Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. State of SD

Decision Date31 March 1989
Docket NumberCiv. No. 86-3019.
Citation709 F. Supp. 1502
PartiesROSEBUD SIOUX TRIBE, Plaintiff, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Plaintiffs/Intervenors, v. STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA, George S. Mickelson, Governor; Roger Tellinghuisen, Attorney General; Jim Jones, Superintendent of the Highway Patrol, In Their Official Capacities, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of South Dakota

Terry L. Pechota, Finch, Viken, Viken & Pechota, Rapid City, S.D., for plaintiff Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

Scott B. McElroy, Bruce R. Greene, Greene, Meyer & McElroy, P.C., Boulder, Colo., and Krista Clark, Dakota Legal Services, Mission, S.D., for plaintiff-intervenor Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

Marvin Amiotte, Pine Ridge, S.D., for plaintiff-intervenor Oglala Sioux Tribe.

Michael T. Swallow, Dakota Plains Legal Services, Mission, S.D., for plaintiff-intervenor Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

John P. Guhin, Harold H. Deering, Jr., Asst. Attys. Gen., Natural Resource Section, Pierre, S.D., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DONALD J. PORTER, Chief Judge.

On May 14, 1986, the Rosebud Sioux Tribe filed this action against defendants, the State of South Dakota and various state officials (hereinafter "the State" or "South Dakota") to seek declaratory and injunctive relief restraining South Dakota from exercising jurisdiction over Indians on highways within the Rosebud Indian Reservation. The Rosebud Sioux Tribe invokes the jurisdiction of this Court under 28 U.S. C. §§ 1331, 1343(3) and (4), 1337, 1362 and 42 U.S.C. § 1983. This Court has permitted the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to join as plaintiff-intervenors under Rule 24 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Based on an agreement filed by the parties to this case, this Court on November 19, 1987 ordered that the parties submit the case for decision on the merits by filing cross-motions for summary judgment. Having reviewed the lengthy original and supplemental briefing of the cross-motions for summary judgment and having carefully considered the issues, this Court denies the summary judgment motion filed by the tribal plaintiffs and grants summary judgment in favor of the State.

I. FACTS

The essential facts in this case are not in dispute. The plaintiffs are federally recognized Indian tribes who sue as sovereign governmental entities and as parens patriae on behalf of tribal members. Each of the tribal plaintiffs presently patrols and enforces traffic laws on roads within their respective reservations. Each tribe has tribal courts, law enforcement officers and detention facilities. The tribes assert that with regard to offenses committed by Indians on roads within the reservations, the United States has exclusive jurisdiction over major crimes and the tribes have exclusive jurisdiction over other crimes.

Defendant South Dakota and its officials assert the authority to enforce state laws on all individuals on highways within the reservations. On several occasions, the State has arrested Indians on roads within Indian country for violating state laws.1 The tribes have brought this suit to contest state jurisdiction over Indians on roads within Indian reservations. To resolve the case, this Court must examine the unique and complex history of jurisdiction over Indians in South Dakota.

II. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTH DAKOTA JURISDICTION OVER INDIANS
A. The Organic Law Disclaimer

The Enabling Act passed by Congress to permit South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington to enter the Union required each state to disclaim jurisdiction in Indian country. Section 4 of the Enabling Act provided:

The people inhabiting said proposed States do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States.
Act of February 22, 1889, ch. 180, § 4, 25 Stat. 676.2

In accordance with the Enabling Act, South Dakota incorporated the jurisdictional disclaimer as a compact with the United States in Article XXII of the state constitution. Article XXII, which remains as a part of the current South Dakota Constitution, states:

We, the people inhabiting the state of South Dakota, do agree and declare that we forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundary of South Dakota, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes; and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States; and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States.

Under the 1889 Enabling Act, Article XXII of the South Dakota Constitution, and federal case law, South Dakota traditionally has exercised criminal or civil jurisdiction in Indian country only when Indians were not involved. See generally St. Cloud v. United States, 702 F.Supp. 1456, 1459-60 (D.S.D.1988) (South Dakota would have criminal jurisdiction over rape on reservation only if both victim and assailant were non-Indians); White v. Califano, 437 F.Supp. 543 (D.S.D.1977), aff'd, 581 F.2d 697 (8th Cir.1978) (federal rather than South Dakota court has jurisdiction in civil case for commitment of mentally ill Indian on reservation); see generally Williams v. Lee, 358 U.S. 217, 218-22, 79 S.Ct. 269, 269-72, 3 L.Ed.2d 251 (1959).

B. Public Law 280

In 1953, Congress saw fit to alter its compact with disclaimer states by passing legislation known as Public Law 280. Act of Aug. 15, 1953, 67 Stat. 588-590 (codified in part at 18 U.S.C. § 1162 and 28 U.S.C. § 1360). Public Law 280 was passed during an era when Congress sought to diminish the federal trust responsibility to Indian tribes by terminating federal recognition of certain Indian tribes and encouraging assimilation of Indians into white society. Congress by passing Public Law 280 expressly ceded criminal and civil jurisdiction over Indian country to California, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, and Wisconsin.3 Public Law 280 gave all other states the option to assume civil and criminal jurisdiction in Indian country, even if the state had an organic law disclaimer of jurisdiction in Indian country as does South Dakota. The two sections of Public Law 280 that apply to South Dakota are sections six and seven,4 which as originally enacted, stated:

§ 6. Notwithstanding the provisions of any Enabling Act for the admission of a State, the consent of the United States is hereby given to the people of any State to amend, where necessary, their State constitution or existing statutes, as the case may be, to remove any legal impediment to the assumption of civil and criminal jurisdiction in accordance with the provisions of this Act: Provided, That the provisions of this Act shall not become effective with respect to such assumption of jurisdiction by any such State until the people thereof have appropriately amended their State constitution or statutes as the case may be.
§ 7. The consent of the United States is hereby given to any other State not having jurisdiction with respect to criminal offenses or civil causes of action, or with respect to both as provided for in this Act, to assume jurisdiction at such time and in such manner as the people of the State shall, by affirmative legislation, obligate and bind the State to assumption thereof.
C. South Dakota Legislation

In 1957, the South Dakota legislature enacted Chapter 319 of the Session Laws of 1957 to assume jurisdiction over Indian country within South Dakota. The Act in section one purported to accept complete criminal and civil jurisdiction over Indian country within the State, but sections four and five of the Act conditioned the assumption of jurisdiction on tribal consent and approval by the Board of County Commissioners of any county containing Indian country.5 These conditions were not met, so this enactment never become operative. See In re Petition of High Pine, 78 S.D. 121, 129, 99 N.W.2d 38, 41 (1959).

In 1959, the South Dakota legislature passed a statute assuming jurisdiction over highways within Indian country built jointly by the state and federal governments.6 This section, codified at SDCL § 1-1-17, was short-lived, as legislation passed in 1961 repealed the 1959 legislation.

The state enactment most critical to a decision in this case came in 1961 when the South Dakota legislature passed chapter 464 of the Session Laws of 1961 hereinafter "1961 Act" or "1961 legislation". The 1961 legislation sought to authorize broad state jurisdiction over Indians, but only if the State could obtain funds from the federal government to defray the costs of law enforcement on reservations. During this era, South Dakota was reluctant to accept unqualified jurisdiction in Indian country primarily due to financial concerns.

The two most pertinent sections of the 1961 legislation provided:

Section 1. codified at SDCL § 1-1-18 The State of South Dakota, in accordance with the provisions of 67 Statutes at large, page 589 (Public Law 280), hereby assumes and accepts jurisdiction of all criminal offenses and civil causes of action arising in the Indian Country located within this State as Indian Country is defined by Title 18 United States Code Annotated, section 1151, and obligates and binds this State to the assumption thereof.
Section 4. codified at SDCL § 1-1-21 Except as to criminal offenses and civil causes of action arising on any highways, as the term is defined in chapter 31-1,7
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4 cases
  • Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. US, BUR. OF INDIAN AFF.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of South Dakota
    • June 21, 1989
    ...(1973). However, there are limitations to the canon of constructions favoring Native Americans. See, e.g., Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. South Dakota, 709 F.Supp. 1502, 1511 n. 13 (1989). 22 The Claims Court has fairly broad authority to enter judgments in Indian law cases that are somewhat equita......
  • Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. State of S.D.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)
    • June 8, 1990
    ...the state validly assumed highway jurisdiction in 1961 and that the 1968 amendment did not apply to the state. Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. South Dakota, 709 F.Supp. 1502 (D.S.D.1989). The Tribes now The question before this court is whether South Dakota currently has civil and criminal jurisdict......
  • US v. High Elk, CR89-30015-01.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of South Dakota
    • July 7, 1989
    ...of the United States. Defendant's argument is a jurisdictional one in which he attempts to extend Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. State of South Dakota, 709 F.Supp. 1502 (D.S.D.1989), to this The issue is whether or not the United States continues to have jurisdiction over crimes as defined in the M......
  • State v. Vandermay, 17456
    • United States
    • Supreme Court of South Dakota
    • October 24, 1991
    ...South Dakota from exercising jurisdiction over Indians on highways within the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Rosebud Sioux Tribe v. State of S.D., 709 F.Supp. 1502, 1503 (D.S.D.1989) (emphasis added). The district court Pursuant to the 1953 version of Public Law 280 and state legislation enact......

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