United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians
Encyclopedia
In United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371
(1980) the Supreme Court of the United States
held that: 1) The enactment by Congress
of a law allowing the Sioux Nation to pursue a claim against the United States
that had been previously adjudicated did not violate the doctrine of separation of powers, and 2) the taking of property that was set aside for the use of the tribe required just compensation, including interest.
, pledged that the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, would be "set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians." By the terms of the treaty, cession of any part of the reservation required a new treaty executed and signed by at least three fourths of all the adult male Indians occupying the land. The Fort Laramie Treaty ended the Powder River War of 1866-1867, a series of military engagements in which the Sioux tribes, led by chief Red Cloud, fought to protect the integrity of earlier-recognized treaty lands from the incursion of white settlers.
The 1868 treaty brought peace for a few years, but in 1874 an exploratory expedition under General George A. Custer
entered the Black Hills to investigate rumors of gold. "Custer's florid descriptions of the mineral and timber resources of the Black Hills, and the land's suitability for grazing and cultivation... received wide circulation, and had the effect of creating an intense popular demand for the 'opening' of the Hills for settlement." Initially the U.S. military tried to turn away trespassing miners and settlers. Eventually however President Grant, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of War, "decided that the military should make no further resistance to the occupation of the Black Hills by miners." These orders were to be enforced "quietly," and the President's decision was to remain "confidential."
As more and more settlers and gold miners invaded the Black Hills the Government concluded that the only practical course was to take the land from the Sioux, and appointed a commission to negotiate the purchase. The negotiations failed, and so the US resorted to military force. They used as a pretext to declare the Sioux Indians "hostile," their failure to obey an order to return from an off-reservation hunting expedition in the dead of winter when travel was impossible. The consequent military expedition to remove the Sioux from the Black Hills included an attack on their village on the Little Bighorn River led by General Custer. The attack culminated in the victory of Chiefs Sitting Bull
and Crazy Horse
over the 7th Cavalry Regiment now known as Custer's Last Stand.
That victory was short-lived. Those Indians who survived subsequent battles to surrender to the Army were interned on a reservation, and deprived of their weapons and horses, "leaving them completely dependent for survival on rations provided them by the Government." In August 1876, Congress enacted a bill cutting off appropriations "made for the subsistence" of the Sioux, unless they ceded the Black Hills to the United States. A commission headed by George Manypenny presented the Sioux with a new treaty and they signed, under threat of starvation. But only a few leaders signed, not the 3/4 majority of all Indian males on the reservation as required under the Fort Laramie Treaty.
. The Sioux filed a petition in 1923, but the Claims Court dismissed the case in 1942, holding that the Court could not second guess whether their compensation under the 1877 Manypenny treaty was adequate. The Sioux (and many other tribes) continued lobbying Congress for a forum for their claims, and in 1946 Congress created an independent federal agency, the Indian Claims Commission
, to "hear and determine all tribal grievances" including the Sioux claim.
The Sioux lost their first hearing before the Indian Claims Commission "due to the failings of their former counsel," but on appeal to the U S Claims Court, the Court directed the Commission to take new evidence, which it did in 1958. Then ensued what the Supreme Court called "a lengthy period of procedural sparring" --1958 until 1972—when finally the Commission ruled in favor of the Sioux, awarding damages for the deprivation of the land, but not interest. On appeal the Government did not contest the Commission's holding that it had "acquired the Black Hills through a course of unfair and dishonorable dealing for which the Sioux were entitled to damages." In effect the Government was disputing only whether the Sioux could collect 100 years' worth of interest. The Claims Court ruled that its previous 1942 dismissal of the Sioux Fifth Amendment taking case was "res judicata
" (a thing already decided), "whether rightly or wrongly," thus denying the opportunity to seek 100 years' worth of interest.
The case returned to the Indian Claims Commission to determine minor leftover issues about the value of rights-of-way and government offsets. In the meantime, in 1978 Sioux lobbyists persuaded Congress to pass yet another law conferring authority on the Claims Court to hear the Sioux case, this time without regard to res judicata. That meant the Sioux could re-litigate the claim as a Fifth Amendment taking, to collect 100 years' worth of interest. Finally, under its new authorizing statute, the Claims Court held the Sioux had a suffered a taking cognizable under the Fifth Amendment, and were entitled to the value of the land as of the 1877 taking which was $17.1 million, the value of gold prospectors illegally took out of the land computed at $450,000, and 100 years' worth of interest at 5% per year which would be an additional $88 million.
This holding the Government appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted its petition for certiorari
.
The first and the main issue in the case, was whether Congress transgressed against the separation of powers by directing the Claims Court to reconsider the Sioux claim, this time without regard to res judicata. The Supreme Court concluded Congress could indeed waive res judicata and resurrect an adjudicated claim against the government, under its constitutionally conferred power to "pay the nation's debts," including "moral debts."
The second issue was whether the Sioux had already received just compensation for their land, and the Court affirmed the Claims Court's decision that they never had. The Court recognized a tension between Congress's duty to serve as a benevolent trustee for Indians, and the power to take their land. "Congress can own two hats, but it cannot wear them both at the same time," said the opinion. While reaffirming earlier decisions that Congress has "paramount authority over the property of the Indians," the Court concluded that Congress acts properly only if it "makes a good faith effort to give the Indians the full value of the land," which here it had failed to do. In conclusion the Supreme Court ordered "just compensation to the Sioux Nation, and that obligation, including an award of interest, must now, at last, be paid."
was the lone dissenter in this case. Rehnquist felt Congress overstepped the bounds of separation of powers by intruding upon the finality of a judicial decision when it "reviewed a prior decision of an Art. III court, eviscerated the finality of that judgment, and ordered a new trial in a pending case." Rehnquist also disagreed that the initial Court of Claims decision in 1942 was wrong. He endorsed the view that the Sioux already had been adequately compensated for their land. Rehnquist's dissent suggests that it is "quite unfair to judge by the light of "revisionist" historians or the mores of another era actions that were taken under pressure of time more than a century ago."
account accruing compound interest
and as of 2010 the amount is reported to exceed $570 million.
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...
(1980) the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
held that: 1) The enactment by Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
of a law allowing the Sioux Nation to pursue a claim against the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
that had been previously adjudicated did not violate the doctrine of separation of powers, and 2) the taking of property that was set aside for the use of the tribe required just compensation, including interest.
Facts of the case
The Fort Laramie Treaty of April 29, 1868Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota, and Arapaho Nation signed in 1868 at Fort Laramie in the Wyoming Territory, guaranteeing to the Lakota ownership of the Black Hills, and further...
, pledged that the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, would be "set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians." By the terms of the treaty, cession of any part of the reservation required a new treaty executed and signed by at least three fourths of all the adult male Indians occupying the land. The Fort Laramie Treaty ended the Powder River War of 1866-1867, a series of military engagements in which the Sioux tribes, led by chief Red Cloud, fought to protect the integrity of earlier-recognized treaty lands from the incursion of white settlers.
The 1868 treaty brought peace for a few years, but in 1874 an exploratory expedition under General George A. Custer
George Armstrong Custer
George Armstrong Custer was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars. Raised in Michigan and Ohio, Custer was admitted to West Point in 1858, where he graduated last in his class...
entered the Black Hills to investigate rumors of gold. "Custer's florid descriptions of the mineral and timber resources of the Black Hills, and the land's suitability for grazing and cultivation... received wide circulation, and had the effect of creating an intense popular demand for the 'opening' of the Hills for settlement." Initially the U.S. military tried to turn away trespassing miners and settlers. Eventually however President Grant, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of War, "decided that the military should make no further resistance to the occupation of the Black Hills by miners." These orders were to be enforced "quietly," and the President's decision was to remain "confidential."
As more and more settlers and gold miners invaded the Black Hills the Government concluded that the only practical course was to take the land from the Sioux, and appointed a commission to negotiate the purchase. The negotiations failed, and so the US resorted to military force. They used as a pretext to declare the Sioux Indians "hostile," their failure to obey an order to return from an off-reservation hunting expedition in the dead of winter when travel was impossible. The consequent military expedition to remove the Sioux from the Black Hills included an attack on their village on the Little Bighorn River led by General Custer. The attack culminated in the victory of Chiefs Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull Sitting Bull Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography), also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies...
and Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
over the 7th Cavalry Regiment now known as Custer's Last Stand.
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
That victory was short-lived. Those Indians who survived subsequent battles to surrender to the Army were interned on a reservation, and deprived of their weapons and horses, "leaving them completely dependent for survival on rations provided them by the Government." In August 1876, Congress enacted a bill cutting off appropriations "made for the subsistence" of the Sioux, unless they ceded the Black Hills to the United States. A commission headed by George Manypenny presented the Sioux with a new treaty and they signed, under threat of starvation. But only a few leaders signed, not the 3/4 majority of all Indian males on the reservation as required under the Fort Laramie Treaty.
20th century litigation of the Sioux claim for the Black Hills
The Sioux never accepted the legitimacy of the forced deprivation of their Black HIlls reservation. In 1920 lobbyists for the Sioux persuaded Congress to authorize a lawsuit against the United States in U S Claims CourtUnited States Court of Claims
The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855 as the Court of Claims, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims , and abolished in 1982....
. The Sioux filed a petition in 1923, but the Claims Court dismissed the case in 1942, holding that the Court could not second guess whether their compensation under the 1877 Manypenny treaty was adequate. The Sioux (and many other tribes) continued lobbying Congress for a forum for their claims, and in 1946 Congress created an independent federal agency, the Indian Claims Commission
Indian claims commission
The Indian Claims Commission was a judicial panel for relations between the United States Federal Government and Native American tribes. It was established in 1946 by the United States Congress to hear claims of Indian tribes against the United States...
, to "hear and determine all tribal grievances" including the Sioux claim.
The Sioux lost their first hearing before the Indian Claims Commission "due to the failings of their former counsel," but on appeal to the U S Claims Court, the Court directed the Commission to take new evidence, which it did in 1958. Then ensued what the Supreme Court called "a lengthy period of procedural sparring" --1958 until 1972—when finally the Commission ruled in favor of the Sioux, awarding damages for the deprivation of the land, but not interest. On appeal the Government did not contest the Commission's holding that it had "acquired the Black Hills through a course of unfair and dishonorable dealing for which the Sioux were entitled to damages." In effect the Government was disputing only whether the Sioux could collect 100 years' worth of interest. The Claims Court ruled that its previous 1942 dismissal of the Sioux Fifth Amendment taking case was "res judicata
Res judicata
Res judicata or res iudicata , also known as claim preclusion, is the Latin term for "a matter [already] judged", and may refer to two concepts: in both civil law and common law legal systems, a case in which there has been a final judgment and is no longer subject to appeal; and the legal doctrine...
" (a thing already decided), "whether rightly or wrongly," thus denying the opportunity to seek 100 years' worth of interest.
The case returned to the Indian Claims Commission to determine minor leftover issues about the value of rights-of-way and government offsets. In the meantime, in 1978 Sioux lobbyists persuaded Congress to pass yet another law conferring authority on the Claims Court to hear the Sioux case, this time without regard to res judicata. That meant the Sioux could re-litigate the claim as a Fifth Amendment taking, to collect 100 years' worth of interest. Finally, under its new authorizing statute, the Claims Court held the Sioux had a suffered a taking cognizable under the Fifth Amendment, and were entitled to the value of the land as of the 1877 taking which was $17.1 million, the value of gold prospectors illegally took out of the land computed at $450,000, and 100 years' worth of interest at 5% per year which would be an additional $88 million.
This holding the Government appealed, and the U.S. Supreme Court granted its petition for certiorari
Certiorari
Certiorari is a type of writ seeking judicial review, recognized in U.S., Roman, English, Philippine, and other law. Certiorari is the present passive infinitive of the Latin certiorare...
.
Supreme Court decision
Justice Blackmun delivered the Court's opinion in which six other justices joined. Justice White concurred in part, and Justice Rehnquist dissented.The first and the main issue in the case, was whether Congress transgressed against the separation of powers by directing the Claims Court to reconsider the Sioux claim, this time without regard to res judicata. The Supreme Court concluded Congress could indeed waive res judicata and resurrect an adjudicated claim against the government, under its constitutionally conferred power to "pay the nation's debts," including "moral debts."
The second issue was whether the Sioux had already received just compensation for their land, and the Court affirmed the Claims Court's decision that they never had. The Court recognized a tension between Congress's duty to serve as a benevolent trustee for Indians, and the power to take their land. "Congress can own two hats, but it cannot wear them both at the same time," said the opinion. While reaffirming earlier decisions that Congress has "paramount authority over the property of the Indians," the Court concluded that Congress acts properly only if it "makes a good faith effort to give the Indians the full value of the land," which here it had failed to do. In conclusion the Supreme Court ordered "just compensation to the Sioux Nation, and that obligation, including an award of interest, must now, at last, be paid."
Dissent
Associate Justice William RehnquistWilliam Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the 16th Chief Justice of the United States...
was the lone dissenter in this case. Rehnquist felt Congress overstepped the bounds of separation of powers by intruding upon the finality of a judicial decision when it "reviewed a prior decision of an Art. III court, eviscerated the finality of that judgment, and ordered a new trial in a pending case." Rehnquist also disagreed that the initial Court of Claims decision in 1942 was wrong. He endorsed the view that the Sioux already had been adequately compensated for their land. Rehnquist's dissent suggests that it is "quite unfair to judge by the light of "revisionist" historians or the mores of another era actions that were taken under pressure of time more than a century ago."
Sioux refusal to accept the money awarded
The Sioux have declined to accept the money, because acceptance would legally terminate Sioux demands for return of the Black Hills. The money remains in a Bureau of Indian AffairsBureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...
account accruing compound interest
Compound interest
Compound interest arises when interest is added to the principal, so that from that moment on, the interest that has been added also itself earns interest. This addition of interest to the principal is called compounding...
and as of 2010 the amount is reported to exceed $570 million.
See also
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 448
- Republic of LakotahRepublic of LakotahThe Republic of Lakotah or Lakotah is a proposed country in North America to serve as a homeland for the Lakota.Its boundaries would be surrounded by the borders of the United States, covering thousands of square miles in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana...
- Black Hills Land ClaimBlack Hills Land ClaimThe Black Hills Land Claim is an ongoing land dispute between Native Americans from the Sioux nation and the United States Federal Government.- Geography :...
Further reading
- Lazarus, EdwardEdward LazarusEdward Lazarus is a lawyer and writer who was named Chief of Staff of the Federal Communications Commission on June 29, 2009. He went to the FCC from the Los Angeles office of the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld....
. Black Hills/White Justice: The Sioux Nation versus the United States, 1775 to the Present. New York: HarperCollinsHarperCollinsHarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
. 1991. Pp. xvii, 486. ISBN 0803279876- Reviewed in "Another Name for Columbus Day" by Herbert MitgangHerbert MitgangHerbert Mitgang is an author, editor, journalist, playwright, and producer of television news documentaries.- Work :During World War II Mitgang served as an army correspondent and became the managing editor of the...
, New York Times, February 19, 1992.
- Reviewed in "Another Name for Columbus Day" by Herbert Mitgang