United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Monson v. Simonson, 231 U.S. 341 (1913)

Monson v. Simonson

No. 14

Submitted October 30, 1913

Decided December 1, 1913

231 U.S. 341

Syllabus

Restrictions on alienation imposed by § 5 of the Act of February 8, 1887, 24 Stat. 388, c. 119, on an allotment to a Sisseton and Wahpeton Indian remained until the actual issuing of patent carrying full and unrestricted title, and were not removed instantly on its passage by an act of Congress permitting the Secretary of the Interior to issue such a patent.

Page 231 U. S. 342

An act of Congress authorizing and empowering the Secretary of the Interior to shorten the period of alienation of an Indian allotment construed in this case a being permissive only, and not effecting the removal of the restrictions prior to the actual issuing of the patent by the Secretary.

A deed by an Indian of an allotment subject to restrictions on alienation is absolutely void if made before final patent, even if made after passage of an act of Congress permitting the Secretary of the Interior to issue such patent; nor does the unrestricted title subsequently acquired by the allottee under the patent inure to the benefit of the grantee. Starr v. Long Jim, 227 U. S. 613.

A state statute cannot make a deed the basis of subsequently acquired title to Indian allotment lands when the federal statute has pronounced such a deed entirely void.

22 S.D. 238 reversed.

The facts, which involve the title to land allotted to an Indian of the Sisseton and Wahpeton tribe under the Act of February 8, 1887, and the effect of subsequent action by Congress in regard thereto on the restrictions against alienation, are stated in the opinion.