Shade v. Downing

The Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, acting under Judicial Code § 239, 28 U. S. C. § 346, has certified the following question for our determination:

“(1) Is the United States a necessary party to a proceeding to determine the heirship of a deceased citizen allottee of the Five Civilized Tribes brought under the Act of June 19 [14], 1918, 40 Stat. 606?”

On January 4, 1935, the County Court of Cherokee County, Oklahoma, decreed that the sole and only heirs of Thompson Downing, a full-blood Cherokee, were his three daughters, the appellees below. Sometime thereafter Peggy Shade…