159 Ct. Cl. 247 | Ct. Cl. | 1962
delivered tbe opinion of tbe court:
Appellants seek reversal of an order of the Indian Claims Commission denying one of their claims on its merits. This demand arises out of the Treaty of August 4,1824, with the Sock and Fox Indians, I Stat. 229, under which the Indians ceded to the United States, for relatively small sums, all their rights to a very large area in Missouri — “It being understood, that the small tract of land lying between the rivers Desmoin and the Mississippi, and the section of the above line between the Mississippi and the Desmoin, is intended for the use of the half-breeds belonging to the Sock and Fox nations; they holding it, however, by the same title, and in the same manner, that other Indian titles are held.” This “small tract of land”, known as the Half-Breed Tract,
Appellant’s claim is that the Half-Breed Tract, part of the land then owned by the Sac and Fox, was taken in 1824 from the Tribes, not for their benefit but for that of the United States; and accordingly that the United States is now liable under the Indian Claims Commission Act for the value of the land so taken for its benefit. The theory offered in support is that the Federal Government, anxious to obtain an easy relinquishment of the Tribe’s claims to the large Missouri region, sought to smooth the path by swaying or bribing Maurice (orMorice) Blondeau, an influential Fox half-breed who often acted as interpreter and adviser for the Tribes, through the creation of a special tract for himself and his relatives. This gift, it is said, helped make it possible for the Government to receive the larger area for very little consideration.
Recognizing the difficulties of finding direct proof of this claim of fraud or unfair and less-than-honorable dealings,
If the scattered materials appellants thus nail together stood alone, they might make out a prima facie case of unfair or less-than-honorable dealings. But the other side also has its evidence and its arguments. For one thing, although Superintendent Clark had only proposed giving Blondeau the section of land on which he had his house,
The most important materials supporting the appellee came after the Treaty. They consist of documents revealing the cordiality of the Sac and Fox toward the Half-Breed Tract, their recognition that they had given it to the Half-Breeds, and their insistence that it be properly parcelled out among the donees. In 1826 the Tribes submitted to Clark a list of 38 eligible half-breeds entitled to share in the Tract. Although the United States was not required to survey the land, Clark had promised one as soon as he was authorized. In presenting the names, the chiefs referred to the lands “which we give to our relations the half breeds” by the Treaty of 1824 and stated that the list of 38 included those “to whom we give the Tract of land and to none others whatever.”
We have set forth the opposing contentions and materials not to make our own choice but to show that the Indian Claims Commission was free, on the whole record, to adopt its findings rejecting the appellants’ claims of fraud, chicanery, duress, and dealings falling below the standards of fairness and honor. The primary issues appellants urge upon us are factual, and we need not spell out once again that the Commission’s findings of fact cannot be overridden if they are sustained by substantial evidence in the record taken as a whole. Yakima Tribe v. United States, 158 Ct. Cl. 672; Miami Tribe of Oklahoma v. United States, 150 Ct. Cl. 725, 732; 281 F. 2d 202, 206, cert. denied, 366 U.S. 924. There is no doubt that the findings and conclusion in this case pass that test. They are affirmatively supported by the Treaty provisions and by the important post-Treaty statements and actions of the Tribes which can certainly be taken as showing that the Sac and Fox freely intended and desired to make a gift to their half-breeds. In the light of this evidence, the Commission could reasonably discount the inclusive pre-Treaty materials as failing to prove the taint which appellants allege.
Appellants also raise one non-evidentiary point. They insist that the Commission’s ultimate findings are open to attack because it found only that the cession of the Half-Breed Tract was for the benefit of the half-breeds, and failed to decide whether the grant was not also for the benefit of the United States (rather than the Sac and Fox). However, as we read the findings, they are consistent only with a determination that the cession was by the Indians and for their benefit, not that of the Federal Government. The Commission found that the Sac and Fox desired to provide a suitable
The determination and findings of the Indian Claims Commission are affirmed.
The area is now Lee County in the State of Iowa and includes the City of Keokuk. It was about 120,000 acres in size.
The Commission also determined that the Iowa Tribe aboriginally owned over 1,550,000 acres in northwestern Missouri ceded to the united States at the same time as the cession by the Sac and Fox. The Iowa Tribe has disclaimed any interest in the Half-Breed Tract.
Under the Treaty, the United States was to pay $1,000 to the Sac and Fox Tribes immediately; $500 annually to each of the two Tribes for ten years; $500 to Blondeau, “it being a debt due by the said nation [Fox] to the aforesaid Blondeau, for property taken from him during the late war.” The United States also agreed to provide a blacksmith for the Tribes, to furnish them with farming utensils and cattle, and to hire men “to aid them in their agriculture” — all in the discretion of the President.
This grievance had been expressed in a letter to the President in 1821 and was repeated in 1823.
See Miami Tribe of Oklahoma v. United States, 146 Ct.Cl. 421, 462, 175 F. Supp. 926, 950 (1959), for the text of this instruction. In that case the court pointed out that the Government took this step reluctantly because it considered the land of great value.
Appellants refer to various documents which, in their view, show Clark to have been most anxious to achieve the cession of the Sac and Fox lands without any great expense.
Non-Indians other than Clark and Blondeau, including at least two other interpreters, appear to have been present at the treaty councils and signing. See 7 Stat. 230.
By 1822 Blondeau and his relations had begun to make a village in what became the Half-Breed Tract.
See footnote 2, supra.
There appears to have been some dispute as to the number of proper participants. The estimates vary from 38 to 101.
The appellee also presents more-or-less contemporaneous accounts, some biased, of the cession of the Half-Breed Tract, which indicate that the Sac and Fox originally wanted to give much more land to the half-breeds but in the end had to content themselves with giving a comparatively small tract.
In this court appellants have not properly preserved any issue as to the failure of the united States to make a timely survey and partition of the Tract. On that question the Commission found no violation of the Treaty and also held that in any event appellants lack standing to present the half-breeds’ individual claims.