Iron Crow v. Oglala Sioux Tribe

Iron Crow v. Oglala Sioux Tribe of Pine Ridge Reservation, 231 F.2d 89 (8th Cir.1956), was a case where the plaintiffs challenged the authority of Indian tribal courts; the matter involving both adultery and tax assessment was heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Two of the plaintiffs, both enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Marie Little Finger and David Black Cat were tried and convicted in the Oglala Sioux Tribal court of the crime of adultery, under the Revised Code of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The third plaintiff in the case Thomas Iron Crow, also an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe challenged the jurisdiction of the tribal court to enforce the collection of a tax assessed against parties who were none-members of the tribe who leased grazing rights from him on his allocated land on the reservation.^[1]

The Tribal Court claimed jurisdiction over the matter based on the fact that both Little Finger and Black Cat were enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and that their alleged indiscretion occurred on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Little Finger and Black Cat filed for an injunction in Federal District Court, on the grounds that the Tribal Court did not have the jurisdiction to try the case and that the subsequent conviction and enforcement of the sentences were in violation of the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The appellate court found that jurisdiction of Tribal Courts although not provided for in either the U.S. Constitution or “authorized by federal legislative action” Congress had provided for “pay and other expenses of judges of Indian courts” and Indian police, therefore Congress “recognized” the authority of Indian tribal courts, and that those courts had “inherent” jurisdiction on the Indian reservations and retains all the inherent attributes of National sovereignty that have not been divested by the Federal government of the United States. The specific wording of the ruling stated:

"We hold that Indian tribes such as the defendant Oglala Sioux Tribe of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota still possess their inherent sovereignty excepting only when it has been specifically taken from them by treaty or Congressional Act".^[2]

Little Finger and Black Cat argued that their rights were protected “as citizens of the United States.” Drawing on legal cases decided before passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 (June 2, 1924), which extended citizenship to all Indians “born within the territorial limits of the United States,” the federal court ruled that the Oglala Sioux defendants did not have the same rights guaranteed to other citizens by virtue of their U.S. citizenship.^[3]

Includes in the caselaw cited by the Eighth Circuit Court was a quotation from a 1916 case, United States v. Nice: “Of course, when Indians are prepared to exercise the privileges and bear the burdens of one sui juris, the tribal relation may be dissolved and the national guardianship brought to an end, but it rests with Congress to determine when and how this shall be done, and whether the emancipation shall be complete or only partial…”

The federal court also quoted from the case Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, “It is thoroughly established that Congress has plenary authority over Indians …” and held that, “the granting of citizenship in itself did not destroy … jurisdiction of the Indian tribal courts and that there was no intention on the part of Congress to do so.”^[4]

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