Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kansas Railway Co.

Syllabus

<p>The act of Congress of July 4, 1884, 23 Stat. 73, c. 179, granting a right of way through the Indian Territory to the Southern Kansas Railway Company, for a railroad, telegraph and telephone line, is a valid exercise of the power of Congress to regulate commerce among the several States and with the Indian tribes.</p> <p>The Cherokee Nation filed in the court below a bill of complaint, seeking a . • decree enjoining the Southern Kansas Railway Company from entering upon the lands of that nation for the purpose of constructing its proposed railway, and, if that relief could not be granted, then that its bill might be treated as an original complaint and petition in appeal as provided in § 3, c. 179, act of July 4, 1884, 23 Stat. 73: Held,</p> <p>(1) That these two causes of action, one of an equitable and the other of a legal nature, could not be joined in the same suit;</p> <p>(2) That the court below erred in not treating the complaint as a petition of appeal which entitled the petitioners to have a trial de novo of the question of damages for the lands and rights proposed to'be taken.</p> <p>The Cherokee Nation is not sovereign in the sense that the United States or a State is sovereign, but is now, as heretofore, a dependent political coinmunity, subject to the paramount authority of the United States.</p> <p>The United States may exercise the right of eminent domain in respect to lands in the Territories, as in any of the States, for purposes necessary to the execution of the powers belonging to the General Government, such an exercise being essential to their independent existence and perpetuity.</p> <p>All lands held by private persons within the limits of the United States are held subject to the authority of the General Government to take them for such objects as are germane to the execution of the powers granted to it, provided only that they are not taken without just compensation being made to the owner.</p> <p>In the execution of the power to regulate