Hugo Black

“ I dissent because the Court today takes too narrow a view of our obligations to our Indian citizens-obligations engendered by a history marked at times with trespass, depredation and corruption, and by the concomitant necessity of aiding and protecting a people once dependent and unlearned in our ways during their difficult period of transition from that situation to the assumption of civic responsibilities and assimilation into the mass of our citizenry. ”

“ Isabelle Garden's land was assessed immediately after she became twenty-one, and she ran the risk of losing it unless she paid the taxes. The record shows that some of the Indians, originally included in this action, who failed to pay their taxes did lose their allotments. On the record it cannot be said with certainty that Isabelle Garden paid the taxes for any other purpose than to prevent her allotment from being sold for unpaid taxes. ”

“ And there is nothing in the record, apart from argument contained in the County's unsuccessful motion for a new trial, to support the assumption that she voluntarily paid the taxes to enjoy the benefits of County government. Payments made under circumstances such as this, where an exempt Indian runs the risk of losing her allotment unless the taxes are paid, should not be considered voluntary payments. ”

“ This compromise, made in the form of purchase of two tax certificates for the allottee, resulted in payment by Garden for the entire 1922-34 period of less than the amount of the 1928-34 taxes. The compromise, made at a time when the Indian was fully as free as any other citizen, was, in the words of the District Court, a 'voluntary action and election of the allottee to proceed in a manner which she deemed wise and prudent.' It resulted in a net saving to the allottee of $66.42 for the taxable years 1928-1934. ”

“ The allottee paid the 1911-21 taxes voluntarily and settled the balance of her taxes to her advantage in 1936. Neither Minnesota law [7] nor federal law [8] requires that a county refund taxes which an emancipated Indian has voluntarily paid. The County is entitled to judgment in its favor. ”

“ These amendments evidence 'a legislative judgment that adult mixed-blood Indians are, in the respects dealt with in t e act, capable of managing their own affairs, and for that reason they are given full power and authority to dispose of allotted lands.' United States v. ”

“ Board of County Commissioners, 76 Minn. 257, 79 N.W. 302; Warren v. Mahnomen County, supra.↑ Ward v. Love County, supra; Carpenter v. Shaw, 280 U.S. 363, 50 S.Ct. 121, 74 L.Ed. 478.↑ House Ex Doc. 247, 51st Cong., 1st Sess. (Ser. No. 2747) , pp. 93, 103, 104, 138 (1890) . See also Morrow v. United States, 8 Cir., 243 F. 854.↑ This unsuccessful suit is no bar to the present action by the United States. The interest of the United States in having its obligations and policies respected cannot be defeated by judgments in actions to which it is not a party. United States v. ”