Case Summary

In August 1905, the Omaha Nation brought a civil suit against the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ethan Hitchcock, and two of his agents, William Beck and John Mackey, in the Thurston County District Court for violating an 1882 act of Congress regulating Omaha monies in the U.S. Treasury. Acting under a 1904 act of Congress, Beck and Mackey had been distributing Omaha funds to individual tribal members contrary to the wishes of the Nation. The Thurston County District Court issued a writ ne exeat compelling the two men to each pay a $500 bond ensuring that they would answer the Omaha complaint and then jailed them when they refused. Beck and Mackey petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court, which was granted. After hearing the evidence, they were released from custody, to which the Omaha Nation excepted.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

• Carceral

Petition subtype(s)

• Refusal or inability to pay recognizance

Sites of significance

• Omaha Indian Reservation (Omaha Reservation, Nebraska)
• Thurston County Jail (Pender, Nebraska)

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

Released from custody

Case Citation

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009, U.S. Circuit Court for the Omaha Division of the District of Nebraska , Series: Appearance Dockets, 1867 - 1915, Vol. 24, p. 228; Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009, U.S. Circuit Court for the Omaha Division of the District of Nebraska. (1867-1/1/1912), Series: Chancery, Criminal, Equity and Law Cases, 3/30/1867-12/26/1911, No. W-228

Source material(s)

Docket | Case File

Length of case file

Between 31 and 40 pages

Repository(s)

• National Archives and Records Administration, Kansas City (Kansas City, Kansas)

State

• Nebraska

Point(s) of law cited

Act of Congress, August 7, 1882|Treaty of June 21, 1854|Act of Congress, May 27, 1902|Act of Congress, April 21, 1904

Tag(s)

• Indian reservation

People

• Beck, William H. (petitioner)
• Mackey, John F. (petitioner)
• Young, Sidney M. (respondent)
• Kelso, D. A. (respondent)
• Baxter, Irving F. (petitioner attorney)
• Lane, A. W. (petitioner attorney)
• Chase, Hiram (respondent attorney)
• Kennedy, Howard (authority ordering detention)
• Munger, William H. (judge)
• Beck, William H. (bound party)
• Mackey, John F. (bound party)
• Young, Sidney M. (responding party)
• Young, Sidney M. (holding party)
• Kelso, D. A. (holding party)

• Additional parties

  Hitchcock, Ethan A. (co-defendant, U.S. Secretary of the Interior)

  Fansler, L. S. (clerk)

  Dickinson, David W. (notary public)

  Thummel, George H. (clerk)

  Nicholson, John (deputy clerk)

  Farrabee, C. F. (Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs)

  Mathews, T. L. (U.S. marshal)

  Mathews, E. M. (deputy U.S. marshal)