Overview of Supreme Court's Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 556 (1883) Decision

Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 556 (1883), is a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that followed the death of one member of a Native American tribe at the hands of another on reservation land. Crow Dog was a member of the Brulé band of the Lakota Sioux. On August 5, 1881 he shot and killed Spotted Tail, a Lakota chief; there are different accounts of the background to the killing. The tribal council dealt with the incident according to Sioux tradition, and Crow Dog paid restitution to the dead man's family. However, the U.S. authorities then prosecuted Crow Dog for murder in a federal court. He was found guilty and sentenced to hang. The Supreme Court held that unless authorized by Congress, federal courts had no jurisdiction to try cases where the offense had already been tried by the tribal council.[1] Crow Dog was therefore released. The case led to the Major Crimes Act in 1885, which placed some major crimes (initially 7, now 15) under federal jurisdiction if committed by an Indian against another Indian on a reservation or tribal land. This case was the beginning of the plenary power legal doctrine that has been used in Indian case law to limit tribal sovereignty.
Contents [hide]
1 Background
1.1 Treaties and statutes
1.2 Murder of Spotted Tail
1.3 Trial
2 Opinion of the Court
3 Subsequent developments
3.1 Major Crimes Act of 1885
3.2 Tribal sovereignty
3.3 Plenary power doctrine
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Background[edit]

map of Great Sioux Reservation

Great Sioux Reservation
Treaties and statutes[edit]
Crow Dog[fn 1] was a Brulé[fn 2] subchief who lived on the Great Sioux Reservation, in the part that is now the Rosebud Indian Reservation in south-central South Dakota on its border with Nebraska. The tribe had made several treaties with the United States, the most significant being the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie.[4] This treaty provided that Indians agreed to turn over those accused of crimes to