United States v. Ladley

CAVANAH, District Judge.

The complaint .presents the case to quiet title to property formerly the bed of “Mission Lake” in Boundary county, Idaho, brought by the United States as trustee for certain Indian allottees of the Kootenai Indian Tribe upon the theory that the lake at the time of statehood was nonnavigable, and therefore belonged to the riparian lands allotted to the Indians, the legal title to which was retained by the United States in trust for the use and benefit of the allottees.

The defendant asserts that in July, 1890, at the timé of statehood, the lake was a navigable body of…