South Carolina et al. v. Catawba Indian Tribe, Inc. (476 U.S. 498)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 2, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 476 U.S. 498 · 106 S. Ct. 2039
- Decided
- June 2, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. At issue in this litigation is the right to possession of a “Tract of Land of Fifteen Miles square” described in a 1763 treaty between the King of England and the Catawba Head Men and Warriors. The tract, comprising 144,000 acres and 225 square miles, is located near the northern border of South Carolina; some 27,000 persons now claim title to different parcels within the tract. The specific question presented to us is whether the State’s statute of limitations applies to the Tribe’s claim. The answer depends on an interpretation of a statute enacted by Congress in 1959 to authorize a division of Catawba tribal assets. See 25 U. S. C. §§931-938. We hold that the State’s statute applies, but we do not reach the question whether it bars the Tribe’s claim. Simply stated, the Tribe claims that it had undisputed ownership and possession of the land before the first Nonintercourse Act was passed by Congress in 1790; that the Nonintercourse Act prohibited any conveyance of tribal land without the consent of the United States; and that the United States never gave its consent to a conveyance of this land. Accordingly, the Tribe’s purported conveyance to South Carolina in 1840 is null and void. Among the defenses asserted by petitioners is the contention that, even if the Tribe’s claim was valid before passage and enactment of the…
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