United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians

United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, 448 U.S. 371 (1980), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court 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. The Sioux have not accepted the compensation awarded to them by this case, valued at over $1 billion as of 2018.

Contents

• 1 Facts of the case

• 2 S. 590 (1876)

• 3 20th century litigation of the Sioux claim for the Black Hills

• 4 Supreme Court decision

  • 4.1 Dissent

• 5 Response to the decision

• 6 See also

• 7 Further reading

• 8 References

• 9 Further reading

• 10 External links

Facts of the case

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_v._Sioux_Nation_of_Indians&action=edit&section=1 "Edit section: Facts of the case")

The Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) 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 Sioux's right to hunt in some unceded territories were protected by the Fort Laramie Treaty as well. The Fort Laramie Treaty ended Red Cloud's War , 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 Custer. The attack culminated in the victory of Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse over the 7th Cavalry Regiment now known as Battle of the Little Bighorn .

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. Only a few leaders signed, not the 3/4 majority of all Indian males on the reservation as required under the Fort Laramie Treaty.

S. 590 (1876)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_v._Sioux_Nation_of_Indians&action=edit&section=2 "Edit section: S. 590 (1876)")

After the "Army's withdrawal from its role as enforcer of the Fort Laramie Treaty" the previous year and its subsequent return to prepare for a military campaign against the Sioux, a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate to authorize "a peaceful settlement" with the Sioux Nation for the Black Hills . A proposed "five-member commission" would have asked the Sioux Nation to relinquish the "entire reservation" given to them under the Fort Laramie Treaty. From most "congressional and pioneer views" this was the "easy and practical method" of securing the Blacks Hills.

S. 590 was approved by the Senate with a vote of thirty to eight, with language that implied that the commission could acquire the entire reservation and relocate the Sioux. In the House Committee on Indian Affairs, it was amended to specify that "nothing in this bill could be construed or twisted to allow for the removal of the Sioux Nation to Indian Territory. " Peace efforts or "attempts to purchase the Blacks hills" could still proceed. Missourians praised the action since it would have kept the Sioux far from their borders.

However, after the Battle of the Little Big Horn public opinion turned against the Sioux and Congress refused to address the bill. When asked why, Congressman Omar D. Conger opined that Congress felt the need to "find out whether the Sioux have captured all our army before we go treating with them."

S. 590 went on to die in committee and Congress approved the Indian Appropriations Bill of 1876 instead. It "illegally denied the Sioux all further appropriation and treaty-guaranteed annuities" until they gave up the Black Hills.

20th century litigation of the Sioux claim for the Black Hills

(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=United_States_v._Sioux_Nation_of_Indians&action=edit&section=3 "Edit section: 20th century litigation of the Sioux claim for the Black Hills")

An image of the Black Hills taken from space

The Sioux never accepted the legitimacy of their forced deprivation of their Black Hills reservation. In 1920, lobbyists for the Sioux persuaded Congress to authorize a lawsuit against the United States in US Claims Court . 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 Agreement reached by the Manypenny Commission – which served as the basis for the 1877 Act of Congress – 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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Claims_Commission "Indian Claims

…