Delaware Tribal Business Committee v. Weeks Absentee Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma Business Committee v. Weeks Andrus v. Weeks
| Citation | 51 L.Ed.2d 173,97 S.Ct. 911,430 U.S. 73 |
| Decision Date | 23 February 1977 |
| Docket Number | 75-1335 and 75-1495,Nos. 75-1301,s. 75-1301 |
| Parties | DELAWARE TRIBAL BUSINESS COMMITTEE et al., Appellants, v. Wanda June WEEKS et al. ABSENTEE DELAWARE TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA BUSINESS COMMITTEE et al., Appellants, v. Wanda June WEEKS et al. Cecil D. ANDRUS, Secretary of the Interior, et al., Appellants, v. Wanda June WEEKS et al |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
The Delaware Indians, who originally resided in the Northeastern United States, were gradually forced to move westward in the 19th century, and the tribe became geographically scattered. One group (the Cherokee Delawares), which initially had settled on a Kansas reservation as part of the tribe's main body, eventually moved to "Indian Country" in Oklahoma, became assimilated with the Cherokees, and is today a federally recognized tribe. Another group (the Absentee Delawares), which never joined the main body in Kansas, but migrated to Oklahoma and settled with the Wichita and Caddo Indians, is also a federally recognized tribe. A third group (the Kansas Delawares) lived with the main body on the Kansas reservation, but remained in Kansas when the Cherokee Delawares moved to Oklahoma; under an 1866 treaty the Kansas Delawares elected to become United States citizens and to receive individual parcels of land in Kansas on condition that they dissolve their relationship with the tribe and participate in tribal assets only to the extent of a "just proportion" of the tribe's credits "then held in trust by the United States," and the descendants of this group are not a federally recognized tribe. The question presented by this litigation is whether the Kansas Delawares were denied equal protection of the laws in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment because they were excluded from the distribution of funds authorized by an Act of Congress, which provided for distribution of funds only to the Cherokee and Absentee Delawares pursuant to an award by the Indian Claims Commission to redress a breach by the United States of an 1854 treaty with the Delaware Tribe. Held :
1. The plenary power of Congress in matters of Indian affairs does not mean that an equal protection challenge to the instant distribution statute is not justiciable. "The power of Congress over Indian affairs may be of a plenary nature; but it is not absolute." United States v. Alcea Band of Tillamooks, 329 U.S. 40, 54, 67 S.Ct. 167, 174, 91 L.Ed.2d 29. The appropriate standard of judicial review is that the legislative judgment should not be disturbed "(a)s long as the special treatment can be tied rationally to the fulfillment of Congress' unique obligation toward the Indians," Morton v. Mancari, 417 U.S. 535, 555, 94 S.Ct. 2424, 2485, 41 L.Ed.2d 290. Pp. 83-85.
2. The exclusion of the Kansas Delawares from distribution under the Act does not offend the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, since on the record such exclusion was "tied rationally to the fulfillment of Congress' unique obligation toward the Indians." Pp. 85-89.
(a) The Kansas Delawares, not being a recognized tribal entity, are simply individual Indians with no vested rights in any tribal property, such as is distributed by the Act. As tribal property, the appropriated funds were subject to Congress' exercise of its traditional broad authority over the management and distribution of property held by recognized tribes, an authority "drawn both explicitly and implicitly from the Constitution itself," Morton v. Mancari, supra, at 551-552, 94 S.Ct. at 2483. Pp. 85-86.
(b) An earlier exclusion of the Kansas Delawares from participation in tribal assets in another Act settling claims of the Delaware Tribe, while not of itself legitimating their exclusion from the Act in question, nevertheless indicates that Congress has historically distinguished them from the Cherokee Delawares in distributing tribal awards. Pp. 86-87.
(c) It appears from the legislative history of the Act in question that Congress deliberately limited the distribution under the Act to the Cherokee and Absentee Delawares to avoid undue delay, administrative difficulty, and potentially unmeritorious claims, and this congressional choice is rationally supported, even though based on an unrelated experience in ignorance of the effect of the limitation of the distribution on the Kansas Delawares. Pp. 87-89.
406 F.Supp. 1309, reversed.
George B. Christensen, Chicago, Ill., A. Raymond Randolph, Jr., Washington, D.C., and Bernard J. Rothbaum, Jr., Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellants.
Delmer L. Stagner, Oklahoma City, Okl., for appellees.
An Act of Congress providing for distribution of funds to certain Delaware Indians, pursuant to an award by the Indian Claims Commission to redress a breach by the United States of an 1854 treaty, is challenged in this action by a group of Delawares excluded from the distribution. The question presented by this litigation is whether their exclusion denies them equal protection of the laws in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.1
I
A brief history of the migrations of the Delaware Indians will serve as a helpful backdrop to the litigation.2 The Delawares originally resided in the Northeastern United States, in what are now southern New York, New Jersey, part of Pennsyl- vania, and part of Delaware. The Munsee Indians, related to the Delawares, resided in the northern part of that area. Under pressure from new settlers, both the Delawares and the Munsees were gradually forced to move westward, and by 1820 they were geographically scattered. During the trek westward the main branch of the Delawares stopped for varying lengths of time in what are now Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri, while others went to Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. In 1818, the Delawares in Indiana ceded their lands in that State to the United States in return for a promise of land west of the Mississippi River.3 The Delawares then moved to Missouri for a short time, but under an 1829 "supplementary article" to the 1818 treaty, were again moved to what they were told would be their permanent residence on a reservation in Kansas.4 The establishment of this reservation was purportedly the fulfillment of the promise made in the 1818 treaty to provide western land in return for their agreement to leave their Indiana lands.
Some Delawares, however, never joined the main body of the Delawares on the Kansas reservation. Among these was a small group that migrated to Oklahoma and settled with the Wichita and Caddo Indians. For a time during the 1850's and 1860's, the Delawares in Kansas expected this group to rejoin the main body of the tribe there, but these Indians, called the "Absentee Delawares" in this suit, stayed with the Wichitas and Caddos.5 Their descendants have remained in Oklahoma through the present day, and are a federally recognized Indian tribe.6
By the 1850's, the main body of the Delaware Nation, together with a small number of Munsees, had assembled on the "permanent" reservation in Kansas at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. But the hope that the Kansas reservation would be the Delawares' last stopping place was short-lived. In 1866, the Delawares living on the reservation signed a treaty, under which they were to move to "Indian Country" in Oklahoma to live with the Cherokees. 7 Each Delaware moving to Indian Country and enrolling on the proper register was to receive a life estate of 160 acres of Cherokee land and the right to become a member of the Cherokee Nation. Most of the Delawares on the Kansas reservation accepted these conditions and moved to Oklahoma, where they were gradually assimilated for most purposes into the Cherokee Nation, and were permitted to share equally with the Cherokees in the general funds of that tribe. See, e. g., Delaware Indians v. Cherokee Nation, 193 U.S. 127, 24 S.Ct. 342, 48 L.Ed. 646 (1904); Cherokee Nation v. Journeycake, 155 U.S. 196, 15 S.Ct. 55, 39 L.Ed. 120 (1894). Despite their association with the Cherokees, these Indians, called "Cherokee Delawares" in this suit, have over the years maintained a distinct group identity, and they are today a federally recognized tribe.8 The 1866 treaty did not require all Delawares on the Kansas reservation to move to Oklahoma. Rather, the treaty provided that any Delawares who agreed to "dissolve their relations with their tribe" and become citizens of the United States might elect to remain in Kansas. Such Delawares would receive 80 acres of land in Kansas in fee simple and a "just proportion" of the tribe's credits "then held in trust by the United States," but thereafter could not "further participate in their (tribal) councils, nor share in their property or annuities." 9 Twenty-one adult Delawares chose to accept these conditions and remain in Kansas.10 Their descendants, called "Kansas Delawares" in this suit, are not a federally recognized tribe.11
In 1854, while they still lived on the Kansas reservation, the main body of the Delawares signed a treaty with the United States under which the United States was to sell certain reservation tribal "trust" lands at public auction. In 1856 and 1857, the United States breached the treaty by selling the lands privately and not at public auction. Approximately 100 years later, the Cherokee and Absentee Delawares brought separate but identical claims before the Indian Claims Commission arising out of this breach of the 1854 treaty. The Commission found that the two groups were "entitled jointly to represent the entire Delaware Tribe," Absentee Delaware Tribe of Oklahoma v. United States, 21 Ind.Cl.Comm. 344, 345 (1969), citing Delaware Tribe v. United States, 2 Ind.Cl.Comm. 253 (1952), aff'd as to parties, 128 F.Supp. 391, 130 Ct.Cl. 782 (1955), and determined that the private sales of the trust...
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