Sioux Nation Case Study

The United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians was a case that was decided in the Supreme Court in 1980, but really goes back to the events surrounding the Fort Laramine Treaty of 1868. The events that led up to the Sioux Nation pursuing legal action can pretty much be summarized as the United States government using their military power and governmental law as a means to wrongfully and/or immorally take away land that was promised to the Sioux Nation in the Fort Laramine Treaty of 1868. The treaty stated that the Great Sioux reservation, including the Black hills, would be “set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation" of the Sioux Nation (Sioux), and that no treaty for the cession of any part of the reservation would be valid
Custer made its way into the Black Hills as an investigation of rumors of gold in the area. The investigation proved that the area was rich in natural resources such as its suitability for grazing, cultivation, mineral, and timber resources. The investigations findings gained widespread circulation, and there was soon pressure from the public on the United States government to open up the Black Hills area for settlement. For a while, the government used military force to prevent settlers from entering the Black Hills area. However, this only lasted a short period of time. Eventually, the government decided that the military should no longer provide resistance to miners attempting to occupy the Black Hills. These orders were to be carried out without any notice to the Sioux Nation. As more settlers began to flood the area of the Black Hills, the U.S. government felt that the only course of action that was sensible was to attempt to purchase the land from the Sioux. When the negotiations failed, the U.S. resorted to military
Claims Court. This specific case ran until 1942, when the case was dismissed because it held the court could not second guess whether or not the compensation that the Sioux received as a result of the Manypenny treaty was adequate. The Sioux appealed in 1958, but the case ran all the way until 1972, where the Sioux were finally awarded damages for the deprivation of the land, but not interest from the number of years that it took for the Sioux to finally win the case. The court claimed “res judicata” or a thing that is already decided for the dismissal of the case in 1942. This denied the Sioux pursuit of over 100 years of paid interest. Finally in 1978, Congress passed an Act stating that the Court of Claims would be able to take new evidence in the case, without regard to res judicata. The Sioux were eventually awarded interest for the taking of the Black Hills, which was $17.1 million for the value of the land as of 1877, $450,000 for the value of the gold that was taken by miners from the Black Hills, and 100 years’ worth of interest at 5% per year which added up to $88 million. However, the Sioux have never officially accepted the money, because it would legally close any chance that they would have of re-claiming the Black