South Dakota v. Gregg Bourland, Etc., et al. (508 U.S. 679)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 14, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 508 U.S. 679 · 113 S. Ct. 2309
- Decided
- June 14, 1993
- Term
- October Term 1992
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Thomas
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Thomas delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we consider whether the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe may regulate hunting and fishing by non-Indians on lands and overlying waters located within the Tribe’s reservation but acquired by the United States for the operation of the Oahe Dam and Reservoir. I In 1868, the Fort Laramie Treaty, 15 Stat. 635, established the Great Sioux Reservation, which comprised most of what is now western South Dakota and part of North Dakota. Article II of the treaty provided that the reservation was to be held for the “absolute and undisturbed use and occupation” of Sioux Tribes and that no non-Indians (except authorized government agents) would “ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in” the Great Sioux Reservation. Id., at 636. The Act of Mar. 2, 1889, ch. 405, 25 Stat. 888, removed a substantial amount of land from the reservation and divided the remaining territory into several reservations, including the Cheyenne River Reservation, which is located in north-central South Dakota. The 1889 Act preserved those rights of the Sioux under the Fort Laramie Treaty that were “not in conflict” with the newly enacted statute. §19, 25 Stat. 896. The land designated for the Cheyenne River Reservation was held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the Tribe. 949 F. 2d 984, 987 (CA8 1991). The 1889 Act also…
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