In the District Court of the United States In And For The District of Montana, U.S., Plaintiff, v. Glacier County, et al, Defendants, Judge Pray Ruled; This is a suit in equity submitted to the court upon stipulation of counsel and documentary evidence. The facts may be briefly stated, likewise the theories of counsel for the respective parties. The lands of the [Blackfeet] Indian wards were described in the complaint are situated on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, were to be held by the United States under trust patents in favor of the Indians named therein for the period of twenty-five years and were to be free from taxation during that period. It appears that within two years after the issuance of these trust patents the government, under a statute hereinafter referred to, issued patents in fee to the Indians without any application therefor by the Indians and without their consent. Thereafter the lands were listed for taxation in Glacier County and the Indian owners were required to pay taxes. Some of the Indians defaulted in the payment of taxes and later the county obtained tax titles to their lands. Why the patents in fee were issued in such numbers and under such circumstances before two years of the trust period had expired does not clearly appear [forced patents conspiracy]. However, all of these patents in fee were later cancelled under the acts of Congress of Feb. 26, 1927 and of Feb. 21, 1931. The government contends that upon the issuance of the trust patents the Indians acquired vested rights to tax free lands for the period of the trust which could not be destroyed or impaired under the forgoing state of facts in any improvident or unauthorized manner, and that consequently the government is entitled to reimbursement on behalf of the Indians for the taxes collected. It is quite evident from the citations contained in complainants brief that the Indians lands were to be held for the Indians during that period, and that such period might be extended in the discretion of the President; and that any deed or contract for the conveyance of these lands during that time would be "absolutely null and void" It was well said by the Attorney General of the United States in 1888 "that the allotment lands provided for in the Act of 1887 are exempt from state or territorial taxation." That the lands covered by the act are held by the United States for the period of twenty-five years in trust for the Indians, such trust being an agency for the exercise of a federal power, and therefore outside the province of state or territorial authority." No authority exists for the state to tax lands which are held in trust for the purpose of carrying out its policy in reference to these Indians. There is no reason why the court should not hold here, as it has held heretofore, when the same question in substance has been presented, that the Indians possessed the right to have his lands free from state taxation for the period expressed in the patent, and that no act of Congress could disturb that right. Let a decree be entered as prayed for in the bill and in accordance with the views of the court, to include the substance of the stipulation referred to in the complainants brief. Judge Pray, 1944
CHAIRMAN JOHN SHARP, BLACKFEET TRIBAL BUSINESS COUNCIL, SEPT. 25, 1944
Letter to Hon. James F. O'Connor, House of Representatives, Washington D.C.
Dear Sir: Patents in fee were issued to Indians as early as 1918, in many cases the Indian not knowing of the issuance of the patent in fee of his allotment. They were advised that they must accept the patent from the office of the Indian Bureau and whether or not they accepted the patent, the taxes must be paid. This procedure was promoted by white traders on the reservation to put the Indians landless. Many of these are valuable oil lands, one tract was taken from the Indian for a $2,000 mortgage and tax and produced $3,000,000 in oil revenues for the white man. Louis Hill of the Great Northern Railway was one of the major lessees through his lobbyists in Washington D.C. was able to get the Milk River Anticline, the most promising oil structure on the reservation patented in fee through the Indian Bureau. We find 275,578 acres alienated to white men by the issuance of fee patents to Indians and subsequently stolen by white men. We, the Blackfeet Indians, feel our lands remain in trust forever.
John Sharp, Chairman
Leo Kennerly, Councilman
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