Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock

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1903 United States Supreme Court case

Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553 (1903), was a landmark United States Supreme Court case brought against the US government by the Kiowa chief Lone Wolf , who charged that Native American tribes under the Medicine Lodge Treaty had been defrauded of land by Congressional actions in violation of the treaty.

The Court declared that the "plenary power " of the United States Congress gave it authority to abrogate treaty obligations between the United States and Native American tribes unilaterally. The decision marked a departure from the holdings of _Cherokee Nation v. Georgia _, 30 U.S. 1 (1831), and _Worcester v. Georgia _, 31 U.S. 515 (1832), which had shown greater respect for the autonomy of Native American tribes.

Background

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Tribes

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Further information: Kiowa people , Plains Apache , and Comanche

The Kiowa tribe is a Native American tribe that has historically inhabited the southern Great Plains what is now Oklahoma , Texas , Kansas , and New Mexico . Originally from the northern great plains along the Platte River , and under pressure from other tribes, they eventually moved and settled south of the Arkansas River primarily in present-day Oklahoma. The Kiowa had a long history of close association and alliance with the Kiowa-Apache or Plains Apache. Around 1790, the Kiowa also formed an alliance with the Comanche and formed a barrier to European-American incursions into their territories. The alliance made travel on the Santa Fe Trail hazardous, with attacks on wagon trains beginning in 1828 and continuing thereafter.

Maps of tribal areas

Map of Kiowa lands in the 1850s

Map of Comanche lands in the 1850s

Map showing 1865 Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation boundary (in blue) and reduction in 1867 (in red)

Treaties

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Further information: Little Arkansas Treaty and Medicine Lodge Treaty

In 1837 at Fort Gibson , leaders of the Kiowa tribe signed their first treaty with the United States. By 1854, the need for another treaty became apparent, and the United States entered into a treaty with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Kiowa-Apache (KCA) at Fort Ackinson, Indian Territory . The treaty did not specifically designate a reservation but was, for the most part, an extension of the 1837 treaty. There was an attempt to place some of the tribes on a reservation on the Brazos River in Texas near Fort Belknap , under Indian Agent Robert S. Neighbors . By 1858, Neighbors resolved to move the reservation into Indian Territory. By August 1859, Neighbors had moved the Indians from the Brazos Reservation to Indian Territory, south of the Washita River near Fort Cobb .

In 1865, near present-day Wichita, Kansas , the three tribes signed another treaty that provided for the reservation in present-day Oklahoma and Texas. Finally, in 1867, the tribes agreed to the Medicine Lodge Treaty . The treaty provided for a much smaller reservation and stipulated that whites were not allowed to encroach on the reservation. Also, to reduce the reserve's land further would require the approval of three fourths of the tribal members.

Assimilation period

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Lone Wolf (the elder) in 1872

Further information: Cultural assimilation of Native Americans

Within one year, the United States breached the treaty when General William T. Sherman ordered all the tribes to Fort Cobb, withheld the treaty payments to them, and requested an order declaring that all hunting rights be forfeited. At the same time, Indian agents were trying to undermine tribal authority as the buffalo herds were being eliminated by white hunting. Two new leaders emerged meanwhile: Quanah Parker

and Lone Wolf (the younger) Following his defeat at the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon , Parker settled down and began to adopt white ways. Lone Wolf and his followers continued to resist assimilation policies. Many of the old tribal leaders had been arrested and imprisoned when they left the reservation to hunt, and war leaders such as Lone Wolf (the elder) started to pass away from old age and disease.

During this same period, as the tribes had been unsuccessful at farming it, the KCA found a way to make the land pay by leasing it to cattlemen for grazing. By 1885, about 1,500,000 acres (610,000 ha) were being used to graze about 75,000 cattle, with an annual payment to the tribes of $55,000. At the same time, whites living just outside the reservation boundary were coming onto it to take timber and other goods, resulting in the tribes forming a police force to protect their property from theft by white settlers.

The Jerome Commission

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Lone Wolf (the younger) in 1902, plaintiff

In 1892, the United States sent the Jerome Commission , consisting of David H. Jerome , Alfred M. Wilson, and Warren G. Sayre, to meet with the Kiowa to convince them to turn over most of their reserve for white settlement in return for

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