Western or Old Settler Cherokees v. United States

82 Ct. Cl. 566, 1936 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 291, 1936 WL 3016
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 3, 1936
DocketNo. 42078
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 82 Ct. Cl. 566 (Western or Old Settler Cherokees 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.

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Western or Old Settler Cherokees v. United States, 82 Ct. Cl. 566, 1936 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 291, 1936 WL 3016 (cc 1936).

Opinion

Williams, Judge,

delivered the opinion, of the court.

The plaintiffs herein are the Western or Old Settler Cherokees referred to in section 1 of the Jurisdictional Act, and are those Cherokees or their successors who were parties to the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Nation of Indians of the date of August 6, 1846 (9 Stat. 871), and as identified in Article IY thereof.

Prior to 1817 the Cherokee Indians lived east of the Mississippi River where they had occupied and had possession of a large domain for a period long antedating the coming of the White Man to America. By the Treaty of 1817 (7 Stat. 156), and by the Treaty of 1819 (7 Stat. 195) they made a cession of certain of their lands in Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama, to the United States in consideration for certain lands in the then territory of Arkansas on the Arkansas and White Rivers. A portion of the Cherokees thereafter emigrated to this territory in Arkansas and were thereafter designated as the Western Cherokees.

By the Treaty of 1828 (7 Stat. 311) amended by the supplementary treaty of 1833 (7 Stat. 414), the Western Cherokees exchanged the lands ceded to them by the treaties of 1817 and 1819 for lands in what is now the State of Oklahoma and removed thereto. The Cherokee Indians remaining in the East, and then known as the Eastern Cherokees, were not parties to these treaties and had no interest and claimed no interest in the land ceded therein.

By the Treaty of 1835 (7 Stat. 478), the Eastern Cherokees in the name of the Cherokee Nation ceded to the United States all their lands and possessions east of the Mississippi River for the sum of $5,000,000, after making certain stipulated deductions therefrom. An additional sum of $600,000 to be expended for certain specific purposes, and any balance thereof, not so expended, to be added to the Cherokee school fund, was provided by the supplementary treaty of 1836 (7 Stat. 488) between the same parties. One of the provisions of the Treaty of 1835 was that the Cherokees would remove to the lands in Oklahoma granted to the Western Cherokees in the treaties of 1828 and 1833, which lands the United States agreed, together with other lands ceded in this treaty “shall be included in one patent executed to the Cherokee [581]*581Nation of Indians by the President of the United States according to the provisions of the act of May 28, 1830.” At the time these treaties were executed the Western Cherokees had no interest in the Cherokee lands east of the Mississippi River and claimed none.

The major portion of the Cherokees living east of the Mississippi River were removed to the Cherokee lands in Indian Territory by the United States in about 1838 and they were subsequently known or designated as the Eastern or Emigrant Cherokees, while the Western Cherokees were thereafter designated as the Western or Old Settler Cherokees. Both groups repudiated the Treaty of 1835, contending that it was falsely executed by unauthorized persons and that the rights of both groups were utterly disregarded by its terms. Also bitter controversies arose between the Cherokees themselves after their reunion on the Indian Territory lands. These controversies led to the execution of the Treaty of August 6, 1846, to which both the Eastern or Emigrant Cherokees and the Western or Old Settler Cherokees were parties. By the terms of this treaty the provisions of the Treaty of 1835 and the supplementary treaty of 1836 were, in effect, ratified and confirmed. By Article IX the United States agreed to make a fair and just settlement of all monies due to the Cherokees, subject to the per capita division under the Treaty of 1835, and to pay whatever balance was found to be due after proper deductions therefrom, in equal amounts, per capita, to all those individuals, heads of families, or their legal representatives, entitled to receive the same under the Treaty of 1835 and the supplement thereto of 1836, being those Cherokees residing East at the date of the treaty and the supplement. By Article IY of the Treaty the United States agreed to pay a sum equal to one-third part of the residuum found to be due the Cherokee Nation, to the Old Settlers or Western Cherokees, to be distributed per capita to each individual of the said group (Finding 4). In speaking of this treaty, the court in Western Cherokee Indians v. United States, 21 C. Cls. 1, 36, said:

That treaty was a compact between three parties, the United States, the Eastern, and the Western Cherokees. Its [582]*582purpose was to make the Eastern and Western Cherokees parties to the treaty of New Echota [1835], which they had never conceded themselves to be, and to secure peace in the Cherokee country. The principle upon which it sought to accomplish this purpose was, that on the one hand the Western Cherokees should participate in the purchase money which had been paid for the lands east of the Mississippi; and on the other, that they should abandon their autonomy and become subject to the government which had been established by the Eastern Cherokees.
The reason behind the principle was that in 1835 the Western Cherokees owned the Cherokee country west and had paid for it, and that the Eastern Cherokees acquired by the terms of the treaty of New Echota two-thirds of this without paying for it, and at the same time retained all of the purchase money which had been given for their possessions east of the Mississippi.
By the terms of this arrangement the Eastern Cherokees consented to their [Western Cherokees] sharing in the purchase money so far as it was still held by the United States in the form of trusts and annuities; and the United States agreed that so far as it had been paid away to individual Indians and could not be restored they should pay it over again, and thus make good to the Western Cherokees their rightful proportion of the fund; * * *.

By Article XI of the Treaty of 1846 it was agreed that the question as to whether the Cherokee Nation shall be allowed interest on whatever sum be found due the Nation, and from what date, and at what rate per annum, would be submitted to the Senate of the United States for decision.

The act of April 25, 1932, confers jurisdiction upon the Court of Claims, notwithstanding the lapse of time or statute of limitations, to' hear, examine, adjudicate, and render judgment in any and all legal and equitable claims arising or growing out of any treaty or agreement between the United States and the Cherokee Indians, or arising or growing out of any act of Congress in relation to Indian Affairs, which the said Eastern or Emigrant and Western or Old Settler Cherokees may have against the United States, which claims have not heretofore been determined and adjudicated on their merits by the Court of Claims or the Supreme Court of the United States and paid in full.

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82 Ct. Cl. 566, 1936 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 291, 1936 WL 3016, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/western-or-old-settler-cherokees-v-united-states-cc-1936.