Opinion · Supreme Court of the United States

Hy-Yu-Tse-Mil-Kin v. Smith

194 U.S. 401

Type
Opinion
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction
Federal
Date
1904-05-16
Topic
general

How later courts describe this case

  • statute applying to "all persons who are in whole or in part of Indian blood or descent"

Citator

UpLaw has not yet analyzed Hy-Yu-Tse-Mil-Kin v. Smith. The absence of a flag is not a finding that it is good law.

Cited by
53 opinions

Headnotes

  1. Federal Courts & Jurisdiction — Jurisdiction over Indian Allotment Claims Under the Act of August 15, 1894, conferring jurisdiction on the federal circuit courts over suits by persons of Indian blood claiming entitlement to an allotment under any act of Congress, a claimant who asserts that she was entitled to an allotment under the Act of 1885 and that it was improperly refused and awarded to another may maintain suit in the Circuit Court to have her right adjudicated as against the other allottee; applying the act to such a claim is not an impermissible retrospective operation, because the act reaches by its terms anyone who, at the time of its passage, claims to have been unlawfully denied an allotment. 194 U.S. at 405–407
  2. Native American Law — Allotment of Lands in Severalty (Residence Requirement) The Act of March 3, 1885, concerning the Confederated bands of Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Indians, addresses the residence of the bands as bands rather than of individual Indians, and does not require that an individual member of those tribes have been actually residing on the reservation at the time of the act's passage; an individual who was a member of the tribe or band, recognized as such by its chiefs, was entitled to an allotment notwithstanding nonresidence, where a majority of the members of the tribes were likewise absent from the reservation when the act was passed, a fact presumed to have been known to Congress and with reference to which the act must be construed. 194 U.S. at 407–409
  3. Native American Law — Allotment of Lands in Severalty (Purpose of the Act) The purpose of the treaty and of the allotment act was to induce the Indians to break up tribal relations and adopt the habits of an agricultural people; confining allotments exclusively to those actually residing within the limits of the reservation, while withholding them from absent members of the band recognized as such, would defeat that purpose. 194 U.S. at 409
  4. Civil Procedure — Scope of Review (Concurrent Findings of Fact) Where the special examiner found the appellee to be a member of the Walla Walla tribe, and that finding was adopted by both the Circuit Court and the Circuit Court of Appeals, and there is evidence upon which the finding may be based, the finding is not so plainly erroneous as to warrant review of the concurrent findings of fact of two courts. 194 U.S. at 409–410
  5. Civil Procedure — United States as Necessary Party In a contest between two Indians, each claiming the same land under the Act of 1885, the United States has no interest in the result and is not a necessary party defendant; the act authorizing suit in the Circuit Court for an allotment contemplates that such an action may proceed without the United States as a party, providing that the court's judgment, when properly certified to the Secretary of the Interior, shall have the same effect as if the allotment had been allowed and approved by him, whereby the Government in substance consents to be bound and to issue a patent accordingly. 194 U.S. at 410
  6. Native American Law — Priority of Selection and Allotment Where more than one person claims the same land, a dispute over an allotment is to be decided in favor of the one whose priority of selection and residence and whose improvements on the land equitably entitle that person to it; accordingly, where an Indian woman made her selection and entered into possession with improvements long before another Indian selected the same land, and the other Indian selected it with knowledge of her open and visible improvements and without paying for them or making improvements himself, her prior selection entitles her to the allotment. 194 U.S. at 410–411
  7. Native American Law — Effect of Subsequent Selection on a Prior Allotment Claim Where an Indian was forced off land she had selected and improved by an erroneous ruling that denied her any allotment, and, after the Interior Department corrected its mistake and recognized her entitlement, selected other and less valuable land in compliance with the Indian agent's direction, the agent having advised that the selection would not affect her claim to the original tract, her selection of the other land — for which no patent was issued — does not bar her claim to the land she originally selected. 194 U.S. at 411