Summary
distinguishing between money appropriated to fulfill treaty obligations, to which trust relationship attaches, and "gratuitous appropriations"
Summary of this case from Lincoln v. VigilOpinion
No. 569.
Argued February 26, 27, 1908. Decided May 18, 1908.
A statutory limitation on expenditures of the public funds does not, in the absence of special provision to that effect, relate to expenditures of treaty and trust funds administered by the Government for the Indians. The provisions in the Indian Appropriation Acts of 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899 limiting and forbidding contracts for education of Indians in sectarian schools relate only to appropriations of public moneys raised by general taxation from persons of all creeds and faith and gratuitously appropriated and do not relate to the disposition of the tribal and trust funds which belong to the Indians — in this case the Sioux Tribe — themselves, and the officers of the Government will not be enjoined from carrying out contracts with sectarian schools entered into on the petition of Indians and to the pro rata extent that the petitioning Indians are interested in the fund. A declaration by Congress that the Government shall not make appropriations for sectarian schools does not apply to Indian treaty and trust funds on the ground that such a declaration should be extended thereto under the religion clauses of the Federal Constitution. 35 Washington Law Reporter, 766, affirmed.
"11. That the plaintiffs have no remedy at law."Wherefore the plaintiffs ask relief, as follows:"I. That a permanent injunction issue against the said Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to restrain him from executing any contract with the said Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions of Washington, D.C., or any other sectarian organization whatever, for the support, education, or maintenance of any Indian pupils of the said Sioux tribe at the said St. Francis Mission Boarding School, or any other sectarian school on the said Rosebud Reservation or elsewhere, and that a permanent injunction issue against the said Francis E. Leupp, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the said Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Secretary of the Interior, to restrain them from paying or authorizing the payment of, either by themselves or by any of their subordinate officers or agents whatever, any moneys of either the said Sioux treaty fund or the interest of the said Sioux trust fund, or any other fund appropriated, either by permanent appropriation or otherwise for the uses of the said Sioux tribe, to the said Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions of Washington, D.C., or to any other sectarian organization whatever, for the support, education, or maintenance of any Indian pupils of the said Sioux tribe, at the said St. Francis Mission Boarding School or any other sectarian school on the said Rosebud Reservation or elsewhere."II. And for a permanent injunction against the drawing, countersigning and paying "any warrants in favor of the said Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions of Washington, D.C., or any other sectarian organization whatever, for the support, education, and maintenance of any Indian pupils of the said Sioux tribe at the said St. Francis Mission Boarding School, or any other sectarian school on the said Rosebud Reservation or elsewhere, payable out of any money appropriated, either by permanent appropriation or otherwise, for the uses of the said Sioux tribe."III. And for general relief.
The defendants answered, 1. Admitting "that the plaintiffs are citizens of the United States, and members of the Sioux tribe of Indians, but aver that the said Indians are only nominal plaintiffs, the real plaintiff being the Indian Rights Association, who have had this suit brought for the purpose of testing the validity of the contract hereinafter referred to."2. Admitting "that they are residents of the District of Columbia, and are sued in this action as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Treasurer of the United States, and the Comptroller of the Treasury, respectively. These defendants, as officers of the Government of the United States, have no interest in the controversy raised by the bill, except to perform their duties under the law, and they, therefore, as such officers, respectfully submit the validity of the contract hereinafter referred to, and the payments thereunder, to the judgment of this honorable court. The real defendant in interest is the `Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions,' a corporation duly incorporated by chapter 363 of the Acts of Assembly of Maryland for the year 1894, for the object, inter alia, of educating the American Indians directly and also indirectly by training their teachers and others, especially to train their youth to become self-sustaining men and women, using such methods of instruction in the principles of religion and of human knowledge as may be best adapted to these purposes."As the object of the bill filed is to test the validity of a contract made between the Commissioner for Indian Affairs and the said `Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions,' and the validity of the payment of the money thereunder, this answer will set forth the facts and the statutes of the United States under which it is contended that such contract and the payment of money thereunder are valid."This the answer then did at length, and inasmuch as the case was submitted on bill and answer with certain statements of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, it is thought that the answer should be given substantially in full as it is in the margin. The case was heard on the bill, the answer and "certain proofs, consisting of replies made by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to certain questions asked in behalf of the plaintiffs, and also of certain statements in the reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for the years 1895 and 1906, inclusive," and was argued by counsel, and upon consideration an injunction was decreed from "paying or authorizing the payment of, either by themselves or by any of their subordinate officers or agents whatever, any moneys of the Sioux treaty fund, referred to in the said bill and answer, appropriated for the uses of the Sioux tribe of Indians, to the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, at Washington, D.C., for the support, education or maintenance of any Indian pupils of the said Sioux tribe, at the St. Francis Mission Boarding School on the Rosebud Reservation in the State of South Dakota, as provided in the contract referred to in said bill and answer, and that the defendants be further restrained from drawing, countersigning and paying any warrants in favor of the said Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions, for the purpose aforesaid, payable out of the said Sioux treaty fund; and"It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed that so much of the prayer of the said bill as asks that an injunction issue against the defendants restraining them from paying or authorizing the payment of any of the interest of the Sioux trust fund to the said Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions under the said contract, be refused; and
"It is further ordered and adjudged that each party pay the respective costs by each incurred."Each party prayed an appeal from so much of the decree as was adverse to them. It was stipulated "that the amount which was to have been paid from the Sioux treaty fund under the contract in regard to which this suit is brought is approximately $24,000."
The case was submitted on record and briefs, and the court affirmed the decree below in respect of the income of the "Trust Fund," and reversed the injunction against the payment from the "Treaty Fund," and remanded the case with directions to dismiss the bill at the cost of the complainants, whereupon the case was brought to this court on appeal.
Mr. Charles C. Binney and Mr. Hampton L. Carson, with whom Mr. N. Dubois Miller was on the brief, for appellants:
The term "contract schools," used in the Indian Appropriation Act for the fiscal year 1895, directing an investigation, and in the similar acts for the years 1896-1900, inclusive, imposing gradually increasing limitations upon the Secretary of the Interior's power to contract, included the schools for which the contracts were then payable out of Indian treaty and trust funds.
When Congress in 1894 directed the Secretary of the Interior "to inquire into and investigate the propriety of discontinuing contract schools and whether, in his judgment, the same can be done without detriment to the education of Indian children, and that he submit to Congress, at the next session, the result of such investigation, including an estimate of the annual cost, if any, of substituting Government schools for contract schools," and when the Secretary reported, suggesting a plan for gradually doing away with the contract schools, making no distinctions among them, both Congress and the Secretary referred to the contract schools in general, and not merely to those of them which were supported from the appropriations expressly made by Congress for Indian education, to the exclusion of the contract schools supported from Indian treaty and trust funds.
After the close of the fiscal year 1900 the Secretary of the Interior could not legally make or authorize any contract, in behalf of the United States, for the education of Indian pupils in any sectarian school.
Considering the direction to the Secretary of the Interior in 1894 to investigate the propriety of discontinuing contract schools, and to report the cost of substituting Government schools for contract schools; his report advocating a gradual reduction in the contract schools during a short period of years, during which period the Government should prepare to do without them; the adoption of the system advocated by him, successively restricting more and more his authority to contract with such schools; the declarations in the acts of 1896 and 1897 that, subject to the restricted authority granted by those acts, it was "the settled policy of the Government to hereafter make no appropriation whatever for education in any sectarian school"; the declaration in the act of 1899 that the appropriation there made was "the final appropriation for sectarian schools"; and the fact that since 1899 no statute has granted the Secretary any authority to contract with sectarian schools for the education of Indian pupils; the conclusion is irresistible that Congress decided to abolish the entire system of Government aid to such schools, and to do so by depriving the Secretary of all authority to make any more such contracts.
Moreover, as it has been shown above that the term "contract schools" was officially used as including contract schools supported from Indian treaty and trust funds, the conclusion is irresistible that Congress made no distinction between contracts as to which the money was to come from the appropriation for the support of schools, and contracts as to which the money was to come from Indian treaty and trust funds. In either case the Government was the disburser of the money — the hand which directly dispensed the aid — and the money was disbursed under a contract. To deprive the Secretary of the power to make such contracts altogether was the only effectual means of preventing him from using Indian treaty and trust funds for sectarian schools, and it would operate just as effectually in regard to such funds as in regard to funds derived from the appropriation for the support of schools.
The Secretary's power to make such a contract was taken away altogether, and not merely as regards contracts where the money was to be paid out of appropriations by Congress expressly for the support of Indian schools.
As regards the taking away of the Secretary's power to make such a contract, no distinction can be drawn between money expressly appropriated by Congress for the support of Indian schools and money appropriated by Congress in fulfillment of Indian treaties and available for education.
As regards use under contracts with sectarian schools, no distinction can be drawn between money expressly appropriated by Congress for the support of Indian schools and money paid by the Government as interest on Indian funds held in trust by it.
While in the case of the Sioux trust fund the appropriation is made by a different system from that pursued with the Sioux treaty fund, there is still an appropriation within the meaning of the acts of 1896 and 1897, declaring it to be "the settled policy of the Government to hereafter make no appropriation whatever for education in any sectarian school," and the act of 1899 which said, "this being the final appropriation for sectarian schools." The word "appropriation," used as it is here, in statutes of the class known as "appropriation acts," is necessarily technical. It means an appropriation by Congress of money in the Treasury of the United States. Restricted as this meaning is, however, the whole phrase, "make no appropriation whatever," is as broad a phrase as the limits of that meaning will possibly permit, and it refers to any and every kind of appropriation that Congress can make, without regard to the method of such appropriation. "No appropriation whatever" is a phrase that can have no limits but those which necessarily restrict the word "appropriation" itself.
The appropriations of funds in the United States Treasury are of two kinds, viz., those made for each successive fiscal year, and permanent annual appropriations. The latter are provided for in §§ 3687-3689, Rev. Stat., and cover a number of matters (the cost of revenue collection, payment of interest on the public debt, etc.), which are expected to recur every year, either indefinitely or for a considerable period, so that it is held inadvisable to make a special appropriation for them every year. When the Revised Statutes were compiled, the Indian trust funds were all invested (under §§ 2095, 2096), and the income received was paid to the Indians or expended for them, and this system was not changed until the act of April 1, 1880, c. 41, 21 Stats. 70. That act, providing for the payment of interest upon Indian trust funds deposited in the Treasury to the credit of Indian tribes, such payment to "be made in the usual manner, as each may become due, without further appropriation by Congress," really constitutes a permanent annual appropriation of such interest. Had that change been made before the Revised Statutes were compiled, the interest on the Indian trust funds would presumably have been included in the permanent annual appropriation system. The words " without further appropriation by Congress" clearly show that the provision of the act of 1880 constituted an appropriation once for all, or in other words a permanent annual appropriation.
The Solicitor General and Mr. Edgar H. Gans, with whom The Attorney General was on the brief, for appellees:
There is no constitutional question. For eighty years Congress extended aid out of the public funds to mission schools of various denominations, finally withdrawing it because of opposition among the people at large and because the time had thus arrived for establishing distinctive government schools. If there were a valid constitutional objection to the earlier course, it is probable that it would have been discovered during that period of eighty years. The Constitution provides that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." A religious establishment, however, is not synonymous with an establishment of religion. See Bradfield v. Roberts, 175 U.S. 291, upholding an appropriation for a Roman Catholic hospital. A school, like a hospital, is neither an establishment of religion nor a religious establishment, although along with secular education there might be, as there commonly is, instruction in morality and religion, just as in a hospital there would be religious ministrations.
But opposing counsel advance a line of suggestion similar to that made by the complainant in Bradfield v. Roberts, viz.: that the contract involved a principle and a precedent contrary to the Article of the Constitution, and tended to obliterate the essential distinction between civil and religious functions and injured the complainant and all other citizens and taxpayers of the United States, and was contrary to the Constitution and declared policy of the Government. But the court passed all such contentions, merely referring to them as statements of complainant's opinion.
The question here is wholly of statutory construction. The aid of the public funds was gradually diminished and then wholly withdrawn with the declaration in the acts of 1896 and 1897 that thereafter the policy of the Government would be to make no appropriation for sectarian schools, and the reference to the appropriation of 1899 as final, 29 Stat. 345; 30 Stat. 79 and 942. These declarations of policy would not prevent the present or a future Congress from resuming the appropriation and renewing the aid. The prohibition must be restricted to the particular kind of appropriations in which the declaration of policy appears, namely, to those under the heading "Support of Schools" which are altogether appropriations of public funds for Indian education; it is not intended to apply to the "tribal funds," as contended by the appellants, which are dealt with in an entirely different and separated portion of the appropriation acts. It is a case where the proviso or exception relates only to the particular paragraph or distinct portion of the statute where it occurs, and is not to be extended to the whole statute or other portions of it. Savings Bank v. Collector, 3 Wall. 495; Henderson's Tobacco, 11 Wall. 658; Dollar Savings Bank v. United States, 19 Wall. 227.
The "treaty funds" are manifestly funds belonging to the Indians, just as much in the case of the treaty funds which are the annual payment by installment of obligations to the Indians incurred under treaties, as with the trust funds which are the lump sums paid in settlement of such obligations, upon which the income is expended for the benefit of the Indians. In each case there is an "appropriation," annual or permanent, made, not as the ordinary appropriation applying public funds, but simply as an authority or mandate to the executive agents and the trustee to apply the avails of the fund as usual every year for the benefit of the cestui que trust.
There is no injustice in permitting an Indian to select a school for his children under the auspices of the church to which he is attached, and allowing on that account a portion of the tribal funds or a portion of the annuities or rations to be applied. Why should not one Indian or a group of Indians benefit by their strict proportionate share of the tribal funds and be permitted to determine, always within the scope of the Secretary's discretion, how their proportion of the funds should be expended? It is significant that Congress has refused to direct otherwise, laying on the table a bill forbidding trust and treaty funds to be so applied (H.R. 7067, 59th Cong., 1st sess.).
As to the related point that payments out of the treaty fund will diminish the amount of money which should be expended for the benefit of the entire tribe, the fact is that while the money arising from such funds is not systematically distributed per capita, it is nevertheless expended for the benefit and advantage of the Indians under a liberal exercise of the Secretary's discretion. The Indian may have no individual locus standi to compel payment in hand to him, but that does not prohibit the Secretary from applying a proper share of the funds for his individual benefit, especially when the Secretary's discretion is exercised by giving the same benefit to a collective group of individual Indians. That the treaty funds are intended by the law to provide for the Indians as individuals is evident from the heading "Subsistence and Civilization," under which the appropriation acts go on to provide for fulfilling treaty obligations, and from the long established practice of distributing food and clothing out of treaty funds. An examination of examples of such funds in the treaties and statutes shows that the entire application of the proceeds of such tribal funds is committed to the Secretary's discretion with little limitation. Treaty of 1848, art. 5, 9 Stat. 952; treaty of 1865, art. 2, 14 Stat. 687; act July 15, 1870, c. 296, 16 Stat. 362; act June 16, c. 252, 21 Stat. 292; act March 22, 1882, c. 46, 22 Stat. 30; act June 12, 1890, c. 418, 26 Stat. 146. In short, it is evident that while in a certain sense these funds and their revenue are to be administered for the benefit of the tribe, the aggregate community, the determination of that matter also is committed to the Secretary, and he is plainly authorized to administer the funds proportionately for the benefit of smaller groups or of individuals and in the way of benefiting them with any educational or civilizing influence.
It would be unjust to withhold from an Indian or community of Indians the right, within reasonable limits, in good faith, and under the safeguards provided by the President's instructions, to choose their own school and to choose it frankly because the education therein is under the influence of the religious faith in which they believe and to which they are attached, and to have the use of their proportion of tribal funds applied under the control of the Secretary's discretion to maintain such schools. Any other view of the case perverts the supposed general spirit of the constitutional provision into a means of prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
We concur in the decree of the Court of Appeals of the District and the reasoning by which its conclusion is supported, as set forth in the opinion of Wright, J., speaking for the court. Washington Law Rep., v. 35, p. 766.
The validity of the contract for $27,000 is attacked on the ground that all contracts for sectarian education among the Indians are forbidden by certain provisos contained in the Indian Appropriation Acts of 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898 and 1899. But if those provisos relate only to the appropriations made by the Government out of the public moneys of the United States raised by taxation from persons of all creeds and faiths, or none at all, and appropriated gratuitously for the purpose of education among the Indians, and not to "Tribal Funds," which belong to the Indians themselves, then the contract must be sustained. The difference between one class of appropriations and the other has long been recognized in the annual appropriation acts. The gratuitous appropriation of public moneys for the purpose of Indian education has always been made under the heading "Support of Schools," whilst the appropriation of the "Treaty Fund" has always been under the heading "Fulfilling Treaty Stipulations and Support of Indian Tribes," and that from the "Trust Fund" is not in the Indian Appropriation Acts at all. One class of appropriations relates to public moneys belonging to the Government; the other to moneys which belong to the Indians and which is administered for them by the Government.
From the history of appropriations of public moneys for education of Indians, set forth in the brief of counsel for appellees and again at length in the answer, it appears that before 1895 the Government for a number of years had made contracts for sectarian schools for the education of the Indians, and the money due on these contracts was paid, in the discretion of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, from the "Tribal Funds" and from the gratuitous public appropriations. But in 1894 opposition developed against appropriating public moneys for sectarian education. Accordingly, in the Indian Appropriation Act of 1894, under the heading of "Support of Schools," the Secretary of the Interior was directed to investigate the propriety of discontinuing contract schools and to make such recommendations as he might deem proper. The Secretary suggested a gradual reduction in the public appropriations on account of the money which had been invested in these schools, with the approbation of the Government. He said: "It would be scarcely just to abolish them entirely — to abandon instantly a policy so long recognized," and suggested that they should be decreased at the rate of not less than twenty per cent a year. Thus in a few years they would cease to exist, and during this time the bureau would be gradually prepared to do without them, while they might gather strength to continue without Government aid.
Accordingly Congress introduced in the appropriation act of 1895 a limitation on the use of public moneys in sectarian schools. This act appropriated under the heading "Support of Schools" "for the support of Indian and industrial schools and for other purposes . . . $1,164,350, . . . provided, that the Secretary of the Interior shall make contracts, but only with the present contract schools for the education of Indian pupils during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, to an extent not exceeding eighty per cent of the amount so used in the fiscal year 1895, and the Government shall as early as practicable make provision for the education of the Indians in Government schools."
This limitation of eighty per cent was to be expended for contract schools, which were those that up to that time had educated Indians through the use of public moneys, and had no relation and did not refer to "Tribal Funds."
In the appropriation act of 1896, under the same heading, "Support of Schools," the appropriation of public money of $1,235,000 was limited by a proviso that contracts should only be made at places where non-sectarian schools cannot be provided for Indian children to an amount not exceeding fifty per cent of the amount so used for the fiscal year 1895, and immediately following the appropriation of public money appears the expression, "and it is hereby declared to be the settled policy of the Government to hereafter make no appropriation whatever for education in any sectarian school." This limitation, if it can be given effect as such, manifestly applies to the use of public moneys gratuitously appropriated for such purpose, and not to moneys belonging to the Indians themselves. In the appropriation act of 1897 the same declaration of policy occurs as a limitation on the appropriation of public moneys for the support of schools, and the amount applicable to contract schools was limited to forty per cent of the amount used in 1895. In the act of 1898 the amount applicable to contract schools was limited to thirty per cent, and in the act of 1899 the amount so applicable was limited to fifteen per cent, these words being added: "this being the final appropriation for sectarian schools." The declaration of the settled policy of the Government is found only in the acts of 1896 and 1897, and was entirely carried out by the reductions provided for.
Since 1899 public moneys are appropriated under the heading "Support of Schools" "for the support of Indian and industrial schools and for other educational purposes," without saying anything about sectarian schools. This was not needed, as the effect of the legislation was to make subsequent appropriations for education mean that sectarian schools were excluded in sharing in them, unless otherwise provided.
As has been shown, in 1868 the United States made a treaty with the Sioux Indians, under which the Indians made large cessions of land and other rights. In consideration of this the United States agreed that for every thirty children a house should be provided and a teacher competent to teach the elementary branches of our English education should be furnished for twenty years. In 1877, in consideration of further land cessions, the United States agreed to furnish all necessary aid to assist the Indians in the work of civilization and furnish them schools and instruction in mechanical and agricultural arts, as provided by the Treaty of 1868. In 1889 Congress extended the obligation of the treaty for twenty years, subject to such modifications as Congress should deem most effective, to secure the Indians equivalent benefits of such education. Thereafter, in every annual Indian appropriation act, there was an appropriation to carry out the terms of this treaty, under the heading "Fulfilling Treaty Stipulations with and Support of Indian Tribes."
These appropriations rested on different grounds from the gratuitous appropriations of public moneys under the heading "Support of Schools." The two subjects were separately treated in each act, and, naturally, as they are essentially different in character. One is the gratuitous appropriation of public moneys for the purpose of Indian education, but the "Treaty Fund" is not public money in this sense. It is the Indians' money, or at least is dealt with by the Government as if it belonged to them, as morally it does. It differs from the "Trust Fund" in this: The "Trust Fund" has been set aside for the Indians and the income expended for their benefit, which expenditure required no annual appropriation. The whole amount due the Indians for certain land cessions was appropriated in one lump sum by the act of 1889, 25 Stat. 888, chap. 405. This "Trust Fund" is held for the Indians and not distributed per capita, being held as property in common. The money is distributed in accordance with the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior; but really belongs to the Indians. The President declared it to be the moral right of the Indians to have this "Trust Fund" applied to the education of the Indians in the schools of their choice, and the same view was entertained by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia and the Court of Appeals of the District. But the "Treaty Fund" has exactly the same characteristics. They are moneys belonging really to the Indians. They are the price of land ceded by the Indians to the Government. The only difference is that in the "Treaty Fund" the debt to the Indians created and secured by the treaty is paid by annual appropriations. They are not gratuitous appropriations of public moneys, but the payment, as we repeat, of a treaty debt in installments. We perceive no justification for applying the proviso or declaration of policy to the payment of treaty obligations, the two things being distinct and different in nature and having no relation to each other, except that both are technically appropriations.
Some reference is made to the Constitution, in respect to this contract with the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions. It is not contended that it is unconstitutional, and it could not be. Roberts v. Bradfield, 12 App.D.C. 475; Bradfield v. Roberts, 175 U.S. 291. But it is contended that the spirit of the Constitution requires that the declaration of policy that the Government "shall make no appropriation whatever for education in any sectarian schools" should be treated as applicable, on the ground that the actions of the United States were to always be undenominational, and that, therefore, the Government can never act in a sectarian capacity, either in the use of its own funds or in that of the funds of others, in respect of which it is a trustee; hence that even the Sioux trust fund cannot be applied for education in Catholic schools, even though the owners of the fund so desire it. But we cannot concede the proposition that Indians cannot be allowed to use their own money to educate their children in the schools of their own choice because the Government is necessarily undenominational, as it cannot make any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Court of Appeals well said:
"The `Treaty' and `Trust' moneys are the only moneys that the Indians can lay claim to as matter of right; the only sums on which they are entitled to rely as theirs for education; and while these moneys are not delivered to them in hand, yet the money must not only be provided, but be expended, for their benefit and in part for their education; it seems inconceivable that Congress should have intended to prohibit them from receiving religious education at their own cost if they so desired it; such an intent would be one `to prohibit the free exercise of religion' amongst the Indians, and such would be the effect of the construction for which the complainants contend."
The cestuis que trust cannot be deprived of their rights by the trustee in the exercise of power implied.
Decree affirmed.