Shunk, in his report, says:

“ * * * The old course of the river, south of the present mouth, is marked by a slough about half a mile long. This is filled up to some extent in its upper part, but there is still a channel 10 feet deep at low tide. Between the lower end of this slough and Quillayute Harbor, there is a low sandy isthmus about 150 yards wide.”

It is in this southerly or lower portion of the then slough described by Lieutenant Shunk that defendants’ barges are maintained, which portion the court finds to have been navigable at all times covered by the evidence.

The “sand spit,” referred to by Lieutenant Shunk and by Captain Symons described as a “sand tongue,” is about one-half mile long, and forms the west bank of what is now the main river, but was then a slough sealed at the south end by the bar formed in 1876. This “sand spit” or “sand tongue” is not tide land, but upland platted in the survey of 1881, approved by the Surveyor General in 1882, as lots 4 and 5 of section 21, township 28 N., range 15 west W. M.

Defendants’ barges are fastened to dolphins in the river near the east shore, immediately in front of the Indian village of La Push, at a point between lot 5 above mentioned, a part of which forms the west bank, and lot 6 of the same section on the east. These lots are expressly mentioned in the Executive Order of February 19, 1889, creating the reservation, and are substantially lots 10 and 11 of the resurvey of 1914 and 1915. It is not contended that the resurvey in any way affects the questions involved in the present suit. Exhibit 8, being also Exhibit A-2, and Exhibit 4 show the original platting. Exhibit 6 shows the platting of the resurvey. The Quillehute river is, at, above and below the place where the barges are maintained, a meandered stream.

The War Department, in 1927, expressed “the assent of the federal government, so far as coneems the public rights of navigation,” to the driving, by the defendant United Fishermen’s Packing Company, of two dolphins in the mouth of the Quillehute river. It is to these dolphins- that this defendant’s barge is fastened. The barges of the other defendants are maintained near that of the United Fishermen’s Packing Company.

About 200 Indians live on this reservation. While many of them do not live there throughout the year, yet the same would appear to be their chief place of residence. Under a contract with Clallam county, Washington, made in 1921, roads upon the reservation have been improved, presumably at the expense of the taxpayers of the state and county.

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Bluebook (online)
33 F.2d 608, 1929 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-taylor-wawd-1929.