22 Mont. 484 | Mont. | 1899
1. Although the people of the state of Montana agreed, as a condition to the admission of the state into the Union, to disclaim any right or title to all lands lying within the limits of the state owned or held by any Indian tribes, and that until title thereto shall be extinguished by the United States the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and under the absolute jurisdiction and control of Congress, still Indian reservations are not without the jurisdiction of the State for the purposes of taxing personal property, in which the Indians are not interested, held upon such reservations. In Truscott v. Hurlbut Land & Cattle Co., 19 C. C. A. 374, 73 Fed. 60, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals said, in reference to taxing cattle upon an Indian reservation: “We are unable to see any good reason why the authority of the state and its subordinate subdivisions, the counties, may not also include the taxation of all such personal property found within their geographical limits, although upon the reservation in question, provided, as in this case, the Indians are in no way interested in it. ’ ’
Appellants, however, would have the courts except their property from the operation of the taxing power of the state because it constitutes the stock in trade of an Indian post trader, and is used in trading with the Indians under a license obtained from the government of the United States; or, in other words, appellants contend that the presence of an Indian trader with a stock of goods on an Indian reservation is an agency of the general government to carry out its treaty with the Indians, and is expressly authorized by law. ■ W e cannot concur in this argument. There was a time when the government furnished the merchandise traded to the Indians, and when the person who dealt out the property so furnished
2. It is also said that the tax cannot be collected in this instance because the levy was not made m the manner pro
The action of the board of commissioners, sitting as a board of equalization, in placing a value upon the property in the manner it did, and in causing the entry quoted to be spread upon its minutes of July 17th, was irregular in fact and in form. The function of a county board of equalization is to-require the assessor to assess taxable property which has escaped taxation, and to direct that official to make the proper entry upon the assessment book. The board itself should not make the assessment, its power being to equalize after an assessment has been made as directed by the assessor. (Session-Laws of 1891, p. 99, Secs. 68, 69; Political Code of 1895,. Secs. 3788, 3789.) But, unless this irregularity rendered the tax void, or substantially prejudiced plaintiff’s rights, the case should not be reversed. The assessment book was put in evidence on the trial. It-showed an entry by the assessor of the-plaintiff’s stock of merchandise, with the valuation placed thereon by tlie board. Plaintiffs had been duly notified (under section 69) of the action of the board of equalization in putting a valuation of $5,000 on their stock of merchandise-owned by them as Indian traders, and in response to this no
We find no error in the case. Judgment affirmed.
Affirmed.