The fourth paragraph of the act of March 2, 1907, supra, authorizes a review of a "decision or judgment sustaining a special plea in bar, when the defendant has not been put in jeopardy." The defendant in this case had not been put upon trial, therefore he had not been in jeopardy. The decision of the Circuit Court sustained the special plea in bar. This fourth paragraph differs from the two preceding, in that the review authorized by them is limited to cases in which "the decision or judgment is based upon the invalidity or construction of the statute upon which the indictment is founded," while no such limitation appears in this paragraph. The full significance of this difference need not now be determined, but clearly the fourth paragraph gives to this court a right to review the precise question decided by a trial court in sustaining a special plea in bar, although that decision may involve the application rather than the invalidity or construction, strictly speaking, of the statute upon which the indictment was founded.
The general provision of the statutes in reference to punishment of the crime of murder committed within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States is found in chap. 3, Title 70, Rev. Stat., §§ 5339-5391, as amended by the act of January 15, 1897, c. 29, 29 Stat. 487.
Section 9 of the act of March 3, 1885, c. 341, 23 Stat. 385, provides for the punishment of certain crimes by Indians, as follows:
By this section Indians committing against other Indians on a reservation in a State any of the crimes named are subject to Federal laws and tried in Federal courts.
That the offense was committed within the limits of the Tulalip Indian Reservation is distinctly charged in the indictment and not challenged in the plea in bar. Although the defendant had received a patent for the land within that reservation, and although the murdered woman was the owner of another tract within such limits, also patented, both tracts remained within the reservation until Congress excluded them therefrom.
By the second clause of § 3, Art. IV, of the Constitution, to Congress, and to it alone, is given "power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States." From an early time in the history of the Government it has exercised this power, and has also been legislating concerning Indians occupying such territory. Without noticing prior acts, it is sufficient to refer to that of June 30, 1834, c. CLXI, 4 Stat. 729, the first section of which reads:
"Be it enacted, That all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi, and not within the States of Missouri and
Construing this section, it was decided, in Bates v. Clark, 95 U.S. 204, 209, that all the country described in the act as "Indian country" remains such "so long as the Indians retain their original title to the soil, and ceases to be Indian country whenever they lose that title, in the absence of any different provision by treaty or by act of Congress." The section was repealed by Rev. Stat., § 5596. Still, it was held that it might be referred to for the purpose of determining what was meant by the term "Indian country" when found in sections of the Revised Statutes which were reenactments of other sections of prior legislation. Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 556; United States v. Le Bris, 121 U.S. 278. But the word "reservation" has a different meaning, for while the body of land described in the section quoted as "Indian country" was a reservation, yet a reservation is not necessarily "Indian country." The word is used in the land law to describe any body of land, large or small, which Congress has reserved from sale for any purpose. It may be a military reservation, or an Indian reservation, or, indeed, one for any purpose for which Congress has authority to provide, and when Congress has once established a reservation all tracts included within it remain a part of the reservation until separated therefrom by Congress. By the treaty of January 22, 1855 (12 Stat. 927), known as the treaty of Point Elliott, it was provided that certain lands should be reserved for the "use and occupation of the Indians." And, further, article 3, "that the President may establish the central agency and general reservation at such other point as he may deem for the benefit of the Indians." On December 23, 1873, the President established the boundaries of the Tulalip Reservation in the Territory of Washington. The tract subsequently
The plea does not challenge the continued tribal organization of the Tulalip Indians, or question that the tribe, as well as the general body of the reservation, continues under the general care of the United States. Indeed, at the time of the crime the Tulalip Reservation was occupied by 453 Indians, under the charge of an Indian agent. Rep. Com. Ind. Affairs, 1906, pp. 377, 483. Thirteen thousand five hundred and sixty acres have been allotted to 94 of these Indians, and the residue, 8,930 acres, remains unallotted.
Eells et al. v. Ross (12 C.C.A. 205, Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States for the Ninth Circuit) presented the question of the revocation of a reservation. The treaty with the Puyallup Indians contains like provisions in regard to alienation and forfeiture as are in the treaty with the Omahas.
Circuit Judge McKenna, now Mr. Justice McKenna of this court, in delivering the unanimous opinion of that court, said (p. 207):
"It is not disputed that the lands are a part of those set apart as the Puyallup Reservation, and that the reservation has not been directly revoked; but it is contended that the allotment of the lands in severalty, and afterwards making the Indians citizens, necessarily had the effect to revoke the reservation. There is plausibility in the argument, and it needs to be carefully considered. It is clear that the allotment alone could not have this effect, (The Kansas Indians, 5 Wall. 737) and citizenship can only have it if citizenship is inconsistent with the existence of a reservation. It is not necessarily so.
"Some of the restraints of a reservation may be inconsistent with the rights of citizens. The advantages of a reservation are not; and if, to secure the latter to the Indians, others not Indians are excluded, it is not clear what right they have to complain. The act of 1887, which confers citizenship, clearly does not emancipate the Indians from all control, or abolish the reservations."
Dick v. United States, 208 U.S. 340, does not conflict with
But it is contended that although the crime may have been committed on an Indian reservation, yet it does not come within the last sentence of § 9 of the act of March 3, 1885, supra, by reason of the fact that both defendant and the woman murdered held patents from the United States, and Matter of Heff, 197 U.S. 488, is cited as authority. But there are these important differences between the two cases. In that the person to whom the defendant sold liquor (the charge being that of selling liquor to an Indian) had received a patent under the provisions of the act of Congress of February 8, 1887, known as the General Allotment Act (c. 119, 24 Stat. 388), whereas the patents in this case were issued under the authority of the treaty with the Omahas, March 16, 1854, supra, and the treaty of Point Elliott, January 22, 1855, supra. It also appeared that the sale was made, not on any reservation, while here the murder was committed within the limits of one.
Section 5 of the act of February 8, 1887, provides (24 Stat. 389) "That upon the approval of the allotments provided for in this act by the Secretary of the Interior, he shall cause patents to issue therefor," etc. Section 6 is as follows (24 Stat. 390):
"SEC. 6. That upon the completion of said allotments and the patenting of the lands to said allottees, each and every member of the respective bands or tribes of Indians to whom allotments have been made shall have the benefit of and be subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside; and no Territory shall pass or enforce any law denying any such Indian within its
It will be seen that the first sentence of the latter section, which provides that the allottees shall be "subject to the laws, both civil and criminal, of the State or Territory in which they may reside," applies to allotments and patents made under the authority of that act, whereas the other sentence refers to allotments made under the act of 1887, or under any law or treaty, and in respect to the allottee it is provided only that he "is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens." In other words, so far as the plea is concerned, it is only that Celestine was a citizen of the United States, and entitled to all the rights, privileges and immunities of such citizenship.
We assume, without deciding, that although Celestine was born within the territorial limits of the United States he was not, under the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, a citizen of the United States prior to the issue of the patent to him; that the jurisdiction of the United States was over the tribe of which he was a member, and not over him personally; so that by the act of 1887 he was given a citizenship in the United States and in the State which did not theretofore belong to him. But, although made a citizen of the
"Of late years a new policy has found expression in the legislation of Congress — a policy which looks to the breaking up of tribal relations, the establishing of the separate Indians in individual homes, free from national guardianship and charged with all the rights and obligations of citizens of the United States. Of the power of the Government to carry out this policy there can be no doubt. It is under no constitutional obligation to perpetually continue the relationship of guardian and ward. It may at any time abandon its guardianship and leave the ward to assume and be subject to all the privileges and burdens of one sui juris. And it is for Congress to determine when and how that relationship of guardianship shall be abandoned. It is not within the power of the courts to overrule the judgment of Congress. It is true there may be a presumption that no radical departure is intended, and courts may wisely insist that the purpose of Congress be made clear by its legislation, but when that purpose is made clear the question is at an end."
Notwithstanding the gift of citizenship, both the defendant and the murdered woman remained Indians by race, and the crime was committed by one Indian upon the person of another, and within the limits of a reservation. Bearing in mind the rule that the legislation of Congress is to be construed in the interest of the Indian, it may fairly be held that the statute does not contemplate a surrender of jurisdiction over an offense committed by one Indian upon the person of another Indian within the limits of a reservation; at any rate, it cannot be said to be clear that Congress intended
The act of May 8, 1906, c. 2348, 34 Stat. 182, extending to the expiration of the trust period the time when the allottees of the act of 1887 shall be subject to state laws, is worthy of note as suggesting that Congress, in granting full rights of citizenship to Indians, believed that it had been hasty. See, upon the general questions discussed, United States v. Mullin, 71 Fed. Rep. 682; Rainbow v. Young, 161 Fed. Rep. 835; State v. Columbia George, 39 Oregon, 127; State v. Columbia George, 201 U.S. 641; Couture v. United States, 207 U.S. 581; Toy Toy v. Hopkins, 212 U.S. 542.
The judgment is
Reversed.
Comment
User Comments