Major Victory for Settlers on Indian Reservation Lands
A federal decision reverses a precedent, ruling that reservation land is not subject to railroad grants.
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Secretary of the Interior John Noble today rendered an important decision in the case of A. H. Dalton, of the Bozeman, Montana land district, versus the Northern Pacific Railway Company, covering a point which was overruled in the celebrated Guilford-Miller decision. The Miller decision held that the lands within the Yakima reservation were not excepted from the grant to the Northern Pacific, and when the Indian title to these lands became extinguished, the right thereto would inure to the railway company under its grant. Today's decision, involving a portion of the Crow reservation, holds in effect that the lands included within the technical Indian reservation at the date on which the grant becomes effective are absolutely excepted from the grant and, in the event of extinction of the Indian title, they revert to the public domain. The commissioner's decision holding Dalton's homestead entry open for cancellation for the reason that the lands covered by it passed to the Northern Pacific road under its grant is accordingly reversed. This decision directly and indirectly affects large tracts of land in Montana, the Dakotas, Washington, and Idaho.
“The lands included within the technical Indian reservation at the date on which the grant becomes effective, are absolutely excepted from the grant.”
This ruling highlights the long-standing legal struggle over the boundaries of the public domain versus corporate land grants, a recurring theme in the Pacific Northwest’s development. The shift toward favoring individual homesteaders over railroad conglomerates was a major pivot in the settlement era of Washington State.
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