OCR Text |
Show 68 REPORTS OF TEE DEPARTMmT OF THE INTERIOR. to the confederated bands of Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla Indians residing upon the Umatilla Reservation, Oreg:, as follows: To each head of a family, 160 acres; to each single person over the a.ge of 18 years, 80 acres; to each orphan child being nnder 18 years of age, 80 acres; and to each child under 18 years of age not other-wise provided for, 40 acres. The allotments were made, and they . were approved April 12,1893. It will be observed that no provision is madefor allotments of land to married Indian women. Instead of giving to the husband and the wife 80 acres each, the law authorized the allotment of 160 acres to each head of a. family-the husband, in the case of an Indian man married to an Indian woman, being recognized as the head. Since these allotments were approved the heads of several Indian families have died, and the question of the dower right of the widow in the lands of the deceased husband has arisen, for, since there is no authority of law to make allotments to them, if they are denied the right of dower in the lands of their deceased husbands the sur-viving wives of deceased Indian allottees will be both homeless and landless. This Office holds that the widow of a deceased allottee is entitled to dower nnder the laws of the State of Oregon. Under section 5515 of the statutes of Oregon (1902) the widow of every deceased person is entitled to dower, or the use, during her natural life, of one-half of all the land whereof her husband was seized of an estate of inher-itance at any time during the marriage unless she is lawfully barred therefrom. The estate created by the allotments and trust patents to the Indians of the Umatilla Reservation is an estate of inheritance, so declared by the Federal statutes creating them, of which an allottee became seized upon the making (approval) of the allotment and the issue of his trnst patent. It is? therefore, in the opinion of this Office, such an estate as will support a dower interest under the Oregon statutes. In the case of St. Denis .v. Breedan the Assistant Attorney-General for the Interior Department rendered an opinion on August 12,1898, concurred in by the Secretary of the Interior (27 L. D., 312), holding that nnder the act of March 3, 1885, providing for the allot-ment of the Umatilla lands, the law of the State of Oregon deter-mines questions of descent from the time of the issue of the trust patent, and that by such law the husband of a deceased allottee is entitled to an estate by curtesy in the allotted lands. He said: The general rule is that the right by curtesy attaches to an equitable as well as a legal estate, and this rule has been specf6calb announced by the supreme court of Oregon (Gilmore v. Gllmore, 7 Oreg., 374). |