OCR Text |
Show - ~p-~-~~~ - - ~ I, BEPORT OF THE C O ~ I O N E UOF INDIAN AFFAIRS. 69 DOWER IN INDIAN ALLOTMENTS. In my report for 1905 it was argued that under the laws of Oregon the widow of a deceased allottee would be entitled to dower. The question had come up in connection with allotments on the Umatilla Reservation. This opinion is sustained by a recent decree of the circuit court of the United States for the district of Oregon in the case of Sarah Wheeler, formerly Sarah Winslow, plaintiff, v. Annie Pettite and the United States, trustee, defendants. The complainant, an Indian woman, brought this suit to deter-mine her right as the lawful widow of Henry Winslow to dower in lands on the Grande Ronde Reservation, in Oregon, allotted to Wins-low, a full-blood Indian, under the general allotment act of February 8,1887. She married hi in 1881, and they had two daughters, both of whom are now living. In 1890 Winslow, without being separated or divorced from Sarah, took another Indian named Amie as his wife, and hhey had one son. When Winslow died, in 1896, he left Annie and this son in possession of the allotment. Annie afterwards married a man named Pettite, with whom she is now living. The court said that one of the main purposes of the general allot-ment act was to furnish a permanent home ultimately for the fami-lies of deceased Indians, that this indicated a purpose to secure the widow by some permanent right in the home of a deceased head of a family, and that dower was suited to this purpose. Thereupon it was decided that the complainant was entitled to a dower right in the allotment of her deceased husband, Henry Winslow. If no appeal is taken, the court will be asked to set off the dower to the widow. COURT JURISDICTION OF ALLOTMENTS In a case decided by the Supreme Court of the ITnited States on February 25, 1907, it was held that State courts are without jurisdic-tion over lands allotted to Indians. The case was of William McKay (substituted for Mary Kalyton) et al., plaintiff in error, v. Agnes Kalyton, by Louise Kalyton, her guardian ad litem, and the suit was begun in the circuit court of Umatilla County, Oreg., and involved an allotment made nuder the Umatilla act of March 3, 1885 (23 Stat. L., 340). Briefly, the course of the argument was: That the case of the United States u. Rickert (188 U. S., 432435) settled that the United States retained such control over allotments as monld cause allotted lands to inure during the trust period for the sole use and benefit of allottees; that in the Smith case (194 U. S., 408) it was observed that prior to the passage of the act of August 15, 1694 (28 Stat. L., 286), " the sole authority for settling disputes concerning allotments resided in the Secretary of the Interior," and consequently contro- |