United States v. Alcea Band of Tillamooks et al. (329 U.S. 40)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided November 25, 1946 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 329 U.S. 40 · 67 S. Ct. 167
- Docket
- No. 26
- Argued
- January 31, 1946; reargued October 25, 1946
- Decided
- November 25, 1946
- Term
- October Term 1946
- Vote
- 5–3
- Majority author
- Justice Vinson
- Issue area
- Civil Rights
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson (wrote), Justice Douglas, Justice Frankfurter, Justice Murphy
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Black (wrote)
- Dissenting
- Justice Burton, Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Rutledge
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Chief Justice Vinson announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which Mr. Justice Frankfurter, Mr. Justice Douglas, and Mr. Justice Murphy joined. Eleven Indian tribes have sued the United States in the Court of Claims under the Act of August 26, 1935, which gives that court jurisdiction to hear and adjudicate cases involving “any and all legal and equitable claims arising under or growing out of the original Indian title, claim, or rights in . . . the lands . . . occupied by the Indian tribes and bands described in” certain unratified treaties negotiated with Indian tribes in the Territory of Oregon. Four of the tribes, the Tillamooks, Coquilles, Too-too-to-neys and Chetcos, successfully identified themselves as entitled to sue under the Act, proved their original Indian title to designated lands, and demonstrated an involuntary and uncompensated taking of such lands. The Court of Claims thereupon held that original Indian title was an interest the taking of which without the consent of the Indian tribes entitled them to compensation. In answer to government contentions that original Indian title, in the absence of some form of official “recognition,” could be appropriated without liability upon the part of the sovereign, the Act of 1848, establishing the Territory of Oregon, was cited by the Court of Claims as affording any recognition required to…
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